The Baltimore railroad strike of 1877 involved several days of work stoppage and violence in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1877. It formed a part of the Great Railroad Strike of 1877, during which widespread civil unrest spread nationwide following the global depression and economic downturns of the mid-1870s. Strikes broke out along the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) on July 16, the same day that 10% wage reductions were scheduled.
Violence erupted in Baltimore on July 20, with police and soldiers of the Maryland National Guard clashing with crowds of thousands gathered throughout the city. In response, President Rutherford B. Hayes ordered federal troops to Baltimore, local officials recruited 500 additional police, and two new national guard regiments were formed. Peace was restored on July 22. Between 10 and 22 were killed, more than 150 were injured, and many more were arrested.
Negotiations between strikers and the B&O were unsuccessful, and most strikers quit rather than return to work at the newly reduced wages. The company easily found enough workers to replace the strikers, and under the protection of the military and police, traffic resumed on July 29. The company promised minor concessions at the time, and eventually enacted select reforms later that year.
The Long Depression and the Great Strikes
The Long Depression, sparked in the United States by the Panic of 1873, had extensive implications for US industry, closing more than a hundred railroads in the first year and cutting construction of new rail lines from of track in 1872 to in 1875. Approximately 18,000 businesses failed between 1873 and 1875, production in iron and steel dropped as much as 45 percent, and a million or more lost their jobs. In 1876, 76 railroad companies went bankrupt or entered receivership in the US alone, and the economic impacts rippled throughout many economic sectors throughout the industrialized world.
In mid-1877, tensions erupted in stoppages and civil unrest across the nation in what would become known as the Great Railroad Strike or the Great Strikes. Violence began in Martinsburg, West Virginia and spread along the rail lines through Baltimore and on to several major cities and transportation hubs of the time, including Reading, Scranton and Shamokin, Pennsylvania; a bloodless general strike in St. Louis, Missouri; and a short lived uprising in Chicago, Illinois. In the worst case, rioting in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania left 61 dead and 124 injured. Much of the city's center was burned, including more than a thousand rail cars destroyed. What began as the peaceful actions of organized labor attracted the masses of discontented and unemployed workers spawned by the depression, along with others who took opportunistic advantage of the chaos. In total, an estimated 100,000 workers participated nationwide. State and federal troops followed the turmoil as it spread along the rail lines from city to city, beginning in Baltimore, where the movement of troops itself provoked a violent response that ultimately required federal intervention to quell.
Early events
In early July 1877, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) announced it would reduce the wages of all workers by ten percent. One hundred miles would constitute a day's work, and crews would not receive allowances for time spent on delays at stations. Various meetings of railroad employees followed, and a committee was formed to meet with officers of the railroad. They appealed to the vice president, Mr. King, but he declined to meet.
Most workers accepted the reduction in pay, but the firemen and those who ran the freight trains resolved to stop work in protest. The number of unemployed along the line was so great, owing to the ongoing economic problems, that the company had no difficulty replacing the absent strikers. In response, the strikers resolved to occupy portions of the rail line, and to stop trains from passing unless the company rescinded the wage cuts.
July 16–19
On July 16, the day the reduction was to go into effect, about 40 men gathered at Camden Junction, from Baltimore, and stopped traffic. Newspapers reported a meeting held by rail workers who were sympathetic to the strike, which by that day included brakemen and engineers as well as firemen.