The+Pullman+Strike

__**The Pullman Strike**__ The successful industrialist George M. Pullman built a "company town" outside of Chicago, where employees would both manufacture his famous railroad cars and live by his rules. In 1894, frustrated by an economic depression, decreased wages, and high rent prices in the company town, Pullman workers went on strike, and the American Railway Union began boycotting Pullman trains. ..

"United States Infantry in the Stock Yards", //Harper's Weekly Magazine//, 1894 - soldiers marching past Chicago street mob during the Chicago railroad strike

"Looking Up the Panhandle Railroad", //Harper's Weekly Magazine//, 1894 - miles of burned freight cars in the Chicago railroad yards

__**Best Website**__ Illinois During the Gilded Age: "The Pullman Strike" [] Illinois During the Gilded Age is a website produced by the Northern Illinois University Libraries' Digitization Unit. The site covers many of the themes and events of the Gilded Age, providing background articles, analytical essays, primary source documents and photographs, and interactive maps. The section on the Pullman Strike includes 5 thorough background articles, links to primary source documents, 43 primary source images, and several video lectures.

__**Online Primary Source**__ //Chicago Tribune// articles from July 3, 1894 [] These primary source articles are found on the website for the PBS film, //Chicago: City of the Century//, a part of PBS's American Experience series. These articles show the anti-labor bias of major newspapers across the country, as they describe how Federal troops were called in to break up the strike.

__**Historical Thinking Benchmarks**__ +
 * 1) 1) Teaching with primary sources
 * 1) 2) Fostering an understanding of historical debate and controversy


 * Activity** - Students should be familiar with the course of the Pullman strike, perhaps through some of the resources available on the website above (Illinois During the Gilded Age). They should read the anti-labor articles from the //Chicago Tribune//, then click on the PBS website link to read about Nellie Bly, who was the only reporter to cover the strike from the workers' point of view. Students can then work in small groups or alone to write an article on the strike from the perspective of Bly.