Railroad Strike Dbq

Railroad Strike of 1877
1877
In the late nineteenth century, the railroad industry was booming. But it’s growth was followed by labor arguments, including the Great Railroad Strike of 1877. This strike was the first major rail strike, and it was disputed with enough violence to bring in various state militias. The Strike began when northern railroads cut salaries and wages because they still felt the impact of the Panic of 1873. The cuts were met with strikes and violence, but the railroads fought back with even more pay cuts, like the Pennsylvania Railroad lowering all wages by ten percent. A few months later, the same rail line decided it would double the length of all eastbound trains but kept the same amount of workers. The employees

For the railroad workers, the strike represented a chance to express their grievances toward their employers. By destroying equipment, disrupting rail services, and rioting, they fought for their wages, hours, and working conditions.The employers viewed that the differences between them and their workers increased after the Panic of 1873, and pay cuts in 1877 pushed many of the workers to form a strike. The government viewed the strike as a violent disruption to the railroads, their biggest industry at the time. They showed this when they helped employers by sending in federal troops to stop the protests, and ended the chance for workers to gain concessions from their employers. The Railroad strike showed how the disputes between workers and employers could no longer be localized in the new economy, and the deep resentment that workers had toward their employers. The failure of this strike greatly weakened the railroad unions and reputation of labor

The changes that were seen after the act was put into law included the end of the communal holding of property by the Native Americans. They would fractionated into individual plots of property, which caused more than half of their lands to be sold off. Women were not given any land under this act, and had to be married to receive the full 160 acres offered. While the Act was supposed to help the Indians, many resisted the changes that came with individual property ownership. They thought that becoming ranchers and farmers was distasteful. Children were also forced away from their families and into boarding schools to try and assimilate them. While many things changed due to this Act, some things continued to stay the same. Despite the massive amounts of land that was taken from them, the goal of assimilation did not take the effect that the government hoped. Efforts to end Indian religious rituals and to spread the idea of Christianity did not affect Native Americans like it was thought it. Instead, the overall discontent that the Indians had toward forced assimilation caused its