The Great Railroad Strike Dbq Answers
The Great Railroad Strike of 1877
The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 began in the month of July and started off in a town called Martinburg which was located in the state of West Virginia. What lead up The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 was a depression that started in September of 1873. The depression had a hold on the country that included wage cuts, evictions, breadlines, and layoffs. Many Americans suffered for the rest of the year as well as throughout the year of 1874. Even though 1874 was a hard year for Americans it was also the year that the union began to try and demand higher wages for the working class, as well as organize workers and the union even tried to make shorter work days. The result came to little or no success, because at that time the second largest employer in America was the railroad system, the first …show more content…
The local police in Pittsburgh refused to fight and fire on the strikers so President Hayes then called the militia to come to the rescue. The strikers were so furious with the wage cut that they trapped the militia inside of a railroad roundhouse and then caused more damage to the town by setting fires to buildings, destroying locomotives, freight trains and train cars. Since Pennsylvania was one of the major industrial cities at the time it took a major toll when Reading Railroads was damaged by the strike's fury. The workers for the Reading Railroad had already been strike since April of 1877. Approximately, sixteen citizens had been killed by the militia in what was called the Reading Railroad Massacre. The strike brought work stoppage for all classes of the railroad traffic, mass marches, train yard arson and the strikers even burned down the bridge that was the only link for railroad traffic to the west. After, about 30 days of non-stop fighting President Hayes sent the federal troops so they could bring an end to the
The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 began in the month of July and started off in a town called Martinburg which was located in the state of West Virginia. What lead up The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 was a depression that started in September of 1873. The depression had a hold on the country that included wage cuts, evictions, breadlines, and layoffs. Many Americans suffered for the rest of the year as well as throughout the year of 1874. Even though 1874 was a hard year for Americans it was also the year that the union began to try and demand higher wages for the working class, as well as organize workers and the union even tried to make shorter work days. The result came to little or no success, because at that time the second largest employer in America was the railroad system, the first …show more content…
The local police in Pittsburgh refused to fight and fire on the strikers so President Hayes then called the militia to come to the rescue. The strikers were so furious with the wage cut that they trapped the militia inside of a railroad roundhouse and then caused more damage to the town by setting fires to buildings, destroying locomotives, freight trains and train cars. Since Pennsylvania was one of the major industrial cities at the time it took a major toll when Reading Railroads was damaged by the strike's fury. The workers for the Reading Railroad had already been strike since April of 1877. Approximately, sixteen citizens had been killed by the militia in what was called the Reading Railroad Massacre. The strike brought work stoppage for all classes of the railroad traffic, mass marches, train yard arson and the strikers even burned down the bridge that was the only link for railroad traffic to the west. After, about 30 days of non-stop fighting President Hayes sent the federal troops so they could bring an end to the