How Did The Homestead Act In The Late 1800s

The Homestead Strike During the late 1800’s, the United States went through an immense amount of growth that marked a waypoint in the country’s history, named The Industrial Revolution. This period marked a milestone in development and industry U.S., causing the nation to become the leading country in industrial production. In many ways the United States created its own “American dream”, with more individuals becoming wealthier because of this economic explosion; however, not everyone received the long end of things. Life for factory workers deemed particularly difficult, with workdays lasting up to 16 hours for 6 days a week. Also workers received minimal amount of pay -usually 8-10 dollars a week, with women and children receiving

Between late June and early July of 1892, 3,500 men began a strike against the nation’s largest steel producing company: Carnegie Steel. The dispute began over a rather serious situation: the lowering of wages from 25 dollars a ton to 22 dollars a ton, a 30 percent difference. This happened due to the lowering market prices of steel during the time. Where steel could be once sold for 25 dollars a ton, it fell to only being sold for 22 dollars, which meant that, due to a 3 year agreement that kept wages at a set rate, workers received 25 dollars for only 22 dollars’ worth of steel. Therefore it is understandable that Carnegie would lower the wages of the factory workers, since “the monthly payroll of the company amounts to $200,000, sometimes exceeding that amount”, while the company actually produced less than that in profits. However, the workers did not share this point of view with the company, thinking only about their pay cut. Though the workers have an understandable distaste towards the pay cut, the fact that they took so much aggression towards the company suggests that they didn’t understand the predicament the company faced, that their jobs resided on the need of the company making a profit, which it

On July 30, 1892, the strike of the workers of Homestead Mill began. The chairman of Carnegie, H.C. Fick, quickly went to work protecting the Mill, by wrapping the plant in electrified fence topped with barbed wire. Also, Fick set up searchlights and even invested in a patrol boat for the river located next to the factory. Then it began: 3,500 men with access of up to 500,000 dollars against the wealth and power of Carnegie Steel. By July 5th, tensions had risen within the ranks of the workers, and Fick could sense it. That morning Fick asked for 100 police deputies to come to the mill to help keep the mob under control; however, the policemen arrived at the mill to find 1,000 standing outside the gates. Needless to say, the mob did not let the deputies enter the mill. Without the help of the police, Fick had been left in a very sticky situation, so he turned to hired guns: the Pinkerton Men. These men referred to themselves as “private investigators”; however, the Pinkerton more or less acted like hired gunmen for the highest bidder, or in this case, Carnegie. Fick hired 300 of these Pinkerton agents to help solve the issue. At 2 o’clock in the morning on July 6th, the Pinkertons moved in on the mill. Upon hitting land the detectives faced 1000 strikers, all of them waiting for the hired guns to make a move. “Only one