The labor injunction and peonage-how changes in labor laws increased inequality during the Gilded Age

摘要

In this article, I seek to fill a gap in the literature by analyzing how central changes in labor laws shaped intrafirm power dynamics and thus income inequality during the Gilded Age and Progressive and New Eras. For the North, I look at the increasing activism of courts, to the detriment of many state and local legislatures, in creating and expanding the use of the labor injunction. For the South, I look at how the states, supported by the courts, created a system of peonage that directly affected large portions of southern labor and lasted well into the 20th century.