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The Great Railroad Strike of 1877
In 1877, America was deep in a four-year economic slump. Railroad bosses kept cutting wages while workers struggled to survive. When Baltimore & Ohio workers in Martinsburg, West Virginia walked off the job on July 16, they sparked the biggest labor uprising in American history up to that point.
The strike spread like wildfire across the nation, bringing trains to a halt from Pittsburgh to Chicago. President Hayes sent in federal troops to crush the rebellion, but not before workers had made their point loud and clear…