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Source Information: A letter by Albert Parsons published in The Alarm, August 11, 1888, after Parsons had already been executed. Parsons was from an old New England family. He grew up in the South and fought for the Confederacy in the Civil War. After the war, he changed his mind about the South, slavery and much else. He and his wife Lucy moved to Chicago where both became active in the labor movement, in socialist parties and in key anarchist groups. By the time of the Haymarket incident, Parsons was one of the best-known anarchist organizers in Chicago.

“There is no evidence that I or any of us killed, or had anything to do with the killing of, policemen at the Haymarket. None at all. But it was proven clearly that we were all of us anarchists, socialists, communists, Knights of Labor, unionists. It was proven that three of us were editors of labor papers; that five of us were labor organizers and speakers at workingmen’s mass meetings. They, this class court, jury, law and verdict, have decided that we must be put to death because, as they say, we are “leaders” of men who denounce and battle against oppression, slaveries, robbery and influences of monopolists. Of these crimes against the capitalist class they found us guilty beyond any reasonable doubt, and, so finding, they have sentenced us.”

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The Great Mollie Maguire trials: in Carbon and Schuylkill counties, brief reference to such trials, and arguments of Gen. Charles Albright and Hon. F.W. Hughes, in the case of the commonwealth vs. James Carroll, James Roarity, Hugh McGehan and James Boyle, indicted for the murder of Benjamin F. Yost, chief of police of and at Tamaqua, July 6, 1876, in the Oyer and terminer of Schuylkill County.

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It increased divides between the labor movement and those that opposed it. It dissolved the Knights of Labor, and many began to associate the labor movement with ideas of anarchism and violence, with 8 labor leaders being put on trial accused of following the anarchist ideology. For members of the labor movement, the Haymarket Affair served as a reminder for their movement and strengthened it as a symbol, but overall it increased the negative perception of the striking labor movement, and associated it with violence and anarchism.

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LADDER

Part One, Chapter One (excerpt), page 18

The first hook and ladder-Company 20-came up Mercer Street so fast, says Rubino, "that it almost didn't make the turn into Washington Place."

The firemen were having trouble with their horses. They weren't trained for the blood and the sound of the falling bodies. They kept rearing on their hind legs, their eyes rolling. Some men pulled the hitching pins and the horses broke loose, whinnying. Others grabbed the reins and led them away.

The crowd began to shout: "Raise the ladders!"

Company 20 had the tallest ladder in the Fire Department. It swung into position, and a team of men began to crank its lifting gears. A hush fell over the crowd.

The ladder continued to rise. One girl on the ninth floor ledge slowly waved her handkerchief as the ladder crept toward her.

Then the men stopped cranking. The ladder stopped rising.

The crowd yelled in one voice: "Raise the ladders!"

"But the ladder had been raised," Rubino says. "It was raised to its fullest length. It reached only to the sixth floor."

The crowd continued to shout. On the ledge, the girl stopped waving her handkerchief. A flame caught the edge of her skirt. She leaped for the top of the ladder almost 30 feet below her, missed, hit the sidewalk like a flaming comet.

Chief Worth had arrived at the scene at 4:46 O, had ordered the second alarm to be transmitted at 4:48. Two more alarms were called, one at 4:55 and a fourth at 5:10.

In the first two minutes after his arrival, the Chief had assessed the situation. He directed his men to aim high water pressure hoses on the wall above the heads of those trapped on the ledge. "We hoped it would cool off the building close to them and reassure them. It was about the only reassurance we could give. The men did the best they could. But there is no apparatus in the department to cope with this kind of fire."

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Summary:

What: A secretive society in Eastern US and Ireland blamed for a series of violent assaults and murders.

Who: Irish immigrants

Leader: Jack Kehoe

When: 1862-1876

Where: Coal fields in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania

Why: Their goal was to protect workers from oppressive mine owners

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What were the long-term / short-term causes of this event? Who - if anyone - deserves blame? The members of the Molly Maguires were at fault for their actions however some blame can be placed on the mine owners for trying to get away with poor working conditions and low wages. The long term causes for the Molly Maguires were the rapid industrialization rates in the U.S and and the Lack of labor rights. The short term causes were the poor working conditions and management oppression brought on by mine owners.

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Some short-term causes of the event would be unsafe working conditions and lack of emergency preparedness.

If anyone should be blamed it should be the workers in the factory at the time the fire started, but we can’t be sure they’re the ones who started the fire since both the workers and the factory owners suffered great losses in the fire.

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Eyewitness Reports: “On June 21, 1877, twenty men linked to the secret organization called the “Molly Maguires” were hanged in the Carbon and Schuylkill county prisons for first degree murder. These men were sentenced to death by judges who were heavily influenced by powerful mining companies and the biased testimony of a spy, James McParlan. Today, these hangings have been recognized as unjustified, and in 1979 the state of Pennsylvania gave John Kehoe, the alleged king of the Molly Maguires, a full state pardon over a hundred years after his death. June 21, 1877, the sad day when twenty members of the Molly Maguires were hanged, has since been referred by the state of Pennsylvania as “Black Thursday.”

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Summary (Who, what, when, where, why) - Nolan C

The Homestead Strike was a violent strike held by workers at the Carnegie Steel Company that ended in a gunfight.  Tensions between the workers and management in the company is what sparked the initial disagreement, which then led to a lockout.  This strike did not allow the workers in the factory, and Carnegie hired guards to protect the factory itself.  This is what led to the gun fight that resulted in several deaths.

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

Both Carnegie and Henry C. Frick are to blame for the Homestead Strike. Carnegie and Frick determined that they would cut wages and eliminate the craft union, the AAISW. While Carnegie set sail for a European vacation in 1892, Frick began taking forceful steps toward that goal. Second, Frick was able to mobilize a military force capable of fighting workers on strike. Frick hired Pinkerton detectives and later gained the assistance of the state militia to put down any workers intent on disrupting the Carnegie plant.

Short Term cause: Frick (in charge of town and mill at the time) refused to negotiate with the union after their contract with Carnegie expired, so he shuttered the steel mill and caused 3,800 workers to walk out.

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A: On the northeast corner of Randolph and DesPlaines. I turned that corner and ran down the street. I ran, I suppose, until I got to Jefferson street, and seeing there was no pursuit I dropped into a fast walk. I walked down to Clinton and turned on Clinton, intending at that time to go home. I have omitted one circumstance, and that is, that immediately after the explosion of the bomb---I had possibly gone three or four steps----I was struck with a ball. It felt, as near as I can estimate the feeling, now, as though a small hammer had struck me very quickly there with a strong powerful blow. I didn't feel much pain at the time in the excitement, but as I dropped into a walk down there on Randolph street I felt the pain and put my finger in the hole in my pants and felt my knee was wet. Then I concluded I had been shot, but I hadn't a great deal of pain in it at that time. As I walked down Clinton street I was thinking about going home. Then I began to think about those who had been with me, and, remembering about Mr. Spies being on the wagon at the time I was speaking, and at the time the police came up, I thought surely that some of these men must have been killed, from all that shooting. I concluded then that I would take a Van Buren street car and ride down past the Arbeiter Zeitung building and see if any one was there. I caught the car at the corner of Canal Street and VanBuren, but I found I had made a mistake. It was a car that runs directly east to State street. I turned the corner of Fifth avenue then, and walked from the corner of fifth avenue until I got to Monroe street. There came a car from down there which I thought was a Twelfth street car. Of course I was near the place and I could have walked there, but I thought at the time that I was so well known in Newspaper Row by the reporters that if I should walk I should be known. So I jumped on to the car and stood in front. I thought if I saw a light in the Arbeiter Zeitung building I would jump off and go up there; but there wasn't any. So when I got down near the Briggs House I alighted, and I thought then I would go up to Parson's House. I took an Indiana Street car and rode up to Clinton street. When we got to Clinton street the driver said "Why there is firing going on up there yet" and I saw a couple of flashes up near where I thought the Haymarket was, and I said "If there is I am not going up there." I then walked over on Jefferson street until I came to the north corner of Lake street, and I saw a terrible crowd of people around there, and I thought possibly that there would be a good many detectives there. So I turned back again and caught a Canalport Avenue car and rode down to the corner of Canal and Twelfth streets. There I got my knee dressed, it was becoming very painful at this time.

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THE MILITARY CALLED OUT.

Mr. John King, Jr., First Vice President of the Road, was telegraphed to at his country residence, Chesnut Hill, and informed of the trouble at Martinsburg. Mr. King rode into town and arrived at Camden Station about half-past eleven o'clock, and immediately telegraphed to Governor Matthews at Wheeling, West Virginia, stating that the Company's trains in both directions had been stopped at Martinsburg by the strikers; that there had been a riot, and the local authorities were unable to suppress it. He asked the Governor to call out the military of the State to suppress the riot, and to enable the Company to transact its business with safety and regularity. In a short time - Baltimore American Newspaper

Mr. King received the following despatch:

There are two companies at Martinsburg supplied with ammunition. I have telegraphed to my aide-de-camp, Colonel C.J. Faulkner, Jr., to aid the civil authorities with these companies in the execution of the laws of the State, and to suppress the riot. I will do all I can to preserve the peace, and secure safety to your trains and railroad operatives.

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Due to the Panic of 1893, Pullman cut wages for his workers and laid off some as well. But he did not reduce the rent in his town. In response, workers went on strike. The strike was in Chicago, Illinois in 1894.

Eyewitness Report:

August 17, 1894

“We, the people of Pullman, who, by the greed and oppression of George M. Pullman, have been brought to a condition where starvation stares us in the face, do hereby appeal to you for aid in this hour of need. We have been refused employment and have no means of leaving this vicinity, and our families are starving.”

Letter from the Pullman Citizens to the Governor of Illinois

Investigation Findings: The short-term cause of this strike was Pullman cutting wages while keeping workers' high rent to pay to live in his town. Along with this, the working conditions in the Pullman industry were very harsh. The long-term cause of this strike was the rise of labor unions, which caused workers to seek higher wages and better working conditions. The person to blame for this is Pullman because he decided to lower the wages his workers got paid while also demanding that they continue to pay the high rent that they used to pay.

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Long terms causes included the dangers and hazards in the railroad work industry. Prior wages also cuts to railway workers Similarly, short term causes include the further wage cuts by the railroad executives after 8 months. Railroad executives primarily deserve the blame for the mistreatment of workers and the unfair/unsafe working conditions. As a result, railroads were unable to transport goods across the country causing a small economic halt.

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1877

Where: Baltimore, Maryland

Who: railroad workers

When: Jul 1877 - Sept 1877

Why: upset with cut wages

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Prior to the fire, workers were paid minimum wages and worked long hours

In 1909, workers went on strike to combat the conditions they were under

The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire was a garment factory in New York City, in which a fire broke out. The fire took place on March 25, 1911. The fire caused the death of 146 garment workers.

The cause of the fire is thought to be a cigarette butt that fell into a bin full of fabric scraps and tissue paper.

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A rally was called on May 3, 1886 in Haymarket Square as a result of the death of 6 workers in the Chicago McCormick Reaper Works. The rallying workers participated in the continuing argument for an 8-hour workday. A bomb was thrown at the rally, and policemen fired on the crowd. 8 different people, including Albert Parsons and August Spies, were convicted of throwing the bomb, though it was later proven that none of them were responsible.