Reinventing Free Labor: Padrones and Immigrant Workers in the North American West, 1880–1930

by Gunther Peck

• ISBN13: 9780521641609
• ISBN10: 0521641608
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-05-29
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

One of the most infamous villains in North America during the Progressive Era was the padrone, a mafia-like immigrant boss who allegedly enslaved his compatriots and kept them uncivilized, unmanly, and unfree. In this history of the padrone, Gunther Peck analyzes the figure's deep cultural resonance by examining the lives of three padrones and the workers they imported to North America. He argues that the padrones were not primitive men but rather thoroughly modern entrepreneurs who used corporations, the labour contract, and the right to quit to create far-flung coercive networks. Drawing on Greek, Spanish, and Italian language sources, Peck analyzes how immigrant workers emancipated themselves using the tools of padrone power to their own advantage.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations and Tables	vii
Acknowledgments	xi
Introduction	1	(12)
PART ONE: The World Padrones Made	13	(102)
Free Land and Unfree Labor	15	(34)
New World Fictions	16	(8)
The King of the Laborers	24	(7)
The Czar of the Greeks	31	(9)
El Enganchado	40	(6)
Entrepreneurs of Space	46	(3)
Padrones and Corporations	49	(33)
Corporate Antecedents	50	(7)
The Canadian Pacific Railway Company	57	(7)
The Utah Copper Company	64	(5)
El Paso's Octupi	69	(9)
Conclusion	78	(4)
Defenders of Contract	82	(33)
Contracts and Coercion	84	(9)
Padrones and Contract Labor Law	93	(13)
Apostles of Liberty of Contract	106	(6)
Conclusion	112	(3)
PART TWO: Reinventing Free Labor	115	(112)
Manahood Mobilized	117	(41)
Family Ties at Home	118	(11)
Manhood on the Move	129	(16)
Mobilizing Manhood	145	(11)
Conclusion	156	(2)
Mobilizing Community	158	(33)
Transient Communities	160	(13)
Persistent Communities	173	(3)
Citizens All!	176	(5)
Royal Dreams	181	(6)
Racial Pedigrees	187	(2)
Conclusion	189	(2)
Spaces of Freedom	191	(36)
Fleeing the Padrone	193	(4)
Suing the Padrone	197	(7)
American Unions, Immigrant Mobilizations	204	(13)
The Paths to Whiteness	217	(6)
Conclusion	223	(4)
Epilogue: The Vanishing Padrone	227	(10)
Appendix A: Tables	237	(5)
Appendix B: Tables Used in Preparation of Maps	242	(6)
Bibliography	248	(31)
Index	279