“Well, howdy there, Internet People. It’s Beau again. So, today we’re going to talk about evictions, miners, and mountains. Because 99 years ago today, something happened up on Blair Mountain in West Virginia, Something that doesn't often get covered in history books. Though it should, because, aside from the scale of what happened, it had a whole lot of down the road impacts on American history, policy - all kinds of things. But it gets overlooked, in my opinion, because of the message that it sends, and some of the uncomfortable truths it exposes. So, let me lay the scene. During World War One, coal was king. Making money hand over fist. However, at the end of the war, that wasn’t the case anymore. While most industries were going through the Roaring Twenties, coal was losing. They were going down. So, the mine operators - had to make their money somehow. So, they cut wages. And by wages, I mean scrip. Scrip was little notes that could be used at the company store. You could exchange this for real money. At a cut rate, of course. Miners were facing bad conditions, so they wanted better conditions. And they were just asking for absurd stuff, you know, like an eight-hour work day. Working five days a week. Hourly pay. Wild stuff. That's just unimaginable. Crazy, entitled people, right? They realized that the state and federal government, they’re not going to help. They’re not going to get any relief from the government. So, they start organizing on their own. They start coming together and supporting each other. They start unionizing. United Mine Workers is one of the important ones. Okay, so that kind of lays out the scene. It should also be noted that the mines really were the government. During this period in time in this area, the mines were the law. And they enforced their law through gun thugs. These were private contractors, private security, brought in to enforce the will of the mines. They were bad. All around bad. And they operated above the law. So, May 19, 1920, some gun thugs roll into town, and they’re there to evict people. Illegal evictions. Incidentally, not that it mattered because the miners were powerless to stop them. They couldn't do anything about it. The wealthy people had their own enforcement class, those people who were willing to accept pay, and do whatever they were told. There was one cop in the area, Sid Hatfield, who wasn’t in bed with the mining companies. He goes to arrest the gun thugs. The gun thugs say, “Well, we got a warrant for your arrest. “ The mayor, who happens to be with him, asks to see the warrant. The mayor says it’s bogus. At which point, one of the gun thugs unholsters. A fight follows. How it started is disputed. We don’t exactly know. Not really. What we do know is when the smoke cleared, there were seven gun thugs on the ground, along with three residents, one of which was the mayor. The cop gets charged, because he was not compliant with the ruling party there, so he gets the blame. He is acquitted, and this kind of turns him into the face of the miner struggle. Becomes a symbol of the battle to organize to get better conditions. So, it's completely unsurprising that in July of 1921, he gets charged with taking out a coal transport station. And by taking out, I mean ‘boom!’ Okay, whether or not he did it - again, we’ll provably never know. There are differing accounts of that as well. Some say yeah, he did. Some say no, the mine set him up. At the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter, because they were, he had to go to McDowell County, to talk to the judge. McDowell County was in the pocket of the mining companies. Hatfield expressed some concerns about going there, and they were well founded. Because when he showed up, three gun thugs ambushed him. Took him out. Miners were outraged, obviously. Now, most people were calling for calm, waiting to see what would happen. Of course, the gun thugs were kind of exonerated. More outrage. People still call for calm, with the exception of one woman, Mary Harris Jones, otherwise known as Mother Jones, like the magazine. Low intensity struggles followed, minor stuff, minor skirmishes, nothing too wild yet. But then a rumor went out, and the rumor was that some gun thugs had taken out some organizers, and that their families had been caught in the crossfire. Outrage. Full blown outrage, and miner are ready to go. Mother Jones calls for calm. She is accused of going soft. Four to thirteen thousand miners head towards Blair Mountain. Take trains. Raid arm stations. They’re ready to go. The opposing side is led by a sheriff who is in the pocket of the mining company and he is backed up by a bunch of gun thugs, paid for by the mining companies. They number one to two thousand. Seems like it should be an easy win for the miners. Problem is the gun thugs have machine guns and airplanes to bomb the miners for real. It pops off on August 25th. By August 26, it has gotten so bad that President Harding is like, okay, this has to stop, or I’m sending in my troops, and my bombers. The miners are like, okay, we’ve got the federal government’s attention. We’ll get some relief. We’ll get some better conditions. They start to kind of fade away. The story goes that the sheriff wanted that battle. He wanted to break the union. He wanted the fight. A rumor circulates that some gun thugs took out some labor organizers and their families. Back up the mountains everybody goes. Fighting continues until September 2nd. Thousands of people, millions of rounds expended. You can go up to that mountain today and you will still find spent shell casings. Bullets. Weapons. Federal troops arrive. The miners think that the federal troops are going to be on their side. They were wrong. The government went with the money. Almost a thousand miners get arrested. Some are acquitted by sympathetic juries. Some go up on some pretty serious charges. The end of the day, what happened when it’s all said and done, the union was broke. Membership dropped like a rock. And it seemed like all was lost. However, from a wider perspective, what happened? The miners provoked that overreaction from the government. In this case, the government is the mining companies. They provoked that overreaction during the security clampdown. Probably didn’t mean to, but that’s what happened. So, long term, membership went back up. There were Senate hearings that led to federal legislation. Which led to court battles which led to it all going all the way to the Supreme Court. Which, most importantly, led to widespread public support from the people. It’s a really important little chapter in American history, but it often gets overlooked. Interesting side note … up on that mountain, the gun thugs wore white armbands, and the miners wore red scarfs. Rednecks. You can see this at the mine wars museum in West Virginia. It’s one of the origins of the term. Rednecks have labor organizing unions. It’s in their DNA. 100 years ago, though. 99 ... not much has changed. Not much has changed, not really. All of this happened because during an economic downturn, the rich folk couldn’t weather the storm. So, they further kicked down. They pushed down on the little people, and that led to a bunch of evictions. Something we might want to keep in mind. Anyway, it’s just a thought. Y’all have a good day.”
Doesn't he though. I'm not even American, but I find Beau's stories are fascinating. I learn more and more every day about American history listening to him. Just fascinating!😮
It’s a brilliant tactic. Not telling us what to think but letting us think for ourselves and draw our own conclusions. That’s vastly more powerful and long lasting. We trust the conclusions more too. Thanks Beau!
@@lookforward2life I agree with your statement 100%! I have learned to do the google if I see a word or phrase in the thumbnail, prior to watching the actual video! Today's took me deeper into the events of that time and for that, I am thankful! So, labour day is coming up and I have 'fought' for years to tell people that is is not about how many hot dogs fit on your overpriced gas grill, alas, to no avail. Re: Current events, my mind also goes to the sadness in Kenosha, WI, where yesterday, I heard the words of Jacob Blake's mother and just wow. That woman had more humanity and class than all of the sycophants appearing at the RNC! And yet, like the case of Mother Jones, two more people are dead this morning. 😣
My grandfather was a union organizer for miners in Pike County, Kentucky in the 1920's and '30's. They tried to assassinate him but the sheriff shot and missed. That's why I'm here today. He died of black lung disease in 1963.
One thing Beau didn't really go into was just how bad the companies got. They owned the food you ate, the water you drank, and the house you lived in. They wouldn't pay you until you worked a month so you had to go into debt to the company for basic necessities, and then they kept you in debt one way or another. This part wasn't widespread, but look up "Esau scrip"
I’ve heard when the working man in the family couldn’t work for some reason: sick , injuries and they needed food the wife would have to pay for the food or rent with her body 😡😥
Sounds like Human Trafficking techniques and Modern Day serfdom, a widely used practice all over the UK in the same years that this was happening. Ummmm...
"Sixteen Tons" - "I owe my soul to the company store." - some folks still know that song but not as many know what it means. "Debt peonage" is how they own you when they can't just straight-up _own_ you. It has come in many forms. The company store/scrip system. Sharecropping, which is basically just serfdom with extra steps. Or nowadays, how Big Ag companies sell patented terminating seeds and chemicals on credit, to be paid after the harvest (if it's a good one). And of course the home-owning worker's 30-year mortgage, periodically refinanced because the only way a homeowner can realize the ever-inflating monetary value of their home is to relinquish ownership, and start pushing that rock up the hill yet again. Credit card and similar consumer debt is a more recent phenomenon, not really taking off until the end of the 20th century, but as real estate is no longer in range of an increasing percentage of workers, even harsher and more naked means of keeping them on the hook have had to be devised.
“We make you pay for the water you drink, for the food you eat, for the wars we need, for the crimes we commit. We make you dedicate the most important part of your life to us, but we give you wages and tell you they allow you to buy stuff and pay for your needs to make us richer. We call this freedom.”
The majority of people are modern day slaves.. They let us pretend we are free, as long as we follow the laws and don't "stir the pot".. They pay you barely enough to allow you to still have hope of things getting better, some day, some how.. Make a scene, expose the truth, or don't pay your taxes and see how free you are..
True freedom is access to affordable, timely healthcare, true freedom is clean air and water, true freedom is protection of low paid workers from exploitation, true freedom is a guaranteed minimum living wage, true freedom is being able to access quality education regardless of how wealthy your parents are, true freedom is not having to choose between food and vital medication, true freedom is not having to worry every day that an accident or illness could leave you and your family homeless, true freedom is knowing law enforcement will be held accountable for any misdeeds and finally true freedom is where human lives are valued over profits and $$. Nearly every other developed nation considers these basic human rights and although they may fall short sometimes at least they recognise that it is these metrics that reflect the state of their society - a stable and just one that believes the well being of its citizens is needed to prosper and grow as a country. Stay safe, wear a mask, Vote Trump out and restore integrity and dignity back into the Whitehouse.
@@TheMyrmo There was a TV Movie called "Angel City". It was about a white family who moved to Florida looking for a better life.. They weren't having much luck, and we're getting desperate, when they were offered work in the fields.. They followed a man to a camp.. that was fenced in with barbed wire.. The dad and older kids were takes out to the fields every day, and the pregnant wife stayed at camp and cooked for the people when they got back.. First payday, they realize the problem, because the man that owns the camp deducts the rent and food and transportation from your paycheck.. turns out you are now "in the hole", and can't leave because you owe the boss money.. nobody ever gets out of debt.. if you try to sneak out, you are beaten or killed.. it's a very good movie if .. I was young at the time I saw it, and it opened my eyes.. apparently it was based on real places in Florida yrs ago
Every child in West Virginia was taught this story, which is why the politics of that state were so "different" from the others in the region until very recently.
Yeah here in SW PA we get some very watered down radical labor history via The Homestead Strikes and some wealth inequality stuff through the Johnstown Floods. But as of the late 90’s they didn’t really mention Carnegie’s little resort with a poorly maintained made lake whose levees broke to destroy the town in regards to the Johnstown.
Scottie Westfall The coal companies had great propaganda. I cringe when I hear a common lament from folks who were raised in the Central Appalachian coal fields: “Coal fed me and my family “. My response: Hell no, Coal didn’t feed you, your parents fed you and raised you by working in the coal mines. They happened to live where digging coal was the primary industry. They would have fed and raised you no matter what kind of work was available. Coal companies wanted the people to believe coal was their savior and best friend while they drained the region of both its human and environmental resources. There has never been a government backed war on coal or corporations...no matter how detrimental to humans...just a government backed war on citizens to keep them kicked down.
West Virginia broke away from Virginia, electing to stay with the union when Virginia seceded. They are the poorest, most pill-addicted state on purpose, IMO. Because West Virginians traditionally fought for progress and human rights. Taking everything from them has made them loyal to their abusers.
Oscar Ballard: Your grandfather is my hero and it’s him and people like him that have made my life so much better than he had it. We need people like your grandfather today.
My grandfather was also a labor union leader during this time. He spoke truth to power all the days of his life and so do I. He taught me and I don't forget. He taught me these stories when I was no more than 5.
Whenever an employer tries to get me to surrender my coffee break, I point out that good people literally died for those 10 minutes. When they scoff and roll their eyes, they either get a hard look and a "look it up" or I find myself drifting into the arms of a new boss.
That isn't a problem in Canada, employers say take a break because they need you to. Not that it's wild, it's a mandatory half hour unpaid every 5 hours in Ontario.
I'm not from coal country, but I remember hearing that song in my youth and being told the story behind it. As well as Day-O. As soon as Beau mentioned "script" I knew where this was going.
It wasn't just the coal wars ! Marcus Daly and the Anaconda mining Company in Butte Montana is another example! And you can still see the legacy that one left for the citizens of Butte and anyone downstream!! It's called Berkeley pit! ( thousands of migratory water fowl die yearly from the" water")
"You load sixteen tons, what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go I owe my soul to the company store" Sixteen Tons by Tennessee Ernie Ford
I am from West Virginia and yes this is true. We are taught about this in our history classes. A great movie to watch on this topic is Matewan. James Earl Jones is cast in this film. Thank you for covering some of my West Virginia history. 👍
Good afternoon Beau, my dad told me about this battle. He was eight or nine years old when it when it went down. He also told about the shoulder strikers sent against unions and union organizers in the big cities. He had an incredible life, not an easy one. Born in 1911 he remembered things that never made it into the history books. Thanks for bringing back some memories. Stay safe and healthy.
You should continue the history from your dad...please write down his tellings!..there has to be places to record what you know from him. I would suggest to first give them to the Museum but there should be other sharing resources for these stories/accounts.
@@artistworriedenoughtovote8194 Thanks for your interest. My grandkids want me to get these memories written down so they don't die with me. My Great Uncle Arthur shared stories with me that he knew from his father, my great grandfather who was on the last two cattle drives on the Chisholm trail. He was also an army scout during the Black Hills invasion. Maybe I can get someone from the museum or the local University to help me get this accomplished.
Somehow history books only tell the tales of the victors. Who gets funded to research, and then who selects the books to be used from the many out there. Sadly the Text Book industry has decided that it is more cost effective to let Texas chose and then push that across the nation in the K thru twelve system as it would be too costly to do one version for the rest of the nation and another one for Texas. So pretty much the Texas Dept. of Education dictates the text books for the whole nation. This really has the most effect on history and science but also minor effects in other subjects also. Sad state of affairs from my view.
This happened to a lesser extent with the gold, silver and lead mines in the rocky mountains. Company mine, company town, company rules, and company store. The miners were allowed just enough money to purchase supplies from the company store and make payments on their homes. Lose that job or have your work hours cut and you loose everything. Not too different for many workers today. Capitalism at it finest.
The Speculator Mine disaster in copper country in Montana in which over 160 miners were trapped and died. The band Solas did a fantastic song about that: czcams.com/video/-crKipdNFg4/video.html The lyrics are awesome, and it's the most "stand up and fight" banjo playing I've ever heard.
No shit. Just wait until Americans realize how much they're sucked dry in taxes and reciever (compared to other states and their rate of taxation and thr State services they receive in return) relatively Jack-dick in services from the state-oh....oh wait. Well, we do get a global empire and a trillion dollar plus global military-and wars, lots of wasteful wars of choice. You know what, this, uhm, this sounds like a BAD deal.
That was the purpose behind dividing us. One side recognizes the truth and the other side calls them liars. There will be no holding to account the mine owners with a divided citizenry.
These incidents and the name Mother Jones are do interesting. I had the great fortune of having a student advisor while at KU in the seventies that informed of events like this, but he didn't mention Mother Jones, the only magazine I ever subscribed to.
@@grmpEqweer To be fair I had good history teachers. And the one in Highschool had a whole "segment" on "roots of Solidarity" movement. I think the topic (took a good couple of lessons) of US ones was something like: "From Jamestown to Civil Rights movements in 1960's". Since Solidarity was seen as both Union and also Civil Rights issue. Funny thing is our teacher was right-wing. But he would be damned if he didn't do history justice.
Beau, I appreciate you for your wealth of knowledge and your ability to provide context to American history- rather than passing down the mythology we all learn in school. God bless, you are a true patriot.
My Granpa was a coal miner from Coalgood, Harlan Co., Ky. He was at “Bloody Blair”. He took us there when I was a child, and painted us the tale, (it was like you could SEE it!) Until hurricane Ivan, I still had a 30-06 shell from there. We all found at least one. Thanks Beau, for making me remember that.
xAbominationx - You should find this article - medium.com/@OfcrACab/confessions-of-a-former-bastard-cop-bb14d17bc759 - more than interesting. It is long (10-15 minutes to read) but well worth the time. The author first relates his experiences as an officer and then has very concrete recommendations for reforming the justice system in its entirety and the recommendations make pragmatic and compassionate sense. Following is the opening of the piece. "I was a police officer for nearly ten years and I was a bastard. We all were. This essay has been kicking around in my head for years now and I’ve never felt confident enough to write it. It’s a time in my life I’m ashamed of. It’s a time that I hurt people and, through inaction, allowed others to be hurt. It’s a time that I acted as a violent agent of capitalism and white supremacy. Under the guise of public safety, I personally ruined people’s lives but in so doing, made the public no safer… so did the family members and close friends of mine who also bore the badge alongside me. But enough is enough. The reforms aren’t working. Incrementalism isn’t happening. Unarmed Black, indigenous, and people of color are being killed by cops in the streets and the police are savagely attacking the people protesting these murders. American policing is a thick blue tumor strangling the life from our communities and if you don’t believe it when the poor and the marginalized say it, if you don’t believe it when you see cops across the country shooting journalists with less-lethal bullets and caustic chemicals, maybe you’ll believe it when you hear it straight from the pig’s mouth. . . If you take nothing else away from this essay, I want you to tattoo this onto your brain forever: if a police officer is telling you something, it is probably a lie designed to gain your compliance. Do not talk to cops and never, ever believe them. Do not “try to be helpful” with cops. Do not assume they are trying to catch someone else instead of you. Do not assume what they are doing is “important” or even legal. Under no circumstances assume any police officer is acting in good faith. "
What pisses me off. Is that we could solve a lot of our current issues with less than what the tax cuts cost. The homeless, the hungry, the people without even basic health care, our bridges and roads, proper internet coverage and a secure voting system. Investing in improving your home to make it more livable is always a good idea.
Thank you for that history lesson, Beau! My father toiled in the coal mines for over 40 years, went to jail for being a union organizer and died early and painfully from black lung disease. I have always been proud to be called a “redneck hillbilly “. Those who use the term to disparage someone had no clue that the term has a significant meaning to those who know history. If I call you a “redneck hillbilly “, it is a compliment.
It would be fascinating to see a study on all of the times Americans bombed each other in large numbers from airplanes. It happened several times last century.
in the gang wars in Williamson county- southern illinois the birger shelton gang war had a barnstormer pilot hired to help them drop improvised bombs on the rival gangs main hideout. in 1926 i think. Last I checked the Tulsa Black wall street air attack was the first in the states.
Lenin once supposedly said that when workers want to hang a capitalist, a capitalist will sell them the rope. The corollary to that is that when the capitalists want to hang a worker, workers will build the scaffold.
@@bdf2718 85 years? There is a record of a labour strike against the pharaoh Khufu over wages and conditions during the building of the great pyramid in 1600 bce.
bdf2718 I’m talking about the lesson that money always win. Look at wage inequality in our country, the poor man doesn’t have a chance in hell of being heard. It isn’t his fault their ears are connected to their wallets. What I took away from this video is that money wins. The only way to defeat money is by organization.
I AM A MEMBER OF THE I.B.E.W LOCAL # 8 TOLEDO, OHIO IF IT WAS NOT FOR THE UNION I WOULD NOT HAVE THE EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE OF THE ELECTRICAL TRADE. WAGES AND BENEFITS I WOULD NOT HAVE IF IT WERE NOT FOR THE UNION!!! THANK YOU BILL DUNLAP.
I still remember when I first heard of The Battle of Blair Mountain. Blew my mind that such a significant event was so obscure and untaught. It was after I looked into possibly the most famous obscure happening known as The Haymarket Affair/Massacre and began my journey through one of the bloodiest labor histories in the world that is the US Labor Movement and it's state and business opposition. It is a tragedy that it's been all but erased from our education and common knowledge, even more so that it's all by design. People fought and died for the few rights we have and take for granted and their story is suppressed, revised, redacted or otherwise whitewashed so the lessons are lost. The US population is probably the best example of the sad fact that a people who don't know their history are lost. We should be the eager inheritors of a proud tradition but instead we've been duped into class collaboration and identifying with the ownership and ruling classes despite their ceaseless class war against us. Steve Earle wrote a great song called "The Mountain" that Benjamin Tod and Sierra Ferris both have great covers of and Utah Phillips has many a song about the labor struggle, their many trials, losses, victories, culture and the songs they'd sing, often to the tune of hymns because open agitation could land ya in a cage (or worse) in a lotta places thanks to laws that targeted the labor movement and the parts that made it up (anarchists mostly, but other socialists, migrant groups, etc, were targeted as well) so instead of speeches they'd sing songs like "The Preacher and The Slave" and "Solidarity Forever" as a means of getting around the law. Supposedly something started by Joe Hill himself after seeing a choir singing hymns on the street. It's a long, fascinating, inspiring and brutal history that everyone should know. And figures like Joe Hill, Big Bill Haywood, The Haymarket Martyrs, Mother Jones, A. Phillip Randolph, Emma Goldman, César Chávez, and the rest, be they prominent figures or nameless immigrants, who were beaten, caged or shot down in the mines, factories, fields, railroads, and workshops should be the closest thing we have to heros til we're ALL free and equal. We have nothing to lose and everything to gain. ✊👊🖤☮️🏴🥀🌐A///E
SWEEET! We need songs like that today. I mean, I know there are political bands, but I don't see a lot of "singing along" kind of music, and I think that would be great.
@@ExkupidsMom There's a longstanding practice in folk and traditional music circles to give old songs a lick or two of new paint, to rework them by a little (or a lot) to givethem a slighly sharper edge in a changed world... Not that long ago I gave "which Side Are You On" a little bit of that treatment and have been performing it. This used to be a union song, And, Oh, we sang it proud. Now they sing a different tune, In the streets of every town. The unions lie in tatters, Save one that’s dressed in blue, They turned their coats and sold their souls, And they murder me and you. The bloody coppers union, Unworthy of the name. When they call themselves a union, They ought to die of shame. A union stands for justice, A union ought to care. No union men are these, Just the sons of J H Blair. The rework aint all that good or anything, but if anyone else wants to use these words as a starting point for their own social commentary to the same tune and chorus they have my blessing and in the meantime I'll keep singing my version until somebody comes up with a better.
This song became a favorite of mine the moment i heard it. At the time it was a band called the tillers from Ohio. I bought all 5 of their CDs. Then and there. At this moment in time you can find their music on you tube. They have several political/ activist tunes and a wide variety of historical ballads that , unfortunately, we can relate to in the here and now
We have a fascist government masquerading as a democracy. Until our elected representation actually represent the working class, nothing will change. Voting is not enough. The people of the working class need to come together and demand change.
@@chasewhitehead2136 unfortunately the American people are easily divided. There is always the "Other" . Color of skin, religion, politics, liberal, conservative, progressive, Republican, Democrat. Churches preaching that only Republicans are going to heaven, a real doctrine, no kidding. Until we can see every one as an American dispite all these diversities, we aren't going to make much progress.
Thanks Beau for this video. Being a Union man myself, this needs to get out to the public and show the things we can accomplish together. You sir, are a true patriot!
The think that has always baffled me (a Canadian) is how the Republican party can convince poor people to vote for them. It seems that they somehow are able to glorify a gritty existence with poor wages and a lack of health care. "if only you worked harder you could be like me!". This is the great American enigma.
Today, you can hear such songs from groups like Solas: czcams.com/video/-crKipdNFg4/video.html And it's only a few years ago since David Rovics wrote about Blair Mountain: czcams.com/video/Z_rCdNdkb_g/video.html
@@crystalhuber4536 I'm a 27 year old trucker and have a whole playlist of nothing but Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, Phil Ochs, Peggy Seeger, etc. Some of us remember.
@Unknown Soldier exactly how I feel, don’t forget one more divider; Mask Vs Anti Mask. They are winning keeping us divided. **Edit** and the good old Christian Vs Muslim, but Muslims are just trying to mind their business, it’s whatever though. Fighting over who’s more racist and supports oppression seems to be the theme. I have never had room for HAYE in my heart, being right vs kind, I don’t know. Just grateful for this channel and know there is like minded people.
@Unknown Soldier class is there main divisive and buffering tool...decades ago when I was in school they called it upperclass and underclass...im sick of all the pigeonwholing and the pitting of us against eachother.
Thanks for keeping the history alive Beau. From a former miner and from a 3 generation mining family in Alabama, this story, and literally thousands more are well known. As a child I sometimes had to sleep in the floor behind barricades inside our home when my dad (a miner) was on strike and violence was not taken lightly. I am pro union but do not blindly support union leaders until they prove themselves. We would do well to do the same with our elected officials at every level.
“16 tons and 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!” Merle Travis, Sixteen Tons Coal companies used debt bondage and the scrip system to keep worker’s hostage.
@@suebee4843 Merle Travis wrote the lyrics. He had a unique guitar style still called Travis picking by guitarists. His father was a Kentucky coal miner. Information from Wikipedia.
Holy crap I find it really disturbing that I and probably a shit ton of others had never heard anything about this before. Thanks Beau keep the knowledge coming.
The 1% are fragile and cannot withstand the pressures faced every day by the rest of us. Just ask youself who threw themselves out of windows on Wall Street during the crash. It's sad really when you realize that -- for them -- their wealth was their identity. Their families and legacies of good works were meaningless.
Thank you for covering Blair. My family has been in southern WV since before 1800 and I still hear stories about quick getaways through boltholes to escape Baldwin Felts' 'detectives.' It is not taught in WV schools (at least ones my kids went to).
Beau NEVER does anything by accident.... Hmmm - why the LEFT ear? Because the Left ear doesn't understand what the RIGHT ear is hearing??? Or maybe it's just technical difficulties! haha
Thanks for covering this important topic on the channel. I sent you an email a few weeks ago requesting an interview on our radio show in North AL. I'd still love to have you on. Keep up the great work.
Yes, it is. And that has been the history of this nation. Class warfare of the worst sort. The propaganda is the worst of it as they have a large part of the American work force fighting on their side for scraps and a small amount of status and pride. Just enough to win them over and get them kicking down.
This is a story that they don't teach in U.S. History. I will never use the term "Redneck" in a disparaging way again. Being that this happened in 1921, my Grandfather, who was born in 1900 and was a coal miner (albeit in Colorado), would have been directly or indirectly impacted by the events on Blair Mountain. It's a moment in history with a reality-check lesson for today, and it's your best post yet. Thank you for sharing it.
K through twelve education is not about educating, it is about producing wage slaves for the elites to abuse. At least in most areas. Now the private schools that the ruling class send their kids to know all about this with an emphasis on watching out for signs of unrest and stopping it in it's tracks.
I love these stories. This practice has never stopped. American, Canadian and many other extraction companies still operate this way on foreign and domestic soil and we pay for their protection sending our military to police the leases, remove any opposition and the feds are used to ensure progress at home. Resource companies ruled then, still and always, but I'm a goldminer's daughter and know how to collect a paycheck with a bat when need be and I'm proud of my roots.
Thank you for sharing this story. I knew nothing about it through my watered down history taught here in Texas. Appreciate your intelligent commentary and hope you continue.
My father's family is from West Virginia and coal mining was very MUCH in their history - some still is. Fully a year before the Blair Mountain "coal war" was the Battle of Matewan (May 1920) in the Pocahontas Coalfield mining district. Much the same circumstances as Blair Mountain, it is the story that I was made aware of after I had grown up. My Father, about 15 years ago, was gifted with a VHS documentary on Matewan as somewhat of a memorial to "our" history. I haven't heard any stories of what happened or how it affected my Grandfather's generation, but I do know that he left mining for construction sometime before I was old enough to know. He spent weeks "on the road" living out of construction camps as his crew built and rebuilt most of the bridges that cross the many rivers into West Virginia. We had moved to Michigan when I was young and we visited on Thanksgiving and Christmas - usually the only 2 times of year that guaranteed that we would see him. He never talked about his mining days - the only legacy we saw was the black lung that took him over the last 5 years of his life. The family that are STILL involved with the coal industry are part of the strip mining that basically is cleaning up all the scraps left over from deep mines. They don't see it (or wish to ignore it) but this is the final step before their coal industry - the one that President Trump has convinced them that he will save - dries up once and for all.
My son, while in college, helped prevent the mountain top removal by the coal industry of Blair Mountain, which is now protected by the National Registry!
Nice story, I grew up in New Orleans and never knew the ancestry of the word “redneck, ” nor how powerful it is. I always thought it was the look of a southern white man having been out in the sun too long while wearing a wife beater.
@@toddhensley880 Maybe the unions built on that term, because they stood for the people that often were burnt in the sun (not the miners, but others unions).
I learned yesterday that having a bugout bag is useless if you forget to grab it. Thanks for helping me prepare, Beau. Now I guess I need to do some drills so I remember when things go sideways.
The fact that DEEP history isn't taught is an inherent problem with the educational system as currently structured. American students >usually< only get 3 "history" classes: Elementary (exploration colonization), Middle (US history to the Civil War), and High (US history post-Civil War). Some high school students take a World history class, but not all of them. The scope & sequence doesn't *really* give enough time to dig deeply into issues. Most years, I was lucky to get to the Vietnam War before "high-stakes" testing started. ONE year - only ONE - was I able to get as far as the Reagan administration. They've set up a system where students are woefully under-educated about the nation's history, and thus, don't understand how we got to where we are.
Because the education system is made by the rich. They control what is taught, and anything that makes people realize how the rich have fucked over regular citizens is completely ignored.
@@annebruce5135 Traditionally, common citizen mobs confronting criminals, monsters or perceived community threats always carry (1) torches and (2) pitchforks. They've been stored for a long time, haven't needed them. We still know where they are.
Thank you sir... I mentioned Blair Mountain in one of your previous videos and I am so glad you talked about it today! What is even more incredible has been the fight to memorialize the site of the battle which has gone back and forth for some time now. Keep up the great work.
“Well, howdy there, Internet People. It’s Beau again.
So, today we’re going to talk about evictions, miners, and mountains. Because 99 years ago today, something happened up on Blair Mountain in West Virginia, Something that doesn't often get covered in history books. Though it should, because, aside from the scale of what happened, it had a whole lot of down the road impacts on American history, policy - all kinds of things.
But it gets overlooked, in my opinion, because of the message that it sends, and some of the uncomfortable truths it exposes.
So, let me lay the scene. During World War One, coal was king. Making money hand over fist.
However, at the end of the war, that wasn’t the case anymore. While most industries were going through the Roaring Twenties, coal was losing. They were going down.
So, the mine operators - had to make their money somehow. So, they cut wages. And by wages, I mean scrip. Scrip was little notes that could be used at the company store. You could exchange this for real money. At a cut rate, of course.
Miners were facing bad conditions, so they wanted better conditions. And they were just asking for absurd stuff, you know, like an eight-hour work day. Working five days a week. Hourly pay. Wild stuff. That's just unimaginable. Crazy, entitled people, right?
They realized that the state and federal government, they’re not going to help. They’re not going to get any relief from the government. So, they start organizing on their own. They start coming together and supporting each other. They start unionizing. United Mine Workers is one of the important ones.
Okay, so that kind of lays out the scene. It should also be noted that the mines really were the government. During this period in time in this area, the mines were the law. And they enforced their law through gun thugs. These were private contractors, private security, brought in to enforce the will of the mines. They were bad. All around bad. And they operated above the law.
So, May 19, 1920, some gun thugs roll into town, and they’re there to evict people. Illegal evictions. Incidentally, not that it mattered because the miners were powerless to stop them. They couldn't do anything about it.
The wealthy people had their own enforcement class, those people who were willing to accept pay, and do whatever they were told.
There was one cop in the area, Sid Hatfield, who wasn’t in bed with the mining companies. He goes to arrest the gun thugs. The gun thugs say, “Well, we got a warrant for your arrest. “
The mayor, who happens to be with him, asks to see the warrant. The mayor says it’s bogus. At which point, one of the gun thugs unholsters. A fight follows.
How it started is disputed. We don’t exactly know. Not really. What we do know is when the smoke cleared, there were seven gun thugs on the ground, along with three residents, one of which was the mayor.
The cop gets charged, because he was not compliant with the ruling party there, so he gets the blame.
He is acquitted, and this kind of turns him into the face of the miner struggle. Becomes a symbol of the battle to organize to get better conditions.
So, it's completely unsurprising that in July of 1921, he gets charged with taking out a coal transport station. And by taking out, I mean ‘boom!’
Okay, whether or not he did it - again, we’ll provably never know. There are differing accounts of that as well. Some say yeah, he did. Some say no, the mine set him up.
At the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter, because they were, he had to go to McDowell County, to talk to the judge. McDowell County was in the pocket of the mining companies.
Hatfield expressed some concerns about going there, and they were well founded. Because when he showed up, three gun thugs ambushed him. Took him out.
Miners were outraged, obviously. Now, most people were calling for calm, waiting to see what would happen. Of course, the gun thugs were kind of exonerated. More outrage. People still call for calm, with the exception of one woman, Mary Harris Jones, otherwise known as Mother Jones, like the magazine. Low intensity struggles followed, minor stuff, minor skirmishes, nothing too wild yet.
But then a rumor went out, and the rumor was that some gun thugs had taken out some organizers, and that their families had been caught in the crossfire.
Outrage. Full blown outrage, and miner are ready to go. Mother Jones calls for calm. She is accused of going soft.
Four to thirteen thousand miners head towards Blair Mountain. Take trains. Raid arm stations. They’re ready to go.
The opposing side is led by a sheriff who is in the pocket of the mining company and he is backed up by a bunch of gun thugs, paid for by the mining companies. They number one to two thousand. Seems like it should be an easy win for the miners.
Problem is the gun thugs have machine guns and airplanes to bomb the miners for real. It pops off on August 25th. By August 26, it has gotten so bad that President Harding is like, okay, this has to stop, or I’m sending in my troops, and my bombers.
The miners are like, okay, we’ve got the federal government’s attention. We’ll get some relief. We’ll get some better conditions. They start to kind of fade away.
The story goes that the sheriff wanted that battle. He wanted to break the union. He wanted the fight. A rumor circulates that some gun thugs took out some labor organizers and their families. Back up the mountains everybody goes.
Fighting continues until September 2nd. Thousands of people, millions of rounds expended. You can go up to that mountain today and you will still find spent shell casings. Bullets. Weapons.
Federal troops arrive. The miners think that the federal troops are going to be on their side. They were wrong.
The government went with the money. Almost a thousand miners get arrested. Some are acquitted by sympathetic juries. Some go up on some pretty serious charges. The end of the day, what happened when it’s all said and done, the union was broke. Membership dropped like a rock.
And it seemed like all was lost. However, from a wider perspective, what happened?
The miners provoked that overreaction from the government. In this case, the government is the mining companies. They provoked that overreaction during the security clampdown.
Probably didn’t mean to, but that’s what happened. So, long term, membership went back up. There were Senate hearings that led to federal legislation. Which led to court battles which led to it all going all the way to the Supreme Court. Which, most importantly, led to widespread public support from the people.
It’s a really important little chapter in American history, but it often gets overlooked.
Interesting side note … up on that mountain, the gun thugs wore white armbands, and the miners wore red scarfs.
Rednecks. You can see this at the mine wars museum in West Virginia. It’s one of the origins of the term. Rednecks have labor organizing unions. It’s in their DNA.
100 years ago, though. 99 ... not much has changed. Not much has changed, not really. All of this happened because during an economic downturn, the rich folk couldn’t weather the storm. So, they further kicked down. They pushed down on the little people, and that led to a bunch of evictions.
Something we might want to keep in mind.
Anyway, it’s just a thought. Y’all have a good day.”
thANK YOU ON BEHALF OF MY DEAF FRIENDS. I CANT SAY IT ENOUGH... THANK YOU
Transcripts. Awesome. They will be popular, and extend your reach.
Keep it up..
Roxanne Tellier for the hearing impaired, love it!
For the deaf and hard-of-hearing community, Thank You! Transcripts are great!
I like how Beau uses a story to connect to a current issue, and he doesn’t even have to define the current issue, he lets us connect the dots.
Doesn't he though. I'm not even American, but I find Beau's stories are fascinating. I learn more and more every day about American history listening to him. Just fascinating!😮
He is an excellent communicator, that's for sure.
It’s a brilliant tactic. Not telling us what to think but letting us think for ourselves and draw our own conclusions. That’s vastly more powerful and long lasting. We trust the conclusions more too. Thanks Beau!
Basically Inception except instead of dreams it is youtube and is actually good.
@@lookforward2life I agree with your statement 100%!
I have learned to do the google if I see a word or phrase in the thumbnail, prior to watching the actual video! Today's took me deeper into the events of that time and for that, I am thankful!
So, labour day is coming up and I have 'fought' for years to tell people that is is not about how many hot dogs fit on your overpriced gas grill, alas, to no avail.
Re: Current events, my mind also goes to the sadness in Kenosha, WI, where yesterday, I heard the words of Jacob Blake's mother and just wow.
That woman had more humanity and class than all of the sycophants appearing at the RNC!
And yet, like the case of Mother Jones, two more people are dead this morning. 😣
My grandfather was a union organizer for miners in Pike County, Kentucky in the 1920's and '30's. They tried to assassinate him but the sheriff shot and missed. That's why I'm here today. He died of black lung disease in 1963.
One thing Beau didn't really go into was just how bad the companies got. They owned the food you ate, the water you drank, and the house you lived in. They wouldn't pay you until you worked a month so you had to go into debt to the company for basic necessities, and then they kept you in debt one way or another.
This part wasn't widespread, but look up "Esau scrip"
I’ve heard when the working man in the family couldn’t work for some reason: sick , injuries and they needed food the wife would have to pay for the food or rent with her body 😡😥
Sounds like Human Trafficking techniques and Modern Day serfdom, a widely used practice all over the UK in the same years that this was happening. Ummmm...
"Sixteen Tons" - "I owe my soul to the company store." - some folks still know that song but not as many know what it means. "Debt peonage" is how they own you when they can't just straight-up _own_ you.
It has come in many forms. The company store/scrip system. Sharecropping, which is basically just serfdom with extra steps. Or nowadays, how Big Ag companies sell patented terminating seeds and chemicals on credit, to be paid after the harvest (if it's a good one). And of course the home-owning worker's 30-year mortgage, periodically refinanced because the only way a homeowner can realize the ever-inflating monetary value of their home is to relinquish ownership, and start pushing that rock up the hill yet again. Credit card and similar consumer debt is a more recent phenomenon, not really taking off until the end of the 20th century, but as real estate is no longer in range of an increasing percentage of workers, even harsher and more naked means of keeping them on the hook have had to be devised.
like sharecropping for Blacks in the south.
Financial slavery. Just like today. Same = same.
“We make you pay for the water you drink, for the food you eat, for the wars we need, for the crimes we commit. We make you dedicate the most important part of your life to us, but we give you wages and tell you they allow you to buy stuff and pay for your needs to make us richer. We call this freedom.”
The majority of people are modern day slaves.. They let us pretend we are free, as long as we follow the laws and don't "stir the pot".. They pay you barely enough to allow you to still have hope of things getting better, some day, some how.. Make a scene, expose the truth, or don't pay your taxes and see how free you are..
@Davvy Jannes It's not SLAVERY if you pay for your food and clothes.
@@meetmando and promote crippling debt to have the things we think we need.Oh wait,that's how our government operates too.
True freedom is access to affordable, timely healthcare, true freedom is clean air and water, true freedom is protection of low paid workers from exploitation, true freedom is a guaranteed minimum living wage, true freedom is being able to access quality education regardless of how wealthy your parents are, true freedom is not having to choose between food and vital medication, true freedom is not having to worry every day that an accident or illness could leave you and your family homeless, true freedom is knowing law enforcement will be held accountable for any misdeeds and finally true freedom is where human lives are valued over profits and $$. Nearly every other developed nation considers these basic human rights and although they may fall short sometimes at least they recognise that it is these metrics that reflect the state of their society - a stable and just one that believes the well being of its citizens is needed to prosper and grow as a country. Stay safe, wear a mask, Vote Trump out and restore integrity and dignity back into the Whitehouse.
@@TheMyrmo There was a TV Movie called "Angel City". It was about a white family who moved to Florida looking for a better life.. They weren't having much luck, and we're getting desperate, when they were offered work in the fields.. They followed a man to a camp.. that was fenced in with barbed wire.. The dad and older kids were takes out to the fields every day, and the pregnant wife stayed at camp and cooked for the people when they got back.. First payday, they realize the problem, because the man that owns the camp deducts the rent and food and transportation from your paycheck.. turns out you are now "in the hole", and can't leave because you owe the boss money.. nobody ever gets out of debt.. if you try to sneak out, you are beaten or killed.. it's a very good movie if .. I was young at the time I saw it, and it opened my eyes.. apparently it was based on real places in Florida yrs ago
Every child in West Virginia was taught this story, which is why the politics of that state were so "different" from the others in the region until very recently.
Yeah here in SW PA we get some very watered down radical labor history via The Homestead Strikes and some wealth inequality stuff through the Johnstown Floods. But as of the late 90’s they didn’t really mention Carnegie’s little resort with a poorly maintained made lake whose levees broke to destroy the town in regards to the Johnstown.
Scottie Westfall The coal companies had great propaganda. I cringe when I hear a common lament from folks who were raised in the Central Appalachian coal fields: “Coal fed me and my family “. My response: Hell no, Coal didn’t feed you, your parents fed you and raised you by working in the coal mines. They happened to live where digging coal was the primary industry. They would have fed and raised you no matter what kind of work was available. Coal companies wanted the people to believe coal was their savior and best friend while they drained the region of both its human and environmental resources. There has never been a government backed war on coal or corporations...no matter how detrimental to humans...just a government backed war on citizens to keep them kicked down.
You're right. "Labor for hire" was how the hills were opened.
West Virginia broke away from Virginia, electing to stay with the union when Virginia seceded. They are the poorest, most pill-addicted state on purpose, IMO. Because West Virginians traditionally fought for progress and human rights. Taking everything from them has made them loyal to their abusers.
@@appalachianqueen8369 FACTS💯👍🏼
Had a Grandpa who was an major Union organizer during that period. He and his group were regularly beaten! They didn't give up, that's the Moral.
Thank you Grandpa for your courage.
Oscar Ballard: Your grandfather is my hero and it’s him and people like him that have made my life so much better than he had it. We need people like your grandfather today.
My grandfather was also a labor union leader during this time. He spoke truth to power all the days of his life and so do I. He taught me and I don't forget. He taught me these stories when I was no more than 5.
My Grandfather and my father were union organizers, We survived the Sand Mountain war
Alot of grandchildren to come will have shame rather than pride to remember their ancestors by
Whenever an employer tries to get me to surrender my coffee break, I point out that good people literally died for those 10 minutes. When they scoff and roll their eyes, they either get a hard look and a "look it up" or I find myself drifting into the arms of a new boss.
That isn't a problem in Canada, employers say take a break because they need you to. Not that it's wild, it's a mandatory half hour unpaid every 5 hours in Ontario.
"You load 16 tons and what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt"
Well a bless my soul.
St. Peter don't ya call me cause I can't go.
I owe my soul to the company store.
When it comes to Donald, SISTER KNOWS BEST! czcams.com/video/97hBJMf2NZE/video.html
Could be why the Biden campaign isn't catching fire. What's he offering, besides not being POTUS Trump.
I'm not from coal country, but I remember hearing that song in my youth and being told the story behind it. As well as Day-O. As soon as Beau mentioned "script" I knew where this was going.
We should ALL learn the history of the coal wars.
It wasn't just the coal wars ! Marcus Daly and the Anaconda mining Company in Butte Montana is another example! And you can still see the legacy that one left for the citizens of Butte and anyone downstream!! It's called Berkeley pit! ( thousands of migratory water fowl die yearly from the" water")
"You load sixteen tons, what do you get?
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store"
Sixteen Tons by Tennessee Ernie Ford
Sadly this is sung with glee and no understanding...
I am from West Virginia and yes this is true. We are taught about this in our history classes. A great movie to watch on this topic is Matewan. James Earl Jones is cast in this film. Thank you for covering some of my West Virginia history. 👍
Don't mourne, organize!
Yes! Matewan is a great movie!
👏👏👏
czcams.com/video/6pDgeALaAu8/video.html
Good afternoon Beau, my dad told me about this battle. He was eight or nine years old when it when it went down. He also told about the shoulder strikers sent against unions and union organizers in the big cities. He had an incredible life, not an easy one. Born in 1911 he remembered things that never made it into the history books. Thanks for bringing back some memories. Stay safe and healthy.
You should continue the history from your dad...please write down his tellings!..there has to be places to record what you know from him. I would suggest to first give them to the Museum but there should be other sharing resources for these stories/accounts.
Yaaay for dad who passed the stories on to His kids. Good job dad! ☺ and thanks for the little tid bit for us, too.
@@artistworriedenoughtovote8194 Thanks for your interest. My grandkids want me to get these memories written down so they don't die with me. My Great Uncle Arthur shared stories with me that he knew from his father, my great grandfather who was on the last two cattle drives on the Chisholm trail. He was also an army scout during the Black Hills invasion. Maybe I can get someone from the museum or the local University to help me get this accomplished.
lots escapes the history books that should be included
History books are edited to tell narratives and relay myths.
There is FAR more that isn't taught than is, and what is taught is, let's just say "spit-polished".
Its hard to fix societies problems and educate it as well. In a system that doesn't seem too want to do either one very well.
Planned obsolescence in the cognitive form
Somehow history books only tell the tales of the victors. Who gets funded to research, and then who selects the books to be used from the many out there. Sadly the Text Book industry has decided that it is more cost effective to let Texas chose and then push that across the nation in the K thru twelve system as it would be too costly to do one version for the rest of the nation and another one for Texas. So pretty much the Texas Dept. of Education dictates the text books for the whole nation. This really has the most effect on history and science but also minor effects in other subjects also. Sad state of affairs from my view.
And today there are people who vilify the idea of a union
I hear it daily here in TN. You bring up the miners they say, " well they had their time and place, but, are no longer needed! BS
This happened to a lesser extent with the gold, silver and lead mines in the rocky mountains. Company mine, company town, company rules, and company store. The miners were allowed just enough money to purchase supplies from the company store and make payments on their homes. Lose that job or have your work hours cut and you loose everything. Not too different for many workers today. Capitalism at it finest.
The Speculator Mine disaster in copper country in Montana in which over 160 miners were trapped and died.
The band Solas did a fantastic song about that: czcams.com/video/-crKipdNFg4/video.html
The lyrics are awesome, and it's the most "stand up and fight" banjo playing I've ever heard.
That's why you need a balance between socialism and capitalism. That's with anything though, the ying yang.
I'm still surprised how much Americans are willing to tolerate. You are getting a rough ride and no dinner.
Or a reach around
No shit. Just wait until Americans realize how much they're sucked dry in taxes and reciever (compared to other states and their rate of taxation and thr State services they receive in return) relatively Jack-dick in services from the state-oh....oh wait.
Well, we do get a global empire and a trillion dollar plus global military-and wars, lots of wasteful wars of choice. You know what, this, uhm, this sounds like a BAD deal.
Or lube either.
That was the purpose behind dividing us. One side recognizes the truth and the other side calls them liars. There will be no holding to account the mine owners with a divided citizenry.
These incidents and the name Mother Jones are do interesting. I had the great fortune of having a student advisor while at KU in the seventies that informed of events like this, but he didn't mention Mother Jones, the only magazine I ever subscribed to.
Crazy that I learned about a lot of this stuff. In Polish school on History of Unions and Strikes.
They edit our history here.
I wasn't taught about Blair Mountain in high school or in college, I had to find out about it on my own.
Depends on where you’re from, I think? Like I learned about this with my fairy tales, but I’m from Appalachia
We've elected a Russian backed MANCHILD. czcams.com/video/97hBJMf2NZE/video.html
@@grmpEqweer To be fair I had good history teachers. And the one in Highschool had a whole "segment" on "roots of Solidarity" movement. I think the topic (took a good couple of lessons) of US ones was something like: "From Jamestown to Civil Rights movements in 1960's". Since Solidarity was seen as both Union and also Civil Rights issue. Funny thing is our teacher was right-wing. But he would be damned if he didn't do history justice.
wow. that is so cool!
Beau, I appreciate you for your wealth of knowledge and your ability to provide context to American history- rather than passing down the mythology we all learn in school. God bless, you are a true patriot.
My Granpa was a coal miner from Coalgood, Harlan Co., Ky. He was at “Bloody Blair”. He took us there when I was a child, and painted us the tale, (it was like you could SEE it!) Until hurricane Ivan, I still had a 30-06 shell from there. We all found at least one. Thanks Beau, for making me remember that.
We need to just do with away with the pretense of "serve and protect" and paint the truth on the modern gun thugs' cars. "Comply or die."
We need to get them with us. It's not impossible.
xAbominationx - You should find this article - medium.com/@OfcrACab/confessions-of-a-former-bastard-cop-bb14d17bc759 - more than interesting. It is long (10-15 minutes to read) but well worth the time. The author first relates his experiences as an officer and then has very concrete recommendations for reforming the justice system in its entirety and the recommendations make pragmatic and compassionate sense. Following is the opening of the piece.
"I was a police officer for nearly ten years and I was a bastard. We all were.
This essay has been kicking around in my head for years now and I’ve never felt confident enough to write it. It’s a time in my life I’m ashamed of. It’s a time that I hurt people and, through inaction, allowed others to be hurt. It’s a time that I acted as a violent agent of capitalism and white supremacy. Under the guise of public safety, I personally ruined people’s lives but in so doing, made the public no safer… so did the family members and close friends of mine who also bore the badge alongside me.
But enough is enough.
The reforms aren’t working. Incrementalism isn’t happening. Unarmed Black, indigenous, and people of color are being killed by cops in the streets and the police are savagely attacking the people protesting these murders.
American policing is a thick blue tumor strangling the life from our communities and if you don’t believe it when the poor and the marginalized say it, if you don’t believe it when you see cops across the country shooting journalists with less-lethal bullets and caustic chemicals, maybe you’ll believe it when you hear it straight from the pig’s mouth. . .
If you take nothing else away from this essay, I want you to tattoo this onto your brain forever: if a police officer is telling you something, it is probably a lie designed to gain your compliance.
Do not talk to cops and never, ever believe them. Do not “try to be helpful” with cops. Do not assume they are trying to catch someone else instead of you. Do not assume what they are doing is “important” or even legal. Under no circumstances assume any police officer is acting in good faith.
"
@@wendyweaver8749 looks good. I printed it to read off line.
What pisses me off. Is that we could solve a lot of our current issues with less than what the tax cuts cost.
The homeless, the hungry, the people without even basic health care, our bridges and roads, proper internet coverage and a secure voting system. Investing in improving your home to make it more livable is always a good idea.
You are not wrong, and it pisses me off, too! I guess we have to admit that tax cuts for the 1% are important, and we - the people - are NOT!
Thank you for that history lesson, Beau! My father toiled in the coal mines for over 40 years, went to jail for being a union organizer and died early and painfully from black lung disease. I have always been proud to be called a “redneck hillbilly “. Those who use the term to disparage someone had no clue that the term has a significant meaning to those who know history. If I call you a “redneck hillbilly “, it is a compliment.
I had a couple of kinfolk wounded in mine strikes about 100 years ago. Pinkertons were the predecessors to Homeland Security.
It would be fascinating to see a study on all of the times Americans bombed each other in large numbers from airplanes. It happened several times last century.
It was news to me. I learn so much from Beau and Beaugles here.
I would be interested in learning about that also!
They used private planes to fire bomb Black Wall Street in Tulsa, 1921.
in the gang wars in Williamson county- southern illinois the birger shelton gang war had a barnstormer pilot hired to help them drop improvised bombs on the rival gangs main hideout. in 1926 i think. Last I checked the Tulsa Black wall street air attack was the first in the states.
Lenin once supposedly said that when workers want to hang a capitalist, a capitalist will sell them the rope. The corollary to that is that when the capitalists want to hang a worker, workers will build the scaffold.
That was fascinating, thanks for telling the world your history. Good luck to you all. ❤️🇨🇦
I want this taught in every school to every child in the United States
That’s a deep lesson in history. I am fearful it’s going be repeated but on a much higher scale.
Are you thinking of the lesson that's 85 years deep?
@@bdf2718 85 years? There is a record of a labour strike against the pharaoh Khufu over wages and conditions during the building of the great pyramid in 1600 bce.
bdf2718 I’m talking about the lesson that money always win. Look at wage inequality in our country, the poor man doesn’t have a chance in hell of being heard. It isn’t his fault their ears are connected to their wallets.
What I took away from this video is that money wins. The only way to defeat money is by organization.
@@alistairmackintosh9412 Ah, I was thinking more of Germany and what happens when a crazy man gains a cult following.
@@bdf2718 I see.
History repeats. Thank you for the lesson. Truly appreciated!
Thank you so much for sharing and retelling of these events in the American history.
I AM A MEMBER OF THE I.B.E.W
LOCAL # 8 TOLEDO, OHIO IF IT WAS NOT FOR THE UNION I WOULD NOT HAVE THE EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE OF THE ELECTRICAL TRADE. WAGES AND BENEFITS I WOULD NOT HAVE IF IT WERE NOT FOR THE UNION!!! THANK YOU BILL DUNLAP.
"Evictions, Miners, and Mountains" I can already tell that this will be the feel good story of the day!
Hmmm...not so much. More like raise your ire towards authority and government kinda story. It’s all good though. We need to be charged up.
for anyone interested there is a WV Mine Wars Museum in Matewan WV.
...sorry, y’all, I posted before he talked about the museum.
I still remember when I first heard of The Battle of Blair Mountain. Blew my mind that such a significant event was so obscure and untaught. It was after I looked into possibly the most famous obscure happening known as The Haymarket Affair/Massacre and began my journey through one of the bloodiest labor histories in the world that is the US Labor Movement and it's state and business opposition. It is a tragedy that it's been all but erased from our education and common knowledge, even more so that it's all by design. People fought and died for the few rights we have and take for granted and their story is suppressed, revised, redacted or otherwise whitewashed so the lessons are lost. The US population is probably the best example of the sad fact that a people who don't know their history are lost. We should be the eager inheritors of a proud tradition but instead we've been duped into class collaboration and identifying with the ownership and ruling classes despite their ceaseless class war against us.
Steve Earle wrote a great song called "The Mountain" that Benjamin Tod and Sierra Ferris both have great covers of and Utah Phillips has many a song about the labor struggle, their many trials, losses, victories, culture and the songs they'd sing, often to the tune of hymns because open agitation could land ya in a cage (or worse) in a lotta places thanks to laws that targeted the labor movement and the parts that made it up (anarchists mostly, but other socialists, migrant groups, etc, were targeted as well) so instead of speeches they'd sing songs like "The Preacher and The Slave" and "Solidarity Forever" as a means of getting around the law. Supposedly something started by Joe Hill himself after seeing a choir singing hymns on the street. It's a long, fascinating, inspiring and brutal history that everyone should know. And figures like Joe Hill, Big Bill Haywood, The Haymarket Martyrs, Mother Jones, A. Phillip Randolph, Emma Goldman, César Chávez, and the rest, be they prominent figures or nameless immigrants, who were beaten, caged or shot down in the mines, factories, fields, railroads, and workshops should be the closest thing we have to heros til we're ALL free and equal. We have nothing to lose and everything to gain.
✊👊🖤☮️🏴🥀🌐A///E
Heck yeah! 100%
Great post. Thank you.
WV born and raised and can say you explained this story better than any teacher I had growing up.
From: Which side you are on.
They say in Harlan County
There are no neutrals there.
You'll either be a union man
Or a thug for J. H. Blair.
UWW
SWEEET! We need songs like that today. I mean, I know there are political bands, but I don't see a lot of "singing along" kind of music, and I think that would be great.
@@ExkupidsMom Look up what Tom Morello is doing these days. Mostly under the name "The Nightwatchman"
@@ExkupidsMom There's a longstanding practice in folk and traditional music circles to give old songs a lick or two of new paint, to rework them by a little (or a lot) to givethem a slighly sharper edge in a changed world... Not that long ago I gave "which Side Are You On" a little bit of that treatment and have been performing it.
This used to be a union song,
And, Oh, we sang it proud.
Now they sing a different tune,
In the streets of every town.
The unions lie in tatters,
Save one that’s dressed in blue,
They turned their coats and sold their souls,
And they murder me and you.
The bloody coppers union,
Unworthy of the name.
When they call themselves a union,
They ought to die of shame.
A union stands for justice,
A union ought to care.
No union men are these,
Just the sons of J H Blair.
The rework aint all that good or anything, but if anyone else wants to use these words as a starting point for their own social commentary to the same tune and chorus they have my blessing and in the meantime I'll keep singing my version until somebody comes up with a better.
This song became a favorite of mine the moment i heard it. At the time it was a band called the tillers from Ohio. I bought all 5 of their CDs. Then and there. At this moment in time you can find their music on you tube. They have several political/ activist tunes and a wide variety of historical ballads that , unfortunately, we can relate to in the here and now
@@ExkupidsMom look up a band called the tillers on you tube. Remarkable historical activist ballads. I think you will enjoy much of their music
Fascism In America is real at all levels of our government today as then.
Nope...worse now
We have a fascist government masquerading as a democracy. Until our elected representation actually represent the working class, nothing will change. Voting is not enough. The people of the working class need to come together and demand change.
@@chasewhitehead2136 unfortunately the American people are easily divided. There is always the "Other" . Color of skin, religion, politics, liberal, conservative, progressive, Republican, Democrat. Churches preaching that only Republicans are going to heaven, a real doctrine, no kidding. Until we can see every one as an American dispite all these diversities, we aren't going to make much progress.
Thanks Beau for this video. Being a Union man myself, this needs to get out to the public and show the things we can accomplish together. You sir, are a true patriot!
Appreciate you sir! May you have all the good things this life can offer.
I like to remind myself that the United States was just fine with 12 year olds working 6 days a week.
The think that has always baffled me (a Canadian) is how the Republican party can convince poor people to vote for them. It seems that they somehow are able to glorify a gritty existence with poor wages and a lack of health care. "if only you worked harder you could be like me!". This is the great American enigma.
As a proud union member we owe it all to those that came before us ,
Great storytelling as usual... We need strong willed people like them more than ever.
This was the kind of story that Woody Guthrie wrote songs about....
Woodie Guthrie, and Pete Seeger, Phil Ochs, and the other folk singer legends
@@frederik7338 sadly, no one listens to them anymore...
Today, you can hear such songs from groups like Solas: czcams.com/video/-crKipdNFg4/video.html
And it's only a few years ago since David Rovics wrote about Blair Mountain: czcams.com/video/Z_rCdNdkb_g/video.html
@@crystalhuber4536 I'm a 27 year old trucker and have a whole playlist of nothing but Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, Phil Ochs, Peggy Seeger, etc. Some of us remember.
@@KingBrandonm Remember and pass it on!!!
Commenting for the algorithm because this a story more people need to hear.
Best campfire story ever! You had me riveted. There's so much amazing history we just never get taught in school.
There is so much that isn’t taught it’s frightening.
Everything we don’t do, because we’re all too divided. Pretty sad.
@Unknown Soldier exactly how I feel, don’t forget one more divider; Mask Vs Anti Mask. They are winning keeping us divided. **Edit** and the good old Christian Vs Muslim, but Muslims are just trying to mind their business, it’s whatever though. Fighting over who’s more racist and supports oppression seems to be the theme. I have never had room for HAYE in my heart, being right vs kind, I don’t know. Just grateful for this channel and know there is like minded people.
@Unknown Soldier class is there main divisive and buffering tool...decades ago when I was in school they called it upperclass and underclass...im sick of all the pigeonwholing and the pitting of us against eachother.
@@sarakhaldi5085 soon enough it will be clean mask vs dirty mask
Just the way they like it
Fk them
People should also look up the episodes of behind the bastards titled "the second american civil war you never learned about"
Is there a link you can share?
Oooh. Thanks.
www.iheart.com/podcast/105-behind-the-bastards-29236323/episode/part-one-the-second-american-civil-61485728/
Well isn't that just an awful addition to American history. (Canadian here, I am not familiar with 20th century history of it).
Nakoichi thanks for the podcast rec!!!
Most excellent history lesson! Thank you!!!
Thanks for keeping the history alive Beau. From a former miner and from a 3 generation mining family in Alabama, this story, and literally thousands more are well known. As a child I sometimes had to sleep in the floor behind barricades inside our home when my dad (a miner) was on strike and violence was not taken lightly. I am pro union but do not blindly support union leaders until they prove themselves. We would do well to do the same with our elected officials at every level.
With hope our Sec of Labor will be Sanders.
I much prefer the ending of the French revolution.
Wow, another powerful historical event that is very relevant today.
I didn't know this story until I moved to WV 20 years ago. Thank you for telling the story.
“16 tons and 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!” Merle Travis, Sixteen Tons
Coal companies used debt bondage and the scrip system to keep worker’s hostage.
Huh. I didn't know about Merle Travis. I only remember the Tennessee Ernie Ford recording. Thanks, I'll give a listen to Travis.
@@suebee4843 Merle Travis wrote the lyrics. He had a unique guitar style still called Travis picking by guitarists. His father was a Kentucky coal miner. Information from Wikipedia.
"THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND. THIS LAND IS MY LAND." WOODY
I grew up at the foot of that mountain and proud of my people that stood up to the elitists thank you Beau!!!
Holy crap I find it really disturbing that I and probably a shit ton of others had never heard anything about this before. Thanks Beau keep the knowledge coming.
so happy you are discussing this!
The 1% are fragile and cannot withstand the pressures faced every day by the rest of us. Just ask youself who threw themselves out of windows on Wall Street during the crash. It's sad really when you realize that -- for them -- their wealth was their identity. Their families and legacies of good works were meaningless.
Amen...
Thank you for covering Blair. My family has been in southern WV since before 1800 and I still hear stories about quick getaways through boltholes to escape Baldwin Felts' 'detectives.' It is not taught in WV schools (at least ones my kids went to).
Thank you for this little gem.
The history of labor throughout the world and world history is honestly disgusting. Only by banning together does anything get accomplished.
There goes Beau, talkin' crazy again about 8 hour work days, and days off, an stuff...
LOL yeah almost as wacky as expecting a living wage.
That's Marxist talk right there...
"*Wild Stuff*" ;) 🙊🙉🙈
Another great history lesson. Thank you.
Damn this is one of the most powerful stories I've heard Beau.
Thanks, Beau! There's nothing like relevant history.
I remember being horrified when I learned that the Pinkertons were the “gunthugs”.
- Modern Pinkertons were employed by Gov. Claude Kirk (R Fl) as his private security. Had a run in with them once.
A private security firm...
Really...
Sarcasm...
Once again I become more educated in the History Dept. Thanks Beau ! Enjoyed that ...but also made note for today's time frame.
Happy FOURTH Beau. This story is relevant any time. Thanks for the information. 👍
My left ear definitely enjoyed that
Your right one should have too since it affects both.
Thank goodness for that, I thought I had gone deaf,
Beau NEVER does anything by accident.... Hmmm - why the LEFT ear? Because the Left ear doesn't understand what the RIGHT ear is hearing??? Or maybe it's just technical difficulties! haha
Learn from the past? But why on Earth would we want to do that?
Born and raised in Marmet WV thank you Beau! The Mine War is a point of pride for us. Fuck the coal companies.
Thanks for covering this important topic on the channel. I sent you an email a few weeks ago requesting an interview on our radio show in North AL. I'd still love to have you on. Keep up the great work.
Agreed. A similar situation has happened in agriculture with the return of sharecropping.
That is actual war
Yes, it is. And that has been the history of this nation. Class warfare of the worst sort. The propaganda is the worst of it as they have a large part of the American work force fighting on their side for scraps and a small amount of status and pride. Just enough to win them over and get them kicking down.
Thank you for this information. I found it quite interesting and had to research it more.
This is a story that they don't teach in U.S. History. I will never use the term "Redneck" in a disparaging way again. Being that this happened in 1921, my Grandfather, who was born in 1900 and was a coal miner (albeit in Colorado), would have been directly or indirectly impacted by the events on Blair Mountain. It's a moment in history with a reality-check lesson for today, and it's your best post yet. Thank you for sharing it.
“I owe my soul to the company store”
Gotta wonder why they don't teach about labor history in schools.
We do, but students don't want to pay attention and if they do, their parents accuse us of teaching communist ideals to their college age "children".
K through twelve education is not about educating, it is about producing wage slaves for the elites to abuse. At least in most areas. Now the private schools that the ruling class send their kids to know all about this with an emphasis on watching out for signs of unrest and stopping it in it's tracks.
DeVos will make sure it's not taught.
I love these stories. This practice has never stopped. American, Canadian and many other extraction companies still operate this way on foreign and domestic soil and we pay for their protection sending our military to police the leases, remove any opposition and the feds are used to ensure progress at home. Resource companies ruled then, still and always, but I'm a goldminer's daughter and know how to collect a paycheck with a bat when need be and I'm proud of my roots.
Very well put.
This man should get a prime-time slot on every news channel in the US.
Love Mother Jones story, one tough old lady.
Here in the company town of Swanville, Maine, the gun thugs ARE the sheriff's department - and there's certainly no union!
Thank you for sharing this story. I knew nothing about it through my watered down history taught here in Texas. Appreciate your intelligent commentary and hope you continue.
A very novel & educated way of showing how history repeats its self. Loved it. Thanks D
My father's family is from West Virginia and coal mining was very MUCH in their history - some still is. Fully a year before the Blair Mountain "coal war" was the Battle of Matewan (May 1920) in the Pocahontas Coalfield mining district. Much the same circumstances as Blair Mountain, it is the story that I was made aware of after I had grown up. My Father, about 15 years ago, was gifted with a VHS documentary on Matewan as somewhat of a memorial to "our" history.
I haven't heard any stories of what happened or how it affected my Grandfather's generation, but I do know that he left mining for construction sometime before I was old enough to know. He spent weeks "on the road" living out of construction camps as his crew built and rebuilt most of the bridges that cross the many rivers into West Virginia.
We had moved to Michigan when I was young and we visited on Thanksgiving and Christmas - usually the only 2 times of year that guaranteed that we would see him.
He never talked about his mining days - the only legacy we saw was the black lung that took him over the last 5 years of his life.
The family that are STILL involved with the coal industry are part of the strip mining that basically is cleaning up all the scraps left over from deep mines.
They don't see it (or wish to ignore it) but this is the final step before their coal industry - the one that President Trump has convinced them that he will save - dries up once and for all.
Been a while since Beau was getting us to Lean Left (a joke about the audio for those who don't get it)
My son, while in college, helped prevent the mountain top removal by the coal industry of Blair Mountain, which is now protected by the National Registry!
Did not know this. Thank you! Very interesting.
Nice story, I grew up in New Orleans and never knew the ancestry of the word “redneck, ” nor how powerful it is. I always thought it was the look of a southern white man having been out in the sun too long while wearing a wife beater.
Raykibb it has been used to refer to people who get “red necks” from working in the sun, before the 1900’s.
Todd Hensley: Thanks, makes sense.
@@toddhensley880 Maybe the unions built on that term, because they stood for the people that often were burnt in the sun (not the miners, but others unions).
I love that new term for some law enforcement!
Gun thug's.😆😆😆
Thank you for this. An important story which was true.
I learned yesterday that having a bugout bag is useless if you forget to grab it. Thanks for helping me prepare, Beau. Now I guess I need to do some drills so I remember when things go sideways.
The fact that DEEP history isn't taught is an inherent problem with the educational system as currently structured. American students >usually< only get 3 "history" classes: Elementary (exploration colonization), Middle (US history to the Civil War), and High (US history post-Civil War). Some high school students take a World history class, but not all of them. The scope & sequence doesn't *really* give enough time to dig deeply into issues. Most years, I was lucky to get to the Vietnam War before "high-stakes" testing started. ONE year - only ONE - was I able to get as far as the Reagan administration. They've set up a system where students are woefully under-educated about the nation's history, and thus, don't understand how we got to where we are.
As has been said,American history isn't taught,American mythology is.
Because the education system is made by the rich. They control what is taught, and anything that makes people realize how the rich have fucked over regular citizens is completely ignored.
_"We still know where the pitchforks are."_
As a non American what does that phrase mean!
@@annebruce5135 It means the people will rise up if changes don't happen soon.
@@annebruce5135 Traditionally, common citizen mobs confronting criminals, monsters or perceived community threats always carry (1) torches and (2) pitchforks. They've been stored for a long time, haven't needed them. We still know where they are.
@@why-even-try-brotendo thank you for info. Yes it makes sense now, but its never good to "assume" the meaning.
@@IntimateConnections thank you, for answering.
Got to love your Unions!!! Louisville Kentucky.
Thank you sir... I mentioned Blair Mountain in one of your previous videos and I am so glad you talked about it today! What is even more incredible has been the fight to memorialize the site of the battle which has gone back and forth for some time now. Keep up the great work.