Hey there, backstory listeners. This is from the show's archives.

Major funding for backstory is provided by an anonymous donor,

the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation.

From Virginia Humanities, this is backstory.

Welcome to backstory, the show that explains the history behind today's headlines.

I'm Brian Ballot. And I'm Nathan Connolly.

If you're new to the podcast, we're all historians, and each week, along with our colleagues Joanne Freeman and Ed Ayers,

we explore the history of one topic that's been in the news.

We're going to start today's show just outside of Chicago, in the town of Pullman.

Founded in 1880 by George Pullman, owner of the Pullman Car Company,

the town was developed exclusively for labors.

It was an experiment in social reform, providing workers a community free from poverty and crime.

But according to historian Nicholas Salvatore, Pullman's motivations were, in reality, much less altruistic.

That model town was actually a way of controlling the workforce,

because if the worker, let's say our family is there with the husband, wife, and two kids,

and if the husband was the one who was working on the line,

if he raised any issues about conditions, wages, dissent of concerning the way the company was run, etc., etc., they get thrown out.

And it happened all the time.

In 1893, the railroad industry was hit hard by a financial panic.

In response, Pullman fired workers and cut wages, but refused to lower rent.

As conditions in town rapidly deteriorated, labors organized a strike, led by rising politician and labor activist Eugene Debs.

Debs was the titular leader of the strike.

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