Samuel
Fielden
was born in Todmorden, Lancashire, England,
in 1847. His father campaigned against child
labour and was active in the Ten
Hours Movement and Chartism.
Fielden worked for thirteen years in a textile mill before becoming
a Methodist minister.
In 1868 Fielden he emigrated to the United States. He worked in the
textile industry in New York State before moving to Chicago
where he became friends with Albert Parsons
and August Spies. In July, 1884 Fielden
joined the Socialist Labor Party and
worked as an organizer for the International
Working People's Association (IWPA).
On 1st May, 1886 a strike was began throughout the United States in
support a eight-hour day. Over the next few days over 340,000 men
and women withdrew their labor. Over a quarter of these strikers were
from Chicago and the employers were so
shocked by this show of unity that 45,000 workers in the city were
immediately granted a shorter workday.
The campaign for the eight-hour day was organised by the International
Working Peoples Association (IWPA). On 3rd May, the IWPA in Chicago
held a rally outside the McCormick Harvester Works, where 1,400 workers
were on strike. They were joined by 6,000 lumber-shovers, who had
also withdrawn their labour. While August Spies,
one of the leaders of the IWPA was making a speech, the police arrived
and opened-fire on the crowd, killing four of the workers.
The following day August Spies, who was
editor of the Arbeiter-Zeitung,
published a leaflet in English and German entitled: Revenge!
Workingmen to Arms!. It included the passage: "They
killed the poor wretches because they, like you, had the courage to
disobey the supreme will of your bosses. They killed them to show
you 'Free American Citizens' that you must be satisfied with whatever
your bosses condescend to allow you, or you will get killed. If you
are men, if you are the sons of your grand sires, who have shed their
blood to free you, then you will rise in your might, Hercules, and
destroy the hideous monster that seeks to destroy you. To arms we
call you, to arms." Spies also published a second leaflet calling
for a mass protest at Haymarket Square that evening.
On 4th May, over 3,000 people turned up at
the Haymarket meeting. Speeches were
made by Fielden, August Spies, Albert
Parsons and Samuel Fielden. At 10
a.m. Captain John Bonfield and 180 policemen arrived on the scene.
Bonfield was telling the crowd to "disperse immediately and peacebly"
when someone threw a bomb into the police ranks from one of the alleys
that led into the square. It exploded killing eight men and wounding
sixty-seven others. The police then immediately attacked the crowd.
A number of people were killed (the exact number was never disclosed)
and over 200 were badly injured.
Several people identified Rudolph Schnaubelt as the man who threw
the bomb. He was arrested but was later released without charge. It
was later claimed that Schnaubelt was an agent provocateur
in the pay of the authorities. After the release of Schnaubelt, the
police arrested Fielden and six German immigrants, George
Engel, August Spies, Adolph
Fisher, Louis Lingg, Oscar
Neebe, and Michael Schwab. The police
also sought Albert Parsons, the leader
of the International Working Peoples Association in Chicago,
but he went into hiding and was able to avoid capture. However, on
the morning of the trial, Parsons arrived in court to standby his
comrades.
There were plenty of witnesses who were able
to prove that none of the eight men threw the bomb. The authorities
therefore decided to charge them with conspiracy to commit murder.
The prosecution case was that these men had made speeches and written
articles that had encouraged the unnamed man at the Haymarket
to throw the bomb at the police.
The jury was chosen by a special bailiff instead of being selected
at random. One of those picked was a relative of one of the police
victims. Julius Grinnell, the State's Attorney, told the jury: "Convict
these men make examples of them, hang them, and you save our institutions."
At the trial it emerged that Andrew Johnson, a detective from the
Pinkerton Agency, had infiltrated
the group and had been collecting evidence about the men. Johnson
claimed that at anarchist meetings
these men had talked about using violence. Reporters who had also
attended International Working Peoples Association meetings also testified
that the defendants had talked about using force to "overthrow
the system".
During the trial the judge allowed the jury to read speeches and articles
by the defendants where they had argued in favour of using violence
to obtain political change. The judge then told the jury that if they
believed, from the evidence, that these speeches and articles contributed
toward the throwing of the bomb, they were justified in finding the
defendants guilty.
All the men were found guilty: George Engel,
Albert Parsons, August
Spies, Adolph Fisher and Louis
Lingg were given the death penalty. Whereas Fielden, Oscar
Neebe and Michael
Schwab were sentenced to life imprisonment. On 10th November,
1887, Lingg committed suicide by exploding a dynamite cap in his mouth.
The following day Parsons, Spies, Fisher and Engel mounted the gallows.
As the noose was placed around his neck, Spies shouted out: "There
will be a time when our silence will be more powerful than the voices
you strangle today."
Many people believed that the men had not been given a fair trial
and in 1893, John Peter Altgeld, the
new governor of Illinois, pardoned Fielden, Oscar
Neebe and Michael Schwab.
(1)
Samuel Fielden, Autobiography
of Samuel Fielden (1887)
Todmorden lies in a beautiful valley, and on the hillsides are small
farms; back about a mile are the moorlands, which could be made into
fine farms, as the topography of the moors is more level generally
than the enclosed land. But though thousands of starving Englishmen
would be very glad to work them, they must be kept for the grouse
and the gamekeeper and the gentry. Grouse sport for the privileged
classes being esteemed of more importance than the happiness of thousands
of human beings. The farms are all dairy, the milk all being sold
in town. There are numerous large mills in the town, Fielden Brothers
being the largest; it contains about 2,000 looms.
When I arrived at the mature age of 8 years I, as was usual with the
poor people's children in Lancashire, went to work in a cotton mill,
and if there is any of the exuberance of childhood about the life
of a Lancashire mill-hand's child it is in spite of his surroundings
and conditions, and not in consequence of it. As I look back on my
experience at the tender age I am filled with admiration at the wonderful
vitality of these children. I think that if the devil had a particular
enemy whom he wished to unmercifully torture the best thing for him
to do would be to put his soul into the body of a Lancashire factory
child and keep him as a child in a factory the rest of his days. The
mill into which I was put was the mill established by John Fielden,
M.P., who fought so valiantly in the ten-hour movement.
The infants, when first introduced to these abodes of torture, are
put at stripping the full spools from the spinning jennies and replacing
them with empty spools. They are put to work in a long room where
there are about twenty machines. The spindles are apportioned to each
child, and woe be to the child who shall be behind in doing its allotted
work. The machine will be started and the poor child's fingers will
be bruised and skinned with the revolving spools. while the children
try to catch up to their comrades by doing their work with the speed
of the machine running, the brutal overlooker will frequently beat
them unmercifully, and I have frequently seen them strike the children,
knocking them off their stools and sending them spinning several feet
on the greasy floor.
When the ten-hour movement was being agitated in England my father
was on the committee of agitation in my native town, and I have heard
him tell of sitting on the platform with Earl Shaftesbury, John Fielden,
Richard Ostler, and other advocates of that cause. I always thought
he put a little sarcasm into the word earl, at any rate he had but
little respect for aristocracy and royalty. He was also a Chartist
and I have heard him tell of many incidents connected with the Chartist
agitation and movement.
(2)
Samuel Fielden, Autobiography
of Samuel Fielden (1887)
There appeared in Todmorden at different times, several colored lecturers
who spoke on the slavery question in America. I went frequently to
hear them describe the inhumanity of that horrible system, sometimes
with my father, and at other times with my sister. One of these gentlemen
called himself Henry Box Brown; the gentleman brought with him a panorama,
by means of which he described places and incidents in his slave life,
and also the means of his escape. He claimed that he had been boxed
up in a large box in which were stowed an amount of provisions, the
box having holes bored in the top for air, and marked, "this
side up with care." This he was shipped to Philadelphia via the
underground railroad, to friends there, and this was why he called
himself Henry Box Brown. He was a very good speaker and his entertainment
was very interesting.
(3)
Samuel Fielden, speech
at his trial (September, 1887)
The men who have been on trial here for Anarchy have been asked the
question on the witness stand if they were revolutionists. It is not
generally considered to be a crime among intellectual people to be
a revolutionist, but it may be made a crime if a revolutionist happens
to be poor.
From the time I became a Socialist I learned more and more what it
was. I knew that I had found the right thing; that I had found the
medicine that was calculated to cure the ills of society. Having found
it, I believed it, and I had a right to advocate it, and I did. The
Constitution of the United States, when it says: "The right of
free speech shall not be abridged," gives every man the right
to speak. I have advocated the principles of Socialism and social
equality, and for that and no other reason am I here, and sentence
of death is to be pronounced upon me.
The great Socialist who lived in is world nearly 1,900 years ago,
Jesus Christ, has left these words, and there are no grander words
in which the principles of justice and right are conveyed in any language.
He said: "Better than ninety-nine guilty men should go unpunished
than that one innocent man should suffer."
(4)
Samuel Fielden, letter
to Richard Oglesby, the Governor of Illinois (5th November, 1887)
I was born in England in humble circumstances, and had little early
education. For some years I devoted my life to religious work, being
an authorized lay preacher in the Methodist denomination. I came to
this country and settled in Chicago. At all times I was obedient to
the law and conducted myself as a good citizen. I was a teamster and
I worked hard for my daily bread. My personal conduct and my domestic
life were beyond reproach.
Some three years or more ago I was deeply stirred by the condition
of the working classes, and sought to do what I could for their betterment.
I did this honestly, and with no sinster motive. I never sought any
personal advantage out of the agitation in which I was engaged. It
is true that I have said things in such heat that in calmer moments
I should not have said. I made violent speeches. I suggested the use
of force as a means for righting the wrongs which seemed to me to
be apparent.
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