Where is haymarket square

This guide provides access to material related to the "Haymarket Affair" in the Chronicling America digital collection of historic newspapers. About Chronicling America Chronicling America is a searchable digital collection of historic newspaper pages from sponsored jointly by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress.

Included in the website is the Directory of US Newspapers in American Libraries , a searchable index to newspapers published in the United States since , which helps researchers identify what titles exist for a specific place and time, and how to access them.

Introduction Sketch of the seven men complicit in the Haymarket Affair. November 16, Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Timeline May 1, Industrial workers across the U. May 3, During a strike at McCormick Reaper Works in Chicago, demonstrators clash with police, and several of the strikers are wounded or killed.

The identity and affiliation of the person who threw the bomb has never been determined; this anonymous act had many victims. Due to the blast and panic that followed, seven policemen and at least four civilian bystanders lost their lives, but the victims of the incident were not limited to those who died as a direct result of the bombing.

In the aftermath, those who organized and spoke at the meeting—and others who held unpopular political viewpoints—were arrested, unfairly tried and, in some cases, sentenced to death even though none could be tied to the bombing itself. Over the years, the site of the Haymarket bombing has become a powerful symbol for a diverse cross-section of people, ideals and movements.

Its significance touches on the issues of free speech, the right of public assembly, organized labor, the fight for the eight-hour workday, law enforcement, justice, anarchy and the right of every human being to pursue an equitable and prosperous life.

For all, it is a poignant lesson in the rewards and consequences inherent in such human pursuits. An official website of the City of Chicago Here's how you know. Grinnell declared, "Law is on trial.

Anarchy is on trial Gentlemen of the jury, convict these men, make examples of them, hang them and you save our institutions, our society. The jury reached a verdict in three hours: death by hanging for seven of the men, including Parsons and Spies, 15 years in prison for the eighth, August Neebe. The wives of the defendants immediately initiated the appeal process.

Journalist and reformer Henry Demarest Lloyd led a national campaign to grant clemency. Even bankers like Lyman J. Gage favored clemency, believing that moderation would lead to improved relations between capital and labor. A number of other men confided to Gage that they were not willing to publicly disagree with Field, the wealthiest and most powerful businessman in Chicago.

Even Judge Gary wrote to the governor on behalf of the two men, Samuel Fielden and Michael Schwab, who had asked for mercy. Their sentences were commuted to life in prison. Governor Richard J. Oglesby said that he could only pardon the two because the law required each prisoner to ask for clemency.

One of the prisoners, Louis Lingg, had a dynamite cigar smuggled into his cell. He committed suicide in prison, blowing his face off in the process. On November 11, , the prisoners were brought out to the hangman's platform.

And then Spies spoke: "The day will come when our silence will be more powerful than the voices you are throttling today. Most speakers failed to appear. Instead of starting at , the meeting was delayed for about an hour.

Instead of the expected 20, people, fewer than 2, attended. Two substitute speakers ran over to Haymarket Square at the last minute. They had been attending a meeting of sewing workers organized by Lucy Parsons and her fellow labor organizer Lizzie Holmes of Geneva Illinois.

These last minute speakers were Albert Parsons, just returned from Ohio, and Samuel Fielden, an English-born Methodist lay preacher who worked in the labor movement.

The police panicked, and in the darkness many shot at their own men. Anti-labor governments around the world used the Chicago incident to crush local union movements. The Haymarket meeting was almost over and only about two hundred people remained when they were attacked by policemen carrying Winchester repeater rifles. Fielden was speaking; even Lucy and Albert Parsons had left because it was beginning to rain.

Then someone, unknown to this day, threw the first dynamite bomb ever used in peacetime history of the United States. Eventually, seven policemen died, only one directly accountable to the bomb. Four workers were also killed, but few textbooks bother to mention this fact.

In Chicago, labor leaders were rounded up, houses were entered without search warrants and union newspapers were closed down. The next day martial law was declared, not just in Chicago but throughout the nation.