Take a look at the following photographs. They come from the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire of 1911. The first looks unexceptional, perhaps. A building is on fire. But the second show the rest of the story—the bodies you see are young women who had to jump from the building to escape the flames.

This is the story of the infamous Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, one of the most important industrial disasters in US history. The body count was 146 people, 129 women and 17 men.

Why Did So Many Die in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire?

The Triangle Waist Company’s employees made shirts on the eighth floor of the Asch Building in New York City. On March 25 of 1911, a fire broke out on that floor. Given that the company made clothing, copious amounts of flammable material was on hand to feed the fire.

The fire soon spread upward. The workers on floors eight, nine, and ten were trapped by the flames. Why couldn’t they get away?

The doors to the stairways were locked. The company kept the doors locked to prevent workers from taking bathroom breaks. Some tried the fire escapes, but they had been built too cheaply and had collapsed.

Eventually, fire crews arrived. But their ladders only reached to the sixth floor. The workers could not escape.

The workers had to choose how to die in some of the worst ways imaginable. Many burned alive. Some simply jumped from windows when the flames drew too close, young women sometimes holding hands while they plummeted to their deaths together.

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What Were the Effects of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire?

More than 100,000 people marched in support of the dead factory workers. New York City officials investigated. More importantly, they passed dozens of new laws to improve worker safety in factories. These included both fire codes and law against child labor.

The fire also had an influence on some of the greatest reform politicians of the early twentieth century. Al Smith, a progressive governor and the 1928 Democratic presidential candidate, was one. Another was Robert Wagner, from whom the Wagner Act protecting workers rights takes its name. Frances Perkins, Secretary of Labor for Franklin Roosevelt, was another. To this extent, the tragedy had some silver linings.

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The Other Predictable Consequence

That’s not the end of the story, however. By the end of the year, the factory owners, Isaac Harris and Max Blanck, were on trial for manslaughter. They had, after all, prevented the workers from escaping the building when they locked the doors.

If you read this blog regularly, you can guess what happens next. The courts found the factory owners not guilty. In fact, Harris and Blanck profited from the deaths of their workers. They submitted inflated insurance claims after the disaster, turning the blood of their workers into money.

This is the part of the story you aren’t supposed to know. Maybe you’ve heard of Triangle before now, although it’s unlikely. But you’re supposed to remember it as a tragedy. Regrettable, sure, but it led to something better, making it a sign of American progress.

But you’re supposed to forget the part about how the courts did their part to uphold privilege and shield murderers just because they were wealthy. You aren’t supposed to know how those murderers then profited from their crimes even after going free.

This knowledge might produce anger against the system. It might cause you to doubt that justice prevails, or that all are equal under the law. Perhaps you may even suspect that other familiar stories have a darker side you’ve never learned.

If so, please follow this blog and share about it. I’m happy to bring these stories to light, but I need support from readers in order to do so.

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