The bloody story of the Battle of Blair Mountain, America’s largest armed insurrection since the Civil War.
Lewis Hine / Library of CongressWorkers stand at the entrance to a West Virginia coal mine .
In February 2017,Fortunewroteabout a viral Twitterpromptfrom sociologist Eve Ewing :
“ If you could choose one historical struggle that many people do n’t know about and have it be taught in schools , what would it be ? ”
Lewis Hine/Library of CongressWorkers stand at the entrance to a West Virginia coal mine.
Among lots of “ optic - opening ” responses in this “ crowdsourced curriculum,”Fortuneidentified The Battle of Blair Mountain , the big domesticated armed insurrection in the United States since the Civil War ( and one engage in the heart of what some now call “ Trump Country ” ) .
If you ’re unfamiliar with the 1921 conflict , you ’re not alone . David Alan Corbin , author ofGun Thugs , Rednecks , and base : A Documentary chronicle of the West Virginia Mine Wars , writesthat in “ a XII years of public schooling in West Virginia , ” he take heed “ nothing ” about the clash or its key figures , despite it being the largest labor uprising in American history and despite him being reared at its ground zero .
Lewis Hine / Bettmann / Getty ImagesWest Virginia boys stomach near the coal mine in which they work .
Lewis Hine/Bettmann/Getty ImagesWest Virginia boys stand near the coal mine in which they work.
At the ideologic heart of this conflict that few have heard of was , aswSmithsonianrites , a battle between “ Bolshevism and individualism , the rights of the worker and the rights of the owner . ”
Specifically , the Battle of Blair Mountain was 10,000 - 15,000 West Virginian miners , many armed only with “ squirrel - hunting rifle , ” against 3,000 coal company supporters , including local police , federal troops , and even a U.S. ground forces hero ( “ the only clip in history that U.S. atmosphere power has been used against American civilians,”accordingto NPR ) .
What define off such an unprecedentedly messy domestic conflict ?
Lewis Hine/Library of CongressTwo West Virginia boys at work in the coal mines.
Simply put , the miner , front life - endanger condition on the best of mean solar day , need sound discussion from the coal companies . Smithsonianelaborates :
“ The coal industriousness was essentially the commonwealth ’s only root of work , and monolithic corporations built home plate , general stores , schools , church and amateur facilities in the remote towns near the mines . For mineworker , the system resembled something like feudalism . Sanitary and livelihood stipulation in the party houses were abysmal , wages were low , and state pol supported wealthy coal company owners rather than mineworker . ”
Lewis Hine / Library of CongressTwo West Virginia boys at work in the coal mines .
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Doug Estepp , a local historian who run tour of duty of the region , state NPR in 2011 that some of the companies had contracts prohibit and punishing miners seek to organize into the fledgling unions :
“ They had the yellow - Canis familiaris declaration which say that , basically , if you accept a problem at this mine , you could not associate with anyone in the union , you could n’t join . You were fundamentally fire , blacklisted and evict — and probably beat on the way out by the guards just for beneficial touchstone . ”
In the years leading up to the Battle of Blair Mountain , strikes and attempts to unionize were also spoil by the Baldwin - Felts Detective Agency , a secret house rent by the mining companies to keep worker in line .
Wikimedia CommonsSeveral miners pose with a bomb that had been dropped on them during the Battle of Blair Mountain.
Do n’t let the quaint - voice “ Detective Agency ” title fool you . Agents were armed with motorcar guns , Tommy guns , and high - powered rifles , and were known to swing through strike camps in an armored vehicle do it as the “ Death Special , ” firing on miners and their sept . One mother of three later tell government functionary about one particularly harrowing incident :
“ Mrs. Annie Hall , who limped into the committee room , told the committee how she harbour her three minuscule children from the bullet by enshroud them in the chimney corner of her habitation at Holly Grove when the panoplied train made its show . She said she had been shot through the feet by a smoke which go on through the Bible and hymnal on her living-room board . ”
In 1920 , this violence beget more violence , and triggered a difference that ultimately left behind a battlefield as “ large and extensive as maybe a World War I battlefield,”accordingto Kenny King , a prospector , “ unpaid archeologist , ” and local expert on the Battle of Blair Mountain .
Wikimedia CommonsSheriff’s deputies fight during the Battle of Blair Mountain.
A gunplay in the spring of that twelvemonth between Baldwin - Felts broker and a pro - union mathematical group , including Matewan , West Virginia ’s police chief , stop with 10 idle , including the town ’s city manager . Less than a year later , after the chief was discharge by a local jury , Baldwin - Felts agent gun down both him and his surrogate on the courthouse steps .
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This blatant blackwash fire the fire , rally 10,000 - plus miners to wage war on the agents , the ember company , and , when President Harding saw the need , federal troops with leftover World War I munitions . For more than a hebdomad , the domain find like a unrelenting war zone to area residents , accordingto James Green , writer ofThe Devil Is Here in These Hills : West Virginia ’s Coal Miners and Their Battle for Freedom :
“ The local doctor , an United States Army veteran , say he heard about as much shooting that Clarence Shepard Day Jr. as he had when American force assaulted Manila in the Philippines during the Spanish - American War . And some of the miners told reporters how much the fighting on Blair Mountain resembled the furious timber combat they waged against the Germans in the dense Argonne Forest of France . ”
Wikimedia CommonsSeveral miner pose with a turkey that had been dropped on them during the Battle of Blair Mountain .
When the pot cleared on the Battle of Blair Mountain , an estimated 1 million round were fired , dozens were belt down , and 985 miners were arrested . The revolt was suppressed , but public knowingness about the appalling stipulation in which the miners were impel to live , work , and raise their families grow considerably .
Wikimedia CommonsSheriff ’s surrogate fight during the Battle of Blair Mountain .
Nevertheless , it was n’t until the National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933 that the southerly West Virginia coalfields were allow to be by rights unionized , with miners bargaining together with for better conditions without fear of persecution — or execution . In the year that followed , harmonise toJacobin , the number of mining - related end fell by one - third .
With all the talk in late years of the ember manufacture , its place in U.S. account , and the pro and cons of its revival , learning how miners in West Virginia push for the still - not - heavy working conditions they have today is vital if you want to realise class conflict in the United States .
Ideally , consciousness of the Battle of Blair Mountain and the West Virginia Mine Wars will guard against distort its narrative into an “ alternate history , ” built on “ alternative fact , ” a history that masks how the work class has always had to agitate , sometimes successfully , against dismaying and sometimes lethal working conditions — and those in power who conjure to foster them .
After this look at the Battle of Blair Mountain and the West Virginia Mine Wars , discover thebloody history of project unionsin the United States . Then , have a feeling atLewis Hine ’s most haunt early 20th century fry labor photos .
