Coal mining came to West Virginia in the Mid-1800's. By the early 1900s, Coal was fueling close to 60% of all railroads, streetcars, and heating many people’s homes. But as more and more coal was consumed, they needed more mined to keep up. So, they started working their miners close to 15 hours a day for almost nothing. To make matters all the worse, they were not being paid in actual money, but in something called "Scrips." These were only worth something because the towns that the miners lived in were completely owned by the coal companies, everything from the churches to the dollar store. Because the company owned everything that the miners and their families used, they could complain about the terrible conditions. Miners were dying from explosions, inhaling to much rock dust, and many other accidents that could easily be prevented. But the main thing that was keeping the miners from unionizing and trying to get better conditions were the “Yellow Dog Contracts” that they were forced to sign. These contacts said that if you were associated with anyone in a union or joined a union, the company could take everything away since they owned it and kick you out without warning. Even with all these strict contracts in the way and the risk of loosing all that the miners had, they still tried to unionize and get better working conditions.
To deal with this the companies did the most reasonable thing they could think of and hire a detective agency to investigate each miner and if they were thought to be in a union, to kill them. They were known to spray bullets into miners’ houses and then check if it was the right person afterwards. This put the miners and their families at risk. But in the spring of 1920 a gunfight broke out between the detective agencies agents and a pro union group, which just so happened to include the west Virginia police chief, ten people were killed in the fight. Less then a year later while the police chief was walking out of a court room with his deputy, the agency shot him and his deputy down on the courthouse stairs. The death of the union loving police chief brought the miners to the edge, and they went over, preparing for a war. The miners, union supporters, and even eventually some state troopers started fighting against the detective agency and the coal companies. Many fights broke out throughout the state, but none as famous as Blair Mountain.
Even though the Miners outnumbered the agents 10:1, they were winning Blair Mountain because of the high ground and superior weapons. Eventually, the man who started the uprising, Bill Blizard, Called the men to stand down and head home due to loss of life. Over two hundred men died in that fight alone, and many were sent to prison for murder and treason. Even though the miners lost the battle, they won the war. It brought awareness to the awful conditions that they worked in and resulted in a stronger union and a change in the labor laws.
Do you think that the government should have helped the miners more?
Should the miners have kept pushing up Blair Mountain?
Was the end result worth the loss of life and the money lost?
Replies
Love the topic! Your summary is well wrtitten but I would have liked to see your thoughts within the summary as well. The big issue is you didn't reply to any student comments which is worth 30 points.
I think that the governemnt should have helped the miners, I think it would've changed the outcome of the situation a lot more. I think the government should have helped them because they were only kids and they didn't know any better. I don't think that the miners should have kept pushing up Blair Mountain.
The government should have helped the minors more because they are kids and they need more attention. It's the right thing to do for them to stop pushing the mountain because it will make them very exhausted. That they lost their jobs and got fired from their jobs and can't get any more money to help their family.
I think that the miners deserved more consideration from the government, although I understand that perhaps not much could be done later. In the end, although they were finally freed from that slavery, I think that everything was not perfect because perhaps there were families left without the person who brought the money home and what about work? What did they work on next?
I think the the government should help miners more, because we really rely on coal in our day-to-day- life. It is sooo important. Without it, we couldn't do the stuff we normally do. I think they did the right think by stoping the push for blair mountain.
The government 100% should have passed laws to help the minors and even offered military help. It is good to relaize when you've lost a battle so turning around was the right choice. It was still worth the loss of life becuase sacrifice is needed to bring about change.
I think based on how much people relied on coal for everyday tasks, miners should have definitely gotten more help from the government. I think they did the right thing to stop pushing up Blair Mountain because in the end they got what they were fighting for and didn't have to lose more people.
I think that the government should have helped the minors more. What they were doing was dangerous and they did struggle a little bit. The result of this was not worth it because their was not enough benifet.
I do think that the minors should have been helped more by the government than they were because their job is not easy. I think that they should not have kept pushing the Blair Mountains because of the risks of losing their lives. I do not think the result was with the loss of life an money lost.
I do think that the governement should have helped the miners more. If they were struggling, especially as coal miners, the government needed to step in and help. I don't think they should have kept pushing because of their lose of life. I don't think the end result was worth it.
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