Haymarket Affair

The Industrial Revolution, which started in Britain in the late 1700's, quickly spread across the Atlantic and reached the United States by the 1840's. Urbanization meant that cities were growing and the population was increasing. Jobs were created in factories and corporations and people were transitioning into a more industrial, urban way of living as compared to the rural and agricultural society they had once relied on. Although the creation of new jobs was helpful in employing the plethora of people who needed them, the treatment of workers and the atmosphere of industrial jobs lacked safety and comfort, to say the least. These conditions eventually were the impetus for protest, violence and reform.

Chicago, before the effects of the Industrial Revolution took hold of it, was a small, north western, moderately remote city which quickly grew into one of America's most substantially booming cities, and it remains that way to this day. This expanding industrialism was primarily brought about after the construction of the Eerie and Michigan Canals and by the Transcontinental Railroad. Immense population growth in Chicago was the result of a large influx of immigrants which were mainly coming from Germany and Ireland. Most of the "blue-collar" jobs in Chicago were held by these immigrants, who were unskilled and willing to work extremely hard for little pay and in very poor working conditions.

This was also an era when the poor were pounded even farther down the social ladder than they already were. People who struggled financially were seen as lazy because people believed that anybody could make it in the United States if they worked hard enough, they even saw Andrew Carnegie make billions out of nothing. This resulted in the formation of labor unions to organize against unfair working hours, scarce wages, and dangerous and abundantly uncomfortable atmospheres at work. However, when the Panic of 1873 occurred it brought widespread poverty to many people in the once bustling United States and many people lost their jobs. It also was a major blow to labor unions. The demand for jobs was so high that people were desperate for any way to make some money. If someone who had a job complained about it, or stepped out of line even the slightest, they would most likely be fired and almost immediately replaced. The labor unions' fight for a change in the treatment of employees was thwarted and there was little hope for reform.

Instability,