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Authors:
Ellen Terrell, Business Librarian, Science & Business Reading Room Created: May 2025

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Research Guides: This Month in Business History: The Start of the Great Railroad Strike of 1877

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Compiled by specialists in Business Reference Services at the Library of Congress, this guide highlights stories about the people, places, and events that made their mark on business history.

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1877 Railroad Strike | Digital Inquiry Group

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Like Morale After Fredericksburg, this assessment asks students to source and corroborate a document. In this assessment, students evaluate an excerpt of an 1877 newspaper article about railroad strikes in Columbus, Ohio. Question 1 asks students to evaluate whether the excerpt provides enough evidence to draw conclusions about the broader railroad strike. To answer this question, students must source the document to determine whether the account can be thought of as conclusive evidence.

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Investigation Findings: What were the long-term / short-term causes of this event? Who - if anyone - deserves blame?

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Investigation Findings: What were the long-term / short-term causes of this event? Who - if anyone - deserves blame?

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The long term causes of this would be that the National view of Unionisms would be associated with radicalisms. Eight Chicago Anarchists were arrested and were charged with conspiracy. The four hanged. The views of labor union membership and groups would be associated violence and radicalisms. The movement for an 8 hour work day would end for now. The press would present the labors in negative light which sent back the labor movement

The system as a whole is to blame, as the actions of both the protesters and the police were a result of injustice. The police were trying to put down protesters, as it was their job, but then also shot into the crowd.

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George M. Pullman had constructed a new business that constructed railroad sleeping cars. Since railroad mileage increased dramatically in the 1800s, Pullman‘s luxurious sleeping cars appealed to the public. He took advantage of the existing racial division of labor in hiring his workers. The American Railway Union was created in 1893, and many Pullman workers joined this union. As Pullman’s management cut wages to extremely low levels, Pullman refused to lower wages in the surrounding areas. Skilled workers were also less valued than less skilled and cheaper workers. With a push to cut costs and standardize rules, Pullman restructured his company. The 1893 panic made economic conditions for the workers even worse as the push for market share led to speculation and overproduction, causing a loss for the company.

The grievances all combined into a breaking point. In 1894, over four thousand workers at the Pullman Palace Car Company went on strike. Led by Eugene V. Debs's American Railway Union (ARU), it became a national boycott. The members of the ARU succeeded in causing devastation to the company. President Cleveland dispatched federal troops to Chicago, where the strike was put down. Federal troops shot into the crowd where the strike was broken. The consequences of the strike included public backlash, as the public didn’t fully support the boycott but understood the workers’ situation. Pullman was blamed for the situation and for stretching out the strike. The Erdman Act was passed and was the first in a series of acts aimed at regulating railroad labor.

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Fire Chief Croker - “This calamity is just as I have been predicting. There were no outside fire escapes on this building. I have been advocating and agitating that fire escapes be put on buildings such as this. This large loss of life is due to neglect.”

Fire Commissioner Rhinelander Waldo - “Fire escapes are under the supervision of the building department. I have no criticism to offer as to the way they are taking care of fire escapes. There is now a bill before the legislature which will go a long way in remedying the conditions of buildings without fire escapes.”

Unnamed Official “It was said by an official of the department who stands very near the commissioner, but who refused to be quoted, was one of seven thousand others which had been recommended by the fire department for additional fire escapes.”

https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83030214/1911-03-26/ed-1/?sp=1&q=triangle+shirtwaist+fire&r=0.486,1.218,0.358,0.157,0

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“Fire fighters from Ladder Company 20 arrived at the Triangle Waist Company minutes after the alarm was sounded and sprayed water at the burning Asch Building hoping that the dampening mist, too weak to put out the fire by the time it reached the top floors, would cool the panicked workers who had been forced to window ledges by extreme heat, smoke, flames and blocked exits.” https://trianglefire.ilr.cornell.edu/slides/145.html#screen

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Two hikers near Ludlow witnessed militia forces advancing and firing, even shooting at the narrator’s hat when he raised it, apparently mistaking it for a miner sharpshooter’s signal. From their hillside vantage point, they saw striker leader Louis Tikas beaten and then deliberately shot by militiamen, followed by machine-gun fire into the tent colony and tents being set ablaze as miners’ families tried to hide. Horrified, they returned to Trinidad, where many townspeople sympathized with the miners and believed the so-called militia included hired gunmen whose arrival had escalated the violence.

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“The witness said he did not hear bombs or dynamite mentioned at the Sunday or Monday meetings.”

“He had no bomb at the Haymarket; did not know of anyone who had, and did not expect any trouble on that occasion.

“…that the police were working men as well as themselves.”

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The immediate cause of this strike was the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad’s announcement that workers would face another 10% cut for wages. Additionally, the announcement was combined with a decrease in available shifts for work. Other railroads, such as Pennsylvania, followed this idea.

The Long Depression led to wage cuts, high unemployment, and poverty. Since the beginning of railroad positions, conditions and hours were very dangerous with high death rates and tasks, such as exploding tunnels, that severely impacted the lives of laborers. Workers also often faced economic instability, living on the verge of starvation as wages were constantly cut.

The primary blame can be placed on railroad owners as they put workers in dangerous situations and pay cuts, leading to inadequate living standards while they maintained their own capital. Federal and state governments were also blamed because they prioritized corporate interests and forcefully ended strikes which caused widespread violence.

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After police killed several workers in Chicago while breaking up a protest, a meeting regarding the outrage of this was held in Haymarket Square the next day. Police arrived to break it up and a bomb went off. Seven police officers were killed. The officers then fired into the crowd, killing several and injuring many. This sparked anger and outrage across the nation, and many began associating unionism with radicalism.

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The short-term cause of the Ludlow Massacre was Coal Miners who, when their list of demands was not accepted, then they went on strike. Some long-term effects of the Ludlow massacre include how large Coal and other mining Corporations over time, cut wages, increased hours, and overall increased exploitation of wage workers by large corporations. This led to a long history of tensions between the large corporations and the workers.

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... the signs of a great movement by the class of the unskilled, which had finally risen in rebellion.. . . The movement bore in every way the aspect of a social war. A frenzied hatred of labour for capital was shown in every important strike.. .. Extreme bitterness toward capital manifested itself in all the actions of the Knights of Labor, and wherever the leaders undertook to hold it within bounds, they were generally discarded by their followers. . ..

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Eyewitness Reports - Eyewitnesses noted large mobs massing in cities across the United States. Many sympathized with the strikers. "The strike," an anonymous Baltimore merchant wrote, "is not a revolution of fanatics willing to fight for an idea. It is a revolt of working men against low prices of labor, which have not been accomplished with corresponding low prices of food, clothing and house rent." A  newspaper headline read: Shot in Cold Blood by the Roughs of Philadelphia. The Lexington of the Labor Conflict at Hand. The Slaughter of Innocents. The strike was chaotic and was dealt with in a manner one might consider barbaric. The public response was mixed, with the lower class broadly supporting the strikers, and the upper class condemning the strike.

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In early 1892, the Carnegie Steel plant at Homestead, Pennsylvania was being managed by Henry Clay Frick while Carnegie was in Europe. Frick decided that he was going to reduce the workers wages. Workers didn’t accept the wage cut, and Frick laid off the entire workforce. The workers met and planned their strike. On July 5, 1892, Pinkerton’s guards were attacked and beaten to death on their barges by the laid of workers. The government then intervened, broke the strike, and many of the participants were tried for murder.

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Summary:

The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire was a horrific industrial incident that killed 146 garment workers, mostly young immigrant women. They were trapped by locked doors and inadequate fire escapes on the top floors of the Asch Building, which disabled them from escaping. This occurred in New York City on March 25th, 1911. The fire started from flammable materials coming in contact with unsafe equipment, and the workers had a lack of fire protocol training.

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Summary

The Ludlow Massacre took place in Ludlow, Colorado in April 1914. It mainly consisted of coal miners and their families who were on strike against mine guards and the Colorado National Guard. The coal miners wanted to address the violence against the workers and the bad conditions, for example they were monitored by guards, as well as were under strict control of the employers. They also faced harsh hours, low pay, and violence, and the workers wanted to strike against this. This result is about 20 dead that were women and children.

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The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 was the first national strike in American history. This happened in major cities in the Northeast and Midwest, including Martinsburg, Pittsburgh, Chicago, and Baltimore. This was due to massive wage cuts that companies like B&O used to increase profits, poor working conditions, and corporate greed were also factors. Railroad workers started in Martinsburg, West Virginia, when they refused to let the trains run unless the wage cuts were revoked.

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Eyewitness reports (Excerpts - keep them short)

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Eyewitness reports (Excerpts - keep them short)

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Frick - https://digital.library.pitt.edu/islandora/object/pitt%3A31735061570580 -  Frick writes that the violence at Homestead was begun by the strikers. He also says he believed the introduction of guards might spark this, but that it would allow them to regain control more quickly

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Visual evidence (primary source material)

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Visual evidence (primary source material)

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Investigation Findings: What were the long-term / short-term causes of this event? Who - if anyone - deserves blame?

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Investigation Findings: What were the long-term / short-term causes of this event? Who - if anyone - deserves blame?

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Short term cause of the event: Henry Clay Frick decided to proposed wage cuts and he laid off all the workers that opposed his wage cuts.

Long term cause of the event: Owners of companies grew increasingly powerful and they were able to abuse their power to maximize profits which led to tensions between employees and employers.

Henry Clay Frick deserves the most blame for the implementation of unfair wage cuts.