Haymarket Square Riots

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Haymarket Square Riots
Presentation created by Robert Martinez Primary
Content Source The Story of US by Joy Hakim
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• When Cyrus McCormick opened the McCormick
  Harvester Works in Chicago in the 1840s, he
  worked alongside his 23 employees. Of course, he
  knew them all by name.

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• A few years later, the McCormick factory was
  making more than 1,000 reapers a year. Cyrus
  still knew all 200 of his workers.

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• By 1884, the year Cyrus McCormick died, his plant
  was enormous. It covered 12 acres, 1,300 men
  worked 10-hour days, six days a week.

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• That year the company showed a profit of 71
  percent. And McCormick no longer knew his workers.

Cyrus McCormick
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• Many of the new factories were owned by
  corporations. The owners of the corporations
  sometimes didnt even live in the same town as
  their workers.

Carnegie Mansion
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• Some of those owners got very rich but refused to
  pay their workers a fair wage. Often they treated
  workers as if they were commodities, like coal or
  lumber. They seemed to forget they were human
  beings.

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• Steelworkers had to work 12 hours a day, six days
  a week, for little pay. Textile workers, many of
  them children, worked 60 to 80 hours a week.
  Conditions were dangerous.

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• Miners worked underground with explosives, but
  without safety regulations. In one year, 25,000
  workers died on the job, many were injured.

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• Child workers had three times as many accidents
  as adults. If a person lost an arm in a job
  accident, and many did with the new machines, no
  one helped with doctors bills. If a worker
  complained, he was fired.

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• Workers organized themselves into unions to try
  to fight for better conditions and better pay.
  Sometimes they decided not to work unless they
  were paid better wages, called strikes.

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• The owners hated strikes. They often fired anyone
  who joined a strike or union. Sometimes they
  hired police or soldiers to break a strike.
  Sometimes strikers were shot.

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• Businessmen took the law into their own hands.
  Carnegie and Rockefeller hired their own police
  forces.

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• Workers began to demand their own power. The
  unions grew. Many Americans, especially the new
  immigrants, learned about democracy in the unions.

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• Workers and business owners often had opposing
  interests. Workers wanted good wages and owners
  wanted to keep their labor costs low. Sometimes
  the relationship seemed like war.

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• Many people distrusted unions, especially because
  some unions were organized by socialists, who
  wanted the government to take over the
  businesses, like railroads, electrical power, and
  telephones.

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• Some unions were led by anarchists. They didnt
  believe in any government at all, which was not a
  very practical idea.

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• Some business leaders wanted capitalism without
  regulations (Laissez-Faire).

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• 3,000 workers gathered in Chicagos Haymarket
  Square to protest the unfair labor and violence
  at the McCormick factory. Most of the speakers
  were Socialists, they were peaceful but angry.

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• Then it began to rain, only 300 workers remained
  when 180 policemen marched into the square and
  demanded the meeting ended.

Anarchist Labor Activist August Spies, Haymarket
Speaker.
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• Then out of nowhere, a bomb was thrown at the
  police. No one has ever discovered who threw the
  bomb. One policeman was killed (six others died
  later of wounds.) Police began firing their guns.
  Four civilians died. Many were wounded.

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• The nation was outraged. Most people were angry
  at the strikers. They seemed to believe that the
  union workers were all anarchists who were
  plotting to overthrow the government.

Policeman Mathias Degan killed in blast.
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• Many Chicago workers were immigrants. Stories
  circulated about foreign conspiracies (nativism)
  . Police rounded up suspects. Eight men were
  charged with conspiracy and murder.

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• All eight men were found guilty. Four of them
  hanged. One was sentenced to 15 years in jail.
  Two had death sentences changed to life in
  prison. One committed suicide in prison.

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• After the McCormick factory, the workers returned
  to a 10-hour day.