The 1870s ushered in an era of intense and violent labor conflict that would continue for decades, and I wonder whether we’re on the cusp of similar social strife, albeit not as overtly violent. A massive depression in the mid-1870s caused severe unemployment and wage cuts, and union membership plummeted. A six-month coal strike in eastern Pennsylvania in 1875 involved open battles between strikers and company-paid police. The coal company hired an agent of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency to infiltrate the miners (two decades later, a Pinkerton even infiltrated the legal defense team representing union leader Big Bill Haywood). The strike ended when the miners agreed to a 20-percent wage reduction. Although it may have been fabricated, the Pinkerton agent’s testimony led to the death penalty for 10 miners accused of killing several mine bosses.
But this was just the beginning. After a series of wage cuts, railroad workers reached their limit with a 10-percent wage cut in July 1877, and went on strike. The strike quickly spread until railroad activity in large sections of the country was affected. Large crowds stopped trains, spiked switches, and took over depots and roundhouses. Two hundred federal troops were first sent to Martinsburg, West Virginia, and violence flared elsewhere. Nine people were killed in rioting in Baltimore; the state militia fired into a crowd in Pittsburgh, killing 20 and prompting a night of conflict, fire, and destruction that resulted in $5 million of railroad property damage.
These events became known as the Great Uprising of 1877 because this was much more than a railroad strike. More workers were involved than in any other labor conflict of the 1800s. Many of these were not railroad workers—coal miners, ironworkers, and others significantly aided the railroad workers in many locations. Black longshoring workers in Texas and sewer workers in Kentucky struck for higher pay. There were general strikes in Chicago and St. Louis. State militia and federal troops were used to forcefully end demonstrations and restore order in many locations. Yet despite its widespread intensity, the uprising ended nearly as quickly as it began, and railroad traffic resumed normal operations at the end of the month.
The Great Uprising of 1877 is probably more notable for what it represents than what it accomplished. The numerous strikes clearly reflected pent-up grievances of workers in many industries and locations struggling with the forces of industrialization and the conflict between labor and capital. The uprising also demonstrates the shared concerns of workers and is frequently used to define the beginning of the modern era in U.S. labor relations—one in which capital and labor are often sharply at odds. As such, the Great Uprising of 1877 laid the foundation for future labor–management conflict, not cooperation.
More broadly, in his book Age of Betrayal (Knopf, 2007), Jack Beatty characterized the Great Uprising of 1877 as a “social earthquake.” Some of the violent attacks on railroad property may have resulted not from work-related grievances but from frustration with the invasion of railroads into local communities, often against the wishes of local residents and small retail shop owners.
Fast forward to today and we can see parallels. Then and now, new technologies and new forms of employment relationships caused significant disruptions to work and communities. Then it was the railroads and industrialization, now it's computing-based technologies and gig work. Then and now, the rhetoric of protecting the individual liberty to hire or work on terms of one’s own choosing is used to weaken workers and unions. Then it was armed repression of unions, now it’s rulings like Janus. Then and now, individuals turn to collective action and protest when they feel otherwise powerless against threats to their work and their community. In recent months, we’ve seen vibrant teacher strikes, often in states that are not labor friendly, and walkouts at McDonald’s and Google over sexual harassment. We should be trying to create workplaces and communities that are inclusive and enjoy broadly-shared prosperity. Instead, we have increasing insecurity, widening disparities, and polarization. History shows us that trouble follows.
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