Karolína Kolářová 31.3.

2018

ALBERT RICHARD
PARSONS
BASIC INFORMATION

Albert Richard Parsons was an American socialist born in Alabama in 1848. He is also known

for his political activism. Parsons spend a lot of time working in newspaper and he also

owned his own newspaper called the Waco Spectator. In the 1880’s he played a huge role in

the Haymarket Affair, unfortunately because of that he had been executed in the age of 39.

EARLY LIFE

Parsons was born on June 24th, 1848 in Montgomery, Alabama. He was born into a family as

one of the ten children and his father was an owner of a shoe and leather factory. When

Parsons was at age 5 a misfortune has happened and he became an orphan. After the death of

his parents his elder brother William Henry Parsons took care of Albert. William was an

owner of a small newspaper in Texas. Most likely this was the reason thanks to which Parsons

created a relationship with journalism. There also played a huge role Parsons’s tutor Esther.

Esther was an African American slave. Even though he served in the Confederate army under

his brother who was the Major during the Civil war the experience with Esther helped him to

shape his egalitarian view on race. When the war ended he directly condemned slavery and

decided to pursue a career as a socialist.

CIVIL WAR

At the age of 13 Parsons decided to volunteer to fight for the forces of the Confederate States

of America. His first utilization was aboard the passenger steamer called Morgan. This

steamer sailed to the Gulf of Mexico to capture the forces of General David E. Twiggs, who

had evacuated Texas on the way to Washington D.C. When Parsons came back he wanted to

enlist in the regular Confederate States Army. So he left his job at the Galveston Daily News

and joined an artillery company at fort at Sabine Pass. Sabine Pass was a fort in Texas and

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Parsons’s elder brother William was the captain of an infantry company there.

Parsons participated in military drill as a ‘‘powder monkey’’ for the cannoneers. After his

expiration of the first enlistment he left Fort Sabine and joined "Parsons's Mounted

Volunteers." 

CAREER

When the war ended Parsons hired ex-slaves to help him harvest corn and from the money he

earned he payed for a tuition at Waco University. After the time spent at college he started

working in a printing office and then he launched his own newspaper called the Waco

Spectator, in 1868. Waco Spectator argued for equal rights for African Americans. Because of

the political situation the paper was not profitable and the publication must have been

finished. After he was forced to terminate his newspaper he found a job as a travelling

correspondent and business agent for the Houston Daily Telegraph. In the course of this job

he met Lucy Ella Gonzalez, who later became his wife. Lucy was a multi-ethnic woman and

she later became famous as a radical political activist. In 1870 he worked as a secretary of the

Texas State Senate and after that he was appointed Chief Deputy Collector of United States

Internal Revenue at Austin. At this position he stayed until 1873. Later in 1873 he moved to

Chicago with his wife and he worked there as a newspaper reporter for the Chicago Times. In

1875 Parsons and his wife joined the Social Democratic Party of America and they were

founder members of the International Working Men’s Association (IWPA). IWPA was a

labor organization which supported racial and sexual equality. IWPA also organised a

campaign for an eight-hour working day. On 1st May, 1886 a strike happened throughout the

United States for support of an eight-hour working day. For the next few days more than

340,000 men and women did not go to their work. The employers were shocked by the show

of unity that they decided to grant a shorter work day. On 3rd May there was another strike

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held outside the McCormick Harvester Works. There were over 1,400 workers joined by

6,000 lumber-shovers. One of the IWPA leaders, August Spies, made a speech and during that

the police showed up and started shooting people in the crowd. They killed four people. The

next day August Spies who was an editor of the Arbeiter-Zeitung published a leaflet which

contained disagreement with what happened and that there should be a revenge. August Spies

also published second leaflet in which were information about the second strike which took

place at Haymarket Square.

HAYMARKET AFFAIR

The Haymarket meeting happened on 4th May at the Haymarket Square. Parsons, August

Spies and Samuel Fielden gave speeches to over than 3,000 people who came to this strike.

Captain Bonfield and other 180 policemen arrived on the square. Captain Bonfield told the

crowd to "disperse immediately and peaceably" but one of the strikers threw a bomb on the

policemen. The bomb exploded and killed eight men a wounded sixty-seven other people.

After that the police immediately attacked the crowd. Many people were killed and more that

200 were badly injured. A man named Rudolph Schnaubelt was accused of committing this

felony but he was released from the jail without charge. After Schnaubelt’s release the police

arrested Samuel Fielden, George Engel, August Spies, Adolph Fisher, Louis Lingg, Oscar

Neebe and Michael Schwab. The police also wanted to arrest Parsons but he went into hiding.

However, on the morning of the trial Parsons appeared in court and stand by his comrades.

Even though there were many proofs that none of the eight man did not throw the bomb the

authorities charged them with conspiracy to commit murder. A detective called Andrew

Johnson infiltrated the group and collected evidence about the eight men. Johnson said that

they were talking about using violence at the anarchist meetings. All eight men were found

guilty. Parsons, Spies, Fisher, Engel and Lingg were given the death penalty. Neebe, Fielden

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and Schwab were sentenced to life imprisonment. On the 11th November 1887 Parsons, Spies,

Fisher and Engel were executed. Lingg committed a suicide the day before.

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CREDITS

http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anarchist_Archives/bright/aparsons/bio.html

http://spartacus-educational.com/USAparsonsA.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Parsons