The Gilded Age | Workers Revolt! | 5

American History Tellers

Wondery

Society & Culture, Kids & Family, History, Education For Kids

4.7 • 18.3K Ratings

🗓️ 19 August 2020

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

As the century came to a close, labor unrest reached explosive new heights. Industrial expansion made businessmen and bankers rich. But workers faced low wages, long hours, and dangerous conditions. They sought strength in numbers, fighting for basic rights against the power of big business—and often faced violent pushback.

In May 1886, a bomb exploded at a peaceful labor protest in Chicago’s Haymarket Square. Police fired their guns into the crowds. Panic engulfed the city. And the nation’s most powerful labor union suffered a devastating blow.

In Homestead, Pennsylvania, steelworkers waged a bloody battle against private security forces. And in Pullman, Illinois, railroad workers laid down their tools, sparking a nationwide railroad shutdown—one that President Grover Cleveland would crush with brutal force.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, Prime Members, you can listen to American History Tellers add free on Amazon Music,
0:05.6	download the app today.
0:09.6	Imagine as May 1886 in Chicago, your carpenter in a furniture shop, honing this craft have
0:24.4	been your pride and joy ever since you left Germany a decade ago.
0:28.3	On days like this, the work brings you comfort.
0:30.8	Just 24 hours ago, a bomb exploded at a labor rally in Heymarket Square, killing a policeman
0:36.1	setting off a riot in the street.
0:38.3	Now the whole city is in a panic.
0:41.3	You turn to one of your apprentices who is standing down a table.
0:44.7	Uh, you better go home now, people are crazed, it wouldn't be wise to be out late.
0:49.6	But he's looking past you, his eyes widening.
0:53.9	You turn as a pair of police officers push their way into the shop.
0:57.4	The bigger of the two approaches you.
0:59.0	Well, hello officers, we're just closing out for the day, what can I do for you?
1:02.7	Where were you last night?
1:04.3	Last night I was at home with my wife playing cards.
1:07.8	His disbelief is playing to see.
1:09.9	Uh huh.
1:11.1	We're rounding up suspects for the bombing.
1:13.1	I see.
1:14.1	Wait, you think I had something to do with the explosion?
1:17.0	I was nowhere near Heymarket.
	...

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