Blog Assignment #2 Headley Great Riots 1877

Hello, my name is Taylor Alford and I attend Laguardia Community College. This week in my Violence in American Art and Culture class (ENN 195) we've discussed Headley's view on the Great Riots of 1877. Headley mentions several principles of communism of which the rioters followed by. There was this one passage in particular that interested me, "No! No matter how needy your families may be you shall not do this work. Nobody shall do it except on our own terms". The rioters were preventing other people who are in desperate need of work to replace them under any means necessary. Their actions are violations of people's right to work for whatever wage they agree upon. Headley also states, “They may cut down the price of wages, but that is not so criminal as to tear down houses and make a wreck of human property”. He suggests that although the rioters believe their employers are committing a crime against them morally, it is not considered an actual crime compared to the chaos they have caused. It was somewhat unclear to me if Headley was against the rioters or for them.

Blog Assignment #1 9.19.14

As I was reading chapter 7 of The Flour Riot of 1837, I've noticed a statement in particular, "In front of the store, and far beyond it, the flour lay half-knee deep- a sad spectacle in the view of the daily increasing scarcity of grain". (Headley 109) I was curious as to why were people destroying the very thing they demanded. Which brings me to the point we've discussed last class about the "starving" and "suffering" issue. The rioters' actions help prove Headley's claim about people not "actually starving" to be true. I believe the rioters destroyed the flour to make the company owners suffer as citizens were suffering financially. This, in a way, explains the difference between "starving" and "suffering". My question is, although it was a way to strike at the companies, was it really wise to waste the flour?