The West Virginia Coal War

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?

You need to be a member of History 360 to add comments!

Join History 360

Replies are closed for this discussion.

Replies

  • The government defiently should have helped those miners more, escpecially with how much work it is and how hard of a job it is. Miners shouldnt have kept pushing in order to stay safe, personally, I dont think the loss of life and money lost was worth it.

This reply was deleted.
eXTReMe Tracker