“They’re going to bomb us!” (Mine Wars, Part 3)

Lick Creek Camp Dwellers, 1922 (Image credit: Library of Congress) “You know our rights under the Constitution, that no man should be condemned or jailed until we have had a free and impartial trial. We claim to be citizens of the United States and we ask for the rights of citizenship ; we claim to be loyal to our country, and we are loyal to our country, and all we ask is that we shall have our rights. We claim that we are citizens of the United States of America, according to the amendment to the Constitution. You know that that guarantees us free and equal rights and that is all we ask.” –Testimony of George Echols, miner and UMWA organizer The West Virginia Mine Wars were a series of armed conflicts between coal mine operators and employees in the Mountain State.  The first episode in this three-part series was about the conditions in the West Virginia coal fields in the years leading up to the Mine Wars.  The second episode discussed Paint Creek and Cabin Creek strikes that ended in 1913. For several months, the nation’s attention was focused on the war raging across the Atlantic. West Virginia was the second largest producer of the coal needed to fuel steel mills and Navy ships. The higher demand for coal, along with the labor shortage, lead to an increase in miners’ wages.  But the increases were not permanent, and many of the issues that had sparked the Paint Creek and Cabin Creek strikes remained. And the violence returned. It culminated in the Battle of Blair Mountain, which was the largest armed insurrection in United States since the Civil War. I referred to several sources, including the following– The Devil Is Here in These Hills: West Virginia’s Coal Miners and Their Battle for Freedom, by James Green “A union man: the life of C. Frank Keeney” by Charles Belmont Keeney III Struggle in the Coal Fields: The Autobiography of Fred Mooney West Virginia Archives and History West Virginia Coal Fields, Hearings Before the Committee on Education and Labor U.S. Senate, 67th. Congress, First Session Pursuant to S. Res. 80 Written in Blood: Courage and Corruption in the Appalachian War of Extraction, edited by Wess Harris