
Whereas the Knights of Labor aimed at legislative reforms including the eight-hour day and child labor laws, the American Federation of Labor focused on protecting the autonomy and established privileges of individual craft unions while keeping peace at the same time. Their decline contributed to the rise of the American Federation of Labor. WHAT WAS THE RESULT?: The violence associated with the Knights of Labor tarnished the reputation of the union. WHO DID IT?: The individual who actually threw the bomb into the police squadron was never identified. The May 4th rally at the Haymarket Square was held to protest the events of May 3. Anarchists joined the cause, and at the McCormick Reaper Works, violence erupted between police and strikers on May 3rd, where two workers were shot. WHY IT OCCURRED?: The Knights of Labor labor union were campaigning for the 8-hour work day and Chicago workers went on strike May 1, 1886. Later in the evening, it was moved a half block away to Des Plaines Street, north of Randolph Street to attract more attention.

WebOn May 4,1886 a labor protest rally near Chicagos Haymarket Square. WHERE DID IT TAKE PLACE?: the Haymarket Square, a site on Randolph Street, between Halsted and Des Plaines Streets. After four workers who had been on strike at the International Harvester plant. On May 3, fighting broke out at the McCormick Reaper Works in Chicago, and at least two workers were killed by the police. WHEN DID IT HAPPEN?: The night of May 4, 1886 On May 1, 1886, this coalition initiated a general strike throughout the United States, the effects of which were particularly strong in Chicago. Fowler and Brooks would both battle with organized labor and suffer costly strikes that played a significant role in the eventual downfall of the International Harvester Company.WHAT HAPPENED?: A bomb exploded during a Union Labor Rally at the Haymarket Square, in Chicago. The event proved to be an omen for the McCormick family’s struggles with labor, as well. The incident lives on as an example of labor’s struggle with powerful industry leaders. One committed suicide shortly after the trial, while four others were hung on November 11, 1887, including Albert Parsons, who had been the editor of The Alarm when it spoke out against McCormick. The journalists and labor leaders who spoke at the meeting were sentenced to death for inciting riot.
#Mccormick reaper works strike 1886 trial#
The resultant trial is one of the most notorious miscarriages of law in American history. About sixty officers were wounded, seven policemen died, and at least four demonstrators were killed. Gunfire was exchanged between several hundred demonstrators and the assembled policeman. One of the demonstrators threw a homemade bomb amongst the policemen, killing one member of the force and injuring several others. The next night, the infamous Haymarket Square Riots broke out when 175 police marched on a peaceful demonstration at about 10:30 p.m., ordering the demonstrators to disperse. At least two demonstraters were killed, and the stage was set for the infamous Haymarket Square Riot, which took place the following night. The dissidents threw stones and the cops started firing into the crowd. A melee erupted, and the police came to break it up. As Spies spoke, the crowd began heckling the non-union replacements leaving the plant. On May 3, 1886, well-known Chicago-area dissident August Spies spoke at a gathering of the striking Lumber Shovers Union members.The gathering took place near McCorkmick Reaper Works, whose union workers had been locked out since February. But on May 3, 1886, police fired into a crowd of strikers at the McCormick Reaper Works Factory, killing four and wounding many. It was Cyrus McCormick Jr.’s refusal to close his factories to non-union labor that led to one of labor history’s darkest days. The conflict grew increasingly heated, and McCormick hired 300 armed Pinkertons -private detectives- to protect the non-union employees from angry union demonstrators. In February 1886, he locked the union out of McCormick Reaper Works and replaced them with non-union workers. Cyrus McCormick stated, "The right to hire any man, white or black, union or non-union, Protestant or Catholic, is something I will not surrender." McCormick had no intention of letting the union into his operation, and introduced new machinery that eliminated skilled workers. In the late 1880s, organized labor was beginning to attempt to assert itself, and big industry reacted with oppression and tough stands.

as "the very picture of human depravity and viciousness, only common to people who have exhausted their vitality and manhood by unbounded licentiousness," while the Arbeiter-Zeitung, another Chicago publication, just called him a "pimp."

The anarchist Chicago publication The Alarm described Cyrus McCormick Jr. Before McCormick Harvesting Machine Company was merged with International Harvester Company in 1902, the McCormick family name was already infamous among the men and women of the labor movement in 1880s Chicago.
