The Doors Were Locked
In 1911, 146 workers — most of them young immigrant women — burned or jumped to their deaths in a New York factory. The exit doors had been locked from the outside.
On a Saturday afternoon in 1911, fire tore through the top floors of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in Manhattan. Within minutes, 146 garment workers — most of them young immigrant women and girls — were dead. Many died because the exit doors had been locked from the outside.
Locked In
The owners kept the doors locked to stop workers from taking unauthorized breaks or pilfering cloth. When the fire broke out, there was no way out. The single flimsy fire escape buckled, and dozens leapt from the ninth-floor windows rather than burn.
They were locked in to keep them working. They died for it.
The Verdict
The factory's owners were tried for manslaughter — and acquitted. The public outrage that followed drove a wave of landmark workplace-safety and labor laws.
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The owners walked free. The laws that came after were written in the names of the dead.
You've Seen the File.
146 dead behind locked factory doors, and the owners acquitted. A terrible accident, or negligence the system excused?
Triangle — David Von Drehle
The definitive account of the fire and the reforms it forced.
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