Hill, Joe

orig. Joel Emmanuel Hägglund

(born Oct. 7, 1879, Gävle, Swed.—died Nov. 19, 1915, Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S.) Swedish-U.S. songwriter and organizer for the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). Hill immigrated to the U.S. c. 1902 and joined the IWW in 1910. His songs of protest and solidarity—including “The Preacher and the Slave,” in which he coined the phrase to mock the “reward” awaiting the meek in the next world—became widely popular. In 1914 he was arrested in Salt Lake City and charged with the murder of a grocer and his son during a robbery. Convicted on circumstantial evidence despite mass demonstrations on his behalf, Hill was executed by a firing squad. His death made him a martyr in the eyes of the radical U.S. labour movement.

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