This illustration appeared on the cover of Harper’s Weekly Magazine on August 18, 1877. It shows a worker sitting amid rubble and ruin, a smoking gun laying at his feet with a woman and baby crying on his arm.
The illustration by artist Edwin Austin Abbey was a commentary on the violence that had rippled across the United States in the summer of 1877 as the country experienced its first massive labor strike.
The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 started with workers on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and spread across the country to impact other industries as well as workers, beaten down and exploited amid the early stages of the Gilded Age, rose up in opposition to their employers.
In cities like Pittsburgh, men put the torch to their workplaces and in response, police forces, militia, and the National Guard opposed striking workers with armed force. Numerous shootings took place across the country, including in the Coal Region at Shamokin and Scranton.
The turbulent and violent summer had ended with the crushing of the strikes and scenes like that portrayed by E.A. Abbey.
Read more about the turbulent year of 1877
Video | The Lykens Mine Fire of 1877: A Forgotten Coal Region Disaster
A working class plea amid the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 | Letter
“The hour of doom” – The Molly Maguire executions in Pottsville on June 21, 1877
A letter in defense of the Molly Maguires | 1877
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