So there I was, minding my own business and doing research for the big term paper on a
random Tuesday night. Considering my luck, I should not have been too surprised when disaster
struck the one time I decided to finish my work early and on time. But, I digress. In the kitchen,
my roommate was attempting to combine parts from the laundry machines and the refrigerator
in order to open a stable dimensional vortex. Why one would do that in the midst of an electrical
storm, I do not know but again, I digress. Then, thanks to a fun twist of luck, the opening vortex
was super-charged by a bolt of lightning that enveloped my roommate and I, sending us into
parts of reality as yet unknown...
When reality became actual again, we found ourselves and a cross-section of our apartment
nestled amidst a thick forest. Since it was immediately clear that we were no longer in Vegas, it
seemed prudent to find out exactly where we were. After doing our best to obscure our strange
base-camp, we set out to find signs of... anything familiar. We wandered in a generally southern
direction when we began to see signs of human habitation. After a few misunderstandings and
the very real smells of open sewage and livestock (among other choice aromas), we realized that
we were a few miles outside of Chicago! Moreover, we had somehow traveled to the year 1886
around May. Someone we questioned told us it was the first. As we made our way into Chicago
proper, I noticed immediately an air of something approaching celebration in the air; there
were people everywhere. Where most seemed to be going about their business, others were
stopping to stare at a massive procession of laborers marching through downtown. A tickling
feeling began to develop in my mind at this point. I knew I should have grabbed my roommate
and marched right back to the vortex apparatus, but I was overcome by curiosity. If I remembered my labor
movement history correctly, then in a few days, I was going to witness the Haymarket Square Riot; I had to
stay, at least for a little while.
Talk in the street was all about the calls by workers for an eight hour work day with no reduction in pay.
People declared that if City workers were entitled to the eight hour day, then all employers should follow suit.
The optimism was palpable. However, there were also angry mutters about about police brutality at a strike
taking place outside of the McCormick Harvesting Machine Co. Apparently, while August Spies (a prominent
anarchist) was giving a speech to those assembled, a group of police fired into the crowd, killing six strikers.
Immediately after, Spies was running a circular calling for revenge for the slayings. Throughout the evening
there had been many meetings to discuss the proper reaction, and a rally was coordinated for the next day. It
donned on me at last that if McCormick happened yesterday, then today would be the fourth. I looked around
and it seemed to be getting darker by the minute. The optimism I had felt earlier in the air was now shot
through with an increasing sense of tension. In a few hours, I would be in the thick of the riot.
My decision to stay and observe made, my roommate and I set out to grab some food and watch the rally
unfold. I watched as various representatives of unions and political organizations made their speeches before
the teeming mass of on-lookers. The most fiery speeches were issued by the anarchists, who wove calls for
workers' rights with calls to rise against the capitalist system. At round 9:00 pm, rousing speeches were given
by August Spies and Albert Parsons, two active anarchists in the Chicago labor movement that particularly
electrified the crowd. These two were followed by Samuel Fielden, another anarchist who is memorialized in
imagery as the crazy-haired man preaching from the back of a wagon while the police began to crack down on
the rally. Before Fielden was barely into his speech, police were calling for the gathering to disperse.
Everything seemed to be going orderly, the memory of the previous day's bloodshed fresh in crowd's collective mind, but small scuffles broke out while Fielden argued that the gathering was peaceful and just, and the police began firing into the crowd again. Confusion reigned and then, two nondescript men I had noticed skulking in an alleyway threw what I thought was a rock at the police, but it very quickly revealed itself as a bomb. For a moment, time and sense stopped as I watched police being thrown in different directions. Broken, bleeding bodies covered the square and people were escaping in every direction. I barely avoided a policeman's club when my roommate and I managed to escape the milling crowd and make our way into an empty alleyway to catch our breath. In order to avoid being picked up in the upcoming arrests, we fled the City limits and slept in a ditch.
The riot occurred on the 4th of May.Over the next few days, while we scrounged for money and supplies
(not always by ethical means I am ashamed to admit) I voraciously followed the news in bits of newspaper I
was able to come across from the Chicago Times and the New York Times. From these, I managed to learn that it did not take long for the prosecutor's office and the police to decide who the guilty parties were, and promptly arrested a handful of well-known anarchist agitators. About one month later, a grand jury had examined the available evidence and indicted eight men for the death of Officer Degan, one who was killed instantly by the blast. Furthermore, this murder was an overt conspiracy, planned during the strategy meetings of May 3rd following the McCormick incident. The eight charged were August Spies, Albert Parsons, Adolph Fischer, George Engel, Samuel Fielden, Michael Schwab, Oscar Neebe, and Louis Lingg. By August 20th, the trial was over and the results were grim; seven of the men would hang on December 3, 1886 and Neebe would serve 15 years of hard labor. Through October and November, the appeals process dragged, and the Haymarket Eight received a stay of execution on November 25th. However, the Illinois Supreme Court, who granted the stay, eventually upheld the verdict of the lower court on September 14, 1887; the men were sentenced to hang on November 11, 1887. The whole sad affair concluded when Lois Lingg killed himself by biting down on a blasting cap on November 6th, followed by Governor Oglesby's commutation to life sentences for Fielden and Schwab on the 10th. On the 11th, Parsons, Spies, Fischer, and Engel were publicly hung at noon, ending the Haymarket Affair.
While we worked on the apparatus and soaked up information, I found out to my surprise that I was still
getting a wi-fi signal. So, I have been keeping busy writing my experiences during this nearly two year
adventure. One of the first things I noticed about newspaper coverage of this era was how similar it was to
modern media coverage. That is, the more sensational, the better, and what could be more sensational than a
big bomb blast in the middle of a scary anarchist rally? Most reports could be divided into three rough
categories: police propaganda, trial news, and anti-anarchist fluff pieces. In the police propaganda category, the stories focused on the recovery of police involved in the riot, as well as those whose lives were taken by shrapnel, and these dominated the pages of the New York Times. Chicago Times articles were more concerned with exhortations to donate generously to the victim relief fund for families of wounded policemen. Articles touching on the trial were almost always biased, printing favorable developments the prosecution while demeaning the efforts of the defense. For instance, when the defense would introduce witnesses, the article made sure to focus on questions that attacked the character and political affiliation of the defendants and their witnesses. Even evidence that suggested police aggression first or different bombers were dismissed as "socialist tales." In this way, the public mind was fixed on the pretty red herring swimming by while a "bass-ackwards" case was argued and sustained. As a bonus, intense coverage reminds people of the evil other, in this case anarchists and the larger labor movement. By making the radicals look silly and barbarous, the taint can be spread to the larger group. Also like today's news outlets, there were several "fluff-pieces in both newspapers that highlighted wild stories of fights involving anarchists, doctors scamming the relief funds, and the occasional recognition that there were petitions from across the labor board, including small-time merchants, who advocated fair treatment of the Haymarket Eight. What was most interesting though, was that when there were stories of police aggression or media misrepresentation, the press would defend its neutral stance and unwillingness to report subjective material without so much as batting an eye. It reminded me of one phrase: "fair and balanced."
random Tuesday night. Considering my luck, I should not have been too surprised when disaster
struck the one time I decided to finish my work early and on time. But, I digress. In the kitchen,
my roommate was attempting to combine parts from the laundry machines and the refrigerator
in order to open a stable dimensional vortex. Why one would do that in the midst of an electrical
storm, I do not know but again, I digress. Then, thanks to a fun twist of luck, the opening vortex
was super-charged by a bolt of lightning that enveloped my roommate and I, sending us into
parts of reality as yet unknown...
When reality became actual again, we found ourselves and a cross-section of our apartment
nestled amidst a thick forest. Since it was immediately clear that we were no longer in Vegas, it
seemed prudent to find out exactly where we were. After doing our best to obscure our strange
base-camp, we set out to find signs of... anything familiar. We wandered in a generally southern
direction when we began to see signs of human habitation. After a few misunderstandings and
the very real smells of open sewage and livestock (among other choice aromas), we realized that
we were a few miles outside of Chicago! Moreover, we had somehow traveled to the year 1886
around May. Someone we questioned told us it was the first. As we made our way into Chicago
proper, I noticed immediately an air of something approaching celebration in the air; there
were people everywhere. Where most seemed to be going about their business, others were
stopping to stare at a massive procession of laborers marching through downtown. A tickling
feeling began to develop in my mind at this point. I knew I should have grabbed my roommate
and marched right back to the vortex apparatus, but I was overcome by curiosity. If I remembered my labor
movement history correctly, then in a few days, I was going to witness the Haymarket Square Riot; I had to
stay, at least for a little while.
Talk in the street was all about the calls by workers for an eight hour work day with no reduction in pay.
People declared that if City workers were entitled to the eight hour day, then all employers should follow suit.
The optimism was palpable. However, there were also angry mutters about about police brutality at a strike
taking place outside of the McCormick Harvesting Machine Co. Apparently, while August Spies (a prominent
anarchist) was giving a speech to those assembled, a group of police fired into the crowd, killing six strikers.
Immediately after, Spies was running a circular calling for revenge for the slayings. Throughout the evening
there had been many meetings to discuss the proper reaction, and a rally was coordinated for the next day. It
donned on me at last that if McCormick happened yesterday, then today would be the fourth. I looked around
and it seemed to be getting darker by the minute. The optimism I had felt earlier in the air was now shot
through with an increasing sense of tension. In a few hours, I would be in the thick of the riot.
My decision to stay and observe made, my roommate and I set out to grab some food and watch the rally
unfold. I watched as various representatives of unions and political organizations made their speeches before
the teeming mass of on-lookers. The most fiery speeches were issued by the anarchists, who wove calls for
workers' rights with calls to rise against the capitalist system. At round 9:00 pm, rousing speeches were given
by August Spies and Albert Parsons, two active anarchists in the Chicago labor movement that particularly
electrified the crowd. These two were followed by Samuel Fielden, another anarchist who is memorialized in
imagery as the crazy-haired man preaching from the back of a wagon while the police began to crack down on
the rally. Before Fielden was barely into his speech, police were calling for the gathering to disperse.
Everything seemed to be going orderly, the memory of the previous day's bloodshed fresh in crowd's collective mind, but small scuffles broke out while Fielden argued that the gathering was peaceful and just, and the police began firing into the crowd again. Confusion reigned and then, two nondescript men I had noticed skulking in an alleyway threw what I thought was a rock at the police, but it very quickly revealed itself as a bomb. For a moment, time and sense stopped as I watched police being thrown in different directions. Broken, bleeding bodies covered the square and people were escaping in every direction. I barely avoided a policeman's club when my roommate and I managed to escape the milling crowd and make our way into an empty alleyway to catch our breath. In order to avoid being picked up in the upcoming arrests, we fled the City limits and slept in a ditch.
The riot occurred on the 4th of May.Over the next few days, while we scrounged for money and supplies
(not always by ethical means I am ashamed to admit) I voraciously followed the news in bits of newspaper I
was able to come across from the Chicago Times and the New York Times. From these, I managed to learn that it did not take long for the prosecutor's office and the police to decide who the guilty parties were, and promptly arrested a handful of well-known anarchist agitators. About one month later, a grand jury had examined the available evidence and indicted eight men for the death of Officer Degan, one who was killed instantly by the blast. Furthermore, this murder was an overt conspiracy, planned during the strategy meetings of May 3rd following the McCormick incident. The eight charged were August Spies, Albert Parsons, Adolph Fischer, George Engel, Samuel Fielden, Michael Schwab, Oscar Neebe, and Louis Lingg. By August 20th, the trial was over and the results were grim; seven of the men would hang on December 3, 1886 and Neebe would serve 15 years of hard labor. Through October and November, the appeals process dragged, and the Haymarket Eight received a stay of execution on November 25th. However, the Illinois Supreme Court, who granted the stay, eventually upheld the verdict of the lower court on September 14, 1887; the men were sentenced to hang on November 11, 1887. The whole sad affair concluded when Lois Lingg killed himself by biting down on a blasting cap on November 6th, followed by Governor Oglesby's commutation to life sentences for Fielden and Schwab on the 10th. On the 11th, Parsons, Spies, Fischer, and Engel were publicly hung at noon, ending the Haymarket Affair.
While we worked on the apparatus and soaked up information, I found out to my surprise that I was still
getting a wi-fi signal. So, I have been keeping busy writing my experiences during this nearly two year
adventure. One of the first things I noticed about newspaper coverage of this era was how similar it was to
modern media coverage. That is, the more sensational, the better, and what could be more sensational than a
big bomb blast in the middle of a scary anarchist rally? Most reports could be divided into three rough
categories: police propaganda, trial news, and anti-anarchist fluff pieces. In the police propaganda category, the stories focused on the recovery of police involved in the riot, as well as those whose lives were taken by shrapnel, and these dominated the pages of the New York Times. Chicago Times articles were more concerned with exhortations to donate generously to the victim relief fund for families of wounded policemen. Articles touching on the trial were almost always biased, printing favorable developments the prosecution while demeaning the efforts of the defense. For instance, when the defense would introduce witnesses, the article made sure to focus on questions that attacked the character and political affiliation of the defendants and their witnesses. Even evidence that suggested police aggression first or different bombers were dismissed as "socialist tales." In this way, the public mind was fixed on the pretty red herring swimming by while a "bass-ackwards" case was argued and sustained. As a bonus, intense coverage reminds people of the evil other, in this case anarchists and the larger labor movement. By making the radicals look silly and barbarous, the taint can be spread to the larger group. Also like today's news outlets, there were several "fluff-pieces in both newspapers that highlighted wild stories of fights involving anarchists, doctors scamming the relief funds, and the occasional recognition that there were petitions from across the labor board, including small-time merchants, who advocated fair treatment of the Haymarket Eight. What was most interesting though, was that when there were stories of police aggression or media misrepresentation, the press would defend its neutral stance and unwillingness to report subjective material without so much as batting an eye. It reminded me of one phrase: "fair and balanced."
However, there are unanswered questions that I have while we wait to return to our proper time. What are
the modern views of the riot and the following trial? Why did newspapers demonize anarchists, effectively
sealing the Haymarket Eight's doom? Until the next time and the next post, when we wrap up our look at the
primary sources around the Haymarket Riot, and we delve into the more current material on the matter! More
to come, just you wait...
sealing the Haymarket Eight's doom? Until the next time and the next post, when we wrap up our look at the
primary sources around the Haymarket Riot, and we delve into the more current material on the matter! More
to come, just you wait...
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velly intelesting.
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