Series 4 - John Ferral letters

47pp

Ferral's 1835 letter appeared originally in a New York City labour newspaper, The Man, on 29 June 1835. It was re-published in John R. Commons, ed., A Documentary History of American Industrial Society (New York, 1958), vol. 6, pp. 39-43. Kerby A. Miller received his photocopies of Ferral's letters to James Buchanan from Bruce Laurie, Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. The original manuscripts are in the James Buchanan Papers, Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

Materials pertaining to a letter written in 1835 by John Ferral, an Irish immigrant handloom weaver and labor leader in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to another labor leader, Seth Luther, in Boston, Massachusetts. Ferral's letter describes the General Trades Union (GTU) of Philadelphia's city-wide strike, in June 1835, for the 10-hour workday. The series includes a typescript and photocopy of the letter; some biographical and historical information from published and online sources about Ferral, the GTU, and the 1835 general strike; and photocopies of two letters from Ferral to future United States President James Buchanan in 1838 and 1856