Haymarket Riot Essay Research Paper As result

Haymarket Riot Essay, Research Paper

As result of the Industrial Revolution, people in America earned more money, most of which they used to open new businesses and factories. There were now many different types of machines to do the work that people had to do themselves in the past. Thus, machines rapidly replaced people. Now with less people working and getting paid, there were people that could afford what these factories were making. Most of the people working in the United States at this time were immigrants, so they were forced to work for very low wages. A working adult would be considered lucky to bring home a daily income of only $2.00. Kids on the other hand, only made about 70 cents a day for spending their entire childhood sorting through coal or performing other strenuous jobs.

Most people worked between ten and fourteen hours each day with peanuts for income. As result, Chicago Illinois, as well as many other cities in the United States, fell into poverty. However, not all employees at this time were cruel and blackhearted. Most at the time though just wanted to get the most out of their employees for the least amount of pay.

Soon the Labor Union movement started. People in this union wanted to ban child labor, increase pay, and to create shorter workdays. Conflict after conflict broke out spawning from the Labor Union; many of which the police were brought in to settle. By 1886, the major concern of the Labor Union was to establish an eight-hour workday. By now there were several unions, all of which could not agree with one another on how to fight for this rightfully deserved demand. Finally, the Knights of Labor, who originated in Chicago, organized a nation wide strike. However, the newspapers, business leaders, and politicians didn t agree with these actions. They said, the new eight-hour workday would promote loafing, gambling, rioting, debauchery and drunkenness (Simon). Knowing that they would be fired, workers still stood up for what they believed in and followed through with the strike.

On May1, 1886, the strike stared. More than 300,000 workers went on strike in nine different cities across the vast nation. One of these cities was Boston. However, only a few employers nation wide granted their employees the shorter workday. As result, the next two months were filled with the police, the strikers, and the scabs. Scabs were people who refused to go on strike with the rest of their coworkers. They acquired this name from the angry strikers.

On May 3, 1886, more than 500 strikers met up with some scabs as they were leaving a plant in Chicago. The agitated mob blasted the scabs with sticks, rocks, and just about anything they could possible get their hands on. This continued until police arrived and eventually broke up the fight. August Spies then proceeded to organize a protest meeting in Haymarket Square. The strikers were told to be armed in case the police resorted to violence on them.

The following day when Spies came to the meeting he spoke in front of about 1,200 people. Albert Parsons, along with Spies and other speakers, spoke of the McCormick riot, and the rights and the responsibilities of the American worker. Then as it began to rain, people slowly began to leave and head home. One of the many to leave was the mayor of the city, Charter H. Harrison. On the way home he stopped off at the police station to tell the officers on stand-by that they could go home because the protest was peaceful. About ten minutes later, two undercover agents came to the police station and said that there were some offensive things being said at the protest, and that the officers should go break it up. When the police arrived at Haymarket Square, some words as well as actions were shared between the strikers and the police. Before long, a bomb was anonymously thrown into the crowd of police. This was the first time a bomb like this was used in the United States. Quickly responding to the bomb, the police officers began to fire into the crowd of strikers and all hell broke loose. As result of the bomb, one police officer was killed instantly, and six others died within the next two weeks because of serious wounds.

The following day the newspapers were loaded with headlines which accused Spies, Parsons, and Fielden of releasing this deadly bomb into the crowd. Some newspapers even said that the Haymarket riot, anarchists, and socialists were the reason for other disturbances around the country. They said that punishments should be dealt to Spies, Parsons and Fielden, because people of the United States were accusing them of murder. However, one newspaper reported that if the police hadn t raided the protest, there wouldn t have been a bomb thrown, because there wouldn t have been anything to spark the argument. Another newspaper, the Labor Enquirer, wrote in one of it s articles, twice as many honest men were murdered in coal mines as have been killed in Chicago, and there isn t any noise at all about it (americanhistory.com). Still other papers wrote that is working and living conditions were better, then none of this probably would have happened.

Captain Michael J. Shaak was so outraged by the Haymarket riot that he arrested hundreds of people who attended the protest that day, or even the people who were suspected of being there. While making all these arrests, the captain discovered secret societies and b