Banks collapsed; railroads rejected workers’ demands; trade and business came to a halt; the strike became increasingly violent for 45 days.
The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 involved more than 100,000 workers, and at its height, more than half of the freight on the nation's railroads had stopped moving. About 1,000 people had been arrested and 100 had died by the time the strikes were done. The strike only made a small amount of progress overall.
Railroad workers' strikes in other states severely hampered trade in the East and Midwest. Within a few weeks, the strikes came to an end, but not before significant acts of violence and damage.
The main railroads in the nation implemented wage reductions as a result of the financial Panic of 1873, which sparked the Great Railroad Strike of 1877. A 10% pay cut that came after several others over the preceding four years was the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back.
