 
in the centers of many american cities are positioned huge armories, grim 
nineteenth-century edifices of brick or stone. 
they are fortresses, complete with massive walls and loopholes for guns. 
you may have wondered why they are there, but it has probably never 
occurred to you that they were built to protect america, not against invasion 
from abroad, but against popular revolt at home. 
their erection was a monument to the great upheaval of 1877. 
july, 1877, does not appear in many history books as a memorable date, yet 
it marks the first great american mass strike, a movement which was viewed at 
the time as a violent rebellion. 
strikers stopped and seized the nation's most important industry, the 
railroads, and crowds defeated or won over first the police, then the state 
militias, and in some cases even the federal troops. 
general strikes stopped all activity in a dozen major cities, and strikers 
took over social authority in communities across the nation. 
it all began on monday, july 16th, 1877, in the little railroad town of 
martinsburg, west virginia. 
on that day, the baltimore and ohio railroad cut wages ten percent, the 
second cut in eight months. 
in martinsburg, men gathered around the railroad yards, talking, waiting 
through the day. 
toward evening the crew of a cattle train, fed up, abandoned the train, and 
other trainmen refused to replace them. 
as a crowd gathered, the strikers uncoupled the engines, ran them into the 
roundhouse, and announced to bno officials that no trains would leave 
martinsburg till the pay cut was rescinded. 
the mayor arrived and conferred with railroad officials. 
he tried to soothe the crowd and was booed; when he ordered the arrest of 
the strike leaders they just laughed at him, backed up in their resistance by 
the angry crowd. 
