Haymarket 5

Another in the series of well-aged anti-anarchist prints, this was one of four panels that ran in the newspaper, spitting on the memory of the Haymarket Martyrs after their execution. After waves of protests after May Day, 1887, a bomb exploded in police lines, killing one & injuring more; a subsequent shootout between police & protestors killed a half dozen cops & an unknown number of protestors estimated as high as ~100 people. At the time, no suspect was identified, though modern historians suspect the bomb-thrower was the Chicago Chief of Police's brother in a false-flag operation. The anarchist organizers of the demonstrations were rounded up, & even though it was known that none of them threw the bomb, most weren't present, & one was asleep at the time. According to the prosecutor, "Law is upon trial. Anarchy is on trial. These men have been selected, picked out by the grand jury and indicted because they were leaders. They are no more guilty than the thousand who follow them. Gentlemen of the jury; convict these men, make examples of them, hang them and save our institutions, our society." Ling, Parsons, Spies, Fischer, & Engel were sentenced to death, Lingg killed himself & the remaining four were purposefully hung slowly to death. There's much more to the history of Haymarket worth reading about to fill in the gaps of American education. Haymarket was the turning point in the 8-hour workday struggle.

You are ordering a 2.25" metal button with a sharp pin back; pin with caution. I assemble these piece by piece by hand, so there may be some variations in alignment of the design & orientation pin. Our quality control process vets every pin's wearability before shipping. If you have any problems with your order, contact us & we will remedy the situation.