Journey Up Coal River

Blair Mountain Resources

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TitleAuthor/CreatorDateDescriptionCategories
Absentee Landowning & Exploitation in West Virginia, 1760 to 1920Barbara Rassmussen1994
Written by a central participant in the Blair Moun...Written by a central participant in the Blair Mountain preservation struggle, this scholarly work by Dr. Barbara Rasmussen provides the underlying context for the conditions of poverty and exploitation in West Virginia. Absentee land ownership is still a major problem in central Appalachia, and so this book not only rigorously researches historical processes but also provides answers for social issues today. This book is a must for those wanting to understand the deep systemic structures that contextualized the Battle of Blair Mountain, then and today.
Book, Absentee Land Ownership, Coal Company Control
Blair Mountain from the Other SideThe Goldenseal Book of West Virginia Mine Wars, R.B. Adams1991Account about Blair Mountain.Primary Source, Photograph, Article, The Battle of Blair Mountain
Blair Mountain Nature PhotosKenneth KingOngoing
These images are from the Blair Mountain area, as...These images are from the Blair Mountain area, as well as from Logan County in general. Most of these have been taken by FOBM board member Kenneth King, whose photographs have also been used by National Geographic. If you would like to contribute your own photos, contact us and we will put them up!
Primary Source, Photograph, The Battle of Blair Mountain, Union History
Civil War in West VirginiaWinthrop Lane1921
This book is written by a noted journalist of the...This book is written by a noted journalist of the day who spent quite a bit of time in the coalfields covering the industrial conflicts there. It is a class work, and an artifact in itself in that an eyewitness to the event wrote it as it was occurring.
Book, Primary Source, The Battle of Blair Mountain, Union History, Coal Company Control
Friends of Blair Mountain Reports & Articles ArchiveFriends of Blair MountainVarious
This extensive archive includes academic texts and...This extensive archive includes academic texts and theses, primary sources and articles about Blair, Union History & the West Virginia Mine Wars
Book, Primary Source, Photograph, Article, The Battle of Blair Mountain, Union History, Absentee Land Ownership, Coal Company Control
Friends of Blair Video ArchiveFriends of Blair MountainVarious
Videos about history & contemporary conflict on Bl...Videos about history & contemporary conflict on Blair Mountain.
Video, The Battle of Blair Mountain, Union History, Absentee Land Ownership, Coal Company Control
Hillbilly, The Real StoryThe History Channel2008
As this wide-ranging documentary makes clear, the...As this wide-ranging documentary makes clear, the disparaging label “hillbilly” should actually be worn with pride. Join host Billy Ray Cyrus on a journey into the hollers and runs of Appalachia to discover the proud legacy of the region’s mountain folk. Learn how hillbillies, long misunderstood and maligned as isolated and backward, actually have a 300-year history of achievement and success that has contributed significantly to our national identity.
Video
Historical Photos 1890-1930Friends of Blair Mountain1890-1930
This collection is currently being assembled, and...This collection is currently being assembled, and we appreciate any input or material to include. The bulk of this collection comes from Kenneth King, who has been collecting memorabilia such as photographs and postcards relating to the battle and the contextual time period. In this, Kenny offers some rare and until now un-digitized images of the coalfields, with an emphasis on the area area Blair and Logan, during the early years of mining. These images are significant because of their aesthetic qualities as well as the information they convey about what life was like back then. We hope you find these useful and enjoyable.
Primary Source, Photograph, The Battle of Blair Mountain, Union History, Coal Company Control
King Coal: A Pictorial Heritage of West Virginia Coal MiningStan Cohen1984
This is a book of photographs covering the early d...This is a book of photographs covering the early days of coal mining in West Virgina. It has some rarely seen photographs, and so is a good source for images.
Book, Photograph, The Battle of Blair Mountain, Union History
Life, Work & Rebellion in the CoalfieldsDavid Alan Corbin1989
Another fundamental text regarding Blair Mountain...Another fundamental text regarding Blair Mountain and
Book, The Battle of Blair Mountain, Union History
MatewanJohn Sayles1987
An American drama made in 1987 that illustrates th...An American drama made in 1987 that illustrates the events of a coal mine-workers’ strike and attempt to unionize in 1920 in Matewan, a small town in the hills of West Virginia. The events at Matewan lead up to the eventual Battle of Blair Mountain in 1921. The film stars Chris Cooper, James Earl Jones, Mary McDonnell, David Strathairn, Kevin Tighe, Will Oldham, and Jace Alexander.
Video, The Battle of Blair Mountain, Union History
Matewan Before the MassacreRebecca Bailey2008
On May 19, 1920, gunshots rang through the streets...On May 19, 1920, gunshots rang through the streets of Matewan, West Virginia, in an event soon known as the “Matewan Massacre.” Most historians of West Virginia and Appalachia see this event as the beginning of a long series of tribulations known as the second Mine Wars. But was it instead the culmination of an even longer series of proceedings that unfolded in Mingo County, dating back at least to the Civil War? Matewan Before the Massacre provides the first comprehensive history of the area, beginning in the late eighteenth century continuing up to the Massacre. It covers the relevant economic history, including the development of the coal mine industry and the struggles over land ownership; labor history, including early efforts of unionization; transportation history, including the role of the N&W Railroad; political history, including the role of political factions in the county’s two major communities—Matewan and Williamson; and the impact of the state’s governors and legislatures on Mingo County.
Book, Union History, Absentee Land Ownership, Coal Company Control
Mother Jones Speaks to the Striking Coal Miners, Charleston, WV, August 15, 1912Mary Harris Jones1912
Mother Jones, nicknamed the “Miner's Angel,” was a...Mother Jones, nicknamed the “Miner's Angel,” was a United Mine Workers of America organizer and hellraiser.
Primary Source, Union History, Coal Company Control
New York Times Blair Mountain ArchivesThe New York Times1921
This collection includes available every article i...This collection includes available every article in the New York Times from August 21 – Sept. 8, 1921.
Primary Source, Article, The Battle of Blair Mountain, Union History
Storming HeavenDenise Giardina1988
While this is a fictional novel, it is a historica...While this is a fictional novel, it is a historical story that is well-researched and better representative of the realities and complexities of life in the coalfields than many scholarly works. We highly recommend this novel because it gives a sense of the humanity – the loves, hopes, greed, struggle, despair and triumph – of the mining communities during the period of social transformation and unrest in the coalfields that resulted in the Battle of Blair Mountain.
Book, The Battle of Blair Mountain, Union History, Coal Company Control
The Battle for Blair MountainBrandon Nida & Jessee Adkins2010
This peer-reviewed work discusses 1) the historica...This peer-reviewed work discusses 1) the historical context of Blair Mountain, 2) initial analysis of archaeological findings, 3) current issues surrounding Blair Mountain, and 4) the potential for activist research to be used in contemporary social struggles.
Article, The Battle of Blair Mountain, Union History, Absentee Land Ownership, Coal Company Control
The Battle of Blair MountainRobert Shogan2004
In 1921, some 10,000 West Virginia coal miners-- o...In 1921, some 10,000 West Virginia coal miners-- outraged over years of brutality and exploitation-- picked up their Winchesters and marched against their tormentors, the powerful mine owners who ruled their corrupt state. For ten days the miners fought a pitched battle against an opposing legion of deputies, state police, and makeshift militia. Only the intervention of a Federal expeditionary force ended this undeclared war. In The Battle of Blair Mountain, Robert Shogan shows this long-neglected slice of American history to be a saga of the conflicting political, economic, and cultural forces that shaped the power structure of twentieth-century America.
Book, The Battle of Blair Mountain, Union History, Coal Company Control
The Don Chafin EraThe Goldenseal Book of West Virginia Mine Wars, Russell Fogelsong1991
After growing up in Kanawha and Fayette Counties,...After growing up in Kanawha and Fayette Counties, Russell Fogelsong spent his early working years in Logan County. There he was an eyewitness to the last episodes of the mine wars, viewing events from the anti-union side. He offers the following first-hand account of the notorious Don Chafin reign in Logan. Don Chafin was the perennial sheriff of Logan County, from about 1910 until after the United Mine Workers of America succeeded in unionizing the Logan District.
Primary Source, Photograph, Article, The Battle of Blair Mountain, Union History, Coal Company Control
The Redneck War of 1921: The Miners' March & the Battle for Blair MountainThe Goldenseal Book of West Virginia Mine Wars, Michael Meador1991
The assassination of Matewan Massacre defendants S...The assassination of Matewan Massacre defendants Sid Hatfield and Ed Chambers in August 1921 brought the West Virginia Mine Wars to a frenzied crescendo. Outraged coal miners marched South from the Kanawha Valley by the thousands, determined to end the nonunion regime in Logan and Mingo. They were intercepted by Logan Sheriff Don Chafin, an infamous figure in union history. Chafin's men met the miners along a broad defensive front just inside the northern Logan border, and The Battle of Blair Mountain began. It took the U.S. Army to end it. Michael Meador's articles on Blair Mountain were published in the April-June 1981 GOLDENSEAL.
Article, The Battle of Blair Mountain, Union History, Coal Company Control
The Seige of Crooked Creek GapThe Goldenseal Book of West Virginia Mine Wars, Michael Meador1991
In these conversations with Michael Meador, (first...In these conversations with Michael Meador, (first hand observers) Ball and Garrett recount why the unionists failed to make the planned dawn crossing, and Ball remembers the hectic night before, when he served as the miners' "generalissimo."
Primary Source, Photograph, Article, The Battle of Blair Mountain, Union History
The West Virginia Mine Wars: An AnthologyDavid Alan Corbin1998
Overview of the West Virginia Mine Wars of the ear...Overview of the West Virginia Mine Wars of the early 20 century.
Book
Thunder in the MountainsLon Savage1990
This is a colorful account of the open warfare in...This is a colorful account of the open warfare in West Virginia's dark and bloody coal fields in 1920 and 1921, triggered by the killing by company detectives of Matewan town officials friendly to the miners. Ultimately, thousands of strikers faced strike-breakers, private police, and law enforcement officers in pitched battle. It required the declaring of martial law and the calling up of not only the state militia, but also of federal troops, including United States Air Force reconnaissance planes, to restore order. The strike was broken, and the miners were forced back into the pits. Appalachian coal fields remained non-union until the New Deal days of the 1930s. This is a solidly researched account of the story, also the subject of a John Sayles film, but it is flawed by Savage's sometimes overwrought journalistic style.
Book, The Battle of Blair Mountain
When Miners MarchWilliam C. Blizzard1952
Written anonymously for a labor periodical in the...Written anonymously for a labor periodical in the 1950s, this extraordinary resource was rediscovered and republished by former UMWA miner and prominent labor historian Wess Harris. The combination of William C. Blizzard’s bare-knuckle expository style, his penetrating analysis, insider’s view, and rigorous research makes this the foundational text for any research on Blair Mountain.
Book, The Battle of Blair Mountain, Union History, Coal Company Control