A variety of goods were produced, though the greatest industry in Chicago was its slaughter and packing industry (p. 28). Chicago was not without job availability–but the blue-collar jobs themselves paid poorly and lasted too many hours. The working class began to see their work as a form of economic slavery (18-19). After witnessing the liberation of African American enslaved people in the South, the working class of Chicago believed it was their right to demand better working conditions and earnings–so that they could have a better quality of life (p.24). The exploitation by Chicagoan businessmen stood against freedom and other republican values. In the years to come, working-class Chicagoans believed that if the city, state, and national governments would not support them in their plight, they would take matters into their own hands, backed by precedent (p. 33). Not only did the American Civil War shape the desires of the working class, so did the death of President Abraham Lincoln–a former rail-splitter. Lincoln’s death aggrieved the working class, as they saw him as ‘one of them’
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