The United States’ vast industrial growth after the Civil War was accompanied by growth in the hoarding of industrial wealth by elites, as well as the growth of industrial workers’ organizations and unrest. A major plank in the workers’ platform was the desire for a universal eight-hour workday. America’s biggest and most influential industrial center at the time was Chicago, Illinois. In spring 1886, a combination of Chicago union leaders, anarchists, and socialists advocated for a national general strike to take place on May 1 to demand the universal enactment of an eight-hour workday. The call for a general strike was successful, so much so that socialists and workers around the world still celebrate May 1 as May Day, with its focus on the dignity of the industrial worker. At the time, though, the demonstrations, though mostly peaceful, were greeted with fear and negative news coverage. Hundreds of thousands of workers walked off their jobs around the country, none more than in Chicago. On May 3, police fired on strikers outside the McCormick reaper plant, killing at least two strikers and probably many more. Leaflets immediately went out, including the one below, calling for a protest the next day at Haymarket Square, a commercial district in Chicago. This leaflet was revised quickly upon its issuance, with the call for workers to arm themselves removed, but many others went out calling for “revenge.”