Haymarket+Affair

= = Haymarket Strike of 1886

A squad of 350 police officers prevented workers on strike from taunting the new workers at McCormick Farms. On May 3, the police officers attacked the men on strike, leaving a few dead. Once word got out to the working-class men, the real revolt had begun. The workers of McCormick Farm Equipment Works in Chicago, IL protested their hours on May 4, 1886. They felt they should work eight hour shifts in order to have time off for eight hours. Like the 1st revolution, America's 2nd industrial revolution had workers working long hours with little pay and workers were performing more dangerous jobs. Employees felt the reward had to be greater to these changing tasks. Only at this time were anarchists Albert Parsons and August Spies demanding ten hours of compensation for eight hours of work. By creating enough tension and irritation between employers and employees in the workplace, the two demanded a revolution to eventually take place. They led many uprising revolutionary groups and spoke of repelling policemen with explosives, such as dynamite.
 * __ What Leads to Chaos __**

The protest began peacefully, until a bomb blew killing several police officers that were controlling the rally, and injuring over 70 people. About a thousand workers from McCormick Harvesting Machine Company were involved in the labor protest in favor for an eight hour work day and eight hours of rest. On May 4th, 1886 a labor strike was between about 1,500 workers and the Security Guards on duty at the time. The majority of the protestors were anarchists, or someone who wants an anarchy which is a stateless society. The riot began when a bomb exploded among a group of police officer when they were trying to shut down the rally of the strikers.
 * __Bombing the Strike__**

When the bomb exploded policemen started shooting their guns lie crazy. There ended up being 11 killed people. Of those 11, 7 consisted of policemen who were shot. Aside from that, many more were injured. This riot started off as a peaceful protest and ended in many bloody deaths and injuries right in the middle of the Haymarket Square.

This critical labor strike in Chicago helped shift the labor movement toward the “bread and butter” unionism. After the unexpected blast officials came up with 31 suspects who police thought were the main men in the cause in the bomb. The authorities eventually narrowed down the suspected bombers to eight men, all having foreign sounding names according to one newspaper.
 * __ Effects- Short Term __**

Four of the eight convicted bombers are hung...Govenor Ogelsby believes some didnt even attend the strike __**Effects- Long Term**__ The men are charged with murder and conspiracy with no hard evidence linking these men to the crime. Some of the suspects didn’t even participate in the strike. All were sentenced to death and four of the men were immediately hung and a fifth committed suicide in jail. The men then fell into the fate of Illinois governor Richard Ogelsby who lightened there sentenced to just life in prison compared to the original death sentence. When Governor Richards term was up the new governor John Peter Altgeld pardoned the three remaining men of their crime. Today a bronze statue stands in Chicago’s Haymarket square reminding us of the people who fought for job rights

Engraving of hte seven anarchists who were sentenced to death. Missing an eigth man who was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

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 * Sorry about the mixed fonts, we tried to make it all Verdana 12pt. __Primary Sources (pictures):__ **Altgeld** - [] **Bomb Scene** - [] __Resources:__ Green, James. Death in the Haymarket: A Story of Chicago, the First Labor Movement and the Bombing that Divided Gilded Age America. 2005. Reprint. New York: Anchor, 2007. Print. [] http ://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/database/article_display.cfm?HHID=227 "Chicago Historical Society - The Haymarket Digital Collection." Chicago History Museum | . N.p., n.d. Web. 9 May 2010. <[]>. "The Dramas of Haymarket." Chicago History Museum . N.p., n.d. Web. 9 May 2010. <[]>.=====