"Union Busting" - Battle of Blair Mountain - US History - Part 1 - Extra History

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Fun Fact: During the battle, anti-union forces used commercial planes to drop bombs - both explosives and chemical weapons - on the miners. None of the anti-union forces went to jail.

One should remember that the Battle of Blair Mountain was only one of several armed conflicts to break out around this time in the American coal mining industry. Less than a decade earlier, the very similar Ludlow Coal War had been fought in Colorado, ending in the Ludlow Massacre in which private detectives tore through the miner's camps, setting tents on fire and machine gunning fleeing miners and their families, ending in some 200 casualties.

Wasn’t till I worked at Walmart I realized how scared large corporations are scared of united workers. During orientation watched a 30 minute video on the company and store policy. Next was a 90 damn minute video on the “dangers” of unions. They really wanted to drive home how much they hated unions.

A Miner stood at the golden gate, His head was bent and low. He meekly asked the man of fate, The way that he should go. 'What have you done' St. Peter said 'To gain admission here?' 'I merely mined for coal' he said, 'for many and many a year.' St. Peter opened up the gate, And softly tolled the bell. 'Come and choose your harp' he said 'You've had your share of hell.' Rhys Prince.

One of the most important and least talked about parts of modern American history, props for doing this one

I live about an hour from Blair Mountain and this is something I never see talked about enough, but outside of unions and anarchist circles it never gets brought up because it shows Americas apathy for it’s citizenry.

Well this hits close to home considering the potential railroad strike going on right now.

It’s nice to see that other states and people are learning about West Virginia more and more honestly who could have forgotten Blair’s Mountain honestly nothing makes a West Virginian more happy then other people talk about West Virginia

I think that, as we see a wave of unionization and strikes slowly but surely grow over the US, this story is extremely important to hear. The momentum is on the side of labor right now, and we need to show the kind of grit and readiness to fight that these brave workers did.

"Do you have a warrant for these evictions?" My smoothbore flintlock:

Excited for the rest of this series. Labor history is an area that most people don't learn all that much about in this country.

This explains a lot of the lore I've seen in Fallout 76, a large chunk of which takes place around Blair Mountain. One song played on the in-game radio in particular comes to mind, Sixteen Tons, which contains the following lyrics: You load 16 tons, what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt St. Peter, don't you call me 'cause I can't go I owe my soul to the company store

Ready for some based workers rights ✊

"You load 16 tons and what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt."

I just hope the last episode of this series ends with a hearty "Solidarity when? Solidarity forever!"

Thank you, thank you, thank you! Thank you for covering company towns! Ever since Hardspace Shipbreaker came out I've wanted extra credits to cover this horrible topic. Growing up in Pennsylvania where the coal mining and steel industry were huge we were taught all about this topic, bur sadly most of the rest of the US, much less the world, know not just the hopelessness of the people, but the horrors and how very very recent this all is.

I've been waiting for this one. One of the most important events in US history and a strong reminder that working rights were fought at the cost of blood. Continue the fight. Continue the struggle.

Southern WV native here. Coming from a family where every single male member of our extended family (myself and my youngest brother excluded) work in or for the mines, I can't state how excited I am to see this story finally start getting some more recognition. Growing up in a coal camp, learning about Blair Mountain and worker's rights started as soon as we could understand. I can still remember being a teensy little tyke at my gramma's for one of our big family Christmases, and my uncle sitting in a rocking chair and tell us youngins' the story. Also, while other areas may pronounce it like you did in this episode, most of West Virginia says "Apple-at-cha." An easy way to remember is: If you say "Apple-lay-sha", I'll throw an "apple-at-cha!" 😉

Keep this story alive, please. According to Charles B. Keeney, the battlefields are in risk of dissapearing, due to mining companies, the west virginian and federal politicians. Cheers.