The Battle of Blair Mountain took place in 1921 in Logan County, West Virginia. It is the largest labor uprising in United States history and the largest armed uprising since the US Civil War. Roy Williams explains.
Miners surrendering to federal soldiers.
Introduction
The history of labor in America is a complex matter in attempting to understand the nature of economics, worker rights, and the conflicting political apparatuses. While the traditional narrative of American labor history relies heavily on an approach that magnifies the importance of urban centers and familiar elements of the industrial revolution, and economic expansion, there are significant aspects of labor history that occurred in rural areas. One such event stands as extremely consequential but largely glossed over by the generalist historical narrative. The Battle of Blair Mountain in Logan County West Virginia stands as the largest labor uprising in United States history as well as the largest armed uprising since the Civil War. From August 25th to September 2nd, 1921, 10,000 coal miners fought 3,000 lawmen and Baldwin Felts detective agency strike breakers only ending when the United States Army arrived to contain the conflict. How did the situation become so dire that 10,000 miners, many of which were veterans of the Great War, take up arms against company management and agents of the law?
Background
As the United Mine Workers Union began to push further south into Mingo County West Virginia, spearheaded by Mother Jones, the prominent union organizer, the management of the mines began to retaliate against workers. Upon the move from 3,000 Mingo County Miners to vote for Unionization, the company began firing and evicting the workers and their families from their company homes with the help of the Baldwin Felts detective agency. While most lawmen were not generally seen as potential allies to the miner’s plight, one individual broke that mold. The Matewan police chief Sid Hatfield rejected the attempts of the Baldwin Felts agents to continue evictions of families and confronted them with a group of deputized miners. Albert Felts of the agency informed Sid Hatfield that he had a warrant for Hatfield which resulted in a shootout and the deaths of 7 Felts agents, 2 miners, and the mayor of Matewan, Cabell Testerman. The event galvanized union support and lionized Sid Hatfield as an icon of resistance against the mining companies.
On August 1st, Hatfield was summoned to McDowell County to stand trial on charges of dynamiting a coal tipple. Travelling with Hatfield was his good friend Ed Chambers and both of their wives. As they ascended the steps to the courthouse, Baldwin Felts detective agents ambushed them opening fire in an extrajudicial killing resulting in the deaths of both Hatfield and his friend Chambers. The news of the killing spread like wildfire to the miners who had come to idolize Hatfield as a champion of their cause. Miners began to take up arms in anger knowing that Hatfield had been ambushed and murdered. At a rally on August 7th, Mother Jones, the prolific union organizer, pleaded with miners not to resort to violence to no avail. The miners began gathering at lens creek mountain in preparation for an assault on Blair Mountain.
The Battle of Blair Mountain
As skirmishes began President Warren G. Harding threatened to send in troops and B1 bombers to quell the insurrection. This threat worked at first by causing miners to return home but would ultimately fail as rumors of Logan County Sheriff Don Chafin attacking pro-union sympathizers and their families spread throughout the mountains. At news of Chafin’s continued acts of violence the miners took up arms again and began their march upon Blair Mountain. While the miners heavily outnumbered the lawmen, they were poorly armed and poorly organized resulting in little tactical gains. Chafin’s men had established superior fortifications and were able to outlast the barrage of Miners until the Army finally arrived. The conflict resulted in an estimated 50-100 miner deaths with nearly 1000 arrests. Nearly 30 lawmen lay dead from the armed revolt. While outwardly the result of the conflict was a massive victory for the coal industry and anti-union forces, the battle and its publicity raised awareness of the plight of coal miners and would ultimately result in major union victories later with the implementation of President Roosevelt’s New Deal.
The Battle of Blair Mountain stands as a particularly unique event in analyzing both class and racial solidarity. While the miners were largely white, there were black and immigrant workers such as Italians involved in the struggle. An interesting parallel between the events of the battle and other events of economic uprising is the reality that certain events supersede racial boundaries and racial protocols. Much like the populist movement and its agrarian focus, which encouraged instances of racial and class solidarity among farmers, the Battle of Blair Mountain stood as a significant example of racial and class solidarity in the face of economic tyranny. The economic situation of the miners and their response to oppression dismantled the racial protocols of the 1920s.
While some scholars attempt to analyze parallels between the plight of West Virginia coal miners within a socialist framework with labor at its center, it is important to explore its inherent complexity. While the miners of West Virginia were certainly exploited and faced heinous conditions, their rebellion was not directed at capitalism as a system itself. Their rebellion stood solely in the direction of their actual oppressors, the mining companies. While other socialist revolutions feature prominent organizers and a large percentage of sympathizers throughout the country, the battle of Blair Mountain stood as a relatively small event in the world of the coal economy. The importance of the battle itself does not rely on a Marxist interpretation attempting to argue the inevitability of socialist revolutions throughout the world but to understand the significance of workers rights, the rule of law, and the commitment to fair and equitable economics without worker exploitation. The miners of West Virginia did not instigate a socialist revolution in the hopes of overthrowing their government and capitalism. Instead, they fought for their existence, their families, and the hope that the system would work fairly for them rather than exploit them in a radically unjust manner.
What do you think of the Battle of Blair Mountain? Let us know below.
Now, read Roy’s article on the Armenian Genocide here and the 1980s Guatemalan genocide here.
