The Long Argument: Capital vs. Labor · Episode 5 of 12 · 21 min
The Great Upheaval: 1877, Haymarket, Homestead, Pullman
Between 1877 and 1894 the American labor question became a war. Militias and federal troops met the first nationwide strike in 1877, then Haymarket, Homestead and Pullman followed. Courts and armies reliably arrived on capital's side, while a violent fringe of the labor movement handed its enemies ammunition.
Who's who
- Eugene V. Debs+1 more episodeFounded the American Railway Union and led the Pullman boycott
- Terence V. PowderlyGrand Master Workman of the Knights of Labor
- Samuel GompersFirst president of the American Federation of Labor
- August SpiesChicago anarchist editor hanged for Haymarket
- Albert ParsonsChicago anarchist editor hanged for Haymarket
- Louis LinggHaymarket defendant who made bombs; died by suicide in his cell
- Alexander BerkmanAnarchist who shot and stabbed Henry Clay Frick in 1892
Where it happens
- Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania+4 more episodesRail yards burned during the 1877 strike
- Haymarket Square, ChicagoSite of the 1886 bombing
- Homestead, PennsylvaniaSite of the 1892 battle between Pinkertons and steelworkers
- Pullman, Illinois+2 more episodesCompany town at the center of the 1894 strike
Timeline
- July 14, 1877B&O brakemen at Martinsburg refuse a wage cut, starting the Great Railroad Strike
- May 4, 1886A bomb at Haymarket kills police officers; the thrower is never identified
- November 11, 1887Four Haymarket anarchists hanged
- 1892Pinkertons and locked-out steelworkers fight at Homestead
- 1894Federal injunction and Army break the Pullman boycott; Debs jailed
Still debated
Casualty figures for every event are ranges, and who threw the Haymarket bomb was never established. Historians also differ on whether the Molly Maguires were a real terror network and whether troops caused the Pullman violence.
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