General Information
Mary Harris Jones was born on August 1, 1837 in Cork, Ireland. Her family consisted of her parents, Helen Cotter and Richard Harris, as well as her two brothers and two sisters. Her dad moved to North America in the 1840. The rest of the family moved shortly after. They lived in Toronto, Canada, where Mary graduated school. She then got a job teaching at a convent in Monroe, Michigan. Years later Mary moved to Chicago and attempted a career in dressmaking. This did not work out for her so she went back to teaching, but this time in Memphis, Tennessee. In 1861 she married a man named George E. Jones and had four children. Six years later Mary’s husband and four children died from a yellow fever epidemic. She moved back Chicago and opened a seamstress shop. Her business was finally successful but sadly the Chicago fire of 1871, claimed all of her possessions. After that she then joined the Knight of Labor and dedicated the rest of her life to the labor struggle for reasonable and humane working conditions and wages.
Thesis
Mary Harris Jones was a one of a kind labor activist who made workers realize what power they had. Without her, there would be no world as we know it.