Labor Violence Investigation -7 by Keith Layman https://padlet.com/garnetvalleyschooldistrict/fe22mx74f1iifjt7 Post your Findings here - including evidence. en-us 2022-02-04 13:18:01 UTC 2025-07-11 04:22:03 UTC hello@padlet.com Summary gracedonaghy https://padlet.com/garnetvalleyschooldistrict/fe22mx74f1iifjt7/wish/2030003253 The great railroad strike of 1877 took place in Martinsburg, West Virginia. The country was in the 4th year of the economic depression after the panic of 1873. The strikes were the result of the announced wage cuts by the Baltimore and Ohio railroad. Railway work was very dangerous and this was their second cut in 8 months. This railroad also used the economic depression to stop worker unions. Workers in west Virginia reacted after the announcement of 10 percent wage cuts by uncoupling the locomotives in the station, confining them in the roundhouse, and declaring that no trains would leave Martinsburg unless the cut was rescinded. West Virginia Gov. Henry M. Mathews dispatched the militia when police were unable to break up the supportive crowd that had gathered. The militia could not stop the strike so Matthews requested help from federal troops. After their arrival, trains were able to begin leaving Martinsburg on July 20. The strike spread along the mainline of the B&O all the way to Chicago. For all of its fervor and support, the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 ended by August 1, unsuccessful, its workers no better off at the end than when it began. Workers did not receive pay raises; legislation strengthened anti-union attitudes, and state militias were increased.

]]> 2022-02-04 19:00:10 UTC https://padlet.com/garnetvalleyschooldistrict/fe22mx74f1iifjt7/wish/2030003253 Eyewitness Report 1 phoebejohnson3 https://padlet.com/garnetvalleyschooldistrict/fe22mx74f1iifjt7/wish/2030005240 “The depot at Camden station is afire, and it is said the railroad office has been cleaned out. The telegraph office in the depot building has been destroyed, the wires cut and the instruments removed.” An excerpt from a published newspaper ]]> 2022-02-04 19:01:36 UTC https://padlet.com/garnetvalleyschooldistrict/fe22mx74f1iifjt7/wish/2030005240 Eyewitness Report 2 phoebejohnson3 https://padlet.com/garnetvalleyschooldistrict/fe22mx74f1iifjt7/wish/2030005719 "Mrs. Gen. Pearson was so terrified by the threats of the mob on Saturday and Sunday nights against her husband that her hair is said to have turned white. ... They also brought a coffin to her, it is said, and swore they intended to kill her husband and place him in it." The perspective of a workers wife ]]> 2022-02-04 19:01:57 UTC https://padlet.com/garnetvalleyschooldistrict/fe22mx74f1iifjt7/wish/2030005719 Who Deserves Blame? https://padlet.com/garnetvalleyschooldistrict/fe22mx74f1iifjt7/wish/2030007017 The company that initiated the appearance Railroad strikes was the B&O Railroad Company and their workers. The company had a wage cut of 10% which resulted in already poorly paid workers to revolt. The strike then began to spread to other places like the Pittsburgh and Pennsylvania Railroads, and soon to several Northeastern and Midwestern cities. Ultimately, B&O's wage cuts are to blame for the Great Railroad Strike of 1877. ]]> 2022-02-04 19:02:52 UTC https://padlet.com/garnetvalleyschooldistrict/fe22mx74f1iifjt7/wish/2030007017 Eyewitness Report 1 https://padlet.com/garnetvalleyschooldistrict/fe22mx74f1iifjt7/wish/2030007126 “‘Men with broken scalps were crawling off in all directions...” - The New York Sun]]> 2022-02-04 19:02:57 UTC https://padlet.com/garnetvalleyschooldistrict/fe22mx74f1iifjt7/wish/2030007126 Eyewitness Report 2 https://padlet.com/garnetvalleyschooldistrict/fe22mx74f1iifjt7/wish/2030008991 “...the mass meeting of some fifteen hundred persons in protest of the wanton killing of workers by police… 125 reserve policemen to the scene and... then from above or behind the wagon a whizzing spark; a tremendous explosion; many policemen falling; their comrades firing into the panic-stricken crowd, killing and wounding. Seven of the police died; how many civilians were killed by police bullets that night was never definitely known and nothing was ever done about it." - Political cartoonist Art Young]]> 2022-02-04 19:04:18 UTC https://padlet.com/garnetvalleyschooldistrict/fe22mx74f1iifjt7/wish/2030008991 Summary https://padlet.com/garnetvalleyschooldistrict/fe22mx74f1iifjt7/wish/2030009350 This was a dispute between Carnegie Steel and the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers. The owner o the plant was Andrew Carnegie and the dispute was in Homestead, Pennsylvania. 12 people were killed when the striking workers attacked 300 Pinkerton detectives that were hired as security guards by the plant’s management. The riot borke out when the three year union contract was oming to an end and Carnegie anounced that he was going to cut their pay and refused to negotiate. The Pinkerton National Detective Angenty was know for infiltrating unions and breaking stikes so they were hired. When the Dectives came the striking workers had tried to stop them but they were unable to and gun fire broke out and the dectives ended up with the high ground.]]> 2022-02-04 19:04:32 UTC https://padlet.com/garnetvalleyschooldistrict/fe22mx74f1iifjt7/wish/2030009350 Who deserves the blame aidanlennartz https://padlet.com/garnetvalleyschooldistrict/fe22mx74f1iifjt7/wish/2030010823 The long term causes of the strike and subsequent massacre were the cruel treatment of workers by Rockefeller's mining company and the strong bias of the national guard towards the company and detectives, against the strikers. The short term cause is difficult to pin down because it is hard to know if the national guards demands to surrender an individual were lawful or not, as some claim they were demanding the return of a hostage while other more numerous sources say the national guard was simply seeking to arrest one of the strikers. Either way the confrontation escalated in a long fire fight and various sporadic acts of violence across the nation followed, the blame ultimately resting mostly on the shoulders of federal troops and the mining company.

]]> 2022-02-04 19:05:36 UTC https://padlet.com/garnetvalleyschooldistrict/fe22mx74f1iifjt7/wish/2030010823 Eyewitness 1 morganmurray https://padlet.com/garnetvalleyschooldistrict/fe22mx74f1iifjt7/wish/2030010880 “We have been refused employment and have no means of leaving this vicinity, and our families are starving." - People of Pullman to Governor of Illinois 

]]> 2022-02-04 19:05:39 UTC https://padlet.com/garnetvalleyschooldistrict/fe22mx74f1iifjt7/wish/2030010880 Effects https://padlet.com/garnetvalleyschooldistrict/fe22mx74f1iifjt7/wish/2030011191
  • Creates distress in both Chicago and the American work life in general regarding the uprising of anti-labor and anti-immigrants
  • Discussion revolving around possible anti-anarchist movements 
  • Long term effects were significant
    • Many joined the Union membership after being inspired by the riot
    • Union leaders were sentenced after killing 6 cops, creating both support for the convicted and anger against them and unions in general
    • The negative side was that many Americans swayed away from radicalism after the intensity of the riot. 
  • Short term effects were not successful and created panic
    • Knight of Labor ended after the riot
    • Created a wide range of opinion regarding the conspiracy of the riot itself 
    • ]]>     2022-02-04 19:05:52 UTC https://padlet.com/garnetvalleyschooldistrict/fe22mx74f1iifjt7/wish/2030011191     https://padlet.com/garnetvalleyschooldistrict/fe22mx74f1iifjt7/wish/2030011314 Who - Triangle Shirtwaist Company
    What - A fire occurred in the building, killing about 146 workers
    Where - Greenwich Village in Manhattan, New York City
    When - March 25, 1911
    Why - There were four elevators in the factory, but only one was working because the owners neglected the workers’ safety. They had to file down a long, narrow hallway in order to get to it. There were two stairwells down to the exits, but one was locked from the outside to prevent stealing and the other only opened inward. The fire escape was so small that it would have taken hours for all the workers to use it.

    Eyewitness report
    “I looked up-saw that there were scores of girls at the windows. The flames from the floor below were beating in their faces. Somehow I knew that they, too, must come down, and something within me-something that I didn't know was there-steeled me.” - William Shepherd (he was a reporter who happened to be walking past the factory during the fire and called his colleague about what he was seeing)]]>     2022-02-04 19:05:57 UTC https://padlet.com/garnetvalleyschooldistrict/fe22mx74f1iifjt7/wish/2030011314     Eyewitness 2 morganmurray https://padlet.com/garnetvalleyschooldistrict/fe22mx74f1iifjt7/wish/2030011563 “Twenty thousand souls, men, women and little ones, have their eyes turned toward this convention today, straining eagerly through dark despondency for a glimmer of the heavensent message you alone can give us on this earth…” - union striker

    ]]>     2022-02-04 19:06:10 UTC https://padlet.com/garnetvalleyschooldistrict/fe22mx74f1iifjt7/wish/2030011563     Summary utkarshambati https://padlet.com/garnetvalleyschooldistrict/fe22mx74f1iifjt7/wish/2030011999 The Ludlow Massacre was an attack on striking coal miners and their families by the Colorado National Guard and Colorado Fuel and Iron Company. It occurred in Ludlow, Colorado on April 20th of 1914. It resulted in the death of 66 individuals (11 children). The intentions of the strike were to get the coal operators of Colorado to follow the state mining law and to gain representation by the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA). Not one militiaman or mine guard had been indicted for crime.


    ]]>     2022-02-04 19:06:30 UTC https://padlet.com/garnetvalleyschooldistrict/fe22mx74f1iifjt7/wish/2030011999     Eyewitness 3 morganmurray https://padlet.com/garnetvalleyschooldistrict/fe22mx74f1iifjt7/wish/2030013235 “Water which Pullman buys from the city at 8 cents a thousand gallons he retails lo us at 500 percent advance. .. . Gas which sells at 75 cents per thousand feet in Hyde Park, just north of us, he sells for $2.25. When we went to tell him our grievances he said we were all his "children." - UNion Striker

    ]]>     2022-02-04 19:07:03 UTC https://padlet.com/garnetvalleyschooldistrict/fe22mx74f1iifjt7/wish/2030013235     Primary Source utkarshambati https://padlet.com/garnetvalleyschooldistrict/fe22mx74f1iifjt7/wish/2030013404 2022-02-04 19:07:12 UTC https://padlet.com/garnetvalleyschooldistrict/fe22mx74f1iifjt7/wish/2030013404 Eyewitness reports shanelayer https://padlet.com/garnetvalleyschooldistrict/fe22mx74f1iifjt7/wish/2030013551 https://pitt.libguides.com/c.php?g=12523&p=66317
    -interview with barge worker as they pulled into the homestead harbor, Pinkerton detectives on board(copy and past into a new tab, look under eyewitness testimony on the page)

    ]]>     2022-02-04 19:07:19 UTC https://padlet.com/garnetvalleyschooldistrict/fe22mx74f1iifjt7/wish/2030013551     What were the long-term / short-term causes of this event? https://padlet.com/garnetvalleyschooldistrict/fe22mx74f1iifjt7/wish/2030013694  
    Due to the strike, about 1,000 people went to jail and 100 were killed. Workers did not receive pay raises but legislation strengthened anti-union attitudes
    state. Militias were increased.

    ]]>     2022-02-04 19:07:25 UTC https://padlet.com/garnetvalleyschooldistrict/fe22mx74f1iifjt7/wish/2030013694     Visuals https://padlet.com/garnetvalleyschooldistrict/fe22mx74f1iifjt7/wish/2030014199 2022-02-04 19:07:49 UTC https://padlet.com/garnetvalleyschooldistrict/fe22mx74f1iifjt7/wish/2030014199 Primary Source https://padlet.com/garnetvalleyschooldistrict/fe22mx74f1iifjt7/wish/2030015099 *Firemen on Freight Trains Leave Their Posts and Bulldoze Their Would-be Successors* ]]> 2022-02-04 19:08:29 UTC https://padlet.com/garnetvalleyschooldistrict/fe22mx74f1iifjt7/wish/2030015099 Summary https://padlet.com/garnetvalleyschooldistrict/fe22mx74f1iifjt7/wish/2030015127 Who - Irish immigrants, originally formed group in Ireland in 1840s

    What - secret organization of coal miners supposedly responsible for acts of terrorism in the coalfields of Pennsylvania and West Virginia, best known for their activism among Irish-American and Irish immigrant coal miners in Pennsylvania.

    When - series of violent assaults and strikes stretching from 1861 to 1875; one of the worse attacks were in the 1870s, where Molly Maguires killed 24 miners and supervisors

    Where - Ireland, Liverpool, and parts of the Eastern U.S.

    Why - This happened because they didn’t like the working conditions and many places didn’t hire Irish immigrants.

    ]]>     2022-02-04 19:08:30 UTC https://padlet.com/garnetvalleyschooldistrict/fe22mx74f1iifjt7/wish/2030015127     Picture amandasmith50 https://padlet.com/garnetvalleyschooldistrict/fe22mx74f1iifjt7/wish/2030015640 2022-02-04 19:08:51 UTC https://padlet.com/garnetvalleyschooldistrict/fe22mx74f1iifjt7/wish/2030015640 Visual Evidence jacksonmcgehean https://padlet.com/garnetvalleyschooldistrict/fe22mx74f1iifjt7/wish/2030016574 2022-02-04 19:09:35 UTC https://padlet.com/garnetvalleyschooldistrict/fe22mx74f1iifjt7/wish/2030016574 Investigation Findings morganmurray https://padlet.com/garnetvalleyschooldistrict/fe22mx74f1iifjt7/wish/2030016733 Creation of the American Railway Union, by Eugene Debs. ARU was one of the first unions to attempt a national strike. It asked its members all over the country not to handle Pullman cars. Since virtually all passenger trains had Pullman cars, this amounted to a boycott of all trains-a nationwide strike. Soon all traffic on the twenty-four railroad lines leading out of Chicago had come to a halt. Workers derailed freight cars, blocked tracks, pulled engineers off trains if they refused to cooperate.]]> 2022-02-04 19:09:44 UTC https://padlet.com/garnetvalleyschooldistrict/fe22mx74f1iifjt7/wish/2030016733 Primary Source neshalkothari https://padlet.com/garnetvalleyschooldistrict/fe22mx74f1iifjt7/wish/2030017240 2022-02-04 19:10:07 UTC https://padlet.com/garnetvalleyschooldistrict/fe22mx74f1iifjt7/wish/2030017240 picture gracedonaghy https://padlet.com/garnetvalleyschooldistrict/fe22mx74f1iifjt7/wish/2030017243 2022-02-04 19:10:07 UTC https://padlet.com/garnetvalleyschooldistrict/fe22mx74f1iifjt7/wish/2030017243 Investigation Findings amandasmith50 https://padlet.com/garnetvalleyschooldistrict/fe22mx74f1iifjt7/wish/2030017381 The company was to blame for the fire because they did not properly maintain safety conditions in the factory. They did not make their workers’ safety a priority and it directly resulted in the deaths of 146 teenage girls. 
    Two years before the fire, almost 20,000 workers went on strike, protesting the long hours, unsafe working conditions, and bad pay, but the factory kept the unsafe conditions in the factory. The workers were forced to go back to work anyway. 

    ]]>     2022-02-04 19:10:13 UTC https://padlet.com/garnetvalleyschooldistrict/fe22mx74f1iifjt7/wish/2030017381     Summary https://padlet.com/garnetvalleyschooldistrict/fe22mx74f1iifjt7/wish/2030017576 The Haymarket Square Riot happened in Chicago, Illinois on May 4, 1886. The protest was against how working was dangerous and additionally how the police had killed workers the day prior. During the protest, a bomb was thrown at a group of police officers who were attempting to break up the protest despite it being peaceful, killing 6 cops. This resulted in violent confrontation between police and labour protesters or anarchists with even more protesters being killed. 5 suspects for the bombing were arrested and 4 of them were executed.]]> 2022-02-04 19:10:21 UTC https://padlet.com/garnetvalleyschooldistrict/fe22mx74f1iifjt7/wish/2030017576 Summary neshalkothari https://padlet.com/garnetvalleyschooldistrict/fe22mx74f1iifjt7/wish/2030018078 One of the largest nationwide strikes of railroad workers that began in 1894 in Illinois right outside of chicago. People of the Pullman railroad company were furious that they were being treated unfairly as railroad working was one of the most dangerous jobs at the time. Over 2 thousand workers were being killed and 30 thousand were being injured. Along with this, George Pullman, the owner of the company, lowered the wages of his workers, many of which lived in his company town of Pullman. The strike was stopped when President grover Cleveland dispatched thousands of American soldiers. Eugene Debs, the union leader, was arrested and imprisoned. ]]> 2022-02-04 19:10:44 UTC https://padlet.com/garnetvalleyschooldistrict/fe22mx74f1iifjt7/wish/2030018078 Eyewitness Report https://padlet.com/garnetvalleyschooldistrict/fe22mx74f1iifjt7/wish/2030018577 From the eyes of Godfrey Irwin, an electrical engineer who had been traveling through southern Colorado and stumbled upon the massacre.

    “Then came the killing of Louis Tikas, the Greek leader of the strikers. We saw the militiamen parley outside the tent city, and, a few minutes later, Tikas came out to meet them. We watched them talking. Suddenly an officer raised his rifle, gripping the barrel, and felled Tikas with the butt.”]]>     2022-02-04 19:11:06 UTC https://padlet.com/garnetvalleyschooldistrict/fe22mx74f1iifjt7/wish/2030018577     Visual Evidence https://padlet.com/garnetvalleyschooldistrict/fe22mx74f1iifjt7/wish/2030020367 2022-02-04 19:12:26 UTC https://padlet.com/garnetvalleyschooldistrict/fe22mx74f1iifjt7/wish/2030020367 Eyewitness reports siripamidimukkala https://padlet.com/garnetvalleyschooldistrict/fe22mx74f1iifjt7/wish/2030024600
    1. "FEAR AND DREAD has settled upon the entire vicinity and law abiding citizens are particularly careful of what they say regarding the strikers."  from a local newspaper of pittsburgh telling about the molly maguires.
    2. “As to his conduct, that has always been good, but as far as the reputation goes, I never did hear much good”  from a witness during trials for people suspected to be part of the molly maguires and taking part in crime.


    ]]>     2022-02-04 19:15:10 UTC https://padlet.com/garnetvalleyschooldistrict/fe22mx74f1iifjt7/wish/2030024600     Effects https://padlet.com/garnetvalleyschooldistrict/fe22mx74f1iifjt7/wish/2030024675 - Killed as many as 16 mine owners, superintendents, bosses, and workers

    ]]>     2022-02-04 19:15:13 UTC https://padlet.com/garnetvalleyschooldistrict/fe22mx74f1iifjt7/wish/2030024675     Investigation Findings isaiahbyun https://padlet.com/garnetvalleyschooldistrict/fe22mx74f1iifjt7/wish/2030027713 It can be comfortably argued that management of the Carnegie Steel Company including Henry Clay Frick and Andrew Carnegie are largely responsible for the worker strike. Despite a monopolization of the industry, strong influence, and economic capability, Carnegie and Frick chose to cut the wages of hundreds of workers in Homestead, Pennsylvania and attempted to keep the Steelworkers Union out of the plate mill. As workers were already discontent with low wages, Frick’s attempt to both cut union workers from the mill and then sneak in Pinkerton Agents to continue the functioning of the mill with smaller wages raised the tensions and eventual conflict between the two groups.


    ]]>     2022-02-04 19:17:19 UTC https://padlet.com/garnetvalleyschooldistrict/fe22mx74f1iifjt7/wish/2030027713     Investigation Findings siripamidimukkala https://padlet.com/garnetvalleyschooldistrict/fe22mx74f1iifjt7/wish/2030028793
  • Killed as many as 16 mine owners, superintendents, bosses, and workers
  • 20 people suspected of being part of the molly maguires were hanged

    • ]]>     2022-02-04 19:18:03 UTC https://padlet.com/garnetvalleyschooldistrict/fe22mx74f1iifjt7/wish/2030028793