In the mid 1800s industry was advancing and children of all ages were working in dangerous factories. People attempted to strike against these rules, while some decided not to. In the book ¨Lyddie¨ by Katherine Paterson, the main character Lyddie has a job in a factory with very poor conditions and long hours. Since this was only the 1800s, child labor laws were not yet established and Lyddie was recently introduced to her idea of rebelling against the rules for more rights.
In the book Bread and Rose: Miles, Migrants, and the struggle For The American Dream by Bruce Watson talks about the strike that took place in Lawrence, Massachusetts in 1912 that totally changed labor history for American workers. At the begging of the 20th century Lawrence, Massachusetts was the textile center of America with 12 mills employing more than 32,000 migrant workers. Three of those mills were owned by J.P. Morgan, controlled by the American woolen Company. Most of the textile workers were newly arrived immigrants that came from diverse backgrounds. More than 20 different nationalities were represented, speaking more than 20 different languages.
The homestead strike can be linked to the failure of the creation of a working class in America, but made the federal government aware of the need to intervene in labor disputes. Presently in America, there a limited unions and people tend to work as
The work of Samuel Gompers acted as a catalyst to the dawning of the Progressive Era. Gompers’ revolutionary union work advocated for social justice and regulation within factories. HIs work with expanding the rights of workers through factory regulation and organized unions was continued even after his death by the organization her started in 1886. The American Federation of Labor outlasted even the Knights of Labor, and today is still a well respected organization. The American Federation of Labor grew from 50,000 members in 1886, to nearly 3 million members in 1924.
The organized labor of 1875-1900 was unsuccessful in proving the position of workers because of the future strikes, and the intrinsical feeling of preponderation of employers over employees and the lack of regime support. In 1877, railroad work across the country took part in a cyclopean strike that resulted in mass violence and very few reforms. An editorial, from the Incipient York Time verbalized: "the strike is ostensibly hopeless, and must be regarded as nothing more than a rash and splenetic demonstration of resentment by men too incognizant or too temerarious to understand their own interest" (Document B). In 1892, workers at the Homestead steel plant near Pittsburg ambulated out on strike and mass chaos the lives of at least two Pinkerton detectives and one civilian, among many other laborers death (Document G).
The strike became one of the most influential events in the history of United States labor law. The labor law in 1894 in the United States was changed in a significant way after the strike, as it was the first strike that received national attention and tested labor laws. The government intervened in the relationship between employers and their workers. For the first time an injunction by the government was used to break up a strike and block a major union activity. Many industrials and unions were affected by this intervention.
Some of the protests were peaceful, but others rapidly turned into violent riots, looting, and vandalism. Riot police was brought in, and tear gas along with flash bangs were used to bring the crowd under control. One person was killed in the riots. The police say that he was shot by a civilian.
What happened during the strike and what did it reveal of American society at the time?
Tear gas canisters and rocks were being thrown back and forth from the guards and the protestors until things went out of hand. The National Guards opened fire at the rally for as long as 13 seconds. A total of sixty-seven shots were fired. When the long 13 seconds ended, nine students were down wounded, and four students killed. Two of the students who died were not a part of the rally and the other two were involved.
The Haymarket riot stalled the progress for that union worked made for impelling an eight-hour
There were not many unions during this time making it harder for workers to fight to get what they want and to make their labor fair. Although there were many protests and groups organized to fight it, such as, the Pullman Strike, the first May Day, the Knights of Labor, and many haymarket protests. The Pullman Strike was a group of workers who protested against the recent reduction they had in their wages. This strike hurt the national rail service because they would not use the Pullman cars on the trains. The first May Day occurred on May 1st, 1886, this protest started because many workers wanted to work 8 hour days but instead worked unfair amount of hours in one day.
They arranged this rally to protest the several workers that were killed by the police the day before. Later on in the rally the police showed up at the Haymarket square to get rid of the rally. Once they started to come closer to the workers a person within the crowd threw a pipe bomb(to this day he is still unidentified). The police and also some members of the crowd opened fire and chaos broke out. Seven police officers and at least one civilian died as a result of the violence that day, and an untold number of other people were
Writing Rebel Change is inevitable, especially in today’s economy. Individuals from all around the world are constantly pushing the boundaries and breaking the status quo in order to come up with the next “big thing”. Most of the time, success is attributed to a certain individual who is deemed responsible for introducing an innovation. A great example is through Henry Ford, who is often perceived as the pioneer of the car industry in North America.
There were even reports of people being shot and injured by the sniper fire. Most of these deaths by snipers were police men. By dawn of the next day rioters lit fires across the city. Many firefighters were called to the scenes of the fires. But once they made it to the scene they were pelted by rocks and glass bottles.
Progressivism is unquestionably hard to define. Nonetheless, many historians have endeavored to define and sought out how it embarked. Every person will have different perspectives, thus each of the historians will have different outlooks of how they view the findings and what they assume progressivism is. Therefore, this essay will work to exemplify what I think triggered the progressive movement in the United States. Gilded Age caused many problems to outbreak in its era, such as, outlandish fortunes and poverty, incongruous meat production, flux of foreign immigration, ecological demolition, etc.
