In the early morning hours of July 6, 1892, silence fell over the Homestead Steel Works in Pittsburg, as steelworkers and laborers waited to defend their steel mill and their jobs. The Homestead Strike was a small civil war between workers and the businessmen who led them...The American Industrial Revolution and the boom and bust economy after the Civil War produced this violent protest and strike against a factory in metallurgy owned by the famous Andrew Carnegie. Like many wealthy businessmen, Carnegie was looking for ways to maximize profit, so he needed to change the wages of the working class and/or dismantle the unions protecting workers... The violent and warlike scene at Homestead was about two important groups in the industrial order: the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel and Tin Workers and the Pinkertons (paid “secret service” mercenaries hired by Carnegie Steel). At this time in the early days of American industry, the Amalgamated Association was beginning to represent the entire working and working class of America, as well as the Pinkertons and the "scabs" (non-union organizations). ...