The Knights had a leading role in some of the largest strikes of the period from 1869 to 1890. Membership fluctuated dramatically, particularly as a result of failed strikes. In a one-year period after an 1885 Knights of Labor victory over railroad industrialist Jay Gould, membership in the Knights rose from just over a hundred thousand to more than seven hundred thousand. Large numbers of unskilled and semi-skilled workers who joined the Knights after the victory by railroad workers possessed a strong anti-employer attitude, and were quick to support strikes and boycotts.