The Americanization of Sacco and Vanzetti: a Look at the Sacco and Vanzetti Subcollection in the American Radicalism Digital Collection at Michigan State University[1
by Robin Walker

In the 1920’s, at the height of the first Red Scare in the United States, the arrest and trial of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti stood as one of its most symbolic and provocative events.  The trial, one of history’s most famous, stands an emblem of the anti-Red, anti-immigrant hysteria that plagued the US after World War I.  This is due in large part because of the Sacco and Vanzetti Defense Committee and other support organizations whose tactical savvy and diligent work largely defined how the US and international public viewed the trial.  Because of their pamphleteering, the case “almost overnight […] became a symbol of the foreign workers’ problems and misunderstandings.”[2]
    Sacco and Vanzetti support literature drew upon a variety of tactics.  Some pamphlets highlight Sacco and Vanzetti’s labor activism while simultaneously downplaying their radicalism.  A number of writings humanize the men by detailing their biographies and family life, providing touching stories of their experience as Italian immigrants, while at the same time Americanizing them in symbolic—often dramatic—ways.  Portrayals of government authorities involved in the situation as menacing forces striving to subvert justice highlight the American martyr metaphor.
    Sacco and Vanzetti were active participants among the New England Left, anarchists who were well-known local figures.  Both agitated tirelessly to support local labor struggles and rallied against the frequent raids of radical offices and meeting places instigated by then Attorney General, A. Mitchell Palmer and the accusations of violence hurled at New England radicals.  On May 5, 1920, as they rode a streetcar home from a political meeting, their pockets filled with radical literature they had picked up from two other activists, Sacco and Vanzetti were arrested for alleged participation in two holdups.  The first, which took place on December 24, 1919, was an unsuccessful attempt to rob the L.Q. White Shoe Company’s paymaster in Bridgewater, Massachusetts.  The second, occurring on April 15, 1920, was a successful holdup in South Braintree, Massachusetts in which two employees of the Slater and Morrill Shoe Company were shot to death and robbed of the company payroll of over $15,000.[3] 
    The situation was problematic from the onset. When they arrested the men, police almost immediately questioned them about their radical connections and activity.  Fearing deportation for their radical affiliations, both men told lies to avoid punishment and brutal treatment, a factor the prosecution exploited, calling it an acknowledgement of guilt.[4]  However, the Defense Committee utilized the nature of the questioning and the men’s radicalism as a springboard for promoting the prisoners’ cause and portrayed the men as “exemplifying the new martyrdom,” in which “forward thinking” people become targets for government repression.[5]
    The Story of the Sacco and Vanzetti Case, a thick pamphlet published early on in the trial, portrays them thus:

Sacco: A shoe worker, and Vanzetti: an unskilled laborer and fish-vender, are today names surcharged with meaning for the masses of the world.  They have become a symbol of all the forward-striving portion of the working class, and there is surely something inspiring about the fact that ordinary toilers, rather than leaders of fame, should have been accepted by the international proletaire as representatives of the new spirit, as exemplifying the new martyrdom.[6]

 The martyr persona involved careful portrayal of the men’s lives, making them stand out as exemplary individuals who, although immigrants, embodied an American aesthetic and individual triumph over hardship.  In Conspiracy Against Sacco and Vanzetti, both are compared with the Pilgrim forefathers:

During his long years at the trade, Sacco is estimated to have cut more than one hundred thousand shoes, a more substantial contribution to his adopted country than was ever offered by most of the descendents of the Mayflower in the villas near his home […].  [Vanzetti] after several years at various occupations […] became a fish salesman in the city made memorable three hundred years before by the immigration of the Pilgrim Fathers.[7]

 Details of the men’s employment history further dramatize the Protestant work ethic.  Repeatedly, portrayals show Sacco and Vanzetti’s as “humble lives humbly lived.”[8]  Sacco came to the US “ready, ambitious, expectant.”[9]  Sacco learned the art of shoe cutting after a series of low-paying jobs, and “was always at work.” He embodied “skill and reliability,” so much so that his employer at the 3K Shoe Company made him night watchman for a period.[10]

Vanzetti, although also a hard worker, was less adjusted to “the harsh realities of a poor immigrant’s life.” He left a professional life in Italy to follow the culinary trade in America.   However, poor health forced him to seek outdoor employment, and he eventually found his niche peddling fish in the Italian ghettos near Plymouth.[11] 
    The Sacco Vanzetti Case & The Grim Forces highlights similar values in portrayals of Sacco and Vanzetti’s family lives, printing a number of biographical sketches of them and painting their picture in the public eye as ordinary individuals arguing that  “looking at them, talking with them, it would be hard for an intelligent person to conceive of their robbing or murdering any one.”[12] References to Sacco’s life show a loyal son who maintained a high level of honor and filial responsibility and “sent remittances regularly to his parents” in Torremaggiore Italy, where they were respected pillars of the community.[13]  His US lifestyle is presented with similar candor, with Sacco living as a model family head, his life happy and full. Another pamphlet, The Story of the Sacco~Vanzetti Case displays one photograph, taken shortly before Sacco’s arrest in which Nicola stands with his wife, their son Dante smiling happily between them as his father rests a gentle hand on his shoulder.[14]
    Vanzetti in contrast was a dreamer, “more somber, more lonesome” than his partner. [15]  He emigrated to the US after his mother passed away, to put “seas between” him and his grief.  Once in the US, he lived alone.  To emphasize his the melancholic simplicity of his life, in contrast to the photographs of Sacco’s family, pamphlets provide only a single portrait of Vanzetti and another of his fish cart, with nothing but the sky in the background.[16]  His cart stands as a pillar to Protestant and American ideals of simplicity and individualism, of success from hard work and creative dedication.
    But Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were not just simple workers, a loving father and a gentle dreamer: they were dedicated radical labor activists, self-proclaimed anarchists and anti-war agitators.  In the descriptions of their convictions and actions, the Committee’s publications walk a delicate line, detailing Sacco and Vanzetti’s deeds while often making only allusions to their more controversial radicalism.
    In Background of the Plymouth Trial, Vanzetti describes himself and Sacco as:

Anarchists, Italians, and slackers.  As Anarchists, we are the most misunderstood, feared, and hated of individuals by the American ragged and golden mobs.  As Italians we belong to one of the most scorned and despised nationalities, as adversaries of the war, as slackers, we deserve the rope in the opinion of the vulgar majority of the American people, who tried and judged us.[17]

 Their supporters’ writings however, paint a more palatable image of the men,  describing them as “effective propagandists among their countrymen,” who dedicated themselves to improving New England labor conditions:[18] 

Although they were not on the payroll of any union, Sacco and Vanzetti were among the leaders in personal sacrifice and devotion.  Sacco was especially prominent in the Hopedale foundry walk-out and strike, while Vanzetti was among the inspiring leaders of the Plymouth cordage strike.

             The Sacco-Vanzetti National League, composed of self-proclaimed “liberals” who were “not in sympathy with
the political theories of Sacco and Vanzetti,” also glossed over the men’s views and personal lives, preferring to concentrate on the trial and evidence. Politely referring to them as “two Italian idealists” who did not receive a fair trial, the League almost entirely sidesteps any discussion of politics. [19]  The trial evidence they provide stands alone as testimony on Sacco and Vanzetti’s behalf.

Almost all defense pamphlets only infer Sacco and Vanzetti’s radicalism through their work on behalf of “comrades ruthlessly, oftimes illegally, jailed and exiled during and immediately after the war.”[20]  Given that Vanzetti proclaimed himself a “slacker,” one can guess that some of these comrades in mention were resistors during World War I.   The Sacco Vanzetti Case & The Grim Forces simply alludes to “the Big Idea” to which Sacco and Vanzetti ascribed, that of “the right of the producer to a full share of what he produces,” but does not elaborate much more other than to mention their strike participation.[21]

            In contrast, the intentions of Judge Thayer, who presided over the trial, as well as those of police and Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer, are dramatically detailed, drawing them as a corrupt and dastardly lot.  In 1927, the Daily Worker published a series of cartoons that illustrate the prevailing sentiment.  Drawn in charcoal, the cartoons are dark, showing forbidding scenes of trial, punishment, and death.  In one, published on the day of Sacco and Vanzetti’s execution, Liberty’s head, reduced to a skull donning a crown, sits upon a Death warrant for Sacco, Vanzetti, workers, and reds.  Birds fly above her head, a hint that freedom can overcome injustice.[22]  A second shows a reaper-like Judge Thayer, the man who presided over the case,  almost exploding over his desk as he gives a down-turned thumb to Sacco and Vanzetti, sending them to their prison cells.[23]

            Another pamphlet provides a photograph of Attorney General Palmer with a confident expression adorning his face.  Palmer, who maintained a number of anti-Communist, anti-Red policies throughout his career, appears smug—almost menacing, as he looks into the camera.  Years later, the International Labor Defense compared Palmer’s “red delirium” to the Massachusetts witch hunts.[24]  Other writings described Judge Thayer, Bridgewater Police Chief Michael Stewart, and other government officials supporting, promoting and enforcing punitive policies aimed at labor activists as members of an inquisition.[25]  Yes another labeled the Secret Service “lawless.”[26]

            These views portray officials as anti-progress, lacking American values such as justice, prudence, and respect for freedom of expression.  In contrast, Sacco and Vanzetti although radicals and foreigners, seem to embody many more of these typical American attributes.  Throughout their trial, pamphlets reframed the concept of “other,” placing that label on institutional representatives while attempting to bestow esteem onto two immigrants from Italy, embedding them firmly into the web of the American experience.

            Despite their methods, the defense strategy failed to save Sacco and Vanzetti from the electric chair, upon which they were “legally murdered by the State of Massachusetts” on August 22, 1927.[27]  Although not exonerated, the men’s execution sealed them in US history.  Despite the trial and execution’s exposure of racial prejudice and fears of radicalism, it facilitated an examination on the role of immigrants in the American fabric.  What began as a rather simple murder trial expanded into a rallying point for the left, and transformed Sacco and Vanzetti from Italian immigrants to American martyrs.