Revolution In Pennsylvania

In June 1877, a railroad company in West Virginia cut its worker's wages by ten percent. The workers went on strike and refused to move any trains until the cut was revoked, and the strike quickly spread. Within days, the entire country was paralyzed as strikers occupied all the key railroad hubs. Over 100 people were killed in street clashes with state militia and Federal troops. The strike lasted 45 days and ended only when US Army troops occupied all the railroad centers. It was the largest labor rebellion in American history. This history of the Great Strike was written by St Louis newspaperman Joseph Dacus just a few months after the rebellion.