City Of Big Shoulders Ch. 6

Ch. 6

Destruction of Great Chicago Fire:

The great Chicago Fire of 1871 left Chicago’s downtown almost completely destroyed. Everything between Harrison Street and Chicago Avenue was in total ruin. Around 300 people died in the fire. More than 17,000 buildings were destroyed, including the Chicago Board of Trade, the White Stockings Stadium, the Tribune Tower and thousands of homes and businesses. All of this destruction covered around 2,500 acres and caused more than $250 million in financial losses. This caused insurance companies to become bankrupt and close to one third of the city’s 300,000 residents to become homeless. This destruction allowed for Chicago to make an incredible recovery and be rebuilt better than before.

Relief and Aid Society:

Much importance after the Chicago Fire was put on relief aid to victims. City leaders decided to control the level of relief aid that was distributed because they thought if there was too much relief assistance, and then it would cause laziness and dependency on the government. Businessmen and industrialists, rather than the government ran the Relief and Aid society. It provided help to victims, but would only continue providing aid if victims became employed. More than 800 Chicago families were denied relief in 1872. Many different ethnic backgrounds opposed the Relief and Aid Society because they believed they were prejudiced and lacked humanitarian concerns. More relief agencies bean to appear to help victims and Chicago could eventually be rebuilt despite all the differences and grievances between its citizens. The significance is that Chicago is able to get back on its feet pretty fast after this huge tragedy. Despite the fact some families don’t have homes building is beginning to start pretty rapidly

Knights of Labor:

It was labor union in Chicago consisting of around 18,400 citizens, about 2/3 of which were immigrants. Because there were so many immigrants in this union, people who were anti-immigrant now became anti-union. They started to blame immigrants for socialism, anarchism, communism and pretty much all the tensions that unions created. By 1880, the Knights of Labor had 700,000 members and was the largest labor union in America. The Knights of Labor, despite popular belief at the time, did not support anarchism in anyway. The 40,000 workers in Chicago to go on strike in 1886, which led to more strikes from other unions, one of which led to the Haymarket bombing. The Knights of Labor was one of the first major unions and they helped gain rights for workers today.

International Harvester Strike:

This was a strike that took place on May 3, 1886 where 6,000 workers on strike met outside Cyrus McCormick’s International Harvester Plant after McCormick refused to negotiate with them and hired replacement workers. The strikers attacked the replacement workers as they came out of the plant. This made McCormick’s private guards and Chicago police join the fight, killing 2 men and injuring multiple others. This event really shows how serious the struggle between workers and business owners was and it led to many other unions and groups of workers to resist with violence.

Rally at Haymarket Square:

It was a gathering on May 4, 1886 that started with 1,500 workers attending just to listen to speeches from labor leaders. Mayor Carter Harrison came to ensure that everything remained peaceful. It started raining and all but 300 workers left. 150 police then came and ordered everyone to leave. Someone then threw a bomb into the group of policemen, killing seven of them. This made the police open to fire on the crowd of workers, wounding at least 60 of them. This shows how something that started out peacefully could quickly become a dangerous situation because of all the tension between workers and police. Almost immediately after the tragedy every prominent labor leader in Chicago was arrested. Eight men, all anarchists, were framed up for murder and convicted without any proof. Four were hanged and one committed suicide before his scheduled execution; the others were pardoned in 1893.

John Altgeld:

He was the governor who finally pardoned the remaining workers who were accused of murdering the seven policemen at the Haymarket Riot. He pardoned them because they had an unfair trial and were sentenced without any real evidence against them. This sort of marked a point where union workers were finally getting a break from the government.

Impact of Haymarket:

After the battle at Haymarket, Chicagoans and Americans from all over the nation fell into