Crystal’s Weblog

In the late 1800’s Chicago was undergoing some huge changes that had upper and lower classes of society ready for anything.   Men and women of lower class immigrant workers and their supporters were tired of the employer’s refusal to listen to the working men’s requests for shorter work days and higher wages.  This was not happening just in Chicago, but it seemed to be on a larger scale in that city than anywhere else in the county.  Chicago also had a police department which would use a great deal of brute force on working men and women.  Police were not alone, strikers held their own place in this epic battle. Although some strikers turned to violence against the police most just used the strikes as a way to have their voices heard by the large employers.  This conflict between the police and strikers would come to a dramatic climax which would keep animosity high in the city for many decades to come.

                Looking back at the years leading up to the Haymarket bombing it is clear that both sides were becoming increasingly agitated.  As my mother always says, “Hindsight is always 20/20”, and in this case you can see the stand for both sides and what they wanted to accomplish quite clearly; however, neither could win without the other failing.  Some may say that the upheaval could have been avoided but I am not so sure it could have been.  Both wanted what was best for their side and these two ideals ran at such opposite angles to one another that they were sure to cross at some point.  The violent way that the conflict did climax was tragic for both sides.

            This climax being not just the bombing itself, but the trial and executions of men loosely tied to the bombing is what really sets Chicago apart from other major cities of this time going through similar experiences.  Other cities surely had accounts where the two sides came together but not with such intensity and anger as in Chicago.  These men were being tried and eventually were convicted of murder for voicing opinions and thoughts that went against genteel society’s ideals.  Fear was a huge motivation during the trial as men and women claimed that the ideas of these anarchists were dangerous for society as a whole. 

            Chicago was judged for the way the trial was handled beginning soon after the sentence was handed down.  Many laws were broken in making sure that the trial ended with a result that made the upper class citizens felt secure.  The jury was picked so that it sat only men of the upper echelon and did not represent peers to the defendants.  Men were tortured and badgered into testifying against the eight men arrested for the Haymarket bombing.  Much of the testimony that was given by the prosecutors was fabricated to make the eight men on trial appear inhuman.  The judge presiding over the case was biased against the defendants and refused and denied all motions on the side of the defense.   The legal team for the eight defendants continued to push forward in the hopes that a fair ending would still come.  In the end, seven of the eight defendants were sentenced to death by hanging while the eighth was sentenced to fifteen years in prison doing hard time. 

            Immediately following the sentencing the legal team appeals the decision and was denied.  They then took it to the state supreme court to look at whether the laws were broken in this case.  Throughout this time, all of Chicago was divided on the outcome and how they supported the idea of the Supreme Court stepping in.  After some deliberation the Supreme Court ruled that the trial had been fair.  Not willing to give up and with a large group of supporters coming forward the legal team lead by a lawyer, Captain William Black went to Governor Richard J. Oglesby, a friend and supporter of Lincoln, and asked that the sentence be dropped from death to life in prison.  As per the laws the seven men would have to write a letter of apology to the governor.  When this news was relayed to the men a few chose to write the letters even knowing that they were guilty of nothing more than stating their opinion at public meetings.  The others refused.  One man, Louis Lingg, died just before hearing Governor Oglesby’s response from an explosive device detonating in his mouth.  Some believed it was murder while others felt he did it as a last stand against the government he hated so much.

            The remaining four, August Spies, Adolph Fischer, George Engel, and Albert Parsons, were sentenced to be hanged in November 11, 1887.  Supporters continued to work on their release but nothing more could be done.  At exactly noon the trap doors were opened and the four men were strangled to death.  It took over seven minutes for them all to be pronounced dead as none of them broke their necks in the fall and died of asphyxia. 

            This violent climax along with the trial and executions of the eight men made Chicago a major point for working men and women around the world to look up to.  The labor movement was not killed with these men but instead their deaths helped to propel it forward for a few years.  Other major events of American history moved it back but there always seemed to be someone to bring it to light just before it burned out completely.  Other major cities had their moments that brought them fame but not on such a scale as this moment in Chicago’s history.

The world, during the turn of the twentieth century, was changing but views of gender roles were not changing with the times. Women were moving out of the domestic roles and picking up in areas only men had trod. This was a blow to the American ideals, and some traditionalists took it as a slap in the face. However,there were some that stood up to the coming change and decided to change with it rather than fight it. The Everleigh sisters would help to change social norms of women during this time.
The two sisters, Minna and Ada Everleigh, came to Chicago in 1899 with one thought on their minds. Their ambition was to start a classy brothel where clients were taken care of and the girls were clean from drug obsessions and diseases. Prostitution was not new to Chicago by any means, but the sisters were determined to show the city that women of the night could be classy. They opened up their double mansion to men of wealth, power, and social standing. During a time when fifty cent brothels were the norm, the Everleigh Club had a fifty dollar per night minimum. Minna and Ada knew that men still needed to feel dominate so they trained their “butterflies” in the art of seduction while still keeping things classy. The sisters did something no brothel had done before, they offered ladies instead of harlots. Men felt as if they were bedding someone of equal social status. The women in this club were able to do something few women of the time were able to do, have power over a man.
At the same time the Everleigh sisters were trying to build up their business, a few members of the community were getting ready to wage a war on the red light district, also known as the levee. Ernest Bell, a pastor in the area, was horrified to have been approached by a harlot on the streets in front of his church so he began a “Midnight Mission” in the levee. Bell would lead a group of citizens down into the streets of the levee and preach in front of the brothels. As Bell was leading his followers on missions a young lawyer, Clifford Roe, was beginning his own campaign against white slavery in the Chicago area. Roe was sure that women couldn’t possibly enter into this business of their own accord and so he believed they must be slaves. In some cases Roe was correct in his thinking and was even able to pass some new laws about the trafficking of women. However, just as many women at that time were entering into the life of their own free will, as a necessity. Neither Roe nor Bell truly gave credit to the women. Both had ulterior motives that did not have a thing to do with the women whom they claimed they were protecting. Roe was a very career oriented man and attempting to bring down the levee was a great endeavor. Roe earned great recognition and respect for all of the cases he won. Bell was leading “Midnight Missions” because he felt God had instructed him to clean up the streets of Chicago. In both instances, the women at the center of the argument were just a means to an end.
In between these two extreme opinions there was the Chicago city government. The all male city government wavered between making both sides happy. While the government profited by receiving large sums of money from the levee,they were being pushed to make some attempts at pleasing the citizens that were screaming to put an end to the district. The men within the city government held a great deal of power, but with that power came some difficult decisions. There was the need to keep the levee and the madams happy so payments would continue to be made; yet the government needed the citizens of the city to think they were attempting to rid them of the trash. Many of these government officials had close connections to the madams and especially to the sisters. With these close relationships these men had the lives of the girls more at heart than any other interest group. Witnessing how the women worked for a living and to some extent respected them. Unfortunately when the time came to use some muscle and give a show of cleaning up the levee, the women of the trade had to be the example. A few men were taken into court for running a brothel or dance hall but not near the number that the women were. Even though the Everleigh sisters made an honest effort at running their business the overwhelming pressure of the city finally crashed in and the levee was closed up. This did not happen over night, but over time the levee was changed into a more respectable area of the city.

Prostitution may not have been the best trade for women to go into but it was a job for some who had nothing else to offer. Prostitution was also the only job of the time to allow a woman some freedom from men. In a society that was still trying to keep women down and quiet, prostitution gave women a voice; good or bad that voice was heard.

 Pictures from  The Best Little Whorehouse in Chicago.  An article by Dan Kelly July 13, 2007