UC Merced Undergraduate Research Journal

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The sun rested under the cover of darkness as workers from a steel mill rose from their beds. On July 6, 1892 the steel workers from Homestead, Pennsylvania raced to reach the mill before their unwanted guests. The owner of the steel mill, Andrew Carnegie, away on vacation left the mill under the hands of Henry C. Frick, a man known for breaking unions. Frick refused to entertain any sort of negotiations with the union workers of the mill and in response the workers decided to strike.  Frick hired the Pinkerton detectives to break up the strike and regain control of the mill. The arriving Pinkertons not only faced a mob of steel workers that night but also the weapons the workers managed to scrap together. Baring arms, the workers engaged the Pinkerton detectives on July 6, 1892. After the battle ended, state militia arrived to remove the strikers from the works. The strike continued outside the works and in the town for several weeks but ultimately the strike proved unsuccessful.[1]

[1] I assembled the preceding narrative based on the following works. See Edward Slavishak, “Working-Class Muscle: Homestead and Bodily Disorder in the Gilded Age,” The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 3, no. 4 (2004): 330-368. Paul Krause, The Battle for Homestead 1880-1892: Politics, Culture, and Steel (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1992).