The Chicago Haymarket Riot of 1886
US History/Napp Name: ______
Analyzing Images:
Questions:
1-Who is the individual chained to the stake? ______
2-What is written on the stake the individual is chained to? ______
3-What do the faces on the blazing logs represent? ______
4-What is the caption of the political cartoon? ______
5-Explain the meaning of the political cartoon. ______
6-Who is the cartoonist sympathetic to? ______
7-Provide evidence to support your previous answer. ______
Historical Context:
~ Adapted from Selected Case Studies in American History
Today, labor unions have the legal right to organize and bargain with employers. But in the years following the Civil War, they did not have this right. The owners of factories, railroads, and other large industries felt that they alone had the right to decide what wages, hours, and working conditions should be. When workers organized into unions, they were often fired by their employers. This fierce opposition meant that early unions had rough going; the union’s struggle for the right to organize and bargain was often a bloody one.
One of the largest early unions was the Noble Order of the Knights of Labor. This union tried to include all workingmen in “one big union.” To make its demands felt, the Knights of Labor organized a number of strikes throughout the nation. Sometimes the union was successful, but many times the strikers failed to win their demands. Often, bitter clashes broke out between the police and the strikers.
The year 1886 was a particularly severe one for labor unrest. Much of the trouble was in the city of Chicago, which had many large industries and a large number of union members. To make the situation even worse, there were several hundred anarchists [an anarchist is a person who is opposed to all governments and wants a world without laws or rulers] in Chicago trying to persuade union members to seize factories and kill their owners.
To say the least, tensions were running high in Chicago. Workers were dissatisfied and angry, and many citizens and public officials were afraid that rioting and open rebellion would break out. In the midst of all this tension and fear, a chain of events began which led, tragically, to the hanging of four men.
On May 1, 1886, the workers called a strike to demand an eight-hour day in all industries. Two days later, workers attacked the McCormick Reaper Works, a large factory which had been the scene of trouble earlier in the year. They were met by armed police. Fists flew, then clubs, and some heads were cracked on both sides, but no one was killed.
As a protest against the police action at the McCormick Works, a meeting was planned, by the workers, for the night of May 4th. Several thousand workers gathered at Haymarket Square. At the meeting, anarchists spoke out against the injustices that the workers had to tolerate. During the speeches, a company of policemen arrived and demanded that the workers go home. At that point, a dynamite bomb was thrown into the group of police. It exploded with devastating force, killing one policeman on the spot and wounding many more. In the five or ten-minute riot which followed, the police fired on the crowd and were fired upon in return. The result was that eight policemen ultimately died of their wounds.
The riot was followed by a trial in which eight anarchists were convicted of murder, of encouraging others to murder by their speeches and writings, and of being accessories (those who help offenders against the law) to the crime of murder. Four of the anarchists were hanged for their crimes.
Questions:
1-What do labor unions have the right to do today? ______
2-Define collective bargaining [Previous Knowledge]. ______
3-What did employers feel they had the right to decide in the years following the Civil War? ______
4-What happened to workers who organized into unions during these years? ______
5-What was the Noble Order of the Knights of Labor? ______
6-What did the Noble Order of the Knights of Labor try to include? ______
7-What did the Noble Order of the Knights of Labor organize to make its demands felt? ______
8-Define a strike [Previous Knowledge]. ______
9-What frequently broke out between police and strikers? ______
10-Why was the year 1886 a particularly severe one for labor unrest? ______
11-What were many citizens and public officials afraid of in Chicago? ______
12-Why did workers call for a strike on May 1, 1886? ______
13-What happened two days later at the McCormick Reaper Works? ______
14-Why was a meeting planned for the night of May 4th at Haymarket Square? ______
15-Who spoke out against the injustices that workers tolerated at that meeting? ______
16-What happened during the speeches? ______
17-What was thrown into the group of police at the meeting? ______
18-What happened after that incident? ______
19-What happened during the riot that ensued? ______
20-Who was brought to trial? ______
21-Why were they brought to trial? ______
22-What happened to four of the anarchists after the trial? ______
The Controversy:
To this day, no one knows who threw the dynamite bomb into the crowd of policemen at Haymarket Square. Spies, Parsons, Engel, and Fischer were hanged, not for actually killing the policemen but for encouraging others to do so by what they said and wrote.
But aren’t people free to write and say what they please? Indeed, this important right is stated in the first Amendment to the Constitution:
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”
However, the Constitution does not say what the limits of free speech and free press are. That is, does free speech mean we are free to say anything that comes to mind? If we encourage other people to commit crimes, are we also guilty of their crimes?
The issue in this case is whether the four men were really guilty as charged. Did they go to the gallows for exercising the freedoms of speech and assembly guaranteed by the Constitution? Or are there limits to the right of the “voice of the people” to be heard?
How free is freedom of speech and assembly?
Questions:
1-What does no one know to this day? ______
2-Why then were Spies, Parsons, Engel, and Fischer hanged? ______
3-What is stated in the First Amendment? ______
4-Yet what does the First Amendment not state? ______
5-What then is the issue of this case? ______
Using Primary Sources:
Each of the eight convicted anarchists was allowed to make a final address to the court before the sentence was read. The following are excerpts from those addresses:
August Spies:
“Your decision, your verdict, our conviction is nothing but an arbitrary will of this lawless court …. It is true we have called upon the people to arm themselves. It is true that we told them time and again that the great day of change is coming. It was not our desire to have bloodshed. We are not beasts. We would not be Socialists if we were beasts.”
Adolph Fischer:
“This verdict is a death-blow against free speech, free press, and free thought in this country, and the people will be conscious of it too.”
George Engel:
“Nor do I deny, that I, too, have spoken at meetings, saying that, if every workingman had a bomb in his pocket, capitalistic rule would soon come to an end…”
Albert R. Parsons:
“… I have violated no law of this country. Neither I nor my colleagues here have violated any legal right of American citizens. We stand upon the right of free speech, of free press, of public assemblage, unmolested and undisturbed. We stand upon the constitutional right of self-defense, and we defy the prosecution to rob the people of America of these dearly bought rights. Seven men are to be exterminated in violation of the law because they insist upon the inalienable rights granted them by the Constitution. Seven men are to be exterminated, because they demand the right of free speech and exercise it.”
What Do You Think?
1-The historical context section says that no one was killed when workers and police fought at the McCormick Works. Does that statement agree with the notice printed above? How could you find out which statement is accurate? ______
2-Do you think this notice would make the workers angrier than they already were? Angry enough to throw a dynamite bomb into a company of police? ______
3-What new evidence is brought out in the statements of the four men? What do they admit to? What do they deny? ______
4-Do you think the defendants got what they deserved? Or do you feel their speeches and comments were within the limits of free speech? ______
5-If you believe the men were guilty, do you also feel that they should have been put to death? Did the punishment fit the crime? ______
6-Suppose you feel very strongly about a certain issue. Which of the following actions do you feel you can do and stay within the boundaries of free speech and free press? (a) Make speeches presenting your point of view.
(b) Write pamphlets presenting your views.
(c) Call your opponents liars, cheats, and murderers in print.
(d) Encourage your followers to break up a meeting of your opponents. ______
7- How has American society changed since the Haymarket Riot and how has American society stayed the same? ______