Everett Massacre Research Paper

The Everett Massacre has been called the bloodiest labor confrontation in the Northwest’s history. The was an armed confrontation between wobblies and local authorities in Everett, Washington. The date that all of this took place on was November 5, 1916. I believe that the main reason that this happened was because local authorities would not let wobblies land for a speech. There were many things that led up to or caused the Everett Massacre. 300 wobblies boarded two boats called the called the Verona and the Calista. (according to elps.com) They headed from Seattle towards Port Gardner Bay. They had planned to have a public demonstration, they were hoping to gain converts for one big labor union. On this day citizens in Everett had heard …show more content…
He proceeded to ask them who was there leader and they responded with they were all leaders. He then informed them that they could not land or get off the ship. Soon after this a gunshot was fired, which was followed by minutes of very chaotic shooting. Nobody was ever able to tell who fired the first shot. Passengers aboard the Verona rushed to the other side of the ship and nearly made the ship capsize. The captain of the Verona struggled to back out of port but then returned to Seattle soon after. The Calista went back to Seattle without even trying to land. There were two deputies that laid on the dock dying and there were twenty others including the Sheriff that were wounded. There were five wobblies that ended up dying and twenty seven were wounded. It is also possible that at least twelve wobblies ended up dying because their bodies were found surreptitiously found by the bay several days later. There was national guard troops sent to Everett and Seattle and terror hung over these cities for several days. On both of these ships there were seventy four wobblies arrested and were taken to Snohomish County jail that was located in Everett. All of them were released except one, Thomas Tracy. He was charged murdering deputies Curtis and Beard. He was acquitted after a dramatic and very publicized