ABSTRACT
In the decades leading to the Civil War, significant numbers of workers organized as a self-conscious force united by what came to be called “solidarity.” Workers’ participation in the conflict was essential, even as the nature of the war radically reshaped the nature of labor in America and the potential of any labor movement. These changes raised essential questions about the meaning of solidarity in an American context and what this would mean for the future of any class movement in the United States.
