Longshoremen's Protective Union Association

Charleston was the first permanent European settlement in Carolina, its first seat of government, and the most important city in the southern United States well into the nineteenth century.

Besides being commercial entrepôts, South Carolina’s ports have had military and strategic value.

The economic revival of the 1880s provided a more congenial atmosphere for unionizing. As was true elsewhere in the United States, organized labor was generally more successful in urban areas and among skilled workers.

The South would have to remain under federal control until it was deemed safe to leave matters to the southern state governments. This probationary period of federal control was termed “Reconstruction.”