Great Railroad Strike of 1877

v t e Transport strikes
1800s Great Railroad Strike 1877 Camp Dump 1882 Great Southwest 1886 Burlington 1888 Buffalo switchmen 1892 New Orleans waterfront 1892 Pullman Strike 1894 1900s–1920s Chicago teamsters 1905 New Orleans Levee 1907 Illinois Central shopmen 1911 West Coast waterfront 1916 NYC Harbor Strike 1919 Seattle waterfront 1919 Portland waterfront 1922 Railway shopmen 1922 1930s–1970s West Coast waterfront 1934 Minneapolis teamsters 1934 NYC teamsters truckers 1938 Vancouver waterfront 1935 Gulf Coast maritime 1936 NYC tugboat 1946 USPS 1970 Longshoremen 1971 1980s–2000s Patco (air traffic controllers) 1981 SEPTA Regional Rail 1983 Pan Am 1985 UPS 1997 Montreal longshoremen 2020

Transport strikes

1800s

1900s–1920s

1930s–1970s

1980s–2000s

Organized labor
Part of a series on

Labor movement Conflict theories Decent work Exploitation of labor Timeline New unionism Proletariat Sectoral collective bargaining Social movement unionism Social democracy Democratic socialism Socialism Communism Syndicalism Union busting Anarcho-syndicalism National-syndicalism Workplace democracy
Labor rights Annual leave Child labor Collective bargaining Diversity, equity, and inclusion Eight-hour day Employment discrimination Employment protection Equal pay Four-day week Freedom of association Legal working age Minimum wage Neurodiversity and labor rights Occupational safety and health Overwork Paid time off Professional abuse Right to rest and leisure Right to sit Sabbatical Sick leave Six-hour day Toxic workplace Unfree labor Workers' right to access the toilet
Trade unions Trade unions by country Trade union federations International comparisons ITUC WFTU
Strike action Chronological list of strikes Hartal General strike Bandh newspapers Green bans Lockouts Overtime bans Pen-down strikes Sitdown strikes Solidarity action Walkouts Whipsaw strikes Wildcat strikes Work-to-rule
Labor parties Australia Barbados Brazil Fiji Georgia Hong Kong Ireland Israel Malta New Caledonia New Zealand Netherlands Norway Portugal Singapore South Korea United Kingdom Sweden
Academic disciplines Critique of work Industrial relations Labor economics Labor history Labor law Post-work society Refusal of work
v t e

The Great Railroad Strike of 1877, sometimes referred to as the Great Upheaval, began on July 14 in Martinsburg, West Virginia, after the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) cut wages for the third time in a year. The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 was the first strike that spread across multiple states in the U.S. The strike finally ended 52 days later, after it was put down by unofficial militias, the National Guard, and federal troops. Because of economic problems and pressure on wages by the railroads, workers in numerous other states, from New York, Pennsylvania and Maryland, into Illinois and Missouri, also went out on strike. An estimated 100 people were killed in the unrest across the country. In Martinsburg, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and other cities, workers burned down and destroyed both physical facilities and the rolling stock of the railroads—engines and railroad cars. Some locals feared that workers were rising in revolution, similar to the Paris Commune of 1871, while others joined their efforts against the railroads.

At the time, the workers were not represented by trade unions. The city and state governments were aided by unofficial militias, the National Guard, federal troops and private militias organized by the railroads, who all fought against the workers. Disruption was widespread and at its height, the strikes were supported by about 100,000 workers. With the intervention of federal troops in several locations, most of the strikes were suppressed by early August 1877. Labor continued to work to organize into unions to work for better wages and conditions. Fearing future social disruption, many cities built armories to support local National Guard units; these defensive buildings still stand as symbols of the effort to suppress the labor unrest of this period.

With public attention on workers' wages and conditions, the B&O in 1880 founded an Employee Relief Association to provide death benefits and some health care. In 1884, it established a worker pension plan. Other improvements were implemented later.

Panic of 1873 and the Long Depression

The Long Depression, beginning in the United States with the financial Panic of 1873 and lasting 65 months, became the longest economic contraction in American history, including the later more famous, 45-month-long Great Depression of the 1930s. The failure of the Jay Cooke bank in New York was followed quickly by that of Henry Clews, and this set off a chain reaction of bank failures, temporarily closing the New York stock market.

Unemployment rose dramatically, reaching 14 percent by 1876, with many more severely underemployed, and wages overall dropping to 45% of their previous level. Thousands of American businesses failed, defaulting on more than a billion dollars of debt. One in four laborers in New York were out of work in the winter of 1873–1874. National construction of new rail lines dropped from 7,500 miles of track in 1872 to just 1,600 miles in 1875, and production in iron and steel alone dropped as much as 45%.

Reason for strike

When the Civil War ended, a boom in railroad construction ensued, with roughly 35,000 miles (55,000 kilometers) of new track being laid from coast to coast between 1866 and 1873. The railroads, then the second-largest employer outside of agriculture, required large amounts of capital investment, and thus entailed massive financial risk. Speculators fed large amounts of money into the industry, causing abnormal growth and over-expansion. Jay Cooke's firm, like many other banking firms, invested a disproportionate share of depositors' funds in the railroads, thus laying the track for the ensuing collapse.

In addition to Cooke's direct infusion of capital in the railroads, the firm had become a federal agent for the government in the government's direct financing of railroad construction. As building new track in areas where land had not yet been cleared or settled required land grants and loans that only the government could provide, the use of Jay Cooke's firm as a conduit for federal funding worsened the effects that Cooke's bankruptcy had on the nation's economy.

In the wake of the Panic of 1873, a bitter antagonism between workers and the leaders of industry developed. Immigration from Europe was underway, as was migration of rural workers into the cities, increasing competition for jobs and enabling companies to drive down wages and easily lay off workers. By 1877, 10 percent wage cuts, distrust of capitalists and poor working conditions led to workers conducting numerous railroad strikes that prevented the trains from moving, with spiraling effects in other parts of the economy. Workers continued to organize to try to improve their conditions. Employers and liberals feared the spread of communism, particularly through organizations like the Workingmen's Party recently founded in Chicago, and often drew comparisons between such movements in the United States and the recent Paris Commune of 1871.

Many of the new immigrant workers were Catholics, and their church had forbidden participation in secret societies since 1743, partially as a reaction against the anti-Catholicism of Freemasonry. But by the late 19th century, the Knights of Labor (KOL), a national and predominately European and Catholic organization, had 700,000 members seeking to represent all workers. In 1888, Archbishop James Cardinal Gibbons of Baltimore sympathized with the workers and collaborated with other bishops to lift the prohibition against workers joining the KOL. Other workers also took actions, and unrest marked the following decades. In 1886, Samuel Gompers founded the American Federation of Labor for the skilled craft trades, attracting skilled workers from other groups. Other labor organizing followed.

Strike

The strike began when Baltimore & Ohio (B&O) Railroad president John W. Garrett cut wages by ten per cent to increase dividends by the same percentage. By July 14, 1877, it had spread to the Martinsburg, West Virginia station where strikers refused to let freight trains pass. A crowd had gathered in support of the railroad workers. Due to violence against workers refusing to take part in the strike, and since the police proved ineffective in stopping such violence, West Virginia Governor Henry M. Matthews sent in militia forces to move trains. This resulted in one militiaman getting shot by a striker while trying to operate a switch, with the militiaman returning fire. Both were wounded, and the striker died. In the end, the militia failed to get the trains moving again, as strikebreakers were unwilling to operate them. Matthews then requested federal troops, which newly elected President Rutherford Hayes reluctantly agreed to send. The B&O billed the federal government for transporting the troops into Martinsburg, and the strike moved on to Baltimore and then to Pittsburgh.

Maryland

Main article: Baltimore railroad strike of 1877

Meanwhile, the strike also spread into western Maryland to the major railroad hub of Cumberland, county seat of Allegany County where railway workers stopped freight and passenger traffic.

In Baltimore, the famous Fifth ("Dandy Fifth") and Sixth Regiments of the former state militia, reorganized since the Civil War as the Maryland National Guard, were called up by Maryland Governor John Lee Carroll, at the request of powerful B&O President John Work Garrett. The Fifth marched down North Howard Street from its armory above the old Richmond Market (at present North Howard and West Read Streets) in the Mount Vernon-Belvedere neighborhood and were generally unopposed heading south for the B&O's general headquarters and main depot at the Camden Street Station to board waiting westward trains to Hagerstown and Cumberland. The Sixth assembled at its armory at East Fayette and North Front Streets (by the old Phoenix Shot Tower) in the Old Town /Jonestown area and headed to Camden. It had to fight its way west through sympathetic Baltimore citizens, rioters and striking workers. The march erupted into bloodshed along Baltimore Street, the main downtown commercial thoroughfare and the way to get to Camden. It was a horrible scene reminiscent of the worst of the bloody "Pratt Street Riots" of the Civil War era in April 1861, over 15 years earlier. When the outnumbered troops of the 6th Regiment finally fired volleys on an attacking crowd, they killed 10 civilians and wounded 25. The rioters injured several members of the National Guard, damaged B&O engines and train cars, and burned portions of the train station at South Howard and West Camden Streets. The National Guard was trapped in the Camden Yards, besieged by armed rioters. President Hayes sent 2,000 federal troops and 600 U.S. Marines to Baltimore to restore order.

New York

There were further strike actions to the north in Albany, Syracuse and Buffalo, New York, on other railroad lines. On July 25, 1877, workers gathered on Van Woert Street Rail Crossing in Albany, New York. The workers waited for a train arrival then proceeded to barrage the train with projectiles. The arrival of militiamen caused the crowd to rouse and throw their projectiles at the militia. A second night proceeded of attacks on the rail line. After the second night, the mayor rescinded the militia and ordered local police to protect the rail. Workers in the cities in industries other than railroads still attacked them because of how they cut through the cities and dominated city life. Their resentment of the railroads' economic power was expressed in physical attacks against them at a time when many workers' wages were lowered. Protestors "included cross-class elements from other work sites, small businesses, and commercial establishments. Some protestors acted out of solidarity with the strikers, but many more vented militant displeasure against dangerous railroad traffic that crisscrossed urban centers in that area."

Pennsylvania

Pittsburgh

Main article: Pittsburgh railroad strike of 1877

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, became the site of the worst violence of related strikes. Thomas Alexander Scott of the Pennsylvania Railroad, described as one of the first robber barons, suggested that the strikers should be given "a rifle diet for a few days and see how they like that kind of bread". As in some other cities and towns, local law enforcement officers such as sheriffs, deputies and police refused to fire on the strikers. Several Pennsylvania National Guard units were ordered into service by Governor John Hartranft, including the 3rd Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment under the command of Colonel George R. Snowden.

On July 21, National Guard members bayoneted and fired on rock-throwing strikers, killing 20 people and wounding 29. Rather than quell the uprising, these actions infuriated the strikers, who retaliated and forced the National Guard to take refuge in a railroad roundhouse. Strikers set fires that razed 39 buildings and destroyed rolling stock, including 104 locomotives and 1,245 freight and passenger cars. On July 22, the National Guard mounted an assault on the strikers, shooting their way out of the roundhouse and killing 20 more people on their way out of the city. After more than a month of rioting and bloodshed in Pittsburgh, President Rutherford B. Hayes sent in federal troops as in West Virginia and Maryland to end the strikes.

Philadelphia

Three hundred miles to the east, Philadelphia strikers battled local National Guard units and set fire to much of downtown before Pennsylvania Governor John Hartranft gained assistance and federal troops from President Hayes to put down the uprising.

Reading

Main article: Reading Railroad Massacre

Workers in Reading, Pennsylvania's third-largest industrial city at the time, also broke out into a strike. This city was home of the engine works and shops of the Philadelphia and Reading Railway, against which engineers had struck since April 1877. The National Guard shot 16 citizens. Preludes to the massacre included fresh work stoppage by all classes of the railroad's local workforce, mass marches, blocking of rail traffic, and trainyard arson. Workers burned down the only railroad bridge offering connections to the west, in order to prevent local National Guard companies from being mustered to actions in the state capital of Harrisburg or Pittsburgh. Authorities used the National Guard, Coal and Iron Police, and Pinkerton detectives in an attempt to break the strike. Philadelphia and Reading Railway management mobilized a private militia, the members of which committed the shootings in the city.

Shamokin

Main article: 1877 Shamokin uprising

On July 25, 1,000 men and boys, many of them coal miners, marched to the Reading Railroad Depot in Shamokin, east of Sunbury along the Susquehanna River valley. They looted the depot when the town announced it would pay them only $1/day for emergency public employment. The mayor, who owned coal mines, organized an unofficial militia. It committed 14 civilian shooting casualties, resulting in the deaths of two persons.

Scranton

Main article: Scranton General Strike

On August 1, 1877, in Scranton in northeast Pennsylvania, one day after railroad workers commenced a strike, a city posse of 51 men armed with new rifles and under the command of William Walker Scranton, general manager of the Lackawanna Iron & Coal Company, returned fire on a group of rioters, strikers, and, most likely, bystanders. The posse immediately killed or fatally wounded four and wounded an undetermined number of others, estimated at 20 to 50, according to different sources.

Pennsylvania Governor Hartranft declared Scranton to be under martial law; it was occupied by state and federal troops armed with Gatling guns. Later the posse leader and about 20 of his men were charged with assault and murder. They were all acquitted. Under military occupation, and suffering the effects of protracted violence against them, the miners ended their strike without achieving any of their demands.

Illinois

Main article: Chicago railroad strike of 1877

On July 24, rail traffic in Chicago was paralyzed when angry mobs of unemployed citizens wreaked havoc in the rail yards, shutting down both the Baltimore and Ohio and the Illinois Central railroads. Soon, other railroads throughout the state were brought to a standstill, with demonstrators shutting down railroad traffic in Bloomington, Aurora, Peoria, Decatur, Urbana and other rail centers throughout Illinois. In sympathy, coal miners in the pits at Braidwood, LaSalle, Springfield, and Carbondale went on strike as well. In Chicago, the Workingmen's Party organized demonstrations that drew crowds of 20,000 people.

Judge Thomas Drummond of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, who was overseeing numerous railroads that had declared bankruptcy in the wake of the earlier financial Panic of 1873, ruled that, "A strike or other unlawful interference with the trains will be a violation of the United States law, and the court will be bound to take notice of it and enforce the penalty". Drummond told the U.S. Marshals to protect the railroads and asked for federal troops to enforce his decision; he subsequently had strikers arrested and tried them for contempt of court.

The Mayor of Chicago, Monroe Heath, recruited 5,000 men as an unofficial militia, asking for help in restoring order. They were partially successful, and shortly thereafter were reinforced by the arrival of the Illinois National Guard and U.S. Army troops, mobilized by the governor. On July 25, violence between police and the mob erupted, with events reaching a peak the following day. These blood-soaked confrontations between police and enraged mobs are known as the Battle of the Viaduct, as they took place near the Halsted Street viaduct, although confrontations also took place at nearby 16th Street, on 12th, and on Canal Street. The headline of the Chicago Times screamed, "Terrors Reign, The Streets of Chicago Given Over to Howling Mobs of Thieves and Cutthroats". Order was finally restored. An estimated 20 men and boys died, none of whom were law enforcement or troops; scores more were wounded, and the loss of property was valued in the millions of dollars.

Missouri

Main article: 1877 St. Louis general strike

On July 21, workers in the industrial rail hub of East St. Louis, Illinois, halted all freight traffic, with the city remaining in the control of the strikers for almost a week. The St. Louis Workingman's Party led a group of approximately 500 men across the Missouri River in an act of solidarity with the nearly 1,000 workers on strike. It was a catalyst for labor unrest spreading, with thousands of workers in several industries striking for the eight-hour day and a ban on child labor. This was the first such general strike in the United States.

The strike on both sides of the river was ended after the governor appealed for help and gained the intervention of some 3,000 federal troops and 5,000 deputized special police. These armed forces killed at least eighteen people in skirmishes around the city. On July 28, 1877, they took control of the Relay Depot, the command center for the uprising, and arrested some seventy strikers.

California

Main article: San Francisco Riot of 1877

When news of the strikes reached the west coast, the Central Pacific Railroad rescinded its 10 percent wage cut, but this did not prevent the type of worker unrest seen in the east. In San Francisco, the Workingmen's Party called for a rally on July 23, which was attended by eight to ten thousand people. Despite attempts by the organizers to focus the crowd's energy against the railroad monopolies, the rally soon turned to a riot against the local Chinese population. This led to new alliances between workers and small business owners aimed at refusing to hire Chinese laborers and boycotting Chinese goods.

Strike ends

The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 began to lose momentum when President Rutherford B. Hayes sent federal troops from city to city. This was a prime example of the U.S. military being used against industrial action. General Phillip Sheridan and his troops were sent from the Great Plains to Chicago to break up the strike. Federal troops from the South previously used in the Reconstruction after the Civil War were also sent to the striking cities to disperse the crowds. These troops from the South had just been guarding the statehouse in Louisiana a few weeks earlier. They were sent to stop the riots of both the railroad laborers and the residents of the striking cities. Many residents in the cities of Buffalo, Syracuse, and Albany, New York, joined the railroad workers in the strike because they were tired of their urban streets being used by the railroad companies. The railroads that ran through these cities were often very dangerous and caused plenty of issues for urban businesses and city dwellers alike. Even with the combined efforts of the railroad strikers and upset citizens, the troops stood their ground against the strikers and obeyed the orders received from their commanders. This, combined with the strikers' sporadic and unorganized revolts, ultimately led to the downfall of the Great Railroad Strike of 1877. These troops broke strike after strike, until approximately 45 days after it had started, the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 was over. The lack of a political leader or party's support of the revolt caused the strike's power to dissipate as well.

Aftermath and legacy

In total, there were likely over 100,000 people that were involved in the Great Railroad Strike of 1877. Of those involved, nearly 1,000 people were jailed and about 100 were killed. The strike caused over 50% of the United States' freight being carried on the railroads to stop for some time.

In the end, the strikers were unable to meaningfully resist the organized violence coordinated against them by local, state, and federal governments. However, the high cost of organizing such violence in both fiscal and political terms was not lost on the corporate and government leaders behind it. Robert Harris of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad was quoted as saying: "A reduction of pay to employes [sic] may be as expensive to the Co. as an increase of pay." Despite the strike not resulting in an immediate acceptance of worker demands, over the next several years many railroads restored all or part of the initial pay cuts and were reluctant to put further pressure on wages.

The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 led to the rise of certain political parties including the Workingmen's Party of the United States, the Greenback-Labor Party, and the Populist Party. The strike ultimately led to increased membership in the Knights of Labor as well. Labor rights became a major national issue for both the Republican and Democratic Parties due to the strike. The Bureau of Labor was also formed by Congress in 1884 after the national call for labor rights and the aftermath of the Great Railroad Strike of 1877.

Economic effects

Strikers in Pittsburgh burned in total 39 buildings, 104 engines, 46–66 passenger cars, and 1,200–1,383 freight cars. Damage estimates ranged from five to 10 million dollars.

Labor relations

After the Great Railroad Strike of 1877, union organizers planned for their next battles while politicians and business leaders took steps to prevent a repetition of this chaos. Many states enacted conspiracy statutes. States formed new National Guard units and constructed armories in numerous industrial cities. For workers and employers alike, the strikes had shown the power of workers in combination to challenge the status quo. A National Guard member in Pittsburgh, ordered to break the 1877 strike, pointed out that the workers were driven by "one spirit and one purpose among them – that they were justified in resorting to any means to break down the power of the corporations".

Unions became better organized as well as more competent, and the number of strikes increased. The tumultuous Knights of Labor grew to be a national organization of predominately white Catholic workers, numbering 700,000 by the early 1880s. In the 1880s nearly 10,000 strike actions and lockouts took place. In 1886 nearly 700,000 workers went on strike. Business leaders strengthened their opposition to the unions, often firing men who tried to organize or join them. Nonetheless, the labor movement continued to grow.

One result of the strike was increased public awareness of the grievances of railroad workers. On May 1, 1880, the B&O Railroad, which had the lowest wage rate of any major railroad, established the Baltimore and Ohio Employees' Relief Association, which provided coverage for sickness, injury from accidents, and a death benefit. In 1884, the B&O became the first major employer to offer a pension plan.

National Guard

Militias had almost completely disappeared in the Midwest after the Civil War, leaving many cities defenseless to civil unrest. In response to the Great Strike, West Virginia Governor Henry M. Mathews was the first state commander-in-chief to call up militia units to restore peace. This action has been viewed in retrospect as a catalyst that would transform the National Guard. In the years to come, the Guard would quell strikers and double their forces; in the years 1886–1895, the Guard put down 328 civil disorders, mostly in the industrial states of Illinois, Pennsylvania, Ohio and New York; workers came to see the guardsmen as tools of their employers. Attempts to utilize the National Guard to quell violent outbreaks in 1877 highlighted its ineffectiveness, and in some cases its propensity to side with strikers and rioters. In response, as earlier riots in the mid-1800s had prompted the modernization of police forces, the violence of 1877 provided the impetus for modernizing the National Guard, "to aid the civil officers, to suppress or prevent riot or insurrections".

Commemoration

In 2003 the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Martinsburg Shops, where the strike began, were declared a National Historic Landmark.

In 2013 a historical marker commemorating the event was placed in Baltimore, Maryland, by the Maryland Historical Trust and Maryland State Highway Administration. Its inscription reads:

The first national strike began July 16, 1877, with Baltimore and Ohio Railroad workers in Martinsburg, West Virginia, and Baltimore, Maryland. It spread across the nation halting rail traffic and closing factories in reaction to widespread worker discontent over wage cuts and conditions during a national depression. Broken by Federal troops in early August, the strike energized the labor movement and was precursor to labor unrest in the 1880s and 1890s.

Another was placed in 1978 in Martinsburg, West Virginia by the West Virginia Department of Culture and History.

Posse Comitatus Act

The use of federal troops prompted bipartisan support for the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act, limiting the power of the president to use federal troops for domestic law enforcement.

Bibliography

White, Richard (2017). The Republic for Which It Stands: The United States during Reconstruction and the Gilded Age, 1865–1896. New York City: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0199735815.

References

"Business Cycle Expansions and Contractions". National Bureau of Economic Research. Archived from the original on September 25, 2008. Retrieved April 3, 2009.
Fels, Rendigs (1949). "The Long-Wave Depression, 1873–79". The Review of Economics and Statistics. 31 (1): 69–73. doi:10.2307/1927196. JSTOR 1927196.
Masur, Gerhard (1970). Imperial Berlin. New York: Basic Books. p. 65. ISBN 0465032095.
Shelton, Josh. "Pages from US Labor History: The Great Railroad Strike of 1877". Archived from the original on November 19, 2003. Retrieved May 25, 2008.
^ Katz, Philip Mark (1998). Appomattox to Montmartre: Americans and the Paris Commune. Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-32348-3.
Paul Kleppner, "The Greenback and Prohibition Parties," in Arthur M. Schlesinger (ed.), History of U.S. Political Parties: Volume II, 1860–1910, The Gilded Age of Politics. New York: Chelsea House/R.R. Bowker Co., 1973; p. 1556.
David Glasner, Thomas F. Cooley (1997). "Depression of 1873–1879". Business Cycles and Depressions: An Encyclopedia. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 0-8240-0944-4.
White 2017, pp. 351.
"The Catholic Church and the Knights of Labor", American Catholic History Classroom, The Catholic University of America, accessed 20 May 2016
White 2017, pp. 346–347.
White 2017, pp. 347–349.
^ Scharf, J. Thomas (1967) . History of Maryland From the Earliest Period to the Present Day. Vol. 3. Hatboro, PA: Tradition Press. pp. 733–742.
Stowell, David O. (1999). Streets, Railroads, and the Great Strike of 1877. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 9780226776699.
Scott Molloy, "Book Review: Streets, Railroads, and the Great Strike of 1877 By David O. Stowell", Technology and Culture 41.3 (2000) 636–638, via Project MUSE, accessed 20 May 2016
Ingham, John N., Biographical Dictionary of American Business Leaders: N–U, Greenwood Press, 1983.
"The Great Strike". The National Guardsman. I (2 (Supplement)). New York: Charles A. Coffin: 37. September 1, 1877.
^ "The Great Strike of 1877: Remembering a Worker Rebellion". UE News. June 2002. Retrieved May 25, 2008.
Singer, Merrill (2007). Drugging the Poor: Legal and Illegal Drugs and Social Inequality. Waveland Press. pp. 47–48. ISBN 978-1478610243.
Zinn, Howard (1995). A People's History of the United States 1492–present. New York: Harper Collins. p. 248. ISBN 0-06-052842-7. Retrieved October 5, 2009.
Cutter, William, ed. (1913). New England Families, Genealogical and Memorial: A Record of the Achievements of Her People in the Making of Commonwealths and the Founding of a Nation, Volume 4. Lewis Historical Publishing Company. p. 1841. Retrieved September 11, 2015. Worthington Scranton mining 1871.
^ Hitchcock, Frederick L. (1914). History of Scranton and Its People. Vol. I. New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Co. pp. 496–516.
"Hyde Park History". Retrieved September 11, 2015.
Logan, Samuel C. (1887). A City's Danger and Defense. Philadelphia: J.B. Rogers.
^ Cahan, Richard (2002). A Court That Shaped America: Chicago's Federal District Court from Abe Lincoln to Abbie Hoffman. Northwestern University Press. pp. 33–34. ISBN 0-8101-1981-1. Retrieved October 5, 2009. Court That Shaped America.
Brecher, Jeremy (1974). Strike! (3rd ed.). Fawcett Publications.
White 2017, p. 352-353.
Dunbar-Ortiz, Roxanne (2014). An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States. Beacon Press Boston. p. 166. ISBN 9780807057834.
"Great Railroad Strike of 1877 | History, Facts, & Significance | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved March 17, 2023.
Piper, Jessica (2013). "The Great Railroad Strike of 1877: A Catalyst for the American Labor Movement". The History Teacher. 47 (1): 93–110. ISSN 0018-2745. JSTOR 43264188.
Stowell, David O. (1999). Streets, railroads, and the Great Strike of 1877. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-77668-9. OCLC 40311590.
White 2017, p. 354.
"Great Railroad Strike of 1877 | History, Facts, & Significance". www.britannica.com. Retrieved March 17, 2023.
Piper, Jessica (2013). "The Great Railroad Strike of 1877: A Catalyst for the American Labor Movement". The History Teacher. 47 (1): 93–110. ISSN 0018-2745. JSTOR 43264188.
"The Great Railroad Strike of 1877" – Digital History ID 1097, Digital History, University of Houston (and others), accessed 27 May 2016
Skrabec, Quentin (2012). The 100 Most Significant Events in American Business: An Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. p. 81. ISBN 9780313398629.
Report of the Committee Appointed to Investigate the Railroad Riots in July, 1877, Harrisburg: L.S. Hart, state printer, 1878, p. 19
McCabe, James Dabney; Edward Winslow Martin (1877). The History of the Great Riots: The Strikes and Riots on the Various Railroads of the United States and in the Mining Regions Together with a Full History of the Molly Maguires. National Publishing Company. the history of the great riots.
Norton, Mary Beth; Sheriff, Carol; Blight, David W.; Chudacoff, Howard (2011). A People and a Nation: A History of the United States. Cengage Learning. p. 499. ISBN 9780495915256.
^ Gillett, Sylvia (1991). "Camden Yards and the Strike of 1877". In Fee, Elizabeth; Shopes, Linda; Zeidman, Linda (eds.). The Baltimore Book: New Views of Local History. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. pp. 11–14. ISBN 0-87722-823-X.
Guide to the Baltimore and Ohio Employees Relief Association, Annual Reports, 1880–1918. Special Collections Research Center, Estelle and Melvin Gelman Library, The George Washington University.
Haskell, Bob (July 2014). "Off the Rails". National Guard Magazine. Retrieved July 7, 2022.
White 2017, p. 530.
Gilje, Paul (1999). Rioting in America. Indiana University Press. ISBN 0253212626.
Brown, Richard (1975). Strain of Violence: Historical Studies of American Violence and Vigilantism. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780198020172.
"Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Martinsburg Shops". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. Retrieved October 13, 2007.
Michael Caplinger and John Bond (October, 2003) National Historic Landmark Nomination: Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Martinsburg Shops, National Park Service and Accompanying 18 photos, exterior and interior, from 2001 and undated.
"Great Railroad Strike of 1877". Historical Marker Project. September 15, 2014. Retrieved June 2, 2016.
"Roundhouses and Shops / Railroad Strike of 1877". Historical Marker Project. September 27, 2014. Retrieved June 2, 2016.

External links

"The Strike of 1877." Archived January 14, 2016, at the Wayback Machine Teaching Resources—Maryland State Archives
"The Great Railway Strike of 1877 and Newspaper Coverage". Railroads and the Making of Modern America. University of Nebraska Lincoln. Retrieved September 1, 2016.

v t e Great Railroad Strike of 1877
Events by city	Baltimore Chicago New York Pittsburgh Reading Scranton Shamokin St. Louis
See also	Great Railroad Strike of 1922

v t e Major armed conflicts in American labor union history
19th century	Great Railroad Strike, 1877 Rock Springs massacre, 1885 Bay View massacre, 1886 Haymarket affair, 1886 Thibodaux massacre, 1887 Morewood massacre, 1891 Cotton pickers' strike of 1891 Homestead Strike, 1892 Coeur d'Alene, Idaho labor strike of 1892 Pullman Strike, 1894 Streetcar strikes in the United States, 1895–1929 Lattimer massacre, 1897 Illinois coal wars, 1898–1899
20th century	Streetcar strikes in the United States, 1895–1929 Colorado Labor Wars, 1903–1904 1905 Chicago teamsters' strike 1907 San Francisco streetcar strike Pressed Steel Car strike of 1909 Westmoreland County coal strike of 1910–1911 Paint Creek–Cabin Creek strike of 1912 1913 Ipswich Mills strike Colorado Coalfield War, including the Ludlow Massacre, 1913–1914 Copper Country strike of 1913–1914 Everett massacre, 1916 1920 Alabama coal strike Battle of Matewan, 1920 Battle of Blair Mountain, 1921 Herrin massacre, 1922 Hanapepe massacre, 1924 Columbine Mine massacre, 1927 Harlan County War, 1931–1932 Auto-Lite strike, 1934 West Coast waterfront strike, 1934 Gulf Coast longshoremen's strike, 1935 Memorial Day massacre, 1937 Hilo massacre, 1938 1959 United Mine Workers strike, 1959
Related articles	List of incidents of civil unrest in the United States Union violence in the United States Anti-union violence in the United States List of worker deaths in United States labor disputes
Portal:Organized Labour

Riots and civil unrest in the history of the United States (1865–1918)

Northeast

New Jersey	1880 Garret Rock May Day riot 1913 Paterson silk strike
New York	Mamaroneck riot (1870) Orange Riots (1870–1871) 1874 Tompkins Square Park riot New York City Food Riot of 1917
Pennsylvania	Pittsburgh railroad strike of 1877 Reading Railroad Massacre (1877) Scranton general strike (1877) 1877 Shamokin uprising Pittsburgh riot (1886) Morewood massacre (1891) Homestead strike (1892) Lattimer massacre (1897) Anthracite coal strike of 1902 Pressed Steel Car strike of 1909 Philadelphia general strike (1910) Westmoreland County coal strike of 1910–1911
Others	Baltimore railroad strike of 1877 Bituminous coal miners' strike of 1894 1912 Lawrence textile strike Macaroni Riots (1914)

Midwest

Illinois	Chicago railroad strike of 1877 Haymarket affair (1886) Pullman Strike (1894) Illinois coal wars (1898–1900) Battle of Virden (1898) Pana riot (1899) 1905 Chicago teamsters' strike Springfield race riot of 1908 Illinois Central shopmen's strike of 1911 Aldermen's wars (1916–1921) East St. Louis massacre (1917)
Michigan	1891 Detroit riot 1894 Detroit riot Copper Country strike of 1913–1914
Missouri	1877 St. Louis general strike St. Louis streetcar strike of 1900 St. Louis bullfight riot (1904)
Nebraska	Camp Dump strike (1882) 1909 Omaha anti-Greek riot
Ohio	Cincinnati riots of 1884 Reservoir war (1887) May Day riots of 1894 Akron riot of 1900
Others	Bay View massacre (1886) Bituminous coal miners' strike of 1894 Indianapolis streetcar strike of 1913

South

Alabama	Eutaw massacre (1870) Election Massacre of 1874 Mitcham War (1892–1893)
Arkansas	Brooks–Baxter War (1874) 1889 Forrest City riot Hartford coal mine riot (1914)
Florida	Barber–Mizell feud (1870) Pensacola streetcar strike of 1908
Georgia	1906 Atlanta race massacre 1912 Forsyth County racial conflict
Kentucky	Rowan County War (1884–1887) French–Eversole feud (1887–1894)
Louisiana	New Orleans Massacre of 1866 Opelousas massacre (1868) Colfax massacre (1873) Coushatta massacre (1874) Battle of Liberty Place (1874) Thibodaux massacre (1887) 1891 New Orleans lynchings 1895 New Orleans dockworkers massacre Robert Charles riots (1900) Grabow riot (1912)
North Carolina	Kirk–Holden war (1870) Wilmington insurrection of 1898
Oklahoma	Enid–Pond Creek Railroad War (1893–1894) Brooks–McFarland feud (1896–1902) McIntosh County Seat War (1907–1909) Green Corn Rebellion (1917)
South Carolina	South Carolina civil disturbances of 1876 Hamburg massacre (1876) Phoenix election riot (1898)
Tennessee	Memphis massacre of 1866 Pulaski riot (1868) Coal Creek War (1891–1892) Battle of Depot Street (1897)
Texas	Early–Hasley feud (1865–1869) Sutton–Taylor feud (1868–1876) Las Cuevas War (1875) Mason County War (1875–1876) San Elizario Salt War (1877–1878) Jaybird–Woodpecker War (1888–1889) Reese–Townsend feud (1898–1907) Brownsville affair (1906) Slocum Massacre of 1910 Boyce–Sneed feud (1911–1912) Houston riot of 1917
West Virginia	Great Railroad Strike of 1877 Lincoln County feud (1878–1890) Battle of the Grapevine Creek (1888) Tucker County Seat War (1888–1893) Paint Creek–Cabin Creek strike of 1912 West Virginia coal wars (1912–1921)
Others	Greene–Jones War Meridian race riot of 1871 Bituminous coal miners' strike of 1894

West

Arizona	Pleasant Valley War (1882–1892) Bisbee Deportation (1917)
California	Anti-Chinese violence (1860s–1890s) Los Angeles Chinese massacre of 1871 San Francisco riot of 1877 Mussel Slough Tragedy (1880) Castaic Range War (1890–1916) Pacific Electric Railway strike of 1903 1907 San Francisco streetcar strike Wheatland hop riot (1913) Preparedness Day Bombing (1916)
Colorado	Cripple Creek miners' strike of 1894 Colorado Range War (1900) Colorado Labor Wars (1903–1904) Colorado Coalfield War (1913–1914) Ludlow Massacre (1914)
Hawaii	Honolulu Courthouse riot (1874) Black Week (1893–1894)
Idaho	1892 Coeur d'Alene labor strike Deep Creek murders (1896) 1899 Coeur d'Alene labor confrontation
New Mexico	Colfax County War (1873–1888) Lincoln County War (1878; 1881) Battle of Lincoln (1878)
Oregon	Hells Canyon Massacre (1887) Sheepshooters' War (1895–1906)
Washington	1885 attack on Squak Valley Chinese laborers Tacoma riot of 1885 Seattle riot of 1886 Bellingham riots (1907) Everett massacre (1916)
Wyoming	Rock Springs massacre (1885) Johnson County War (1889–1893) Spring Creek raid (1909)
Others	Railroad Wars (1864–1912) Fence Cutting Wars Sheep wars (1870–1920) Bituminous coal miners' strike of 1894 Pacific Coast race riots of 1907 1914 Butte, Montana, labor riots

Reconstruction era

Participants

Federal government

Presidents

Congress

Federal judiciary

Federal bureaucracy

State governments

Others

Elections

Presidential	1864 DNC National Union Convention Radical Democracy Party 1868 DNC RNC 1872 DNC RNC Liberal Republican Party Straight-Out Democratic Party Victoria Woodhull 1876 DNC RNC Greenback Convention Prohibition Convention Electoral Commission Compromise of 1877
U.S. Senate	1864–65 1866–67 1868–69 1870–71 1872–73 1874–75 1876–77
U.S. House	1864–65 1866–67 1868–69 1870–71 1872–73 1874–75 1876–77
Gubernatorial	1863 AL CA CT KY MA MN NH OH PA VA VT WI WV 1864 CT IL IN LA MD MA MI MO NH VT WV 1865 CT FL LA MA MN NJ OH SC VT WI 1866 CT DE MA ME MI NC OR PA TX VT WV 1867 CA CT MA MD ME MN OH VT WI 1868 AL CT FL IL IN LA MA ME MI MO NC NJ SC VT WV 1869 CT IA MA ME MN MS OH PA RI VA VT WI 1870 AL CT DE MA ME MI MO OR RI SC VT WV 1871 CA CT IA KY MA MD ME MN NJ OH RI WI 1872 AL CT FL IL IN LA MA ME MI MO NC PA RI SC VT WV 1873 CT IA MA ME MN MS OH TX VA WI 1874 AL CT DE KS MA ME MI MO NJ NV OR SC VT 1875 CA CT IA KY MA MD ME MN OH OH WI 1876 AL CO CT Apr. CT Nov. FL IL IN KS LA MA ME MI MO NC RI SC VT WV
U.S. elections	1864 1866 1868 1870 1872 1874 1876

Key events

Prelude	American Indian Wars Slavery in the United States A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) The Equality of the Sexes and the Condition of Women (1838) Woman in the Nineteenth Century (1839) Seneca Falls Convention (1848) National Women's Rights Convention (1850) American Civil War Confiscation Act of 1861 Confiscation Act of 1862 District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act (1862) Militia Act of 1862
1863	Emancipation Proclamation General Order No. 143 Lincoln's presidential Reconstruction Ten percent plan National Bank Act Women's Loyal National League New York City draft riots 1863 State of the Union Address
1864	Wade–Davis Bill 1864 elections 1864 State of the Union Address
1865	13th Amendment Second inauguration of Abraham Lincoln Address Black Codes Special Field Orders No. 15 Freedmen's Bureau Freedmen's Bureau bills Confederates surrender at Appomattox Assassination of Abraham Lincoln Shaw University New Departure 1865 State of the Union Address Founding of the Ku Klux Klan
1866	Civil Rights Act of 1866 Memphis massacre of 1866 New Orleans Massacre of 1866 Swing Around the Circle Southern Homestead Act of 1866 Fort Smith Conference and Cherokee Reconstruction Treaty of 1866 Choctaw and Chickasaw Treaty of Washington of 1866 Tennessee readmitted to Union Petition for Universal Freedom National Labor Union Ex parte Garland Ex parte Milligan Slave Kidnapping Act of 1866 1866 elections
1867	Tenure of Office Act Command of Army Act Indian Peace Commission Knights of the White Camelia Pulaski riot Reconstruction Acts Reconstruction military districts Constitutional conventions of 1867 Habeas Corpus Act of 1867 Peonage Act of 1867 First impeachment inquiry into Andrew Johnson 1867 State of the Union Address
1868	14th Amendment Second impeachment inquiry into Andrew Johnson Impeachment of Andrew Johnson Timeline Impeachment trial of Andrew Johnson Impeachment managers investigation Articles of impeachment Arkansas readmitted to Union Florida readmitted to Union North Carolina readmitted to Union South Carolina readmitted to Union Louisiana readmitted to Union Alabama readmitted to Union Opelousas massacre Fourth Reconstruction Act Georgia v. Stanton 1868 elections 1868 State of the Union Address
1869	National Woman Suffrage Association American Woman Suffrage Association Alabama Claims Proposed annexation of Santo Domingo Board of Indian Commissioners Public Credit Act of 1869 Black Friday (1869) Ex parte McCardle First transcontinental railroad 1869 State of the Union Address
1870	15th Amendment Enforcement Act of 1870 Justice Department Naturalization Act of 1870 Kirk–Holden war Shoffner Act 1870 elections 1870 State of the Union Address
1871	Ku Klux Klan hearings Second Enforcement Act Ku Klux Klan Act Alcorn State University Meridian race riot of 1871 Treaty of Washington New York custom house ring Civil service commission United States expedition to Korea 1871 State of the Union Address
1872	General Mining Act of 1872 Crédit Mobilier scandal Modoc War Star Route scandal Salary Grab Act Amnesty Act 1872 elections 1872 State of the Union Address
1873	Panic of 1873 Colfax massacre Timber Culture Act Slaughter-House Cases Virginius Affair Coinage Act of 1873 Long Depression Comstock laws 1873 State of the Union Address
1874	Brooks–Baxter War Battle of Liberty Place Coushatta massacre Red River War Timber Culture Act White League Election Massacre of 1874 Vicksburg massacre Black Hills Gold Rush Sanborn incident Anti-Moiety Acts 1874 elections 1874 State of the Union Address
1875	United States v. Cruikshank Civil Rights Act of 1875 Red Shirts Mississippi Plan Clifton Riot of 1875 Yazoo City Riot of 1875 Specie Payment Resumption Act Whiskey Ring Wheeler Compromise Delano affair Pratt & Boyd 1875 State of the Union Address
1876	Hamburg massacre South Carolina civil disturbances of 1876 Ellenton massacre Great Sioux War of 1876 Battle of the Little Bighorn United States v. Reese Trader post scandal Centennial Exposition Cattellism Safe burglary conspiracy 1876 elections 1876 State of the Union Address
1877	Electoral Commission Compromise of 1877 Nez Perce War Desert Land Act Great Railroad Strike of 1877
Aftermath	Posse Comitatus Act (1878) Civil Rights Cases (1883) United States v. Harris (1883) Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) Williams v. Mississippi (1898) Wilmington insurrection of 1898 Giles v. Harris (1903) Disenfranchisement

Aspects

Historiography	Bibliography of the Reconstruction era James Shepherd Pike The Prostrate State (1874) James Bryce The American Commonwealth (1888) Claude G. Bowers The Tragic Era (1929) Columbia University John Burgess Walter Lynwood Fleming Dunning School William Archibald Dunning Charles A. Beard Howard K. Beale W. E. B. Du Bois Black Reconstruction in America (1935) C. Vann Woodward Joel Williamson William R. Brock The American Crisis (1963) John Hope Franklin From Slavery to Freedom (1947) After Slavery (1965) Leon Litwack Been in the Storm So Long (1979) Eric Foner Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863–1877 (1988) Kenneth M. Stampp Steven Hahn A Nation Under Our Feet (2003) The Second Founding: How the Civil War and Reconstruction Remade the Constitution (2019)
Memory	Winslow Homer A Visit from the Old Mistress (1876) Thomas Dixon Jr. The Leopard's Spots (1902) The Clansman: A Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan (1905) D. W. Griffith The Birth of a Nation (1915) United Daughters of the Confederacy Gone with the Wind (1939) David W. Blight Race and Reunion (2001)
Legacy	Women's suffrage in the United States Labor history of the United States Gilded Age Jim Crow era Civil rights movement American frontier
Other topics	African American founding fathers of the United States Forty acres and a mule Habeas corpus History of the United States (1865–1917) Paramilitary Race (human categorization) Reconstruction Treaties Suffrage Technological and industrial history of the United States White supremacy Whitecapping

Category

v t e Rutherford B. Hayes
19th President of the United States (1877–1881) 29th and 32nd Governor of Ohio (1868–1872, 1876–1877)
Life	23rd Ohio Infantry Regiment Kanawha Division Battle of South Mountain Army of West Virginia Battle of Cloyd's Mountain Ohio State University Spiegel Grove 1876 United States presidential election 1876 Republican National Convention Compromise of 1877 Electoral Commission Oakwood Cemetery
Presidency	Red Room Inauguration of Rutherford B. Hayes United States Civil Service Commission Star Route scandal Great Railroad Strike of 1877 Baltimore railroad strike of 1877 Specie Payment Resumption Act Villa Hayes Presidente Hayes Department Chinese Exclusion Act List of federal judges appointed by Rutherford B. Hayes
Public image	Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center USS President Hayes These Are My Jewels Laudo Hayes Firm Day Club Presidente Hayes Hayes County, Nebraska Rutherford B. Hayes High School University, Hayes and Orton Halls
Family	Lucy Webb Hayes (wife) Webb Hayes (son) Rutherford P. Hayes (son)
← Ulysses S. Grant James A. Garfield → Category

Categories:

Misplaced Pages