Glass bottle blowers and railway conductors and brakemen organize national unions. The Trades Union Congress of Great Britain is founded. 1869 Colored National Labor Union organizes. Isaac Myers, a ship caulker from Baltimore, is elected president. Uriah Stevens, a tailor who once studied for the Baptist ministry, leads the order.
Coopers organize a national union.
A serious business depression begins, slowing the U.S. economy until 1879. Furniture workers and locomotive firemen organize national unions. Gompers has friends in both camps. The Sovereigns of Labor, a mutual aid society based in New England, organizes. Horseshoers organize a national union.