“I want to say make no settlement until they sign up that every bloody murderer of a guard has got to go.”
This is the story of the largest uprising in the United States since the Civil War.
As unions spread across the Progressive-Era United States, West Virginia mine owners manage to keep them out. They have some good reasons (tough margins) and some less savory ones … like their preference for an oppressive “mine guard system” in “company towns” that effectively removes civil government and private ownership, and reduces the American citizens working in their mines to serfdom. Mother Jones inspires the miners to push back.
Over the course of a decade, that pushback turns bloody – especially in Mingo County. But the worst of it comes just after the Great War, as the miner’s hero, Police Chief Sid “Two Gun” Hatfield, is murdered in cold blood at McDowell County Courthouse. Now, all bets are off. 10,000 miners grab their guns, ready to get revenge and free incarcerated miners. But they’ll have to go through Sheriff Don Chafin’s forces first. The two sides clash at Blair Mountain as the US Army arrives with regiments and aviation squadrons.
____
Connect with us on HTDSpodcast.com and
HTDS is part of the Airwave Media Network.
Interested in advertising on the History That Doesn't Suck? Email us at advertising@airwavemedia.com
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
98: Silver & Gold: From Grover Cleveland to William Jennings Bryan & William McKinley
97: The Gilded Age’s Robber Barons: John D. Rockefeller & Andrew Carnegie
96: The War of the Currents: (Thomas Alva Edison v. Nikola Tesla & George Westinghouse)
95: "Several Thousand Things that Won't Work:" Thomas Alva Edison and His Electric Light
94: Epilogue to Gilded Age Part I (or Gilded Age interlude w/ Significant HTDS Updates)
93: La Liberté éclairant le monde: Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi’s Statue of Liberty
92: The Brooklyn Bridge, or the Story of the Roebling Family
91: The Gilded Age, Industrialization, and Assassination of President James Garfield
90: Epilogue to the Wild West
89: Closing the Wild West: (Wounded Knee, Buffalo Bill & the 1893 Colombian Expo)
88: “The Last Frontier:” The Purchase of Alaska and the Klondike Gold Rush
87:Gunslingers & Outlaws (pt 2): Pearl Hart, Tombstone, Jesse James, B. Cassidy & The Sundance Kid
86: Gunslingers & Outlaws (pt 1): The Second Industrial Revolution, Sam Bass & Billy the Kid
85: Transcontinental Railroad (pt 3): The Central Pacific, Chinese Workers, & The Golden Spike
84: Transcontinental Railroad (pt 2): Dr. Thomas Durant, The Union Pacific & “Hell on Wheels”
83: Transcontinental Railroad (pt 1): Industrialization, Ted Judah & The Rise of the Central Pacific
82: Best Mini Episodes and Cold Opens of 2020
81: Epilogue to Volume 6: Reconstruction and The Indian Wars
80: “Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus:” A History
79: The Indian Wars (Part 3): Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce & Standing Bear’s Fight for Civil Rights
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
History Daily
Irish Songs with Ken Murray
History Obscura
Historycal: Words that Shaped the World
The Rest Is History