Samuel Fielden
Samuel Fielden (February 25, 1847 – February 7, 1922) was an English-born American labor activist and anarchist best known as one of eight defendants convicted in the Haymarket affair trial after a bomb exploded during a workers' rally in Chicago on May 4, 1886, killing seven police officers and injuring dozens more.[1] Originally a Methodist lay preacher from a working-class family in Todmorden, England, Fielden immigrated to the United States in 1868, taking up manual labor jobs before aligning with socialist causes in the 1880s as treasurer of the American Group of the International Working People's Association, an anarchist organization advocating for the eight-hour workday and workers' rights.[2][1] At the Haymarket rally, organized to protest police violence against strikers the previous day, Fielden was delivering a speech from a wagon when police advanced to disperse the crowd; moments later, an unknown assailant threw a dynamite bomb into their ranks, prompting chaotic gunfire that wounded Fielden in the knee.[1] Arrested at home the next day, he was charged with conspiracy to murder despite denying knowledge of the bombing or any plot, and in a trial marked by allegations of judicial bias and circumstantial evidence linking defendants to prior anarchist agitation, Fielden was sentenced to death in 1887—later commuted to life imprisonment—alongside others whose executions drew international controversy over the proceedings' fairness.[3] Pardoned in 1893 by Illinois Governor John Peter Altgeld, who criticized the trial as prejudiced against labor radicals, Fielden retreated to a quiet life on a Colorado ranch, avoiding further activism until his death from natural causes nearly three decades later.[3][1]
Early Life and Background
Family Origins and Childhood in England
Samuel Fielden was born on February 25, 1847, in Todmorden, a manufacturing town straddling the Lancashire-Yorkshire border in England, known for its cotton mills and small dairy farms. His father, Abram Fielden, was a hand-loom weaver who transitioned to operating steam looms and eventually became a foreman at the large Fielden Brothers mill; Abram hailed from a family of four sons and three daughters and stood nearly six feet tall. Fielden's mother, Alice Jackson, was of small stature with dark eyes and hair, originating from a very poor family and adhering devoutly to Primitive Methodism. The family resided in modest circumstances typical of Lancashire's working class, with Fielden having three brothers and three sisters.[2][4] Fielden's early childhood was marked by limited formal education and familial hardships. At around age six or seven, he attended a spinster's school for six months, where he learned basic reading skills, later honing his literacy by deciphering advertisements and books such as Uncle Tom's Cabin. A malignant fever struck him at age three, which he shared with his father in the same bed, highlighting the cramped living conditions. His mother's death when he was ten years old—around 1857—left a profound impact, as he recalled her final moments vividly; Alice Jackson Fielden died at age 43, leaving the family without her influence.[2][5][6] At the age of eight, as was customary for children of poor families in Lancashire, Fielden entered the cotton mill workforce, beginning with stripping spools under harsh oversight. He endured physical punishments from overlookers for perceived infractions, such as dropping spools, and worked amid the din and danger of machinery. From ages ten to eighteen, he tended an elevator moving spools between carding and warping rooms, later learning weaving from his father and advancing to beaming warps by age eighteen. These experiences exposed him to the exploitative labor conditions of industrial England, shaping his early views on work and authority; his father, despite his foreman role, could not shield him from the mill's rigors. Fielden continued full-time mill labor until age twenty-one, when broader influences began altering his path.[2][7][4]Immigration and Initial Settlement in America
Samuel Fielden emigrated from England to the United States in July 1868, shortly after reaching the age of 21.[2][8] Upon arrival, he initially found employment in the textile industry in New York State, continuing the type of factory labor he had performed since childhood in British cotton mills.[9] In August 1869, Fielden relocated to Chicago, Illinois, establishing it as his principal residence for the subsequent years.[10][8] There, he took up various manual labor positions, including work as a teamster hauling stone with a horse-drawn wagon, and occasionally traveled southward for jobs on levees and railroads.[8][4] By the mid-1880s, he had resided in the city for approximately 17 years, with intermittent absences for seasonal employment.[8]Ideological Development and Activism
Shift from Methodism to Anarchism
Fielden, born into a working-class family in Todmorden, Lancashire, England, on February 25, 1847, entered the workforce at age eight in a cotton mill, enduring long hours under harsh conditions that shaped his early worldview. Influenced by his father's Chartist sympathies and anti-aristocratic sentiments, he joined the Wesleyan Methodist Church in 1865, becoming deeply involved in its activities, including prayer meetings, revival services, and Sunday school superintendence. By 1868, he had qualified as an authorized local preacher, devoting significant time to religious exhortation amid the industrial poverty of northern England.[2] Emigrating to the United States in July 1868 at age 21, Fielden initially continued some religious involvement while taking manual labor jobs in mills, farming, and construction, including work on the Illinois and Michigan Canal and Chicago's parks from 1871. Exposure to American industrial exploitation and lectures on freethought prompted a profound disillusionment with Methodist doctrines; by 1870, he identified as a freethinker, rejecting supernatural claims after personal reflection and discussions that highlighted inconsistencies in biblical narratives and church authority. This break marked a rejection of organized religion's emphasis on passive acceptance of suffering, which he increasingly viewed as incompatible with the material realities of proletarian life.[2] In Chicago's burgeoning labor scene, Fielden's evolving skepticism intertwined with observations of wage slavery and class antagonism, leading him to socialist circles. He joined the International Working People's Association (IWPA)—an anarchist-influenced group advocating workers' self-organization—in 1883, initially as a socialist speaker at labor assemblies. By 1884, following study of its principles, he transitioned fully to anarchism, embracing anti-statist mutual aid and direct action as remedies for capitalism's ills, a stance solidified through participation in the IWPA's American Group and agitation for the eight-hour day. This ideological pivot reflected not mere opportunism but a reasoned response to empirical failures of reformist religion and politics, prioritizing collective emancipation over individual salvation.[2][9]Pre-Haymarket Labor and Revolutionary Activities
Fielden began his organized labor involvement in Chicago during the summer of 1880 by joining the newly formed Teamsters' Union, where he was elected vice-president.[11] In the fall of that year, he affiliated with the Liberal League at 54 West Lake Street, eventually serving as financial secretary and vice-president, and acting as a delegate advocating for labor issues.[11] By 1883, Fielden was regularly speaking at labor meetings on the lake front and other venues in the city, addressing grievances such as exploitative working conditions.[11] In the summer of 1884, Fielden embraced socialism and joined the International Working People's Association (IWPA), an anarchist-oriented labor organization, while also affiliating with the Socialist Labor Party around July of that year.[11][8] He served as treasurer of the IWPA's American Group and became known as an effective public speaker, addressing open-air meetings and halls in Chicago, as well as in St. Louis and Cincinnati.[12][13] Fielden contributed writings to The Alarm, the IWPA's Chicago newspaper, including commentary in 1885 critiquing the superficiality of the eight-hour workday demand without broader systemic change, arguing that "whether a man works eight or ten hours a day, the amount of wealth he produces is the property of another."[14] Fielden's pre-Haymarket activism centered on propagating anarchist ideas through speeches that emphasized workers' self-organization and resistance to capitalist exploitation, often drawing crowds with his homespun oratorical style derived from his Methodist preaching background.[12][13] He supported the broader eight-hour movement but framed it within revolutionary labor politics, participating in organizational efforts like mass meetings and union formations leading up to the 1886 strikes.[11][12]
The Haymarket Affair
Broader Context of 1886 Strikes and Tensions
The 1886 strikes arose from mounting worker discontent with protracted daily labor shifts, typically 10 to 12 hours in unsafe factories and mills, amid rapid industrialization that prioritized output over employee welfare.[15] In response, labor organizations sought to enforce shorter workdays through collective action. The Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions, at its 1884 Chicago convention, resolved that "eight hours shall constitute a legal day's labor from and after May 1, 1886," setting the stage for synchronized nationwide demonstrations.[16] On May 1, 1886, the call mobilized approximately 340,000 workers across the United States, with Chicago emerging as the movement's hub where 35,000 struck initially, joined by tens of thousands more in subsequent days.[17] The Knights of Labor, whose membership had swelled to over 700,000 by mid-1886, coordinated much of the effort, encompassing skilled and unskilled laborers in assemblies advocating broader reforms.[18] Parallel involvement from anarchist groups, including the International Working People's Association, infused the strikes with calls for systemic overhaul, heightening ideological divides.[19] Employer countermeasures, including importation of strikebreakers and enlistment of private guards, provoked confrontations, exacerbated by law enforcement's alignment with capital interests.[20] On May 3, tensions erupted at Chicago's McCormick Harvesting Machine Company, where police dispersed a gathering of strikers protesting scabs, firing into the crowd and killing at least two workers while wounding others.[20][21] This bloodshed galvanized radicals to organize a protest meeting the next day at Haymarket Square, underscoring the volatile interplay of economic grievances, union militancy, and state force.[22]Fielden's Role in the May 4 Meeting and Immediate Aftermath
Samuel Fielden participated in the labor protest meeting at Haymarket Square on May 4, 1886, which had been organized in response to police violence against strikers at the McCormick Reaper Works the previous day. As a member of the International Working People's Association and treasurer of its American Group, Fielden attended after noticing an announcement in the Daily News and first joining a preliminary gathering at 107 Fifth Avenue around 7:50 p.m.[8] The group then proceeded to Haymarket Square, where Fielden spoke from a wagon after Albert Parsons, addressing an audience of approximately 2,000 for about 20 minutes.[8] In his speech, he discussed criticisms of socialism, poor labor conditions, the need for worker organization, and figuratively described throttling unjust laws, while discouraging the boycott of the red flag as a symbol of freedom.[8] Around 10:30 p.m., as Fielden continued speaking, police Captain Michael Ward ordered the crowd to disperse, prompting Fielden to jump down from the wagon and declare, "All right, we will go."[8] Moments later, an unknown individual threw a bomb at the advancing police, killing Officer Mathias Degan and injuring dozens, which ignited gunfire between police and some in the crowd.[23] Fielden fled southeast through the chaos, sustaining a gunshot wound to the knee from police fire, after which he sought medical aid before returning home.[8] He denied any prior knowledge of violence, dynamite, or intent to incite riot, testifying that the meeting had remained peaceful until the police intervention.[8] Fielden was arrested at his home the following morning, May 5, 1886, by Chicago police in connection with the bombing and ensuing deaths of seven officers and several civilians.[12] Despite his wound, he was not immediately linked to bomb-throwing but charged alongside other anarchist leaders for conspiracy to murder, based on allegations that his speech and association incited the violence.[12] In his trial testimony, Fielden maintained he had complied with dispersal orders and fled only to escape the shooting, emphasizing no call to arms occurred during his address.[8]