In Stowell’s novel he identifies the “trigger effect” for the Great Strike due to the inauguration of Republican Rutherford B. Hayes as U.S President. Ending the dangerous political crisis of 1876-77; white supremacist rule was restored. The Reconstruction in the South died and a nationwide strike of railroad workers triggered the Great Strike. This has been quoted in Chpt.1 to be the “bitterest explosions of class warfare in American History. With Reconstruction in the South at its end, an increasing conflict between labor and capital began.
The traditional interpretation of the 1877 Strike was the result of post- Civil war. The angry response of railroad workers to wage reductions, job cuts, and the profiteering by the huge railroad corporations that had risen to dominance after the Civil War. Millions of Americans had become wage workers when businesses boomed. Also, it has said by historians that the Strike was the instance of rapid machinery such as the railroad; causing costly…show more content… 88) to protest employer qualities. These radical demonstrations included urban class “clash” from other work sites, small businesses, and commercial establishments. Some protestors acted out of solidarity with the strikers, but many more aggressively against dangerous railroad traffic that crisscrossed urban centers in that area.
Stowell he argues, railroads from their inception, penetrated the boulevards of urban America in order to reach industrial customers, freight yards, and loading platforms. As cities expanded before and after the Civil War, the train became a disturbing intruder in the congested city environment. Transportation systems increased as dramatically as population during the same period, contributing to further havoc. Thirty-five-ton locomotives with six-foot driving wheels affected citizens in neighborhood
