Skip to content
Maps of History Start free

ON THIS DAY ·

Chicago stockyards and Haymarket

1865–1886 — The Union Stock Yards, with their “disassembly lines”, make Chicago the world’s meat-packing capital. On 4 May 1886, a bomb at a labor rally in Haymarket leads to deaths and trials, and to the May Day tradition.

Open this map in the interactive atlas →

WW2 is free in full, and chapter 1 of every atlas is free. A free account opens 3 more chapters a day. Starter, at $9 a month, opens all 21 with no daily limit — see the plans.

Free printable Industrial Revolution study guide, sent by email ↓

Map: Chicago stockyards and Haymarket, 4 May 1886
4 MAY 1886 · THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION, 1750–1914

The moment in context

Long before the United States led the world in manufacturing, its cotton industry connected British machinery to the labor of enslaved people. Samuel Slater memorized Richard Arkwright's spinning machines in England and began spinning cotton in Rhode Island in 1790. In 1823 Boston merchants opened mills in the planned Massachusetts town of Lowell. They hired young women from New England farms; those women struck against wage cuts in 1834 and again in 1836.

From Industrial Revolution in America, chapter 9 of The Industrial Revolution, 1750–1914 (1890).

The place: Chicago stockyards and Haymarket — map and full story →

Teach this in 5 minutes

Then ask the room: Was America’s industrial success built more on its resources or on its people? The argued answer is on the chapter page →

The atlas that shows it

The Industrial Revolution, 1750–1914
12 CHAPTERS · AN INTERACTIVE SITUATION MAP

THE FREE PRINTABLE STUDY GUIDE

Get the printable study guide for The Industrial Revolution free. I’ll send you a few short letters, then one when a new atlas opens. That’s all. — Paul

NO TRACKING · YOUR ADDRESS IS USED FOR THE DISPATCH AND NOTHING ELSE · UNSUBSCRIBE ANYTIME