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. It was the first strike that spread across multiple states in the U.S. The strike 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 New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Illinois and Missouri, also went on strike. An estimated 126 to 160 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. Disruption was widespread, and at its height the strikes were supported by about 100,000 workers. 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.
Background
Panic of 1873 and the Long Depression
The Long Depression, which began in the United States with the financial Panic of 1873 and lasted 65 months, was 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, which temporarily closed 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, which defaulted 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 rail lines dropped from 7,500 miles of track in 1872 to just 1,600 miles in 1875, and production of iron and steel dropped as much as 45%.
Agricultural communities were also hit hard by the depression, as falling crop prices and rising debt pushed many farmers into financial ruin. The economic downturn led to an increase in foreclosures and farm bankruptcies, particularly in the Midwest and South, where reliance on credit was high. This financial strain fueled political movements such as the rise of the Greenback Party which advocated for the issuance of paper money not backed by gold to stimulate economic growth and ease debt burdens. The Long Depression also contributed to growing labor unrest, as striking workers demanded better wages and working conditions in the face of widespread economic hardship.
Reason for strike
When the Civil War ended, a boom in railroad construction ensued; roughly 35,000 miles (55,000 kilometers) of track was laid from coast to coast between 1866 and 1873. The railroads, 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. Many banking firms invested a disproportionate share of depositors' funds in the railroads.
In addition to Cooke's direct infusion of capital into the railroads, the firm had become a federal agent for the government's direct financing of railroad construction. As building 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 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 workers to conduct 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 and the recent Paris Commune of 1871.
Many of the 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 and Ohio Railroad (B&O) president John W. Garrett cut wages by ten percent 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 who refused to take part in the strike, and since the police proved ineffective in stopping such violence, West Virginia Governor Henry M. Mathews sent in militia forces to move the trains. One militiaman was shot by a striker while trying to operate a switch; the militiaman returned 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. Mathews then requested federal troops, which newly elected President Rutherford B. Hayes reluctantly agreed to send. The B&O billed the federal government for transporting the troops into Martinsburg.
Maryland
Meanwhile, the strike spread into western Maryland to the major railroad hub of Cumberland and county seat of Allegany County where railway workers stopped freight and passenger traffic.
In Baltimore, the Fifth ("Dandy Fifth") and Sixth Regiments of the former state militia, reorganized after the Civil War as the Maryland National Guard, were called up by Maryland Governor John Lee Carroll, at the request of 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. It was generally unopposed as it headed 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 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 and besieged by armed rioters. Hayes sent 2,000 federal troops and 600 U.S. Marines to Baltimore to restore order.
New York
There were strike actions 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. 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 the 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 industries other than railroads still attacked them because the rails 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." Two people were killed in New York.
Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh became the site of the worst violence of the 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. Instead of calming the strikers, these actions made them even angrier which led them to fight back and force the National Guard to retreat into a railroad roundhouse. The strikers then set fires that burned down 39 buildings and destroyed equipment, 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, Hayes sent in federal troops to end the strikes.
Philadelphia
Philadelphia strikers battled local National Guard units. They set fire to much of downtown and caused widespread destruction. As violence escalated, Hartranft gained assistance and federal troops from Hayes to put down the uprising. The troops quickly suppressed the strike, as they did in other cities, leaving over 100 dead nationwide, one of which was in Philadelphia. Though the strike failed, it highlighted rising tensions between workers and business owners, paving the way for the growth of labor unions and future labor rights movements.
Reading
Workers in Reading—the state's third-largest industrial city at the time—also went on strike. The city was home of the engine works and shops of the Philadelphia and Reading Railway, against which engineers 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 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
On July 25, a group of 1,000 men and boys, many of them coal miners, marched to the Reading Railroad Depot in Shamokin. They looted the depot when the town announced it would pay them only $1/day for emergency public employment. The mayor, who owned the coal mines, organized an unofficial militia. It committed 14 civilian shooting casualties, resulting in the deaths of two persons.
Scranton
On August 1, 1877, in Scranton, 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 and strikers. The posse killed or fatally wounded four and wounded an undetermined number of others, estimated at 20 to 50, according to different sources.