The town of Matewan, West Virginia was my home for a majority of my life. I grew up there, I was taught there, and I learned how to mine there. My family consisted of my father, Patrick O’Reilly, my mother, Ennis O’Reilly, and me, Bobby O’Reilly, or just Bob for short. In my earliest of memories in Matewan, I could remember my father leaving in the mornings to serve his shift in the mine like all the other men in the town. My father was a great man of humble upbringings, and I will always remember what he used to tell me every night he got home from his shift, “Bobby, Let us sacrifice our today so that our children can have a better tomorrow.” Today, when I look back at what my father told me, I see it as a testament of his love for his family and his desire that I achieve greatness in my life. I believe that’s what made my father a great man, and until his fateful day on September 29, 1917, I thought that he was invincible. My mother, Ennis, was a magnificent yet rowdy women, and I remember how she used to speak profanities about the mines when I was little. My mother always felt that my father was being taken advantage of down in those mines, and she would let my father have it every …show more content…
night he got home. She used to tell my father, “You know that mine will kill you some day,” but my father just ignored her. When my father was killed by a kettle bottom in the mine my mother didn’t speak for days, and I believe she knew what was going to happen next. I joined the mines. In my first few months with the mine, I was astonished to see all the coal we were able to move in just a short amount of time. The whole process was amazing to me within the first couple of months, but after that it just became a job to me. I started working in the mine because it was the only option I had at the time. My mom and I could have either have moved out of our home in Matewan and fended for ourselves or I had to start working in the mine to replace my dad as a steady worker. The company rules stated that there always must be a miner living in every company home, so I took the job. At first, I was a very inexperienced miner, even though when dad was still alive he used to tell me everything he knew about the mine. I eventually did learn quite a bit about mining from an old miner that I was paired with during my first few months named, J.T. Edwards. J.T. was a fine old miner that knew everything there was to know about mining, and then probably some more with his own “refined techniques” as he used to call them. I also believe that J.T. could have bullshitted his way into any place he wanted, and even the White House if he so desired. The man loved to aggravate the hell out of me, but I always thought of him as a father to me during those rough times. After I gained some experience in the mine I was finally put to work, and it was some of the hardest work that I had ever done. During the few months leading up to the Battle of Matewan there was a lot of chatter among the miners over the UMWA or better known as just the union to us miners. The union had been trying to unionize the coal mines in West Virginia for years, and by 1919 the union decided to make their big push into the coal mines of southern West Virginia. I personally didn’t really care about the union, but then again I was around 17 years old and I had enough to worry about down in the mines before I could think about joining a union. To me, the union was just a fast way to losing your job in the mine, and I couldn’t afford losing my home and a good paying job over it. The other miners thought so to, and until 1920, Matewan was union free. The year of 1920 for Matewan could be considered the year we turned red by those at the company, but I saw it as the year of our liberation. The union had been making its trips down to Matewan for about a couple weeks before the Battle of Matewan, and even though we really didn’t listen to what they had to say they were still a persistent bunch of men. The union officials would always give enormous speeches to the miners were they would tell us of a better future with the union. Some of the men would stand and listen, but a majority of us would just head on home, I would always stay behind for just a little bit longer. My mother would always yell at me every time I got home from a union meeting, but I believe she was just afraid of us losing our home if the company found out. The union started to take hold in Matewan just after a few months, but to keep our jobs it had to be secret nightly talks until the union could gain more control in the region. So, the miners would work by day and talk union at night under the cover of darkness. Everything in Matewan was going well until the day the scabs arrived by the Norfolk western railroad. The company had decided to bring in scabs to help with the workload, but all the miners knew what was going on. We were being replaced. The company probably figured out that we were trying to unionize the mine, so they thought that they could just get rid of us. The scabs were of the usual sorts of immigrants from Italy and blacks from the south, and at the time we hated them. I remember what J.T. told me right before the scabs arrived, “Bob, you know those damn scabs are here to destroy our way of life, and we can’t let that happen.” So, J.T. and some of the other miners decided to go down to the rails before the scabs reached the station, and wait for them so that they could rough them up. I decided not to go, but only because I had to help my mother get ready for dinner that evening. After a while of working in the mines with the scabs we grew to accept their presence, but we made sure that they stayed in their spots and we in ours. Throughout this whole process the union talks were still going on, and although we fought like hell to stop them we even had a few of the scabs join in with us. My life as a miner was almost getting back to normal as Spring came around in 1920, but everything changed when the Baldwin-Felts detectives arrived. The Baldwin-Felts detective agency or the “Baldwin thugs,” as us miners called them, were notorious for their reputation of brutality towards unions during strikes, and the company had hired them to evict unionized miners, their wives, and even their children from company owned houses. The Baldwin thugs were led by brothers Albert and Lee Felts, who were some of the vilest men to have ever have walked the face of this Earth. The only words you could have ever of heard out of either of the two men were swear words followed some reference to how Matewan was the bottom of the barrel in America. I could have killed those two men, and still have sleep like a baby at night. I remember one of the first days the Baldwin thugs came to town to serve their first evictions, but little did they know the sheriff, Sid Hatfield, was there to stop them. Sid Hatfield was a man of few words, who had fought in the war and served his country. Sid was probably one of the bravest men I had ever seen in my life, and on the day the Baldwin thugs came to serve their evictions he showed his bravery in the face of thugs. That day, Sid had walked right up to Albert Felts and said, “I take care of my people. You bring 'em trouble, and you're a dead man.” The Baldwin thugs didn’t stay around much longer after Sid threatened to throw them out of town, since they had no jurisdiction in the area. The tension was gone after the Baldwin thugs had left for the day, and that evening to be safe some of the miners’ families decided to move out of their homes and into small canvas tents to prevent any further evictions. My mother and I setup a tent near the Edwards family, where J.T., his wife, and two kids, Rebecca and Jonathan, were staying, and it was a delight to have friends right next door for a change. The delight was short lived though, and on May 19th, 1920 the Battle of Matewan began. The morning of May the 19th was just like every other rainy morning in rural West Virginia, foggy as hell and mud from your ankles down. That morning we had heard of a possible train full of Baldwin thugs arriving by noon that day, so we miners decided that we would get ready for anything by making sure our rifles had been handy. By the time noon came around, Sid Hatfield had stopped by our tents to deputize the miners willing to stand their ground against the Baldwin thugs, so I decided that it was my time to stand up for myself and fight. Before I left that day for the train station I made sure I stopped by my tent to get my rifle, and tell my mother good-bye in case something would happen to me. She was angry with me at first, but after a few minutes she grudgingly let me go do my job as a union man. When I finally arrived down by the train station I could see the Baldwin thugs coming closer to where Sid Hatfield had been standing, and what looked to like the Mayor of Matewan, Cabell Testerman. The whole scene was tense, and just after a few seconds I could see Albert and Lee Felts leading a group of about 10 or 12 thugs with them. The Baldwin thugs each had a rifle and some even had a revolver strapped to their sides ready to draw. The miners had just old rifles and only two of us had revolvers that actually worked fairly decent. Then there was the sheriff, Sid Hatfield, who had two pistols strapped to his waist, which for Sid made him the most deadly man out there. When the group of men finally met face-to-face I could hear Mayor Testerman’s plea for no violence, but within a matter of seconds the first shot rang out. I was shocked by the loud sound of a gunshot, and then the sound of multiple gunshots. I ran for shelter behind a building before I even realized what was happening. By the time I could get ahold of myself I could hear nothing but men crying for help, and the sound of guns being fired. I decided to look around the corner of the building for a peek of the action, but all I could see was a couple of dead bodies and what looked to be the Mayor laying on the ground crying for help. After that I just crouched down by the building, and prayed to God to save my soul because I believed I was going to die. Then the sound of gunshots stopped, and I felt a shiver of relief run over my body. I decided to walk around the corner after a few minutes to see what all had happened, and that was when I saw him. J.T. Edwards was laying on the ground with his face in a puddle of blood, and on that day I had lost my best friend. I couldn’t even move after I saw that sight, and still to this day I have nightmares of his face laying in that cold, wet puddle of blood. The Battle of Matewan was one of the hardest moments of my life as a miner, and to this day I remember it like it was yesterday.
The images of that battle were seared into my head, and like many other of the miners who survived the tragic incident it was a testament to our servitude as miners and as union men who stood up to the company. The Battle of Matewan took the lives of ten people that day, including that of our Mayor Cabell Testerman, who took a shot in the gut and died a few days later. The events that were to follow the battle led to the deaths of Sid Hatfield and his deputy, Ed Chambers, were gunned down on the steps of the McDowell County courthouse in the town of Welch. In later years, the Battle of Matewan would become known as the struggle for freedom and
liberty.
Although each character delivers their powerful and moving account, I would like to focus on one individual and his struggle to organize the miners. Rondal Lloyd struggled most of his life, he knew the coal mines first hand when he had to leave school to help his dad work in the mines to pay off debt to the company store. Unfortunately, this was common back in the times that this story is based upon. In West Virginia as far back as 1901 there are archives that have tried to set some sort of standards for child labor, but we must remember that these children grew up hard and fast. (West Virginia Mine War...
...ing the conditions faced by coal miners and their families in addition to events leading up to the uprising. However, some additional research should be done in regards to the West Virginia Coal Wars and the Battle of Blair Mountain.
The citizens of Matewan, a coal -mining town in West Virginia lived amidst a feudalistic class process. One may think of medieval times in connection with feudalism, but the film “Matewan” directed by John Sayles was based on historical events that took place in 1920. The feudal lord was not a European king, and the serfs were not farming his land. Nevertheless, feudalism existed in this southern town, as the workers did not have the ability to choose their employer. Unlike Capitalism, the members of Matewan could not go out into the free labor market and choose the businesses for which they wished to work. The Stone Mountain Coal Company made choice nonexistent and in doing so gained feudal power over the employees.
The book Outlaw Platoon written by Sean Parnell is a soldiers’ tale of his platoon in one of the most dangerous places on earth. This book is a non-fiction riveting work that tells the story of a platoon that spent sixteen months on an operating base in the Bermel Valley, the border of Pakistan. This mission the men were sent on was part of a mission called Operation Enduring Freedom. This book is extremely relevant to the war that we are still fighting in Afghanistan and the humanitarian work that continues. We still have men in this area fighting and losing their lives everyday. It is the focus of ongoing political debates and the purpose of our involvement there is an ongoing question in the minds of many Americans. In writing this book, Parnell makes it clear in his author’s notes that he indeed was not trying to pursue one political agenda over another. His goal as not to speak of all members of the platoon and expose their identities and the types of soldiers they were but instead to showcase some of the men’s bravery and abilities during the war. Parnell believed that he owed it to the men to write something that would show the world what these men go through during combat in an honest and raw account. Another purpose of Parnell’s in writing this book is an attempt at making sure these men are given a place in American war history.
passage: "The courage and resistance shown by the Navajos at Big Mountain, by Polish workers,
...p;The bombardment had lasted thirty-six hours, and over 3,000 shot and shell had been hurled at the fort. The evacuation of the fort took place the following day on April 14, 1861. The fort had been evacuate, not surrendered. Before the evacuation the citizens of Taunton Mass. had voted Maj. Anderson an elegant sword. New York gave him the freedom of the city in a gold box. Finally, on June 6, 1861, the Chamber of Commerce of New York ordered the execution of a series of medals to be presented to Maj. Anderson and to each man of the garrison. (www.sonofthesouth.net/leefoundation/battle-fort-sumter.html)
...ventually limited to 38. Of that 38, a few innocent men were hanged. In the eyes of the settlers, it was justice be done. In the eyes of the Sioux, it was a reminder that nothing had changed.
With the gradual advancements of society in the 1800’s came new conflicts to face. England, the leading country of technology at the time, seemed to be in good economic standing as it profited from such products the industrial revolution brought. This meant the need for workers increased which produced jobs but often resulted in the mistreatment of its laborers. Unfortunately the victims targeted were kids that were deprived of a happy childhood. A testimony by a sub-commissioner of mines in 1842 titled Women Miners in the English Coal Pits and The Sadler Report (1832), an interview of various kids, shows the deplorable conditions these kids were forced to face.
...nging environment, issues faced by men, and the primitive sadness that women are exposed to by the monstrous result of the coal mines.
In the early 1950’s America was on the cusp of great change. The fight for equal rights for minorities and women was just over the horizon, a movement that would explode in the 1960’s creating lasting social change within the United States. The miners of Zinc Town, USA, and their families, were a part of this movement. The miners, who were largely of Mexican descent, felt that the working conditions were unsafe and not on par with that of Anglo’s employed at different mines. The miners wives tolling day after day without sufficient plumbing and proper sanitation, felt that their issues were just as important and should be included in the demands of the miners union. Salt of the Earth (1954) looks at the miners strike through
I was barely 17 when I returned home. Even though I was so young my father gave me huge responsibilities involving the family mines and other enterprises. Since I was home, my mother focused on my little sister’s education. She took her back to New England to attend a school suitable for proper young ladies. My eight-year-old brother went along, as he w...
Initially, this recognition appears to take the form of a stable income, despite price fluctuations within the marketplace for copper ore. In the book “Holding the Line: Women in the Great Arizona Mine Strike of 1983”, Barbara Kingsolver recounts several stories by miners of how the management structures in place within Phelps Dodge (and the mining industry in general throughout the southwest) allowed workers to be segregated into hierarchical classes based on race or gender. These stories demonstrate how structural violence within Phelps Dodge exacerbated discriminatory race relations between Anglo and Mexican Americans as well as the newly embroiling gender discriminations brought on by the increasing presence of women within the rank and file of the unionized mine workers in the
While 2001 has proven to be a year of fear, anger, uncertainty and terrible destruction, the years between 1893 and 1904 were equally chaotic for the small mining town of Cripple Creek, Colorado. Tensions began to grow between mining companies and workers over their long hours and low wages. In response, John Calderwood, a former coal miner, established the Western Federation of Miners (WFM) in 1894. Calderwood and five hundred men formed a union in February of that same year. Their demands were simple: three dollars' pay for an eight-hour day. The conflict went on with neither side willing to compromise. Non-union workers and union workers competed for jobs as companies refused t...
Coal mining in the 1920s was extremely difficult job in which miners endured many challenges and hardships. The 1920’s safety was not on everyone’s mind. It was as if the miners were just tools to be used. The equipment the miners used was a marvel for its time, as it was just the start to a technological advancement. Miners faced hardships such as low wages, long hours, and the difficulty of the work conditions.
To some people, it is only noise but to me, it was a whole new world. I can still remember the first time I heard a round whiz past my ear, the cars passing by, or SSG Blue yelling at me to get down. At that moment, I realized that I was not training anymore. I was made aware that everything and everyone were out to kill me. I kept telling myself, “I shouldn’t be here.” Mentally, I can hear my mother in the background crying just as the day she did when she found out I joined the military. My life was not the same nor will it ever be the same. In my first combat tour I learned the importance of life, how to mentally prepare myself for the worst outcomes, and I learned how to be a great leader.