To begin at the beginning (or at least fairly near it), here's two that I don't think appear in the DT or the Mudcat. I'm fairly sure I got both these from John Greenway's "American Folk Songs of Protest", but my old 1960s notebook has fallen apart, so I stand to be corrected.

First, a broadside from about 1801. The last 3 verses are a direct counter to the Federalist party arguing for a life term for senators. Alexander Hamilton wrote:

"All communities divide themselves into the few and the many. The first are rich and well-born, and the other the mass of the people who seldom judge or determine right."

LET EVERY MAN OF ADAM'S LINE

Let every man of Adam's line
In social contract freely join
To extirpate monarchic power,
That kings may plague the earth no more.

As power results from you alone,
Ne'er trust it on a single throne.
Kings oft betray their sacred trust
And crush their subjects in the dust.

Nor yet confide in men of show,
Aristocrats reduce you low.
Nobles at best are feeble things
And oft far worse than cruel kings.

Nobles combine in secret fraud
(Tho' in pretence for public good)
To frame a law the most unjust
And sink the people down in dust.

When laws are framed the poor must lie
Distressed beneath the nobles eye,
Unpitied there, to waste their breath
In fruitless prayers till freed by death.

A year is long enough to prove
A servant's wisdom, faith and love.
Release him from temptation then,
And change the post to other men.

Now is the prime important hour,
The people may improve their power
To stop aristocratic force
And walk in reason's peaceful course.

Choose all your servants once a year
With strict reserve and nicest care,
And if they once abuse their place
Reward them with deserved disgrace.

Not a lot of change in 200 years, then.

Then there's the anthem of the Knights of Labor - the earliest American union, so this is probably about 1870.

IF WE WILL, WE CAN BE FREE

Base oppressors, cease your slumbers
Listen to a people's cry.
Hark, uncounted, countless numbers
Swell the peal of agony.
Lo, for labor's sons and daughters
In the depths of misery,
Like the rush of many waters
Comes the cry "We will be free".

By our own, our children's charter,
By the fire within our veins,
By each truth-attesting martyr,
By our tears, our groans, our pains,
By our rights, by nature given,
By the laws of liberty,
We declare before high heaven
That we must, we will be free.

Tyrants quail! The dawn is breaking,
Dawn of freedom's glorious day.
Despots on their thrones are shaking,
Iron hands are giving way.
Kingcraft, statecraft, base oppression
Cannot bear our scrutiny.
We have learned the startling lesson,
If we will, we can be free.

Winds and waves the tidings carry,
Electra in your fiery car
Winged by light'ning, do not tarry,
Bear the news to lands afar.
Bid them tell the thrilling story
Louder than the thunder's glee
That a people, ripe for glory,
Are determined to be free.

It's interesting that the first is determinedly male, while the Knights of Labor 70 years later included "sons and daughters". That didn't stop them allowing segregation in the South, or excluding the Chinese, though. There's always some class you can exclude.

Phil