Haymarket affair - May 4, 1886

On this day in 1886, a bomb set off at a peaceful labor protest in Chicago triggered a riot.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This Day in History Class. It's a production of I
Heart Radio. Hello everyone, I'm Eves and welcome to This
Day and History Class, a podcast that brings you a
new negative history. Every day Today is made fourth. The

(00:22):
day was made fourth eighty six, a peaceful labor demonstration
in Chicago turned into a riot after a bomb was
set off. In the US in the late eighteen hundreds,
industrial capitalism was on the rise and working conditions were poor.
Tens of thousands of workers died in workplace accidents every

(00:42):
year between eight and nineteen hundred, and work days were
often twelve to fourteen hours long, six days a week.
Unions formed to protect workers rights and interests were also
on the rise as more people took jobs in factories, minds,
and mills. Factions of socialist, communists and anarchists were linked

(01:05):
to the labor movement. The National Labor Union, founded in
eighteen sixty six, pressed for labor reforms like the eight
hour work day. It dissolved in eighteen seventy three. The
Nights of Labor began as a secret organization in eighteen
sixty nine, but once it abandoned its secrecy a decade later,
membership grew quickly. By the eighteen eighties, strikes organized by

(01:29):
labor unions were commonplace. In eighteen eighty four, the Federation
of Organized Trades and Labor Unions, the predecessor of the
American Federation of Labor, passed a resolution saying that a
legal work day would be eight hours beginning May first,
eighteen eighty six. Since the legislative action had failed to
help them achieve this goal, the resolution called for a

(01:51):
general strike. Chicago emerged as a national center for the
eight hour movement. As the city's mayor, Carter Harrison was
sympathy to labor issues. During his time in office, he
saw a lot of labor unrest, and he often restrained
police from intervening in strikes. Despite the fact that many
labor leaders opposed strikes, Thousands of workers participated in strikes

(02:15):
and rallies across the US on May one, six in Chicago,
the general strikes started off as peaceful, but on May third,
a strike at the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company plant turned
violent when strikers clashed with strike breakers. The Chicago police
fired on the crowd, killing our wounding several of the demonstrators.

(02:37):
In response to this, incident, labor activists called for a
rally the next day at a Haymarket square. Mayor Harrison
attended the rally on May fourth, where labor activist August
Fees and anarchists Albert Parsons were some of the people
to give speeches. Somewhere between several hundred and a few
thousand people were in the crowd. Harrison declared that the

(02:59):
rally was not at throw, but police officers remained nearby.
By the time the Methodist preacher and labor activists Samuel
field In began to speak, the weather was getting worse
and much of the crowd had already left, But near
the end of the rally a group of officers showed
up to disperse the crowd. An unknown person through a
dynamite bomb near the police, and the police began to

(03:21):
fire into the crowd. In the chaos that ensued, seven
officers and around four workers were killed. It's been estimated
that at least one people were injured in the Haymarket riot.
The incident triggered anti labor and anti immigrant sentiments. That August,
eight men were sentenced to death or time in prison

(03:41):
for the bombing, even though no solid evidence linked them
to the incident. The press depicted the men as violent anarchists.
Some people condemned them as radical, while others viewed them
as martyrs. Three of the men were later pardoned. People
also began to blame the Knights of Labor for the
Haymarket affair, associating the organization with violence and anarchism. Membership

(04:05):
in the Nights declined as workers began flogging to the
American Federation of Labor. The labor movement continued to advocate
for the eight hour work day. Different industries reduced working
hours until the New Deal's Fair Labor Standards Act provided
for a forty hour work week. In I'm Eve Jeff

(04:26):
Cote and hopefully you know a little more about history
today than you did yesterday. And if you have any
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(04:48):
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