Historedia
Episode 1 of 4

Long Strike Begins

When
1 January 1875
Where
Pennsylvania anthracite fields
Part of
Murder conviction breaks the power of the Molly Maguires

Miners struck on 1 January 1875 following a pay cut announcement, leading to the breakdown of the WBA.

Coal operators announced a twenty percent pay cut in December 1874. Miners decided to strike on 1 January 1875. This action precipitated the Long Strike, which operators intended to use to destroy the Workingmen's Benevolent Association.

Sources

  1. Molly Maguires Wikipedia, revision of 2026-04-28
  2. Franklin B. Gowen Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-25

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.