Haymarket+Riot+of+1886

=__Haymarket Riot of 1886__ =

**McCormick Reaper Works vs. The Union**
=== ===

The Business:
McCormick Reaper Works was a company that was owned by Robert McCormick, a hardworking Virginia man. He was the creator of a specialized reaping machine. Robert devoted himself to his business until he died and left it to his son. His son was an economic man who was concerned with making the largest profit possible. Eventually, his son merged the company with a rival company International Harvester and became known together as Navistar.

The Protestors:
A group of anarchists and socialists banned together and rallied 1,000 people to Chicago’s Haymarket Square, where they began to shout, “8 hours for work, 8 hours for rest, 8 hours for what we will!” Workers from the union demanded better hours and better working conditions from McCormick Reaper Works, which refused to meet their requests. Although sources disagree, a man named Schnaubelt was deemed responsible for the bomb throwing, and his body was later found floating in Erie Bay.

The Government:
Pinkerton security guards, led by police captain William Ward and inspector Jon Bonfield, began to try to calm the crowd, and after a bomb was thrown, began to open fire into the crowd, killing 7 and wounding over 70 people.

**Where the Strike took Place**
 The rally was held in Chicago's Haymarket Square, a bustling meeting place that was always filled with people. This convienent meeting place was in the center of the town, and it was frequented by everyone.

Causes of the Strike
In the 19th Century, the gap between the working class and business owners was widening. Owners began to try to maximize their profits by forcing employees to work long shifts, and placing sanitation and the health of their workers last on their priority list. Workers demanded better hours and working conditions, but often business owners refused. When workers tried to protest by having strikes, scabs were hired to replace them. This gap led to various protests from the workers, who posted signs like the one below to rally other supporters for their cause.



**What Happened in the Strike**
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">The streets were rife with displeasure, as groups of strikers mounted a demonstration for shorter workdays on May 1, 1886.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Sick of being mistreated, the strikers started to fight against the scabs. The scabs were people called in to replace the workers after they went on strike. Police intervened to break up the fight, but this intervention caused several casualties. Union leaders, such as August Spies, called for a rally in protest. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> On May 4, 1886, the union held its protest rally. Socialists, anarchists, and other radical thinkers attended along with strikers. One demonstrator, August Spies, wrote a speech in honor of the occasion:

====<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Revenge! Workingmen! To arms! Your masters sent out their bloodhounds--the police--they killed six of your brothers at McCormicks this afternoon. They killed the poor wretches because they, like you, had courage to disobey the supreme will of your bosses. They killed them because they dared ask for the shortening of the hours of toil. They killed them to show you "free American citizens" that you must be sacrificed and contented with whatever your bosses condescend to allow you, or you will be killed! ==== ====<span style="color: #242424; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">You have for years endured the most abject humiliations; you have for years suffered immeasurable iniquities; you have worked yourselves to death; you have endured the pangs of want and hunger; your children you have sacrificed to the factory lords--in short, you have been miserable and obedient slaves all these years. Why? To satisfy the insatiable greed and fill the coffers of your lazy thieving masters! When you ask him now to lessen your burden, he sends his bloodhounds out to shoot you, to kill you! ==== ====<span style="color: #242424; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">If you are men, if you are the sons of your grandsires, who have their blood to free you, then you will rise in your might, Hercules, and destroy the hideous monster that seeks to destroy you. ==== ====<span style="color: #242424; font: 13px/1.4 Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,sans-serif; margin: 1em 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">To arms we call you, to arms! ====

<span style="color: #242424; font: 13px/1.4 Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,sans-serif; margin: 1em 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">YOUR BROTHERS
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">In this speech, Spies expressed his displeasure with the way things were currently going. He willed his fellow workers to rise up against their masters and fight. However, his eagerness for armed conflict led to trouble for him later. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Soon, a bomb exploded among a group of policemen attempting to disperse the rally. The bomb itself only killed one policeman, but a riot ensued. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">The riot led to about seven dead policemen and 70 injured people.

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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Immediate Effects of the Strike**
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Immediately following the strike, eight anarchists and socialists were tried for the murder of Mathias Degan, the policeman killed by the bomb: August Spies, the writer of the speech above, Albert Parsons, Louis Lingg, Michael Schwab, Samuel Fielden, George Engle, Adolph Fischer, and Oscar Neebe. All were found guilty. Parsons, Fischer, Engle, and Spies were hanged, while Lingg committed suicide in prison. Schwab, Fielden, and Neebe were eventually pardoned by Illinois governor John Peter Altgeld in 1893. This document read: ====<span style="color: #121917; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">These charges are of a personal character, and while they seem to be sustained by the record of the trial and the papers before me, and tend to show the trial was not fair, I do not care to discuss this feature of the case any farther, because it is not necessary. I am convinced that it is clearly my duty to act in this case for the reasons already given, and I, therefore, grant an absolute pardon to Samuel Fielden, Oscar Neebe and Michael Schwab, this 26th day of June, 1893. ====

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">In this quote, Altgeld explained that the trials were unfair, and, therefore, that he was absolutely justified in pardoning those men. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Long Term Effects of the Strike
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">However, the labor unions did not come out of this unscathed. This event served to associate them with violence and radical thinking in the minds of many citizens. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">In 1889 the American Federation of Labor, as a delegate to the International Labor Congress in Paris, proposed May 1 as Labor Day, in order to commemorate the lives lost that day. The Haymarket Square riot was a symbol for the seperation of the working class and buisness class that occured during the 19th century. The square was designated a Chicago landmark on March 25, 1992.

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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Page by Amanda L. and Kathryn V.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Resources: <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">-Watson, Bruce. //Bread and roses: mills, migrants, and the struggle for the American dream//. New York, N.Y.: Penguin Books, 2006. Print. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">-"Digital History." //Digital History//. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 May 2011. <http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/database/article_display.cfm?HHID=227>. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">-"The Haymarket Bomb in Historical Context." //Illinois Historical Digitization Projects: Northern Illinois University Libraries//. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 May 2011. <http://dig.lib.niu.edu/gildedage/ (picture) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">-"Chicago Historical Society - The Haymarket Digital Collection." //Chicago History Museum |//. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 May 2011. <http://www.chicagohs.org/hadc <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">-"The Expansion of American Industry." In //America: pathways to the present: modern American history.//, 481. Teacher's ed. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2007.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Primary Sources: <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">-Bruun, Erik A.. "Our Nation's Archive: The History of ... - Google Books." //Google Books//. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 May 2011. <http://books.google.com/books?id=scHi0mVNoS8C&pg=PA440&lpg <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">-"The Daily Argus News - Google News Archive Search." //Google News//. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 May 2011. <http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=STonAAAAIBAJ&sjid=xwMGAAAAIBAJ <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">-" American History - Username." //American History - Username//. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 May 2011. <http://americanhistory.abc-clio.com/Search/Display/253886?terms=haymarket&webSiteCode=SLN_AMHIST&returnToPage=%2fSearch%2fDisplay%2f253886%3fterms%3dhaymarket&token=E60F15FB7C9E20C1E3D258DED7631EDA&casError=False>>

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Images: <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">-http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/chicago/peopleevents/p_mccormick.html <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">(ABC-CLIO) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haymarket_affair <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Haymarketnewspaper.jpg <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:August_Spies_portrait.jpg <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Haymarketmomument.jpg

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">Video: <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3j15ZCt_10 <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZkq7d4lyrw <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OQxncb2ihQ