The Strike of 1877
From the collections of the B&O Railroad Museum.
In July of 1877, angry B&O workers went on strike in protest over cuts in their wages.
This strike spread quickly to every railroad east of the Mississippi and then to the
Missouri Pacific and other western lines. For more than a week, most freight and even
some passenger traffic covering over 50,000 miles was literally stopped in its tracks. The
situation in Baltimore got out of hand quickly as other disaffected citizens joined to
create a mob of fifteen thousand. Marching on Camden Station, they clashed with
National Guardsmen called in by the Governor. The confrontation resulted in at least ten
deaths and scores of injuries. The station suffered damage as passenger cars were burned
and nearby tracks were torn apart. Following a plea from B&O president John W.
Garrett, President Rutherford B. Hayes ordered five hundred federal troops to Baltimore
to help end the chaos. Peace was restored. The strikers retreated, and by early August,
the trains were running again.
The events surrounding this confrontation are an excellent example of the continuing
tension between workers and their employers that was part of the landscape in a recently
industrialized nation. When things got out of hand, all levels of government were called
upon to intervene. In this exercise, students will examine this incident in some detail and
be encouraged to look at it from several different perspectives.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Getting Started: Inquiry Question
Setting the Stage: Historical Context
Locating the Site: Maps
1. Map 1: B&O Lines,1874
2. Map 2: Major Railroads , 1870-1890
3. Map 3: Labor Strikes, 1870-1890
Determining the Facts: Readings
1. Reading 1: Trouble Brews!
2. Reading 2: Violence Erupts!
3. Reading 3: Trouble Spreads!
Visual Evidence: Images
1. Image 1: Camden Station Burning!
2. Image 2: Martinsburg, 1877
Putting it All Together: Activities
1. Activity 1: A Tough Decision
Where it fits into the curriculum
Topics: This lesson is useful for units aimed at teaching about the process of
industrialization during the 19th century. The main focus is on the labor movement and
the tension between big business and their employees. The readings and other exercises
are designed to reinforce student skills in the areas of critical thinking, interpretation, and
observation related to the history of transportation and technology.
Time Period: 19th century
Relevant United States History Standards
Grades K-4
Topic One: Living and Working Together in Families and Communities, Now and Long
Ago
Standard 2A: The student understands the history of his or her local community.
Topic Two: The History of the Students' Own State or Region
Standard 3D: The student understands the interactions among all these groups
throughout the history of his or her state.
Grades 5-12
Era 6: The Development of the Industrial United States
Standard 1: How the rise of corporations, heavy industry, and mechanized farming
transformed the American people.
Standard 3: The rise of the American labor movement and how political issues reflected
social and economic change.
Relevant Maryland Voluntary State Curriculum Standards for Social Studies
Grade 3
Standard 3.0 Geography: Students will use geographic concepts and processes to
examine the role of culture, technology, and the environment in the location and
distribution of human activities and spatial connections throughout time.
3.0C. Movement of People, Goods and Ideas
Indicator 1. Describe how transportation and communication networks link places
through the movement of people, goods, and ideas.
Standard 4.0 Economics: Students will develop economic reasoning to understand the
historical development and current status of economic principles, institutions, and
processes needed to be effective citizens, consumers, and workers participating in local
communities, the nation, and the world.
4.0A. Scarcity and Economic Decision-making
Indicator 1. Explain that people must make choices because resources are limited
relative to unlimited wants for goods and services
Standard 5.0 History: Students will examine significant ideas, beliefs, and themes;
organize patterns and events; and analyze how individuals and societies have changed
over time in Maryland, the United States and around the world.
5.0A. Individuals and Societies Change Over Time
Indicator 1. Examine differences between past and present time
Indicator 2. Investigate how people lived in the past using a variety of sources
Grade 4
Standard 3.0 Geography: Students will use geographic concepts and processes to
examine the role of culture, technology, and the environment in the location and
distribution of human activities and spatial connections throughout time.
3.0A. Using Geographic Tools
Indicator 1. Use geographic tools to locate places and describe the human and
physical characteristics of those places
Standard 4.0 Economics: Students will develop economic reasoning to understand the
historical development and current status of economic principles, institutions, and
processes needed to be effective citizens, consumers, and workers participating in local
communities, the nation, and the world.
4.0A. Scarcity and Economic Decision-making
Indicator 1. Explain that people must make choices because resources are limited
relative to economic wants for goods and services in Maryland, past and present.
Indicator 2. Explain how limited economic resources are used to produce goods
and services to satisfy economic wants in Maryland.
Indicator 3. Examine how technological changes have affected production and
consumption in Maryland
Standard 5.0 History: Students will examine significant ideas, beliefs, and themes;
organize patterns and events; and analyze how individuals and societies have changed
over time in Maryland and the United States.
5.0C. Conflict between Ideas and Institutions
Indicator 2. Explain the political, cultural, economic and social changes in
Maryland during the 1800s
Grades 3-5
Standard 6.0 Social Studies Skills and Processes: Students shall use reading, writing,
and thinking processes and skills to gain knowledge and understanding of political,
historical, and current events using chronological and spatial thinking, economic
reasoning, and historical interpretation, by framing and evaluating questions from
primary and secondary sources.
6.0A. Read to Learn and Construct Meaning about Social Studies
Indicator 1. Use appropriate strategies and opportunities to increase
understandings of social studies vocabulary
Indicator 2. Use strategies to prepare for reading (before reading)
Indicator 3. Use strategies to monitor understanding and derive meaning from text
and portions of text (during reading)
Indicator 4. Use strategies to demonstrate understanding of the text (after reading)
6.0B. Write to Learn and Communicate Social Studies Understandings
Indicator 1. Use informal writing strategies, such as journal writing, note taking,
quick writes, and graphic organizers to clarify, organize, remember and/or express
new understandings
6.0C. Ask Social Studies Questions
Indicator 1. Identify a topic that requires further study
Indicator 2. Identify a problem/situation that requires further study
6.0D. Acquire Social Studies Information
1. Identify primary and secondary sources of information that relate to the
topic/situation/problem being studied
2. Engage in field work that relates to the topic/ situation/ problem being studied
6.0F. Analyze Social Studies Information
1. Interpret information from primary and secondary sources
2. Evaluate information from a variety of sources
3. Synthesize information from a variety of sources
6.0G. Answer Social Studies Questions
1. Describe how the country has changed over time and how people have
contributed to its change, drawing from maps, photographs, newspapers, and
other sources
2. Use historic contexts to answer questions
Objectives for students
1. To describe the events surrounding the Strike of 1877.
2. To examine and assess the actions taken by those involved in the incident.
Visiting the site
B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore, Maryland
Comprised of the oldest and most comprehensive collection of railroad history in the
Western Hemisphere, the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Museum, Inc. is a unique cultural
and educational asset for the city and the region. An unparalleled roster of 19th and 20th
century railroad equipment, original shop buildings, and surviving tracks at the historic
Mt. Clare site provide an integrated resource to present virtually every aspect of
American railroad development and its impact on our society, culture, and economy. The
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Museum is administered by a private non-profit foundation.
It is located at 901 West Pratt Street in the city of Baltimore, Maryland. The current 40acre urban campus is the site of the original B&O right-of-way and Mt. Clare Shop
complex. It is also the site of the first common carrier railroad, that is, a commercial
enterprise open to the public for passenger as well as freight transport. Train rides are
offered periodically at this site throughout the year. Please inquire about the train ride
schedule before your visit. The Museum is approximately ten minutes from Baltimore's
popular Inner Harbor area and is easily accessible from Interstate 95 and the Baltimore
Beltway, I-695. The entrance to the Museum grounds is located at the intersection of
West Pratt Street and Poppleton Street. Free on-site parking is available for all visitors.
Address: 901 West Pratt Street Baltimore, MD 21223
Phone: 410-752-2490
Website: www.borail.org
B&O Railroad Museum: Ellicott City Station in Howard County, Maryland
The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Museum: Ellicott City Station is the oldest surviving
railroad station in America, and was the original terminus of the first 13 miles of
commercial railroad in the country. The site features the Main Depot building,
constructed in 1830-31; the freight house, designed by E. Francis Baldwin and built in
1855; a replica of the first horse-drawn passenger rail car, the Pioneer; and a 1927 "I-5"
Caboose. Housed in the freight house is a 40-foot HO-gauge model train layout showing
the original thirteen miles of commercial rail track stretching from Baltimore to Ellicott’s
Mills. The operating layout features an introductory video and light show. Living
historians tell the story of the development of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, the
nation’s first common carrier railroad, and its impact on Ellicott City between 1827 and
1868. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Museum in Ellicott City is administered by the
same private non-profit foundation as the B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore. Located
at 2711 Maryland Avenue in Ellicott City, MD, the Station is adjacent to Main Street in
the historic district of Ellicott City, Maryland and is easily accessible from Interstate 95
and the Baltimore Beltway, I-695. On-site parking is not available, and street parking is
limited, but there are paid and free parking lots in and around Ellicott City.
Address: 2711 Maryland Avenue Ellicott City, MD 21043
Phone: 410-461-1945
Website: www.ecborail.org
Back to Table of Contents
Getting Started
Inquiry Question
From the collections of the B&O Railroad Museum.
1. This is a photo of action taken by strikers in Martinsburg, West Virginia in 1877.
What appears to be happening in the photo? Why do you think the strikers would
take this action?
2. Do you think going on strike is an acceptable way for workers to get their
employer to agree to demands for higher pay and better working conditions?
Historical Context
Conflicts over wages and working conditions were quite common during the last several
decades of the nineteenth century. As workers began to organize into unions in the years
after the Civil War, they were able to wield increasing power in their struggle with the
mighty businessmen who owned the railroads and other giant enterprises. So the Strike
of 1877 was not an isolated event. It is notable because of the violence that occurred and
the widespread disruption that it caused, but it represents one of many eruptions in a long
simmering dispute between big business and their employees.
Locating the Site
Map 1: B&O Railroad, 1874
Questions for Map 1
1. What can you conclude about the impact of a work stoppage on the B&O lines by
examining this map?
2. What effect might a refusal the allow trains to move through a stop such as
Cumberland, Maryland have on rail service between Washington or Baltimore
and Chicago?
Map 2: Major Railroad Lines, 1870-1890
Questions for Map 2
1. Identify the area that you believe would have been impacted most severely by the
Strike of 1877?
2. Is it possible that the entire nation could be affected by a strike such as this?
Map 3: Labor Strikes, 1870-1890
Questions for Map 3
1. Identify several areas of the country where railroad strikes took place during the
time period represented on this map?
2. What is the likely explanation for the concentration of strike activity in the
northeast and upper Midwest of the nation during this time period?
Determining the Facts
Reading 1: Trouble Brews!
The following excerpt is from William Stover’s “History of the Baltimore and Ohio
Railroad”. It is a detailed account of the Strike of 1877.
Between May and November in 1876, some 10 million Americans had visited the
Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, viewed Freedom’s Torch of the projected Statue
of Liberty and the mammoth Corliss engine, and listened to Alexander Graham Bell’s
first telephone. They also may have seen an early B&O Grasshopper locomotive which
was on exhibit at the exposition. Most visitors left the exhibit grounds with pride in their
nation’s past and great expectations for its future. But the view was far different for the
several million Americans either unemployed or underpaid because of the long and deep
depression of the mid-seventies. Railroad wages were not high in 1876. In that year, the
average fireman’s yearly wage of the B&O was $421, while a brakeman’s annual pay
was $493. Engineers and conductors did receive more, but train crewmen with little
seniority rarely were fully employed throughout the year. The first three of the first four
brotherhoods of operating personnel had been organized—engineers in 1863, conductors
in 1868, and firemen and enginemen in 1868—but few railroad executives looked with
friendly eyes upon the new unions. B&O president John Garrett, like most railroad
presidents, believed in the law of supply and demand. He had fired several men who
attempted to present a grievance to him, and had troops called in to break up a small
strike by some trackmen in 1865.
When the B&O faced a financial crisis in 1877, President Garrett decided that the best
course of action to address the situation was to cut wages.
More and more B&O trainmen were complaining about reduced crews on longer
trains and the lack of overtime pay for Sunday shifts. Wheeling newspapers claimed that
many B&O workers felt they were treated as though they were only another freight car or
a locomotive. Clearly trouble was brewing....
The unhappy workers knew that Garrett would be quick to bring in strike
breakers to man the trains and break the strike. They resolved to seize the trains and
yards and scare off the scabs with violence if it were necessary. On Monday, July 16, a
hot and sticky day in Baltimore, the trouble started at Camden Junction, two miles out of
town. When firemen and other crewmen deserted their freight trains at that yard,....they
were replaced with strike breakers on hand. Trouble was not so easily stopped at
Martinsburg, a railroad town 100 miles west of Baltimore.... By afternoon, crowds of
idle B&O workmen were forming in the yards and around the machine shops at
Martinsburg. The crew of a cattle train deserted their posts, and soon a blockade was set
up which allowed no freight trains to depart from or pass through the town. The strikers
stated that no freight trains would move until the pay cut had been cancelled. Passenger
trains were allowed to move through without trouble.
Questions for Reading 1
1. Why were many railroad workers not as optimistic about the future as the
visitors to the Centennial Exposition?
2. Why did the “brotherhoods” of rail workers make those workers more willing
to express their complaints about wages and working conditions?
3. What was the attitude of the B&O president and other leaders of the railroad
companies about workers who were on strike?
Reading 2: The Crisis Escalates, Violence Erupts!
It soon became clear that local authorities were not equipped to calm the highly agitated
strikers. It was time to call for help from higher authorities. Stover continues:
B&O officials at Martinsburg wired the governor of West Virginia requesting that
he send in the state militia to restore order and permit the movement of trains.... The
Berkeley Light Guards, a Martinsburg militia group was called in to preserve the peace
and prevent any further obstruction of freight train movement. On Tuesday the The
Berkeley Light Guards managed to start the movement of a freight train operated by a
loyal crew, but a scuffle at a switch stand resulted in the fatal wounding of a striker and
the wounding of a soldier. The bloodshed stopped both the train and the effectiveness of
the militia B&O President Garrett asked the governor to request the aid of federal
troops....
On July 18, the West Virginia governor asked President Rutherford B. Hayes to
send in troops to put down the “domestic violence” existing along the line of the B&O in
West Virginia. With some reluctance, the president ordered units from Washington,
D.C., and Baltimore’s Fort McHenry to proceed to West Virginia, and on the morning of
July 19, some 300 federal troops arrived in Martinsburg. Federal troops were not much
more successful than the state militia in moving freight trains. On Friday, July 20,
sixteen freight trains were sent out of Martinsburg, but only one arrived at Keyser, 100
miles out to the west, on that day. The remainder were all stopped at Cumberland,
Maryland. The mobs at Cumberland, made up more of idle youths and unemployed canal
and rolling mill workers than railroaders, were more violent than those of Martinsburg.
Even greater street violence would soon come to Baltimore. The governor of
Maryland ordered National Guard troops to travel to Cumberland and restore order....
The news of the order was carried in the evening papers, and the “call to arms” or riot
signal, was rung on the large city hall bell at 6:35 p.m., just as hundreds of Baltimore
workmen were going home to supper.
Soon the streets were filled with hundreds of people wondering where the
excitement might develop. Much of the crowd moved toward the Camden Station. The
250 men of the Fifth Regiment marching toward the station soon reached a hostile crowd
that greeted the soldiers with shouts of abuse and some stones and brickbats. The troops
reached the station....with some two dozen of the militia slightly injured but no one
seriously hurt or killed.
The Sixth Regiment was not so fortunate.... Marching into a hail of brickbats and
stones, some of the soldiers involuntarily fired into the air. The crowd thought the rifles
carried only blanks and replied with heavier showers of stones. This time some of the
soldiers fired directly into the crowd and not with blanks. The march to the station was a
long and bloody one. Only fifty-nine of the militia reached the station. Behind were a
total of ten dead, and more than a score seriously wounded, and several dozen with
minor injuries.
The mob of 15,000 around the Camden Station started to tear up some track
nearby, and soon three passenger cars were set on fire. Fearing a massive fire in the
downtown area, 500 federal troops descended on the city. Order was restored in
Baltimore, but trouble was brewing on other railroads.
Questions for Reading 2
1. Why do you think the strikers felt it necessary to stop the trains from moving
rather than simply refusing to work?
2. How was order finally restored in Baltimore?
Reading 3: Trouble Extends Beyond the B&O!
The B&O was not the only railroad to be faced with action by employees who felt they
had been treated unjustly. Stover describes the spread of violence beyond the lines of the
Baltimore & Ohio.
The strike fever spread quickly to the Pennsylvania Railroad. The trouble and
violence that had appeared along the B&O line was nothing compared to the fury of the
mobs as they fought the militia in the Pennsylvania train yards in Pittsburgh. Riots, fires,
and violence in that city destroyed property worth at least $5 million. Soon the trouble
spread to Buffalo, Chicago, St. Louis, and Omaha......Nearly 10,000 troops from all
levels of government were required to finally open the main line of the Pennsylvania....
The violence and the fury of the strike began to die away across the nation in late
July and early August. A Baltimore and Ohio freight train left Cumberland escorted by
United States Army regulars late on July 27 and reached Martinsburg with no trouble.
Brief trouble appeared at Keyser, West Virginia and at Bellaire,Ohio, but soon
operations had returned to normal all up and down the line. On the Baltimore and Ohio,
as throughout the nation, the strikers realized they had lost the strike.
Even though not all of the strikers regained their jobs, Garrett...decided it would
be wise to make some concessions to the workers and their grievances. Some work rules
were improved, and the company set up the Baltimore and Ohio Employees Relief
Association.
Questions for Reading 3
1. Which railroad, in addition to the B&O, was involved in violence associated with
the 1877 strike?
2. Despite the fact that the B&O did not give in to the demands of the strikers, what
concessions did the company make once the strike was over?
Visual Evidence
Image 1: Camden Station Burning!
From the collections of the B&O Railroad Museum.
The events surrounding the mob attack on Camden Street Station in July of 1877
resulted in numerous deaths and extensive damage (see Readings 1 and 2 above). Order
was restored only after federal troops were sent to Baltimore.
Question for Image 1
1. Write a headline and a short description that would have appeared in the
newspaper with this image on the day after the riot.
Image 2: Martinsburg, 1877
From the collections of the B&O Railroad Museum.
Questions for Image 2
1. What appears to be happening in this image? Why do you think many in the
crowd appear to be angry?
2. What consequences might have occurred as a result of people being unable to
board and travel on these trains?
Putting It All Together
Strikes were a common occurrence during the decades of rapid industrialization of the
late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Every industry, including the railroads,
experienced violent confrontations with employees who felt mistreated by the powerful
enterprises they worked for. Workers felt it was necessary to organized into unions in
order to get fair treatment. Many workers, however, were hesitant to get involved in
activities that might turn violent. The activity below asks students to examine the
dilemma faced by railroad workers as the events of the Strike of 1877 unfolded.
Activity 1: A Tough Decision
Imagine yourself to be a railroad worker during the strike. You are firmly committed to
the cause of your fellow workers. Your good friend and co-worker urges you to join in
the protest march over pay cuts ordered by the B&O. He knows there is danger of injury
and that he is at risk of losing his job. He argues with you when you tell him that you are
not willing to take the risks involved. Make a list of the arguments you would make to
him to try to convince him not to participate.
Now, put yourself in his place and list arguments that could be made in favor of taking
the risks connected with going on strike.
Conduct a class discussion of the pros and cons associated with participation in the strike.
An alternative plan is to have half the class list arguments for participation and half
against, and then pair off to role-play the two friends discussing the issue.