The popularity of unions in the United States has been on the decline for years. They
are demonized in the news and by various politicians. Yet they are also the only
way that workers can gain enough leverage to successfully negotiate for better conditions.
What if workers formed a union and the business owners and the government
decided to kill them for it?
It happened before. And it became the largest armed uprising since the Civil War.
Today we’re going to tell you about the Battle of Blair Mountain.
Company Town
If you lived in Mingo County, West Virginia in 1920 then you were most likely
poor. And the government was not going to help.
Thankfully, there were jobs. This area of West Virginia was rich in coal. So, it was
usually possible to get work as a coal miner. But it was a very hazardous profession. Mining
demanded long hours of grueling labor in some of the most dangerous conditions imaginable.
There wasn’t much time to enjoy life for those who worked in the mines. Most of
the miners worked twelve hours a day and could only take Sundays off.
The companies that owned the mines built entire towns near them. Housing would be provided to
workers and their families. There were stores in the town that sold what the families needed.
In some ways it was convenient, but the price paid by workers was far too high.
Mining companies didn’t give tools to their workers for free. For example,
the miners had to give part of their wages back to the company for the privilege of
renting the tools. The mining company would also pay workers in what was known as “scrip”. It was
a type of currency created by the company and it could only be used at company stores.
For someone who lived in company owned housing and bought food with “scrip”
losing a job was devastating. It basically meant everything was lost.
These unsavory conditions were nothing new unfortunately. It was standard
practice in the late 19th century for much of the United States.
In 1890 the United Mine Workers established a Union to fight for higher wages and better
conditions. They had success in many places but not in Mingo County.
For thirty years Mingo County and surrounding areas had succeeded in
keeping the union out of their mines. In 1920 things began to change as over 3000
miners joined the United Mine Workers union.
The Stone Mountain Coal Company employed nearly the entire town
of Matewan. It did not plan to let the union come in without a fight.
Matewan Massacre
Workers in the 1920s didn’t have many protections. They could be
fired for any reason at any time. And when it was time to remove miners and
their families the Stone Mountain Coal Company preferred to hire outside help.
On May 19, 1920, the company hired the Baldwin-Felts detective agency and tasked it
with getting the union out of Matewan. A dozen detectives arrived in Matewan that day. Among
them were Lee and Albert Felts, who were the brothers of the agency’s co-founder Thomas Felts.
Cabell Testerman was the mayor of Matewan. Albert Felts tried to
bribe Cabell to place machine guns on the roofs of buildings in town. Albert knew
that before the detectives were done violence was likely. Cabell Testerman refused to help.
The detectives proceeded to evict miners and their families that were associated
with the union. In one case they entered a home while the husband was not there.
The detectives forced the woman and her children out of the house at gunpoint. Then they threw
the family’s belongings outside. It was also raining the entire time.
The miners who saw this happen were furious.
They sent word to the mayor hoping he might do something.
After finishing the evictions, the detectives
headed to the train station intending to leave Matewan. Cabell Testerman
finally heard what the detectives had done to the woman and her children.
He asked the town’s police chief, Sid Hatfield, to deputize several miners and arrest the detectives.
The group of men confronted the detectives. Sid told them they were under arrest.
Albert Felts replied that he had a warrant for Sid’s arrest. Cabell heard the exchange
and asked to look at the warrant. After studying it he said, “this is a bogus warrant”.
A gunfight erupted with those words. Sid Hatfield shot Albert Felts. In the
ensuing chaos Lee Felts was also killed as well as the mayor, Cabell Testerman.
In total seven of the detectives were killed. Three men from the town died.
It was a victory for the miners and their cause. Sid Hatfield was hailed as a hero.
Armed resistance against the police and the coal companies became a common occurrence throughout
Mingo County. Shoot outs were happening sporadically all over the surrounding countryside.
Sid Hatfield was part of the reason why. Cabell Testerman had owned a jewelry
store. After his death, Sid converted it to a gun store that sold weapons to angry miners.
The Trials
Sid Hatfield found himself in the national spotlight after the gunfight ended. He
would pose for reporters at every opportunity and made sure to do everything possible to
increase his legendary status. He also had to stand trial for killing Albert Felts.
The trial began on January 26, 1921. Sid was acquitted as well as all
the deputized miners that were with him that day. Legally,
at least, they faced no penalties for killing the seven detectives.
Although Sid Hatfield’s public profile was on the rise
the union was facing significant setbacks. The Stone Mountain Coal Company brought
replacement workers into the mines that were not part of a union.
In mid-May the union miners launched assaults on the mines that were using non-union labor. It
was called the “Three Days Battle” and ended when martial law was declared.
Authorities arrested hundreds of miners. Many of them were incarcerated for the smallest and
most petty offenses. By contrast none of those who were against the union ever went to jail.
The response to this by the miners and Sid Hatfield was to sabotage mining
operations. Sid was caught using dynamite to destroy part of a coal mine. He had to
travel to nearby McDowell County on August 1, 1921 to stand trial for this crime.
Sid traveled to the trial with his good friend Ed Chambers. They were both with their wives. As
they began to walk up the courthouse steps, they saw a group of Baldwin-Felts agents at the top
of the stairs. The detectives produced their weapons, opened fire, and killed Sid Hatfield
instantly. Ed Chambers was also on the receiving end of several bullets. Instead of dying
immediately he rolled to the bottom of the steps. While his wife was screaming for the detectives
to stop, one of them walked to the bottom of the stairs and shot Ed Chambers in the head.
Word of the executions spread. The miners knew the killers
would walk free. And they didn’t plan to let them get away with it.
The Battle Begins
On August 7, the leaders of the United Mine Workers union called for a rally at the West
Virginia state capitol of Charleston. The miners created a list of demands
and provided them to the governor. The governor summarily rejected the demands.
The miners became increasingly angry. They wanted to march to Mingo county, end martial law,
and free the imprisoned workers. There were several obstacles in their path. First,
they would have to cross through Logan county. And they would have to get past Blair Mountain.
Logan county had a sheriff named Don Chafin and he was fiercely anti-union. He created
a small army that consisted of three thousand state police, deputies, and citizen militia.
This force created a series of trenches and machine gun nests around Blair Mountain.
They planned to make sure none of the angry workers reached Mingo county.
By August 28, there were at least 10,000 union men
near the border of Logan county. Small skirmishes with Chafin’s forces started
happening along the border. In order to make sure they could tell friend from foe the miners
tied red handkerchiefs around their necks. They became known as the “red neck army”.
The first major battle took place on August 31. The two groups exchanged gunfire, and several
were killed. The miners tried several times to rush positions occupied by Chafin’s forces.
In each case they were driven back by machine gun fire.
On September 1, the miners made another attempt to break through into Logan county.
They successfully assaulted a machine gun position and occupied it. But then
the gun jammed and other machine guns up the hill drove them back.
Don Chafin responded by hiring three private biplanes. He gave them teargas and shrapnel
bombs. The pilots dropped the bombs on the miners as they flew over their positions.
Luckily for the workers nobody was hurt by these explosive devices.
The battle only ended because President Warren Harding ordered the military to intervene.
Fighting continued until September 4 but most of the miners surrendered. Many of them were
veterans of World War One and were unwilling to shoot at members of the United States military.
Around one thousand miners surrendered and lay down their weapons. They were
arrested and 985 of them faced charges. These included murder, conspiracy to commit murder,
accessory to murder, and treason against the state of West Virginia.
Some of the miners were found innocent by
sympathetic juries. Most of them were imprisoned for years.
Legacy
In the years following the Battle of Blair Mountain it appeared that the
coal companies had achieved a major victory. Membership in the union dropped sharply.
The coal industry also began to decline,
which further affected the ability of unions to force improvements for workers.
The victory would be short-lived. Unions learned from these mistakes and instead of
trying to use violence they focused on using the law to their advantage. Furthermore,
press coverage about the battle educated everyone about the horrible working conditions miners
had to endure. Public sympathy for the plight of workers was difficult to ignore.
In 1935 President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal legislation ensured workers had the
right to organize into unions. The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 set the maximum number of
hours most employees could be forced to work and the minimum wage they could be paid.
Companies in the United States were no longer able to legally use violence against workers.
Now they had to negotiate, which in turn meant workers received better treatment.
The location of the Battle of Blair Mountain has also become a
site of archaeological interest. When the workers decided to surrender
many of them didn’t want to have their weapons confiscated by the government. So, they hid them
in the woods around Blair Mountain. Over the years thousands of weapons and other items have
been recovered. Most are undisturbed and were found exactly where the miners left them in 1921.
Nobody has ever been able to determine how many people died in the conflict.
Some accounts place the number as low as twenty people dead. Others place the number as high as
one hundred. It has been estimated that during the conflict over one million rounds were fired.
The Battle of Blair Mountain raised public awareness about labor issues,
and this did eventually lead to significant changes.
In the modern world, and in the United States in particular,
it is easy to forget just how violent life could be in the recent past. Only
a hundred years ago large companies could abuse workers, steal from them, evict them,
and maybe even kill them. There was almost no legal recourse for the poor when this happened.
When they stood up and tried to change this oppressive system
the government made sure to help the companies instead.
Today unions might still be despised by many. But it is not okay for the owners
of these companies to use violence. So that is certainly an improvement.
How do you feel about unions? Should we make them stronger today? Or is it
something that needs to stay in the past?
And what about the miners? Did they deserve to go to jail? Or
were they morally justified in fighting against the government?
Tell us what you think in the comments below.
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Thank you for watching Bad Things in History.