Introduction
Everyone knows the American Civil War was the largest civil uprising in the history of the United States, but have you heard of the second largest insurrection? The battle of Blair Mountain was the culmination of nearly a decade of mistreatment and exploitation of the coal miners in southern West Virginia. The incident was not diffused until federal troops were called in to diffuse the situation. While it is easy to paint the coal mine operators and federal government as evildoers in this conflict, one must look at what else was going on in the United States and in the world, in fact, public opinion was widely against the efforts by the miners. In the first world war, Russia had to pull out due to a communist revolution led by Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks. Along with victory of the great war, America saw a wave of national hysteria of communist and anarchist rebellion, also known as the first red scare, which occurred approximately 1919 to 1920.
Along with the industrial revolution followed an unquenchable thirst for coal. Necessary in sustaining the new American way of life were the coal miners that had flocked to remote areas of southern West Virginia and Kentucky. This required coal mining companies to design and build all the necessities of life for their workers, such as company towns, recreation centers and stores. Isolated from any other civilization, most companies took advantage of their monopoly by charging exorbitant prices and providing the bare minimum for workers and their families. By raising the cost of living past the minimal wages the miners made, Mine companies found themselves in a position where their workers were constantly indebted to them.
One of the first violent encounters between coal mine operators and miners was the Matewan Massacre in 1920. In which pro-union police chief and mayor of the small town engaged in a firefight with agents of Baldwin-Felts, a private investigator company typically hired by coal mine companies infamous for their brutal oppression against union organizers. Not another year passed until some ten thousand armed workers marched on the coal site in a standoff. Over one million shots were fired before President William Harding had to call in federal troops to suppress the uprising. The federal governments intervention in the Battle of Mount Blair was not only a response to the strike but a reaction to widespread fears of an impending communist revolution in the United States. The armed miners were portrayed as belligerent communist militants by the media and not to be negotiated with.
This photograph depicts militiamen stationed at Union Stations during the Boston Police Strike. Another famous strike that contributed to the Red Scare was the Boston Policeman’s Strike which occurred September 9, 1919. In response to a combination of stagnant wages in the wake of rampant inflation, poor living conditions and long work weeks three quarters of the Boston Police force held a strike. In days of lawlessness, state militiamen intervened in place of the police to keep the peace. In an article posted on iBoston.org, the author describes the cause in tensions between the police officers and leadership, “state officials focused on the legitimacy of public employees unionizing rather than the validity of the officers’ complaints”. In the eyes of leadership and the media and in turn the population especially during the Red Scare, submitting to a police union put the public in danger, and could possibly cause a section of government to operate in ways a communist government would. The lawlessness which consisted of looting and gambling in the streets also caused mass hysteria throughout the country; hysteria and paranoia that if public servants were communist agents then the public was not safe.
Ernie Ford’s song “Sixteen Tons” depicts the struggles of a miner working and living in a coal company. The chorus resonates with the lives of the coal miners of Blair Mountain and likely all miners at that time, it asks what you get after loading sixteen tons as a coal miner, “another day older and deeper in debt”. This increase in debt of the coal miners is in reference to high prices the company stores charged for necessities of life, accordingly low were the wages coal miners made. They were forced to buy company currency called, scrip, which was a system of credit that the miners could charge and their future pay would be accordingly deducted. Unsafe working conditions were also a problem for miners, which was not covered in the song but by Brandon Weber in an article posted on Upworthy.com, writes about how “Fatal accidents were frequent, and illnesses such as black lung disease claimed miners and their families alike”.
The article also covers the tendency of mine companies to hire Baldwin-Felts Agents, notorious for breaking strikes and diffusing unions. Agents used any means necessary to crack down on strikers. After one specific mining company hired the agents to crack down on strikers, strikers backed by Matewan police chief Sid Hatfield, one thing led to another and a handful of people died in what is known by miners as the Battle of Matewan, known by miners as the Matewan Massacre. Months later Sid Hatfield was killed in vengeance by Baldwin-Felts agents for the deaths of their fellow agents in the battle.
In an article written by the New Washington Times at the time of the battle of Blair Mountain before federal intervention. For an unknown reason, the author uses various subliminal tactics to portray the miners as violent cowards and ignore their ambitions for attacking in the first place. In an article published by the New York Times, an unnamed reporter writes, “Several times they have dashed forward, assaulting the Logan defenders on the mountain-tops. As many times they have been unable to meet the fire which greeted them”. This article depicts the company agents as heroes, defending Logan County from armed militants. When really the miners are just fighting for better working conditions. It is unclear why the author of the article would write in such a way; one possibility is that it is an attempt to calm the nerves of the population, who were under duress from the Red Scare.
Whether their motives were to quell the worries of the population or meet the demands of the coal mining companies is unknown. The “Logan defenders” were willing to not only drop tear gas on their miners, but bombs as well. The photo above shows miners holding a bomb dropped on them during the battle of Blair Mountain. As one can see, the bomb is quite large and is likely the same type of weapon used in the first world war. This shows the relentlessness of the Baldwin-Felts agents and their determination to bring the strikers to submission. While one could argue that the agents were acting only because they were being payed to do so, I believe they saw themselves as fighting communists first hand and upholding the capitalist status quo. The entire nation was watching, and they did not want to cause more fear by failing.
This piece below looks to be a piece of propaganda for the people of West Virginia. The poster depicts supply wagons of ammunition and supplies going in to satisfy the needs of the soldiers on the front lines fighting the miners. In the bottom right there is an insert shown of Colonel Anderson, the one in command of the troops at Camp Dix. It seems that the state of West Virignia was in a state of terror as miners and “Logan defenders” were skirmishing. People were afraid that if the miners had won the battle than maybe the entire state would turn into a place as lawlessness as the city of Boston during the police strike. This photo is likely to show that there is no fear to be had as the United States Army will take it from there.
The efforts of this website is not to suggest that the miners were communists or a danger to the population, but that history is a very complicated topic and must be studied extensively before coming to any decision on the past, and had the miners fought for their rights as workers at an earlier time in period, then maybe they'd have successfully met their goal through peace. Although it is not the aim of this website, just to elaborate on what may have been contributing to the merciless acts against American civilians. I am satisfied with the work I have done because it helps me understand how this unfolded, before I was baffled by how nonexistent the public outcry was against the battle, and now I have come to understand it was a result of the red scare and a lack of unbiased information about the issue.
Primary sources Cited:
Secondary sources cited:
David, Wieneke. “The Boston Police Strike .” IBoston, Boston History and Architecture, 31 Dec. 2008, www.iboston.org/mcp.php?pid=policeStrike.
“The Red Scare.” Ushistory.org, Independence Hall Association, www.ushistory.org/us/47a.asp
Weber, Brandon. “Ever Heard of the Battle of Blair Mountain? Federal Troops Were Called against 13,000 Miners.” Upworthy, Upworthy, 28 Apr. 2015, www.upworthy.com/ever-heard-of-the-battle-of-blair-mountain-federal-troops-were-called-against-13000-miners.
Along with the industrial revolution followed an unquenchable thirst for coal. Necessary in sustaining the new American way of life were the coal miners that had flocked to remote areas of southern West Virginia and Kentucky. This required coal mining companies to design and build all the necessities of life for their workers, such as company towns, recreation centers and stores. Isolated from any other civilization, most companies took advantage of their monopoly by charging exorbitant prices and providing the bare minimum for workers and their families. By raising the cost of living past the minimal wages the miners made, Mine companies found themselves in a position where their workers were constantly indebted to them.
One of the first violent encounters between coal mine operators and miners was the Matewan Massacre in 1920. In which pro-union police chief and mayor of the small town engaged in a firefight with agents of Baldwin-Felts, a private investigator company typically hired by coal mine companies infamous for their brutal oppression against union organizers. Not another year passed until some ten thousand armed workers marched on the coal site in a standoff. Over one million shots were fired before President William Harding had to call in federal troops to suppress the uprising. The federal governments intervention in the Battle of Mount Blair was not only a response to the strike but a reaction to widespread fears of an impending communist revolution in the United States. The armed miners were portrayed as belligerent communist militants by the media and not to be negotiated with.
This photograph depicts militiamen stationed at Union Stations during the Boston Police Strike. Another famous strike that contributed to the Red Scare was the Boston Policeman’s Strike which occurred September 9, 1919. In response to a combination of stagnant wages in the wake of rampant inflation, poor living conditions and long work weeks three quarters of the Boston Police force held a strike. In days of lawlessness, state militiamen intervened in place of the police to keep the peace. In an article posted on iBoston.org, the author describes the cause in tensions between the police officers and leadership, “state officials focused on the legitimacy of public employees unionizing rather than the validity of the officers’ complaints”. In the eyes of leadership and the media and in turn the population especially during the Red Scare, submitting to a police union put the public in danger, and could possibly cause a section of government to operate in ways a communist government would. The lawlessness which consisted of looting and gambling in the streets also caused mass hysteria throughout the country; hysteria and paranoia that if public servants were communist agents then the public was not safe.
Ernie Ford’s song “Sixteen Tons” depicts the struggles of a miner working and living in a coal company. The chorus resonates with the lives of the coal miners of Blair Mountain and likely all miners at that time, it asks what you get after loading sixteen tons as a coal miner, “another day older and deeper in debt”. This increase in debt of the coal miners is in reference to high prices the company stores charged for necessities of life, accordingly low were the wages coal miners made. They were forced to buy company currency called, scrip, which was a system of credit that the miners could charge and their future pay would be accordingly deducted. Unsafe working conditions were also a problem for miners, which was not covered in the song but by Brandon Weber in an article posted on Upworthy.com, writes about how “Fatal accidents were frequent, and illnesses such as black lung disease claimed miners and their families alike”.
The article also covers the tendency of mine companies to hire Baldwin-Felts Agents, notorious for breaking strikes and diffusing unions. Agents used any means necessary to crack down on strikers. After one specific mining company hired the agents to crack down on strikers, strikers backed by Matewan police chief Sid Hatfield, one thing led to another and a handful of people died in what is known by miners as the Battle of Matewan, known by miners as the Matewan Massacre. Months later Sid Hatfield was killed in vengeance by Baldwin-Felts agents for the deaths of their fellow agents in the battle.
In an article written by the New Washington Times at the time of the battle of Blair Mountain before federal intervention. For an unknown reason, the author uses various subliminal tactics to portray the miners as violent cowards and ignore their ambitions for attacking in the first place. In an article published by the New York Times, an unnamed reporter writes, “Several times they have dashed forward, assaulting the Logan defenders on the mountain-tops. As many times they have been unable to meet the fire which greeted them”. This article depicts the company agents as heroes, defending Logan County from armed militants. When really the miners are just fighting for better working conditions. It is unclear why the author of the article would write in such a way; one possibility is that it is an attempt to calm the nerves of the population, who were under duress from the Red Scare.
Whether their motives were to quell the worries of the population or meet the demands of the coal mining companies is unknown. The “Logan defenders” were willing to not only drop tear gas on their miners, but bombs as well. The photo above shows miners holding a bomb dropped on them during the battle of Blair Mountain. As one can see, the bomb is quite large and is likely the same type of weapon used in the first world war. This shows the relentlessness of the Baldwin-Felts agents and their determination to bring the strikers to submission. While one could argue that the agents were acting only because they were being payed to do so, I believe they saw themselves as fighting communists first hand and upholding the capitalist status quo. The entire nation was watching, and they did not want to cause more fear by failing.
This piece below looks to be a piece of propaganda for the people of West Virginia. The poster depicts supply wagons of ammunition and supplies going in to satisfy the needs of the soldiers on the front lines fighting the miners. In the bottom right there is an insert shown of Colonel Anderson, the one in command of the troops at Camp Dix. It seems that the state of West Virignia was in a state of terror as miners and “Logan defenders” were skirmishing. People were afraid that if the miners had won the battle than maybe the entire state would turn into a place as lawlessness as the city of Boston during the police strike. This photo is likely to show that there is no fear to be had as the United States Army will take it from there.
The efforts of this website is not to suggest that the miners were communists or a danger to the population, but that history is a very complicated topic and must be studied extensively before coming to any decision on the past, and had the miners fought for their rights as workers at an earlier time in period, then maybe they'd have successfully met their goal through peace. Although it is not the aim of this website, just to elaborate on what may have been contributing to the merciless acts against American civilians. I am satisfied with the work I have done because it helps me understand how this unfolded, before I was baffled by how nonexistent the public outcry was against the battle, and now I have come to understand it was a result of the red scare and a lack of unbiased information about the issue.
Primary sources Cited:
- Boston Public Library, Truck with militiamen at Union Station, police strike, Photographer: Leslie Jones taken in 1919 https://dp.la/item/b60fbdb4d3b791c31ec389cba05bfaef?back_uri=https%3A%2F%2Fdp.la%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Dboston%2Bpolice%2Bstrike&next=2&previous=0
- "Sixteen Tons" - Ernie Ford, In this song by Ernie Ford, the life of a coal miner is depicted. “Sixteen Tons” – Ernie Ford, 1946, song, ernieford.com http://www.ernieford.com/SIXTEENTONS.html
- The Washington Times (Washington D.C.), September 01, 1921, FINAL HOME EDITION, Page 2, Image 2, Col. 1-2. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84026749/1921-09-01/ed-1/seq-2/#date1=1921&index=0&rows=20&searchType=advanced&language=&sequence=0&words=Battle+battle+Counties+COUNTY+county+LOGAN+Logan+Miner+miners+Miners+union&proxdistance=5&date2=1921&ortext=&proxtext=&phrasetext=&andtext=miners%2C+battle%2C+union%2C+Logan+County&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1
- Charleston Gazette, September 11, 1921, photo UMW officials and members display a bomb dropped on them during the Battle of Blair Mountain http://www.wvculture.org/HiStory/labor/mwnews.html
- Supply Wagons carrying food and ammunition followed close in the wake of the troops up at Coal River toward the firing line on the Boone-Lagoon border, Colonel Anderson, in command shown in insert, Charleston Gazette, September 6, 1921. http://www.wvculture.org/HiStory/labor/mwnews.html
Secondary sources cited:
David, Wieneke. “The Boston Police Strike .” IBoston, Boston History and Architecture, 31 Dec. 2008, www.iboston.org/mcp.php?pid=policeStrike.
“The Red Scare.” Ushistory.org, Independence Hall Association, www.ushistory.org/us/47a.asp
Weber, Brandon. “Ever Heard of the Battle of Blair Mountain? Federal Troops Were Called against 13,000 Miners.” Upworthy, Upworthy, 28 Apr. 2015, www.upworthy.com/ever-heard-of-the-battle-of-blair-mountain-federal-troops-were-called-against-13000-miners.
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