Labor Conflict in the Gilded Age

The rapid growth of American industry after the Civil War brought fierce clashes between workers and employers. In 1877 a railroad strike against wage cuts spread across the country and was put down by state militias and federal troops, with around 100 people killed. In May 1886, during a national campaign for an eight-hour day, a bomb exploded at a labor rally in Chicago's Haymarket Square, killing police officers and civilians; eight anarchists were convicted on weak evidence, and four were executed.

In 1892 a lockout at Carnegie's Homestead steel works led to a deadly battle between strikers and Pinkerton guards. In 1894 the Pullman strike, led by Eugene Debs's American Railway Union, was broken by federal troops. Employers and many newspapers portrayed strikers as dangerous radicals, while workers saw themselves defending fair wages and dignity. These conflicts shaped American labor law and politics for decades.