Great Railroad Strike, 1870's by

Summary

jazmingomez13 — 2024-07-22 05:00:02 UTC

The Great Railroad Strike was filled with many riots and deaths due to passionate strikers not giving up. In the beginning, the strikes started in West Virginia with the strikers leaving about 600 trains stranded in a roundhouse and eventually led to the strike spanning all the way from New York to Chicago. Along the way, as the strike grew, men from factories and iron mills joined in on the strike as well. The riots got so bad they had to call in militia, federal troops, and even guardsmen. This was because some of the militiamen were railroad workers and didn't want to go against the strikes. The strikes affected much of Pennsylvania such as having to close stores in Harrisburg, mobs vandalizing the town of Reading, and National guardsmen went against their orders in Lebanon. Even though it majorly affected Pennsylvania there were a lot of states involved such as West Virginia, Maryland, Chicago, New York, Ohio, and Illinois. All together within all of those states there were about 100,000 workers who were a part of the strikes. By the end of July of 1877, the strikes had calmed down everywhere. The strikes disappeared because the federal army stayed together unlike the militias who didn't take their orders. They also stopped since they were not organized riots but rather spur of the moment things and unorganized.

Geographical significance

jazmingomez13 — 2024-07-22 05:05:05 UTC

The significance of where the strike was is because that's where the Baltimore and Ohio (B&O) Railroad went through

jazmingomez13 — 2024-07-24 02:53:28 UTC

This image shows the beginning of the strike on July 16, 1877, in Martinsburg, West Virginia when workers were being informed that they were getting a pay cut and, therefore started protesting. - from ThoughtCo.

jazmingomez13 — 2024-07-24 02:55:35 UTC

This image is from July 16, 1877, when a firefighter refused to do his job while workers were burning the Baltimore & Ohio railway in Pittsburgh, which set off a sort of domino effect and everyone started walking away from their job. - from ORIGINS OSU.edu

jazmingomez13 — 2024-07-24 03:04:53 UTC

This image shows the massacre of the Reading Railroad that occurred on July 23, 1877, when about 14 people died and hundreds were injured - from ORIGINS OSU.edu

jazmingomez13 — 2024-07-24 03:16:20 UTC

This is a newspaper from July 24, 1877, emphasizing on the destruction of the strike that happened in Pittsburg, and not only that but many incidents that occurred during the strike in many different cities. - from Timothy Hughes Rare and Early Newspapers

jazmingomez13 — 2024-07-24 03:22:08 UTC

This is a telegraph from July 23, 1877, describing what happened in Ohio when the strike spread to more than just railroad workers and a mob tried to start protests but not violence broke out. - from the Digital Inquiry Group