E58: West Virginia Mine Wars, part 2
Working Class History
Working Class History
5.0 • 813 Ratings
🗓️ 29 November 2021
⏱️ 33 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Our podcast is brought to you by our patreon supporters. Our supporters fund our work, and in return get exclusive early access to podcast episodes, bonus episodes, free and discounted merchandise and other content. For example you can listen to part 2 of this double episode now. Join us or find out more at patreon.com/workingclasshistory
Music used in these episodes is Which Side Are You On, by Florence Rees, performed by Tom Morello: The Night Watchman. Buy/stream it here: https://tommorellothenightwatchman.bandcamp.com/track/which-side-are-you-on
And Solidarity Forever by Ralph Chaplin, performed by David Rovics.
Learn more about the mine wars in these great books: https://shop.workingclasshistory.com/collections/all/west-virginia-mine-wars
Full acknowledgements, show notes, photos, sources and more information on the webpage for this episode here: https://workingclasshistory.com/podcast/e57-west-virginia-mine-wars-1902-1922/
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome back to the second episode of our two-part series on the West Virginia Mine Wars. |
| 0:04.6 | If you haven't listened to Part 1 yet, we recommend you go back and do that first. |
| 0:08.2 | When the union's inspiration through the worker's blood shall run, there can be no power greater anywhere beneath the sun. |
| 0:16.9 | Yet what force on earth is weaker than the feeble strength of one, but the union makes us strong. |
| 0:25.6 | Solidarity forever. |
| 0:30.6 | Solidarity forever. |
| 0:34.6 | Before we start off, just a reminder that our podcast is brought to you by our Patreon supporters. |
| 0:39.3 | Our supporters fund our work and in return get exclusive early access to podcast episodes, |
| 0:44.2 | bonus episodes, free and discounted merch and other benefits. |
| 0:48.1 | Join us or find out more at patreon.com slash working class history. |
| 0:52.4 | Link in the show notes. |
| 0:55.8 | At the end of the last episode, |
| 1:00.4 | following a series of violent strikes in the Canawa Coalfields, we ended with the infamous Battle of Mate 1 when union-busting agents from the Baldwin-Feldt's detective agency attempted |
| 1:05.3 | to arrest pro-union police chief Sid Hatfield. The battle left 10 debt, two minors, one of whom was unarmed, |
| 1:12.7 | the town mayor and seven Baldwin-Feldt Feltz detectives. After the shootout, Sid Hatfield and |
| 1:17.8 | 22 other people, mostly striking minors, were charged for the killings of the detectives. |
| 1:23.0 | Seven defendants had their cases dismissed, but Hatfield and 15 others were subsequently put on trial |
| 1:28.0 | in what became the lengthiest murder trial in the history of the state. The trial began on |
| 1:32.6 | the 28th of January 1921, and on that day 40 armed Baldwin-Feltz detectives assembled in the street |
| 1:38.5 | outside the courthouse in a pretty blatant attempt to intimidate the jury. But this was unsuccessful. |
| 1:51.0 | In the end, they could not find a jury that would convict Sid Hatfield and the others of murdering the Baldwinfelt's agents. All of the defendants were acquitted at trial by a jury who |
| 1:57.0 | basically knew what Baldwinfell's detectives did and what they were like. The New York Times reported that on the day the defendants came back from trial, |
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