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| coal mining in west virginia history: The Devil Is Here in These Hills James Green, 2015-02-03 “The most comprehensive and comprehendible history of the West Virginia Coal War I’ve ever read.” —John Sayles, writer and director of Matewan On September 1, 1912, the largest, most protracted, and deadliest working-class uprising in American history was waged in West Virginia. On one side were powerful corporations whose millions bought armed guards and political influence. On the other side were fifty thousand mine workers, the nation’s largest labor union, and the legendary “miners’ angel,” Mother Jones. The fight for unionization and civil rights sparked a political crisis that verged on civil war, stretching from the creeks and hollows of the Appalachians to the US Senate. Attempts to unionize were met with stiff resistance. Fundamental rights were bent—then broken. The violence evolved from bloody skirmishes to open armed conflict, as an army of more than fifty thousand miners finally marched to an explosive showdown. Extensively researched and vividly told, this definitive book about an often-overlooked chapter of American history, “gives this backwoods struggle between capital and labor the due it deserves. [Green] tells a dark, often despairing story from a century ago that rings true today” (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette). |
| coal mining in west virginia history: The Smokeless Coal Fields of West Virginia William Purviance Tams (Jr.), 1963 |
| coal mining in west virginia history: Life, Work, and Rebellion in the Coal Fields David Corbin, 1981 Between 1880 and 1922, the coal fields of southern West Virginia witnessed two bloody and protracted strikes, the formation of two competing unions, and the largest armed conflict in American labor history--a week-long battle between 20,000 coal miners and 5,000 state police, deputy sheriffs, and mine guards. These events resulted in an untold number of deaths, indictments of over 550 coal miners for insurrection and treason, and four declarations of martial law. Corbin argues that these violent events were collective and militant acts of aggression interconnected and conditioned by decades of oppression. His study goes a long way toward breaking down the old stereotypes of Appalachian and coal-mining culture--Back cover. |
| coal mining in west virginia history: The Road to Blair Mountain Charles B. Keeney, 2021 Keeney delivers a riveting and propulsive story about a nine-year battle to save sacred ground that was the site of the largest labor uprising in American history. . . . He unveils a powerful playbook on successful activism that will inspire countless others for generations to come. --Eric Eyre, Pulitzer Prize winner and author of Death in Mud Lick: A Coal Country Fight against the Drug Companies That Delivered the Opioid Epidemic In 1921 Blair Mountain in southern West Virginia was the site of the country's bloodiest armed insurrection since the Civil War, a battle pitting miners led by Frank Keeney against agents of the coal barons intent on quashing organized labor. It was the largest labor uprising in US history. Ninety years later, the site became embroiled in a second struggle, as activists came together to fight the coal industry, state government, and the military- industrial complex in a successful effort to save the battlefield--sometimes dubbed labor's Gettysburg--from destruction by mountaintop removal mining. The Road to Blair Mountain is the moving and sometimes harrowing story of Charles Keeney's fight to save this irreplaceable landscape. Beginning in 2011, Keeney--a historian and great-grandson of Frank Keeney--led a nine-year legal battle to secure the site's placement on the National Register of Historic Places. His book tells a David-and-Goliath tale worthy of its own place in West Virginia history. A success story for historic preservation and environmentalism, it serves as an example of how rural, grassroots organizations can defeat the fossil fuel industry. |
| coal mining in west virginia history: The Smokeless Coal Fields of West Virginia William Purviance Tams (Jr.), 2001 The Smokeless Coal Fields of West Virginia is much more than a brief history of one of West Virginia's most productive coal regions. Written by a pioneer operator who served in leadership positions in the Winding Gulf Coal Operators Association. The Smokeless Operators Association, the National Coal Association and the Southern Coal Operators Association, theis [this] little book constitutes a memoir of a man and a generation that shaped our history. Tams's description of the events, companies, and personalities that built the coal industry in the New River and Winding Gulf regions fills an important gap in our understanding of that volatile time.--Ronald D. Eller, from the Introduction (on back cover). |
| coal mining in west virginia history: Matewan Before the Massacre Rebecca J. Bailey, 2008 On May 19, 1920, gunshots rang through the streets of Matewan, West Virginia, in an event soon known as the Matewan Massacre. Most historians of West Virginia and Appalachia see this event as the beginning of a long series of tribulations known as the second Mine Wars. But was it instead the culmination of an even longer series of proceedings that unfolded in Mingo County, dating back at least to the Civil War? Matewan Before the Massacre provides the first comprehensive history of the area, beginning in the late eighteenth century continuing up to the Massacre. It covers the relevant economic history, including the development of the coal mine industry and the struggles over land ownership; labor history, including early efforts of unionization; transportation history, including the role of the N&W Railroad; political history, including the role of political factions in the county's two major communities--Matewan and Williamson; and the impact of the state's governors and legislatures on Mingo County. |
| coal mining in west virginia history: Gary Hollow Alex P. Schust, 2005 Gary Hollow is a social and mining history of what was at one time the largest coal operation in the world. Gary Hollow is located in McDowell County West Virginia. The book takes the reader from the time Shawnee Indians were taking captives down the Tug Fork River (1750) until United States Steel closed its mines in 1986. The book covers how the coal company's built the mines, schools, medical facilities, houses, roads, recreation facilities and other parts of the communities. It also discusses the roles immigrants had in developing the social community. |
| coal mining in west virginia history: Coal-mining Safety in the Progressive Period William Graebner, 1976-01-01 |
| coal mining in west virginia history: Thunder In the Mountains Lon Savage, 1985-06-15 The West Virginia mine war of 1920-21, a major civil insurrection of unusual brutality on both sides, even by the standards of the coal fields, involved thousands of union and nonunion miners, state and private police, militia, and federal troops. Before it was over, three West Virginia counties were in open rebellion, much of the state was under military rule, and bombers of the U.S. Army Air Corps had been dispatched against striking miners.The origins of this civil war were in the Draconian rule of the coal companies over the fiercely proud miners of Appalachia. It began in the small railroad town of Matewan when Mayor C. C. Testerman and Police Chief Sid Hatfield sided with striking miners against agents of the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency, who attempted to evict the miners from company-owned housing. During a street battle, Mayor Testerman, seven Baldwin-Felts agents, and two miners were shot to death.Hatfield became a folk hero to Appalachia. But he, like Testerman, was to be a martyr. The next summer, Baldwin-Felts agents assassinated him and his best friend, Ed Chambers, as their wives watched, on the steps of the courthouse in Welch, accelerating the miners' rebellion into open warfare.Much neglected in historical accounts, Thunder in the Mountains is the only available book-length account of the crisis in American industrial relations and governance that occured during the West Virginia mine war of 1920-21. |
| coal mining in west virginia history: CIVIL WAR IN WEST VIRGINIA Winthrop David 1887 Lane, 2016-08-25 |
| coal mining in west virginia history: Bringing Down the Mountains Shirley Stewart Burns, 2007 Coal is West Virginia's bread and butter. For more than a century, West Virginia has answered the energy call of the nation--and the world--by mining and exporting its coal. In 2004, West Virginia's coal industry provided almost forty thousand jobs directly related to coal, and it contributed $3.5 billion to the state's gross annual product. And in the same year, West Virginia led the nation in coal exports, shipping over 50 million tons of coal to twenty-three countries. Coal has made millionaires of some and paupers of many. For generations of honest, hard-working West Virginians, coal has put food on tables, built homes, and sent students to college. But coal has also maimed, debilitated, and killed. Bringing Down the Mountains provides insight into how mountaintop removal has affected the people and the land of southern West Virginia. It examines the mechanization of the mining industry and the power relationships between coal interests, politicians, and the average citizen. Shirley Stewart Burns holds a BS in news-editorial journalism, a master's degree in social work, and a PhD in history with an Appalachian focus, from West Virginia University. A native of Wyoming County in the southern West Virginia coalfields and the daughter of an underground coal miner, she has a passionate interest in the communities, environment, and histories of the southern West Virginia coalfields. She lives in Charleston, West Virginia. |
| coal mining in west virginia history: Black Coal Miners in America Ronald L. Lewis, 1987-01-01 From the early day of mining in colonial Virginia and Maryland up to the time of World War II, blacks were an important part of the labor force in the coal industry. Yet in this, as in other enterprises, their role has heretofore been largely ignored. Now Roland L. Lewis redresses the balance in this comprehensive history of black coal miners in America. The experience of blacks in the industry has varied widely over time and by region, and the approach of this study is therefore more comparative than chronological. Its aim is to define the patterns of race relations that prevailed among the m. |
| coal mining in west virginia history: The Goldenseal Book of the West Virginia Mine Wars Ken Sullivan, 1991 |
| coal mining in west virginia history: Coalfield Jews Deborah R. Weiner, 2023-02-03 The stories of vibrant eastern European Jewish communities in the Appalachian coalfields Coalfield Jews explores the intersection of two simultaneous historic events: central Appalachia’s transformative coal boom (1880s-1920), and the mass migration of eastern European Jews to America. Traveling to southern West Virginia, eastern Kentucky, and southwestern Virginia to investigate the coal boom’s opportunities, some Jewish immigrants found success as retailers and established numerous small but flourishing Jewish communities. Deborah R. Weiner’s Coalfield Jews provides the first extended study of Jews in Appalachia, exploring where they settled, how they made their place within a surprisingly receptive dominant culture, how they competed with coal company stores, interacted with their non-Jewish neighbors, and maintained a strong Jewish identity deep in the heart of the Appalachian mountains. To tell this story, Weiner draws on a wide range of primary sources in social, cultural, religious, labor, economic, and regional history. She also includes moving personal statements, from oral histories as well as archival sources, to create a holistic portrayal of Jewish life that will challenge commonly held views of Appalachia as well as the American Jewish experience. |
| coal mining in west virginia history: No. 9 Bonnie Elaine Stewart, 2011 Ninety-nine men entered the cold, dark tunnels of the Consolidation Coal Company's No.9 Mine in Farmington, West Virginia, on November 20, 1968. Some were worried about the condition of the mine. It had too much coal dust, too much methane gas. They knew that either one could cause an explosion. What they did not know was that someone had intentionally disabled a safety alarm on one of the mine's ventilation fans. That was a death sentence for most of the crew. The fan failed that morning, but the alarm did not sound. The lack of fresh air allowed methane gas to build up in the tunnels. A few moments before 5:30 a.m., the No.9 blew up. Some men died where they stood. Others lived but suffocated in the toxic fumes that filled the mine. Only 21 men escaped from the mountain. No.9: The 1968 Farmington Mine Disaster explains how such a thing could happen--how the coal company and federal and state officials failed to protect the 78 men who died in the mountain. Based on public records and interviews with those who worked in the mine, No.9 describes the conditions underground before and after the disaster and the legal struggles of the miners' widows to gain justice and transform coal mine safety legislation. |
| coal mining in west virginia history: The West Virginia Coal Wars Charles River Charles River Editors, 2016-07-15 *Includes pictures *Includes accounts of the coal wars from Mother Jones and other important participants *Includes online resources and a bibliography for further reading *Includes a table of contents I'm not a humanitarian, I'm a hell-raiser. - Mother Jones America is famous around the world for being the land of opportunity, and in many respects it has been for the nearly 400 years since its colonization. However, that opportunity has always come at some sort of price. In the times of wooden sailing vessels, men and women risked life and limb to sail across the Atlantic on small, creaking ships, but later, transportation became safer and easier with the invention of the coal powered steam engine. Over time, coal came to be used to power other advances in industry and technology, such as plants that produced steel and electricity. By the dawn of the 20th century, it seemed that there was nothing that the country could not accomplish, and that the future was brighter than ever. But then, as always, there was the price. The vast majority of people burning coal to heat their farms and homes, and those watching skyscrapers rise over the city's landscape, likely never stopped to think about the price thousands of miners across the country were paying for these and other conveniences. Many never knew that coal had to be dug from the ground, typically in dark mines where dust poisoned miners' lungs, and that these men barely made enough to feed and clothe their families despite their hard days of toil. The people using the coal wanted it to be cheap, the miners wanted to earn enough money to survive, and the companies wanted to turn a profit. In some ways, it seems safe to say that conflict was inevitable, but while there were numerous labor disputes during the early decades of the 20th century, few were as violent as the one that erupted in the hills of West Virginia in 1912. In fact, this conflict, which lasted about a decade, has rightly been called a war because men and women killed and were killed on its battlefields, culminating with the largest domestic insurrection since the Civil War in 1921. The coal companies' army was a hired force, professional gunfighters brought in to stop miners. But while they had the best training and the best weapons, they did not have Mother Jones - Mary Harris Jones - perhaps the most inspirational union organizer in United States history. With the help of Frank Keeney and other miners like him, Jones successfully brought the owners to their knees and won the right to unionize for miners who had only dreamed it might be possible. Now that a century has passed and mining is at least somewhat safer than it was, those working today can thank Jones and Keeney, not to mention the ones who died at the hand of hired guns, for what freedom they do have to fight for a living wage. The West Virginia Coal Wars: The History of the 20th Century Conflict Between Coal Companies and Miners looks at the tumultuous fight on both sides of the lines. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about the West Virginia mine wars like never before, in no time at all. |
| coal mining in west virginia history: An Interesting Story About Mining Industry In West Virginia Chanel Katowicz, 2021-02-25 In this second in its series, Dee interviews Sadie at her cabin in the mountains about a Crazy Quilt hanging on her wall. As a result we learn a lot about the wars between owners of West Virginia's coal mines and union members during the period in history when miners owed their wages to the company for rent and other necessities of life. When anyone questioned discrepancies in wages or were suspected of talking to Union men, they were fired and their family evicted from their homes. This book reminded me of the love I have for my history that is enriched by a mining town that my parents were raised in and the stories that were passed down. - Reader. |
| coal mining in west virginia history: Black Coal Miners in America Ronald L. Lewis, 2021-03-17 From the early day of mining in colonial Virginia and Maryland up to the time of World War II, blacks were an important part of the labor force in the coal industry. Yet in this, as in other enterprises, their role has heretofore been largely ignored. Now Roland L. Lewis redresses the balance in this comprehensive history of black coal miners in America. The experience of blacks in the industry has varied widely over time and by region, and the approach of this study is therefore more comparative than chronological. Its aim is to define the patterns of race relations that prevailed among the miners. Using this approach, Lewis finds five distractive systems of race relations. There was in the South before and after the Civil War a system of slavery and convict labor—an enforced servitude without legal compensation. This was succeeded by an exploitative system whereby the southern coal operators, using race as an excuse, paid lower wages to blacks and thus succeeded in depressing the entire wage scale. By contrast, in northern and midwestern mines, the pattern was to exclude blacks from the industry so that whites could control their jobs and their communities. In the central Appalachians, although blacks enjoyed greater social equality, the mine operators manipulated racial tensions to keep the work force divided and therefore weak. Finally, with the advent of mechanization, black laborers were displaced from the mines to such an extent that their presence in the coal fields in now nearly a thing of the past. By analyzing the ways race, class, and community shaped social relations in the coal fields, Black Coal Miners in America makes a major contribution to the understanding of regional, labor, social, and African-American history. |
| coal mining in west virginia history: After Coal Tom Hansell, 2018 What happens when fossil fuels run out? How do communities and cultures survive? Central Appalachia and south Wales were built to extract coal, and faced with coal's decline, both regions have experienced economic depression, labor unrest, and out-migration. After Coal focuses on coalfield residents who chose not to leave, but instead remained in their communities and worked to build a diverse and sustainable economy. It tells the story of four decades of exchange between two mining communities on opposite sides of the Atlantic, and profiles individuals and organizations that are undertaking the critical work of regeneration. The stories in this book are told through interviews and photographs collected during the making of After Coal, a documentary film produced by the Center for Appalachian Studies at Appalachian State University and directed by Tom Hansell. Considering resonances between Appalachia and Wales in the realms of labor, environment, and movements for social justice, the book approaches the transition from coal as an opportunity for marginalized people around the world to work toward safer and more egalitarian futures. |
| coal mining in west virginia history: Moving Mountains Penny Loeb, 2007-12-01 Deep in the heart of the southern West Virginia coalfields, one of the most important environmental and social empowerment battles in the nation has been waged for the past decade. Fought by a heroic woman struggling to save her tiny community through a landmark lawsuit, this battle, which led all the way to the halls of Congress, has implications for environmentally conscious people across the world. The story begins with Patricia Bragg in the tiny community of Pie. When a deep mine drained her neighbors’ wells, Bragg heeded her grandmother’s admonition to “fight for what you believe in” and led the battle to save their drinking water. Though she and her friends quickly convinced state mining officials to force the coal company to provide new wells, Bragg’s fight had only just begun. Soon large-scale mining began on the mountains behind her beloved hollow. Fearing what the blasting off of mountaintops would do to the humble homes below, she joined a lawsuit being pursued by attorney Joe Lovett, the first case he had ever handled. In the case against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Bragg v. Robertson), federal judge Charles Haden II shocked the coal industry by granting victory to Joe Lovett and Patricia Bragg and temporarily halting the practice of mountaintop removal. While Lovett battled in court, Bragg sought other ways to protect the resources and safety of coalfield communities, all the while recognizing that coal mining was the lifeblood of her community, even of her own family (her husband is a disabled miner). The years of Bragg v. Robertson bitterly divided the coalfields and left many bewildered by the legal wrangling. One of the state’s largest mines shut down because of the case, leaving hardworking miners out of work, at least temporarily. Despite hurtful words from members of her church, Patricia Bragg battled on, making the two-hour trek to the legislature in Charleston, over and over, to ask for better controls on mine blasting. There Bragg and her friends won support from delegate Arley Johnson, himself a survivor of one of the coalfield’s greatest disasters. Award-winning investigative journalist Penny Loeb spent nine years following the twists and turns of this remarkable story, giving voice both to citizens, like Patricia Bragg, and to those in the coal industry. Intertwined with court and statehouse battles is Patricia Bragg’s own quiet triumph of graduating from college summa cum laude in her late thirtie and moving her family out of welfare and into prosperity and freedom from mining interests. Bragg’s remarkable personal triumph and the victories won in Pie and other coalfield communities will surprise and inspire readers. |
| coal mining in west virginia history: When Coal Was King John Roderick Hinde, 2003 The town of Ladysmith was one of the most important coal-mining communities on Vancouver Island during the early twentieth century. The Ladysmith miners had a reputation for radicalism and militancy and engaged in bitter struggles for union recognition and economic justice, most notably during the Great Strike of 1912-14. This strike, one of the longest and most violent labour disputes in Canadian history, marked a watershed in the history of the town and the coal industry. When Coal Was King illuminates the origins of the 1912-14 strike by examining the development of the coal industry on Vancouver Island, the founding of Ladysmith, the experience of work and safety in the mines, the process of political and economic mobilization, and how these factors contributed to the development of identity and community. While the Vancouver Island coal industry and the strike have been the focus of a number of popular histories, this book goes beyond to emphasize the importance of class, ethnicity, gender, and community in creating the conditions for the emergence and mobilization of the working-class population. Informed by currend academic debates on the matter and within the discipline, this readable history takes into account extensive archival research, and will appeal to historians and others interested in the history of Vancouver Island. |
| coal mining in west virginia history: Appalachia's Coal-Mined Landscapes Carl E. Zipper, Jeff Skousen, 2020-11-25 This book collects and summarizes current scientific knowledge concerning coal-mined landscapes of the Appalachian region in eastern United States. Containing contributions from authors across disciplines, the book addresses topics relevant to the region’s coal-mining history and its future; its human communities; and the soils, waters, plants, wildlife, and human-use potentials of Appalachia’s coal-mined landscapes. The book provides a comprehensive overview of coal mining’s legacy in Appalachia, USA. It book describes the resources of the Appalachian coalfield, its lands and waters, and its human communities – as they have been left in the aftermath of intensive mining, drawing upon peer-reviewed science and other regional data to provide clear and objective descriptions. By understanding the Appalachian experience, officials and planners in other resource extraction- affected world regions can gain knowledge and perspectives that will aid their own efforts to plan and manage for environmental quality and for human welfare. Appalachia's Coal-Mined Landscapes: Resources and Communities in a New Energy Era will be of use to natural resource managers and scientists within Appalachia and in other world regions experiencing widespread mining, researchers with interest in the region’s disturbance legacy, and economic and community planners concerned with Appalachia’s future. |
| coal mining in west virginia history: Storming Heaven: A Novel Denise Giardina, 2010-07-05 This is the story of the miners and the union they wanted, of the people who loved them and the people who wanted to kill their dreams. Annadel, West Virginia, was a small town rich in coal, farms, and close-knit families, all destroyed when the coal company came in. It stole everything it hadn't bothered to buy—land deeds, private homes, and ultimately, the souls of its men and women. Four people tell this powerful, deeply moving tale: Activist Mayor C. J. Marcum. Fierce, loveless union man Rondal Lloyd. Gutsy nurse Carrie Bishop, who loved Rondal. And lonely, Sicilian immigrant Rosa Angelelli, who lost four sons to the deadly mines. They all bear witness to nearly forgotten events of history, culminating in the final, tragic Battle of Blair Mountain—when the United States Army greeted ten thousand unemployed pro-union miners with airplanes, bombs, and poison gas. It was the first crucial battle of a war that has yet to be won. |
| coal mining in west virginia history: The Coal Trap James M. Van Nostrand, 2022-07-21 A cautionary tale for the many other jurisdictions around the world that are resisting the transition to clean energy resources. |
| coal mining in west virginia history: King Coal Stan Cohen, 1999-06 |
| coal mining in west virginia history: Big Red Songbook Archie Green, David Roediger, Franklin Rosemont, Salvatore Salerno, 2016-05-01 In 1905, representatives from dozens of radical labor groups came together in Chicago to form One Big Union—the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), known as the Wobblies. The union was a big presence in the labor movement, leading strikes, walkouts, and rallies across the nation. And everywhere its members went, they sang. Their songs were sung in mining camps and textile mills, hobo jungles and flop houses, and anywhere workers might be recruited to the Wobblies’ cause. The songs were published in a pocketsize tome called the Little Red Songbook, which was so successful that it’s been published continuously since 1909. In The Big Red Songbook, the editors have gathered songs from over three dozen editions, plus additional songs, rare artwork, personal recollections, discographies, and more into one big all-embracing book. IWW poets/composers strove to nurture revolutionary consciousness. Each piece, whether topical, hortatory, elegiac, or comic served to educate, agitate, and emancipate workers. A handful of Wobbly numbers have become classics, still sung by labor groups and folk singers. They include Joe Hill’s sardonic “The Preacher and the Slave” (sometimes known by its famous phrase “Pie in the Sky”) and Ralph Chaplin’s “Solidarity Forever.” Songs lost or found, sacred or irreverent, touted or neglected, serious or zany, singable or not, are here. The Wobblies and their friends have been singing for a century. May this comprehensive gathering simultaneously celebrate past battles and chart future goals. In addition to the 250+ songs, writings are included from Archie Green, Franklin Rosemont, David Roediger, Salvatore Salerno, Judy Branfman, Richard Brazier, James Connell, Carlos Cortez, Bill Friedland, Virginia Martin, Harry McClintock, Fred Thompson, Adam Machado, and many more. |
| coal mining in west virginia history: Soul Full of Coal Dust Chris Hamby, 2020-08-18 In a devastating and urgent work of investigative journalism, Pulitzer Prize winner Chris Hamby uncovers the tragic resurgence of black lung disease in Appalachia, its Big Coal cover-up, and the resilient mining communities who refuse to back down. Decades ago, a grassroots uprising forced Congress to enact long-overdue legislation designed to virtually eradicate black lung disease and provide fair compensation to coal miners stricken with the illness. Today, however, both promises remain unfulfilled. Levels of disease have surged, the old scourge has taken an aggressive new form, and ailing miners and widows have been left behind by a dizzying legal system, denied even modest payments and medical care. In this devastating and urgent work of investigative journalism, Pulitzer Prize winner Chris Hamby traces the unforgettable story of how these trends converge in the lives of two men: Gary Fox, a black lung-stricken West Virginia coal miner determined to raise his family from poverty, and John Cline, an idealistic carpenter and rural medical clinic worker who becomes a lawyer in his fifties. Opposing them are the lawyers at the coal industry’s go-to law firm; well-credentialed doctors who often weigh in for the defense, including a group of radiologists at Johns Hopkins; and Gary’s former employer, Massey Energy, the region’s largest coal company, run by a cantankerous CEO often portrayed in the media as a dark lord of the coalfields. On the line in Gary and John’s longshot legal battle are fundamental principles of fairness and justice, with consequences for miners and their loved ones throughout the nation. Taking readers inside courtrooms, hospitals, homes tucked in Appalachian hollows, and dusty mine tunnels, Hamby exposes how coal companies have not only continually flouted a law meant to protect miners from deadly amounts of dust but also enlisted well-credentialed doctors and lawyers to help systematically deny much-needed benefits to miners. The result is a legal and medical thriller that brilliantly illuminates how a band of laborers — aided by a small group of lawyers, doctors and lay advocates, often working out of their homes or in rural clinics and tiny offices – challenged one of the world's most powerful forces, Big Coal, and won. A deeply troubling yet ultimately triumphant work, Soul Full of Coal Dust is a necessary and timely book about injustice and resistance. |
| coal mining in west virginia history: Historical Mining Disasters Jane DeMarchi, 1997 |
| coal mining in west virginia history: The Battle of Blair Mountain Robert Shogan, 2006-07-26 In 1921, some 10,000 West Virginia coal miners-- outraged over years of brutality and exploitation-- picked up their Winchesters and marched against their tormentors, the powerful mine owners who ruled their corrupt state. For ten days the miners fought a pitched battle against an opposing legion of deputies, state police, and makeshift militia. Only the intervention of a Federal expeditionary force ended this undeclared war. In The Battle of Blair Mountain, Robert Shogan shows this long-neglected slice of American history to be a saga of the conflicting political, economic, and cultural forces that shaped the power structure of twentieth-century America. |
| coal mining in west virginia history: Cannel Coal Oil Days Theophile Maher, 2021 A semiautobiographical local color novel, written in 1887 and discovered in 2018, about the coal oil manufacturing industry and the coming of the Civil War to the region, set between 1859 and 1861 in western Virginia. The novel's protagonist, a mining engineer, works closely with a Black family to organize the local mountain folk into a Union militia-- |
| coal mining in west virginia history: The West Virginia Pepperoni Roll Candace Nelson, 2017 The pepperoni roll, a soft bread roll with pepperoni baked in the middle, originated in the coal mining areas of north central West Virginia when Italian immigrants invented a food that could be eaten easily underground. This spicy snack soon found its way out of the mines and into bakeries, bread companies, restaurants, and event venues around the state, often with additional ingredients like cheese, red sauce, or peppers. As the pepperoni roll's reputation moves beyond the borders of West Virginia, this food continues to embody the culinary culture of its home state. It is now found at the center of bake-offs, eating contests, festivals, as a gourmet item on local menus, and even on a bill in the state's legislature. The West Virginia Pepperoni Roll is a comprehensive history of the unofficial state food of West Virginia. With over 100 photographs and countless recipes and recollections, it tells the story of the immigrants, business owners, laborers, and citizens who have developed and devoured this simple yet practical food since its invention. |
| coal mining in west virginia history: West Virginia History , 2008 |
| coal mining in west virginia history: Digging Our Own Graves Barbara Ellen Smith, 2020-10-06 Employment and production in the Appalachian coal industry have plummeted over recent decades. But the lethal black lung disease, once thought to be near-eliminated, affects miners at rates never before recorded. Digging Our Own Graves sets this epidemic in the context of the brutal assault, begun in the 1980s and continued since, on the United Mine Workers of America and the collective power of rank-and-file coal miners in the heart of the Appalachian coalfields. This destruction of militancy and working class power reveals the unacknowledged social and political roots of a health crisis that is still barely acknowledged by the state and coal industry. Barbara Ellen Smith’s essential study, now with an updated introduction and conclusion, charts the struggles of miners and their families from the birth of the Black Lung Movement in 1968 to the present-day importance of demands for environmental justice through proposals like the Green New Deal. Through extensive interviews with participants and her own experiences as an activist, the author provides a vivid portrait of communities struggling for survival against the corporate extraction of labor, mineral wealth, and the very breath of those it sends to dig their own graves. |
| coal mining in west virginia history: Seattle's Coal Legacy John M. Goodfellow, 2019 In the 1880s, Seattle became a major coal port in the United States. By 1908, Puget Sound was the third-largest coal port, after New York and Baltimore. For Seattle, the major coal mines were in Issaquah, New Castle, Renton, and Black Diamond, with many other smaller mines throughout King County. Until the petroleum revolution, Seattle exported most of its coal to San Francisco. Because of coal, Seattle became a center for skilled engineers, machinists, and miners for the maritime, manufacturing, mining, and railroad industries, differentiating itself from other lumber towns on Puget Sound. Seattle's Coal Legacy is the story of a frontier town going through an industrial revolution in its own time. The skills and knowledge developed during the coal era--engineering, finance, transportation, manufacturing, etc.--made Seattle the major city it is today.-- Provided by publisher. |
| coal mining in west virginia history: The Smokeless Coal Fields of West Virginia William Purviance Tams, 1968 |
| coal mining in west virginia history: Farm Loan Bonds United States. Federal Farm Loan Bureau, 1917 |
| coal mining in west virginia history: , |
| coal mining in west virginia history: Give My Poor Heart Ease William Ferris, 2009-11-01 Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, folklorist William Ferris toured his home state of Mississippi, documenting the voices of African Americans as they spoke about and performed the diverse musical traditions that form the authentic roots of the blues. Now, Give My Poor Heart Ease puts front and center a searing selection of the artistically and emotionally rich voices from this invaluable documentary record. Illustrated with Ferris's photographs of the musicians and their communities and including a CD of original music, the book features more than twenty interviews relating frank, dramatic, and engaging narratives about black life and blues music in the heart of the American South. Here are the stories of artists who have long memories and speak eloquently about their lives, blues musicians who represent a wide range of musical traditions--from one-strand instruments, bottle-blowing, and banjo to spirituals, hymns, and prison work chants. Celebrities such as B. B. King and Willie Dixon, along with performers known best in their neighborhoods, express the full range of human and artistic experience--joyful and gritty, raw and painful. In an autobiographical introduction, Ferris reflects on how he fell in love with the vibrant musical culture that was all around him but was considered off limits to a white Mississippian during a troubled era. This magnificent volume illuminates blues music, the broader African American experience, and indeed the history and culture of America itself. |
| coal mining in west virginia history: Ben Burton, the Slate-picker Harry Prentice, 1888 |
| coal mining in west virginia history: Gun Thugs, Rednecks, and Radicals David Alan Corbin, 2011 A sobering account on the human cost of a landmark industrial conflict retraces the West Virginia coal mining rebellions of the early 20th century as culled from articles, speeches, union transcripts and Senate committee testimonies by miners and their families. Original. |
Black Coal Miners in West Virginia in the Gilded Age
By 1900 Black coal miners made up 26 percent of the workforce in the fossil fuel industry in the state of West Virginia. Fully three-quarters of those workers served as coal loaders. …
West Virginia's mine wars, 1920-1921 - libcom.org
West Virginia was the site of numerous deadly coal mining accidents, including the nation's worst coal disaster. On December 6, 1907, an explosion at a mine owned by the Fairmont Coal …
Coal Heritage Survey Update Report - NPS History
These two documents provide extensive historic context and analysis of the project area and have enduring relevance today. They are available on file at the West Virginia State Historic …
Country Roads, Take Me Away: Coal Mining and Migration in …
Coal Mining and Migration in West Virginia, 1971-2010 West Virginia’s population peaked in 1950. Parallel to this, employment in the coal mining industry peaked in 1948. Popular discourse links …
Scrip, Bandannas, and a Canary - West Virginia
• Was West Virginia the only place the term redneck was used in a coal mining context? • Was the red bandanna the coal miner wore the “railroad” style bandanna? • What did the red …
THE CULTURE OF APPALACHIAN COAL MINERS AND ITS …
the culture of coal miners of today. Background History of Mining in West Virginia There is a significant amount of history and lore surrounding coal mining in West Virginia...
An Illustrated History of the West Virginia Mine Wars - PM Press
But nothing compared to the class warfare of the West Virginia mine wars. The origins of this protracted rebellion were in the dictatorial rule of the coal companies over the proud, …
Introduction, Part 1: Coal Country, West Virginia
coal miners by way of mining accidents. A mining accident resulting in the death of three or more miners is officially classified as a mine disaster. The New River Gorge was the site of three …
Segregation in Job Hierarchies: West Virginia Coal Mining, …
West Virginia Coa Mining, 1906-1932 PRICE FISHBACK When blacks began to leave the South, one of their first stops was the West Virginia coal fields. There they met with reasonable …
Mountaineer Mine Wars: An Analysis the West Virginia Mine …
the West Virginia Mine Wars of 1912-1913 and 1920-1921 r Professor Wheeler describes and analyzes the extreme violence that marked labor-management relations in the West Virginia …
Forgetting the Mine Wars: Erasing Insurrection in West …
Jul 20, 2020 · the Mine Wars. For years after the conflict, the history of labor in West Virginia was deliberately suppressed by state officials and coal companies. Even today as a growing …
October 2007 West Virginia Historical Society
Most leisure time activities among the miners in the state were like those of city dwellers in urban centers.1 The most popular form of recreation for the coal miners, baseball, had taken the …
Coal Operators and Market Competition: The Case of West …
a fierce commercial war that West Virginias coal operators waged against their northern rivals in the coalfields of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, and Indiana from 1853 to 1933, and focuses on …
Landscape and History at the Headwaters of the Big Coal …
southern West Virginia’s Big Coal River rise are the spectacular effect of millions of years of erosion. Here, water cutting a downward path through shale etched thousands of
Rethinking Labor History: The West Virginia/Virginia Coal …
The West Virginia/Virginia Coal Mining Industry Recent issues raised concerning the preservation of the historic re-sources associated with the coal mining industry in West Virginia and Virginia …
Appalachian Restructuring in Historical Perspective: Coal, …
West Virginia is most noted, however, as a major producer of coal. Therefore, in this paper, the focus. will be on the role of the coal industry in transforming life and labour in this rugged …
Unionism and Productivity in West Virginia Coal Mining - JSTOR
The history of West Virginia coal mining in the 1920s provides a natural experiment for examining the effects of unionism on productivity. This history shows rapid but not quite simultaneous …
West Virginia Coal Mine Fatalities: The Subculture of Danger …
Indeed, West Virginia provides an excellent case study for the history of the perils of coal mining. Shortly after the turn of the twentieth century, immigration officials refused to recommend West …
West Virginia Historical Society - West Virginia Department …
result of the growth of the coal mining industry. Coal production continued to increase throughout the first half of the twentieth century. In 1929, West Virginia’s coal production reached …
The Life Cycle of a Coal Town: Widen, West Virginia, 1911-1963
Jun 18, 2021 · As coal production proved successful, the coal town rapidly grew and by 1950, Widen offered amenities such as a Y.M.C.A., theater, soda fountain, schools, and churches for …
Black Coal Miners in West Virginia in the Gilded Age
By 1900 Black coal miners made up 26 percent of the workforce in the fossil fuel industry in the state of West Virginia. Fully three-quarters of those workers served as coal loaders. …
West Virginia's mine wars, 1920-1921 - libcom.org
West Virginia was the site of numerous deadly coal mining accidents, including the nation's worst coal disaster. On December 6, 1907, an explosion at a mine owned by the Fairmont Coal …
Coal Heritage Survey Update Report - NPS History
These two documents provide extensive historic context and analysis of the project area and have enduring relevance today. They are available on file at the West Virginia State Historic …
Country Roads, Take Me Away: Coal Mining and Migration in …
Coal Mining and Migration in West Virginia, 1971-2010 West Virginia’s population peaked in 1950. Parallel to this, employment in the coal mining industry peaked in 1948. Popular discourse …
Scrip, Bandannas, and a Canary - West Virginia
• Was West Virginia the only place the term redneck was used in a coal mining context? • Was the red bandanna the coal miner wore the “railroad” style bandanna? • What did the red …
THE CULTURE OF APPALACHIAN COAL MINERS AND …
the culture of coal miners of today. Background History of Mining in West Virginia There is a significant amount of history and lore surrounding coal mining in West Virginia...
An Illustrated History of the West Virginia Mine Wars - PM Press
But nothing compared to the class warfare of the West Virginia mine wars. The origins of this protracted rebellion were in the dictatorial rule of the coal companies over the proud, …
Introduction, Part 1: Coal Country, West Virginia
coal miners by way of mining accidents. A mining accident resulting in the death of three or more miners is officially classified as a mine disaster. The New River Gorge was the site of three …
Segregation in Job Hierarchies: West Virginia Coal Mining, …
West Virginia Coa Mining, 1906-1932 PRICE FISHBACK When blacks began to leave the South, one of their first stops was the West Virginia coal fields. There they met with reasonable …
Mountaineer Mine Wars: An Analysis the West Virginia Mine …
the West Virginia Mine Wars of 1912-1913 and 1920-1921 r Professor Wheeler describes and analyzes the extreme violence that marked labor-management relations in the West Virginia …
Forgetting the Mine Wars: Erasing Insurrection in West …
Jul 20, 2020 · the Mine Wars. For years after the conflict, the history of labor in West Virginia was deliberately suppressed by state officials and coal companies. Even today as a growing …
October 2007 West Virginia Historical Society
Most leisure time activities among the miners in the state were like those of city dwellers in urban centers.1 The most popular form of recreation for the coal miners, baseball, had taken the …
Coal Operators and Market Competition: The Case of West …
a fierce commercial war that West Virginias coal operators waged against their northern rivals in the coalfields of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, and Indiana from 1853 to 1933, and focuses on …
Landscape and History at the Headwaters of the Big Coal …
southern West Virginia’s Big Coal River rise are the spectacular effect of millions of years of erosion. Here, water cutting a downward path through shale etched thousands of
Rethinking Labor History: The West Virginia/Virginia Coal …
The West Virginia/Virginia Coal Mining Industry Recent issues raised concerning the preservation of the historic re-sources associated with the coal mining industry in West Virginia and Virginia …
Appalachian Restructuring in Historical Perspective: Coal, …
West Virginia is most noted, however, as a major producer of coal. Therefore, in this paper, the focus. will be on the role of the coal industry in transforming life and labour in this rugged …
Unionism and Productivity in West Virginia Coal Mining
The history of West Virginia coal mining in the 1920s provides a natural experiment for examining the effects of unionism on productivity. This history shows rapid but not quite simultaneous …
West Virginia Coal Mine Fatalities: The Subculture of Danger …
Indeed, West Virginia provides an excellent case study for the history of the perils of coal mining. Shortly after the turn of the twentieth century, immigration officials refused to recommend West …
