1877+RR+Strikes

Background By the end of the Civil War, there were 35,000 miles of railroad track in the U.S. By 1916 there were 254,000 miles. Railroads employed one out of every 25 American workers. The Great Railroad Strike of 1877was the country’s first major rail strike and the U.S. witnessed the first general strike in the nation’s history. This strike would lead to other violence (Haymarket Affair Homestead Steel Strike, etc). In 1877, northern railroads were still suffering from the Financial Panic of 1873, began cutting wages and salaries, causing strikes and violence with long lasting consequences. The largest railroad, The Pennsylvania Railroad cut wages by 20 percent. On July 13, the Baltimore & Ohio line cut the wages of all employees making more than a dollar a day by 10 percent. It also slashed the workweek to only two or three days. 40 locomotive firemen walked off the job. By the end of the day, workers blockaded freight trains near Baltimore and in West Virginia, only allowing passenger cars through. The Beginning of the Strikes In July, the Pennsylvania railroad announced that it would double the length of all eastbound trains from Pittsburgh with no increase of crew members. Railroad employees responded by taking control of the rail yard switches and blocked all movement of trains. Violent strikes soon broke out in Baltimore, Chicago, Kansas City, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, and San Francisco. Governors in Maryland, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia called out their state militias. In Baltimore, a mob was fired upon by militia, killing 10, including a newsboy and a 16-year-old student. The shootings sparked a rampage. Protesters burned a switch town, a passenger car, and sent a locomotive crashing into freight cars. 14,000 rioters took to the streets. Maryland’s governor telegraphed President Hayes and asked for troops to protect Baltimore. In Pittsburgh, local militia sympathized with rail workers and the governor called in National Guard troops from Philadelphia. The troops fired into a crowd, killing more than 20 civilians, including women and at least three children. Newspapers called it the “Lexington of the Labor Conflict.” An angry crowd forced the Philadelphia troops to retreat to a roundhouse in the railroad complex, and set engines, buildings, and equipment ablaze. Fire went throughout the city, destroying 39 buildings, 104 engines, 46 passenger cars, and over 1,200 freight cars. The Aftermath The Pennsylvania railroad claimed to have lost more than $4 million in Pittsburgh. After the riot, United States troops were stationed in the Pittsburgh and Reading railroads. Estimates of 40 people were killed in the violence in Pittsburgh. Across the country more than a hundred died, including eleven in Baltimore and a dozen in Reading. By the end of July, most strike activity was over. However, railroad labor strikes reoccurred in 1884 to 1886, and from 1888 to 1889, and once more in 1894. Greed and corruption all lead to the Railroad Strikes of 1877. The rich became stingy and were afraid to lose their money, so they started hurting their workers with lower wages and not hiring the necessary help. So the workers showed their frustration. The Railroad Strikes of 1877 is another fight between the rich and the lower class. Fights and riots like the Railroad Strikes have been going on in the United States since before the Revolutionary War, the fight between classes of different wealth. The same riots and protests happened against the British in 1765, in response to the stamp tax. These riots were against the tax distributors. The same fight between the wealthy and the poor happened many more times, including, The Railroad Strikes of 1877.
 * 1877 Railroad Strikes **

Mintz, S. (2007).The Great Railroad Strike. Digital History. Retrieved 13 Jan 2012 from [|__http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/database/article_display.cfm?HHID=224__]