Samuel Fielden

Samuel "Sam" Fielden (February 25, 1847 – February 7, 1922) was an English-born American Methodist pastor, socialist, anarchist and labor activist who was one of eight convicted in the 1886 Haymarket bombing.

Samuel Fielden was born in Todmorden, Lancashire, England to Abraham and Alice (née Jackson) Fielden. Fielden barely knew his mother who died when he was 10 years old. His father was an impoverished foreman at a cotton mill and was, himself, an active labor and social activist. He was active in the 10-hour day movement in England and was also a chartist.

Samuel Fielden went to work at the age of eight in the cotton mills and was impressed with the poor working conditions. He emigrated to the United States after he had come of age. In 1869, he moved to Chicago where he worked various jobs, sometimes even traveling to the south to pursue work opportunities. Finally he settled permanently in Chicago and became a self-employed teamster. He also studied Theology and became a lay preacher of the Episcopal Methodist Church. Although the church never ordered priest, he served as a lay pastor in several congregations of workers in downtown Chicago.

There he became acquainted with socialist thinking and in 1884, joined the cause full-time, becoming a member of the American Group faction of the International Working Men's Association, and later being appointed its treasurer. He became a frequent and eloquent speaker in the labor rights cause. He married in 1880 and had two children, the second of which was born while he was in prison.

On May 3, 1886, Fielden was speaking at Grief's Hall in Chicago. This was the same place and time as the infamous "Monday Night Conspiracy," which, prosecutors later claimed, was where the Haymarket defendants planned violence for the following day. However, Fielden was speaking to a different group from the other so-called conspirators and had no knowledge of the other meeting.

The following day, Fielden was working delivering stone to German Waldheim Cemetery and had not heard of the planned demonstration at Haymarket for that night. He had promised to speak to some workers, but upon returning home, he learned of an urgent meeting of the American Group at the office of the Arbeiter-Zeitung, a German-language workers rights newspaper. Feeling it was his duty to attend this meeting as treasurer of the American Group, he abandoned his other engagement. It was only after he arrived at the meeting that he learned of the Haymarket demonstration.

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