Curtis Durrenbergera The Homestead Strike, also known as the Homestead Steel Strike, Pinkerton Rebellion, or Homestead Massacre, was an industrial lockout and strike which began on June 30, 1892, culminating in a battle between strikers and private security agents on July 6, 1892. The battle was one of the most serious disputes in U.S. labor history, third behind the Ludlow Massacre and the Battle of Blair Mountain. The dispute occurred at the Homestead Steel Works in the Pittsburgh area town of Homestead, Pennsylvania, between the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers and the Carnegie Steel Company. The result was a major defeat for the union and a setback for their efforts to unionize steelworkers.
Carnegie Steel made major
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If no contract was reached, Carnegie Steel would cease to recognize the union. Carnegie formally approved Frick's tactics on May 4. Then Frick offered a slightly better wage scale and advised the Superintendent to tell the workers, "We do not care whether a man belongs to a union or not, nor do we wish to interfere. He may belong to as many unions or organizations as he chooses, but we think our employees at Homestead Steel Works would fare much better working under the system in vogue at Edgar Thomson and Duquesne."
Frick locked workers out of the plate mill and one of the open hearth furnaces on the evening of June 28. When no collective bargaining agreement was reached on June 29, Frick locked the union out of the rest of the plant. A high fence topped with barbed wire, begun in January, was completed and the plant sealed to the workers. Sniper towers with searchlights were constructed near each mill building, and high-pressure water cannons were placed at each entrance. Various aspects of the plant were protected, reinforced, or
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History of the Labor Movement in the United States. Vol. 2: From the Founding of the A.F. of L. to the Emergence of American Imperialism. New York: International Publishers, 1955. ISBN 0-7178-0092-X, a far-left perspective
Krass, Peter. Carnegie. . 612 pp., a standard scholarly biography,
Krause, Paul. The Battle for Homestead, 1890-1892: Politics, Culture, and Steel. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1992. ISBN 0-8229-5466-4
Krause, Paul. "Labor Republicanism and 'Za Clebom': Anglo-American and Slavic Solidarity in Homestead," in Struggle a Hard Battle": Essays on Working-Class Immigrants, edited by Dirk Hoerder, 143-69
Marcus, Irwin. Jeanne Bullard, and Rob Moore, "Change and Continuity: Steel Workers in Homestead, Pennsylvania, 1880-1895," Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, 111, 62-75
Montgomery, David. The Fall of the House of Labor: The Workplace, the State, and American Labor Activism, 1865-1925. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1987.
Oates, William C. "The Homestead Strike. I. A Congressional View," North American Review Vol. 155 Issue 430 pp. 355–376
Warren, Kenneth. Triumphant Capitalism: Henry Clay Frick and the Industrial Transformation of America
Wright, Carroll D. "The Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steelworkers," Quarterly Journal of Economics, 7,
This historical document, The Frontier as a Place of Conquest and Conflict, focuses on the 19th Century in which a large portion of society faced discrimination based on race, ethnicity, and religion. Its author, Patricia N. Limerick, describes the differences seen between the group of Anglo Americans and the minority groups of Native Americans, Asian Americans, Hispanics Americans and African Americans. It is noted that through this document, Limerick exposes us to the laws and restrictions imposed in addition to the men and women who endured and fought against the oppression in many different ways. Overall, the author, Limerick, exposes the readers to the effects that the growth and over flow of people from the Eastern on to the Western states
Eibling, Harold H., et al., eds. History of Our United States. 2nd edition. River Forest, Ill: Laidlaw Brothers, 1968.
In the late nineteenth century, many European immigrants traveled to the United States in search of a better life and good fortune. The unskilled industries of the Eastern United States eagerly employed these men who were willing to work long hours for low wages just to earn their food and board. Among the most heavily recruiting industries were the railroads and the steel mills of Western Pennsylvania. Particularly in the steel mills, the working conditions for these immigrants were very dangerous. Many men lost their lives to these giant steel-making machines. The immigrants suffered the most and also worked the most hours for the least amount of money. Living conditions were also poor, and often these immigrants would barely have enough money and time to do anything but work, eat, and sleep. There was also a continuous struggle between the workers and the owners of the mills, the capitalists. The capitalists were a very small, elite group of rich men who held most of the wealth in their industries. Strikes broke out often, some ending in violence and death. Many workers had no political freedom or even a voice in the company that employed them. However, through all of these hardships, the immigrants continued their struggle for a better life.
On the east coast people were also being taken advantage of by the government. As a result of the building of the Transcontinental Railroad, the government began giving out land grants ‒through the Homestead Act of 1862‒ for Americans to live on and farm; the only problem was that another culture was already living on the land: the Sioux Nation. After the S...
... and movements, pertaining to the rise of the working class, led to an excessive analysis of the evidence within the pages of Chants Democratic. At times Wilentz’s scrutiny of the trade unions and many other pretentious accounts of the Jacksonian era led the author’s prose to become silted to the reader. In lieu to the disarray of evidence, provided by Wilentz to give application to his arguments on the rise of the labor class; the primary thesis became lost. This leads Chants Democratic to be a great hindrance for the basic student, yet is an excellent source for someone engaged in researching the rise of a working class in American history.
The Pullman Strike of 1894 was the first national strike in American history and it came about during a period of unrest with labor unions and controversy regarding the role of government in business.5 The strike officially started when employees organized and went to their supervisors to ask for a lowered rent and were refused.5 The strike had many different causes. For example, workers wanted higher wages and fewer working hours, but the companies would not give it to them; and the workers wanted better, more affordable living quarters, but the companies would not offer that to them either. These different causes created an interesting and controversial end to the Pullman strike. Because of this, questions were raised about the strike that are still important today. Was striking a proper means of getting what the workers wanted? Were there better means of petitioning their grievances? Was government intervention constitutional? All these questions were raised by the Pullman Strike.
In chapter “The Other Civil War” of A People’s History of the United States, Howard Zinn described the underlying class tensions caused by industrialization during the nineteenth century. He claimed that these tensions would have led to radical labor reforms if the working class’s anger had not been directed towards other issues. Zinn used The Age of Enterprise by Thomas C. Cochran and William Miller to show the upper class’s indifference towards the problems of the lower class and to prove that the rich manipulated the poor to promote their own interests. He also used Class and Community by Alan Dawley to offer examples of working class resistance, government oppression, and the effects of the Civil War. While Zinn’s use of Class and Community accurately represents Dawley’s arguments, he misuses some of his evidence from The Age of Enterprise.
The Industrial Era enabled wealth, prosperity, and advancement in American society. But behind the wealth of a few, the new skyscrapers lining big cities, and the influx of new people, the Industrial Era possessed many dark underbellies, such as labor. Factory owners and industry giants treated their employees poorly, and subjected them to long hours, crowded workspace, and dangerous conditions. This is best exemplified in the New York City’s Triangle factory fire. Often times the middle class reformers, the Progressives, are remembered for their work to ameliorate the working class. These supporters worked hard to cause change, but often the efforts of the factory workers themselves are forgotten. Political and economic change occurred because the poor gave the wealthy and educated people a cause and purpose to fight for. Without the original efforts of the rebellious
Roark, James L. et al., eds. The American Promise: A Compact, Vol. I: To 1877. 3rd edition. Boston and New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2007.
Over the course of American history many radical movements have forever changed the historical landscape of the United States of America. Since the beginning of American history, radical movements have played an important role in bringing about change in U.S. society and the U.S. relationship with other countries. They have also experienced major failures and defeats. Major concrete achievements and failures of radical movements have been present in changing the mainstream of the society since the end of WWI. Radical movements such as, labor/socialism, women’s rights, civil rights and peace have played a significant role in the development of U.S. politics and society and forever changed the past, present and future of the United States of America. The Labor/Socialism movement, supported mainly by the lower classes was a prominent radical idea that manifested itself into American society around the conclusion of WWI. “The very fact that the Soviet Union, the revolutionary successor to Imperial Russia, was the first country to establish a Communist political and economic state was a major threat to the United States” (Brown 4). Influenced by the Bolshevik revolution in Russia, the Socialist movement gained momentum from oppressed workers and thus managed to successfully run hundreds of candidates around the nation for several decades. “The Socialist Movement was painstakingly organized by scores of former Populists, militant miners and blacklisted railroad workers, who were assisted by a remarkable cadre of professional agitators and educators” (Zinn 340). Socialism became extremely popular especially due to its endorsement by writers like Mark Twain, W.E.B. Dubois and Upton Sinclair as well its representation by Eugene Debs. With ...
In the years leading up to the industrial era, manual labor was required across the country in order to produce goods such as wheat, steel, or other raw materials. In order to create these, skilled workers were needed so they could produce the materials. While the materials that the skilled workers made were of a high quality, there was a drawback; in order to make such high quality materials, companies needed to pay these workers more than the average worker. In response to this, companies set out to find a way to make more product for cheaper. A prime example of how they did this is when they created the Bessemer process. This is a machine/process that converts iron into steel via injection of air into the raw iron. The process is credited with launching the steel industry and cheapening the cost of production because it was no longer necessary to employ high skilled workers (Document B). With this, the need for highly paid skilled workers was no longer necessary because steel companies could employ low skill workers and pr...
White, Richard. “Strike.” Railroaded: The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America. New York: W.W. Norton, 2011. N. pag. Print.
U.S. Senate, Testimony of Samuel Gompers, August 1883, Report of the Committee of the Senate upon the Relations between Labor and Capital (Washington, D.C., 1885), 1:365-70.] 6 November 2004. .
Foner, Eric, and John A. Garraty. "Homestead Act." The Reader's Companion to American History. Dec. 1 1991: n.p. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 06 Feb. 2014.
Breen, T.H., H.W. Brands, et al. America: Past and Present. Upper Saddle River NJ: Pearson, Print.