Vanessa
Reyes
04.26.13
Martyrs
of the Haymarket Affair
A
lot of our working class history is under discussed or not discussed
enough. Some
because
it’s believed its unimportant, other reasons thought to be it
didn’t affect anything in the
United
States. The Haymarket affair is an example of a part of history that
is somewhat hazy, but
the
results being felt worldwide. Men and women fighting for the
eight-hour day that U.S.
workers
have today and the injustice that was serviced to them when they were
just fighting for
their
basic rights.
The
beginning for the fight that so many Americans were fighting for
started on May 1st,
1886,
it was the start of the movement to shorten the work day into eight
hours. The Haymarket
affair
started way before that fateful day, evidence shows that on April
30th,
it was announced
they
were to fight for what was truly theirs, “the decisive day has
arrived. The laboring man,
born
up and inspired by the justice of his cause, knocks at the doors of
his oppressors and
demands
an alleviation of his lot, a lessening of his burden, a slight
restriction of the robbery of
done
to them was unjust.
“As
long as you slavishly acknowledge the gracious kicks of your
oppressors with words
of
gratitude and humility, as long as you created treasures without
murmur and laid them most
was
said or that they keep making the oppressors believe that they were
all grateful for what was
given
to them, nothing will change.
To
say in the least that these people were fighting for something that
was already to be in
effect
since 1867, yet it was being withheld from them and the difficulties
and long work days
were
still in effect for the people of Illinois because “the feudal
government failed to enforce its
own
law, and in Illinois, employers forced workers to sign waivers of the
law as condition of
working
conditions horrible and wasn’t keeping hold of its laws.
The
workers as to not getting what they rightfully had as a law decided
that enough was
enough
and on Saturday May 1st,
1886, “Chicago with its strong labor movement had the
nation’s
largest demonstrations, when reportedly 80,000 workers marched up
Michigan Ave, arm
freedoms
and liberties were being fought for. Yet not only was the Haymarket
affair about
getting
an eight hour day, it was held for many other reasons that the
working class was being
denied,
“the real issues were freedom of speech, press, assembly, and right
to a fair trial by a jury
of
peers and the right of workers to organize and fight for things like
the eight hour day.”5
The
next day as the strike and speeches were to be given by its leaders
or the ones
thought
to be the leaders, Lucy and Albert Parson and Augustus Spies, the
demonstration from
the
back of a wagon was held not in the Haymarket itself, but an alley
nearby it. Albert and
interrupted
by the rain that started to fall, forcing everyone that had attended
the demonstration
to
leave, including the parsons and their children, heading to Zepf’s
a well -known meeting place
for
them all.
of
people that followed them into Zepf’s. The well-known incident of
the Haymarket affair
occurred.
“More than 170 police officers marched into the area and ordered
for those assembled
is
not known by whom, at the officers. Chaos ensured as the police being
attacked opened fire,
injuring
and killing not only those present in the area, but their own fellow
police officers.
Matthias
J. Degnan was killed instantly when the bomb was thrown. Many were
wounded, as
their
no actual number as to how many civilians died but six other police
officers were wounded,
mostly
by the flying bullets from the guns fired by their fellow officers
than the actual bomb
itself.
As
this incident occurred, mayhem happened many people or even people
thought to be
associated
with what happened at the Haymarket were arrested. “Illegal
searches were conducted,
went
on, on that night and the public too scared to really find out what
actually happened agreed
with
whatever the government thought and their response to such chaos.
Eight men were
eventually
caught and brought to trial as those involved in the Haymarket
affair. Albert Parson
being
one of the eight flees the city, later to rejoin the other seven at
the trial itself.
Flyers
gave examples and reasons for fighting, to think of themselves and
their children
and
how their own children are and will be treated in the same way they
were, they would have
to
work long hours just to be able to sustain themselves for a living.
“You have for years endured
the
most abject humiliations; you have endured the pangs of what and
hunger; your children you
have
sacrificed to the factory-lords. You have been miserable and obedient
slave all these years:
enraged
the workingmen, as to the truth and realism of what was being done to
them as well as
their
own children. The sacrifice of their lives and bodies and when their
wants became bigger
than
those of their bosses, they were killed and shut up for them. The
violence showing them
who
really was in charge.
A
lot of working men became angry at all the outrage that was
occurring, they wanted
revenge
and more flyers went up to encourage those who were afraid or needed
courage to keep
the
fighting going on. “Your masters sent out their bloodhounds – the
police-; they killed the
poor
wretches, because they, like you had the courage to disobey the
supreme will of their bosses.
wanting
order back and wanting the workers to see that they had no power.
On
August 20, 1886, the eight men, Albert Parson, Augustus Spies, Oscar
Neebe, Louis
Lingg,
George Engel, Adolph Fischer, Michael Schwab, and Samuel Fielden,
were found guilty.
Despite
that some of the men weren’t even in the vicinity of the happening
and that the
government
really didn’t have any evidence on who threw the bomb. The only
thing that seemed
to
prove to people was the fact that they were advocating violence and
needed to be punished
for
it. Seven of the eight men were sentenced to the death penalty and
Neebe was sentenced to
fifteen
years imprisonment. The day before their execution Lingg committed
suicide by
was
waiting to hear if he would be pardon for the injustice that he was
given.
Samuel
Gompers tried to have the trial appealed, it didn’t work but this
appeal being so
publicly
shown forced governor Oglesby to relent the sentence to life
imprisonment to Samuel
Fielden
and Michael Schwab. The others weren’t so lucky as their fate day
appeared and on
November
11, 1887 Adolph Fischer, George Engel, Albert Parson and Augustus
Spies were
execution.
And for the burial at Waldheim cemetery that was waiting for those
hanged were
followed
with more than 200,000 to 500,000 people. Only for years later, “in
June of 1893,
Governor
John p. Altgeld pardoned the remaining three men of the Haymarket
eight and
doing
the right thing was him also becoming a victim for it, as it cost him
his political career.
May
1st became
an important day in history known as Labor day, due to all that
happened.
“it
was internationally put aside in the memory of the Haymarket martyrs,
and the injustice of the
important
day until this day was eventually achieved, and the basic rights were
violence and
without
rightful justice It is a part of how hard people worked to get to
where we are today.
1
Zeitung, Arbeiter. “Illinois vs. Augustus Spies at trail, evidence
book, People’s Exhibit 71.” July 31, 1886. Pg. 1
www.chicagohistory.org/hadc/transcript/exhibits/X051-100/X0710.htm
2
Zeitung, Arbeiter. “Illinois vs. Augustus Spies at trail, evidence
book, People’s Exhibit 71.” July 31, 1886. Pg. 1
www.chicagohistory.org/hadc/transcript/exhibits/X051-100/X0710.htm
3
Adelman J. William. “The Story of The Haymarket Affair” Pg.1 by
Illinois Labor History Society
4
Adelman J. William. “The Story of The Haymarket Affair” Pg.1by
Illinois Labor History Society
5
Adelman J. William. “The Story of The Haymarket Affair” Pg.3 by
Illinois Labor History Society
6
“Homicide in Chicago 1870-1930: The Haymarket Affair (1886)”
Pg. 1
http://homicide.northwestern.edu/historical/movements/haymarket/
7
“Homicide in Chicago 1870-1930: The Haymarket Affair (1886)” Pg.
1 http://homicide.northwestern.edu/historical/movements/haymarket/
8
“Homicide in Chicago 1870-1930: The Haymarket Affair (1886)” Pg.
1 http://homicide.northwestern.edu/historical/movements/haymarket/
9
“Homicide in Chicago 1870-1930: The Haymarket Affair (1886)” Pg.
1 http://homicide.northwestern.edu/historical/movements/haymarket/
10
“Your Brothers” Image.
11
Flyer “Your Brothers” Image.
12
“Homicide in Chicago 1870-1930: The Haymarket Affair (1886)” Pg.
2 http://homicide.northwestern.edu/historical/movements/haymarket/
13
“Homicide in Chicago 1870-1930: The Haymarket Affair (1886)” Pg.
2 http://homicide.northwestern.edu/historical/movements/haymarket/
14
“Homicide in Chicago 1870-1930: The Haymarket Affair (1886)” Pg.
2 http://homicide.northwestern.edu/historical/movements/haymarket/
15
Adelman J. William. “The Story of The Haymarket Affair” Pg. 3
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