ABSTRACT
In New York State, the labor boycott had become so common in 1885 that the State Bureau of Labor Statistics gave it considerable attention in its Third Annual Report. Statistics were lacking, but the Bureau considered the new tactic important enough to conduct hearings and publish some testimony. The 1886 trial of five New York City boycottera is viewed as sparking Henry George’s bid to become that city’s mayor. A larger conceptual view sees the George campaign and widespread strikes and boycotts as part of the “Revival And Upheaval” that began in the late 1870s and culminated in the bitter labor conflict and political agitation of 1886–1887. Norman D. Palmer Ware alone attributed the use and success of the boycott to the appearance of “labor solidarity and class consciousness” — a new “social situation” created by the industrial revolution. Adopted through the influence of the Irish, the labor boycott promised success only so long as the social structure and ideology remained intact.
