Chicago Anarchists on Trial: Evidence from the Haymarket Affair

Autobiographies of Two Defendants

In August 1886, while awaiting word on their appeal for a Writ of Error from the Illinois Supreme Court, the Haymarket defendants began writing their autobiographies for publication in the Knights of Labor, a newspaper published by the Chicago organization of the Knights of Labor. Autobiographies of all the defendants, except Louis Lingg, were published in this newspaper between October 1886 and April of 1887. Included in the presentation of the Chicago Anarchists on Trial: Evidence from the Haymarket Affair are the original manuscripts of two of these autobiographies,

detail from first page of autobiography of August Sp ies
Original manuscript for autobiography of
August Spies
detail from first page of autbiography of Albert Pars ons
Original manuscript for autobiography of
Albert Parsons

These handwritten manuscripts with extensive revisions and annotations by the authors are available in both full-color image form and as full-searchable text. The estate of Dr. Ernst Schmidt donated the biographies to the Chicago Historical Society in 1900. Schmidt, a German-born Chicago physician, socialist, and political activist, served as the organizer and treasurer of the defendants' Defense Committee.

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