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The coal wars of West Virginia mark the largest labor uprising in American history. From 1912 to 1921, tens of thousands of coal miners organized and united against the oppressive coal mine operators that denied them the fair wages, safer working conditions, and eight-hour work days that they deserved. With the help of legendary labor organizers that today are regarded as American heroes, these valiant workers demonstrated the power that lies in unity, and have inspired fighters for workers' rights up to the present day and around the world.

Intrigued? Read on to learn more about the legendary West Virginia coal wars.

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The West Virginia coal wars were fought between American coal companies and the miners that worked for them, who were fighting for better working conditions.

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The coal wars are considered by most historians to have lasted for nine years, from 1912 until 1921.

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At the turn of the century, unionization was gaining popularity within the working class. From the International Brotherhood of Teamsters to the Knights of Labor, workers across the country were beginning to organize against the large corporations that employed them.

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In the early 1900s, coal was the primary source of energy for the entire country, and there was an extremely high demand for the material from every corner of industry. Factories, trains, water plants, and many more essential parts of the nation's infrastructure ran on coal.

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As coal became such a highly sought-after commodity, coal mines began opening up wherever the resource could be found. While a large portion of the nation’s coal came from the western states, there were also many coal mines opened in the Northeast.

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Coal mines were opened wherever coal was found, and usually it was found far away from any pre-existing towns or settlements. To accommodate workers and their families, coal companies set up “company towns” close to the coal deposits.

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This meant that the coal companies owned and controlled the workers’ houses, churches, and schools (pictured). The companies also frequently had their own security militias that acted as a private police force.

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The monopoly of control that the companies held over their workers had disastrous and exploitative effects. For example, since the company towns were so isolated, many coal companies stopped paying miners in real currency and instead started paying salaries using company “scrip,” which workers could only use at the company stores. In effect, this meant the miners weren’t getting paid anything at all.

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Labor strikes were occurring more and more often in the United States, and the Pennsylvania Coal Strike of 1902 saw the official recognition of the United Mine Workers of America after the federal government stepped in to arbitrate.

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The Pennsylvania strikers of 1902 were demanding higher wages and an eight-hour work day. While all of their demands weren’t meant, they did win a 10% pay increase, and their work days were shortened from 10 hours to nine hours.

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The coal miners in southern West Virginia saw the success of strikes elsewhere in the country, and this gave them the courage to strike themselves. Unfortunately, they wouldn’t be as lucky as their northern counterparts.

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Miners in Paint Creek, West Virginia, held a work stoppage in 1912 after being denied a modest pay increase. Soon afterwards, 7,500 more miners from the nearby Cabin Creek mines joined in the strike.

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The work-stoppage strike was nonviolent until company security militia began to evict the families of miners out of their homes, which were owned by the coal companies, by force.

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Once the evictions started, the miners fought back, and the ensuing conflict would last for another 13 months. Once the United Mine Workers union caught wind of the strike, they sent support for the strikers.

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The now legendary labor figure Mary Jones, known as Mother Jones, was sent to West Virginia to help organize the striking workers. By this time, Mother Jones had a long and mostly successful history of organizing labor movements and rallying not only workers, but also the families of workers, in support of unionization.

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Frank Hayes, vice president of the United Mine Workers union, also arrived in the area to help garner support for unionization.

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Around the same time that Mother Jones and Frank Hayes arrived, the mine owners recruited around 300 Baldwin-Felts strikebreakers to intervene. Baldwin-Felts was a private “detective agency” that was frequently hired by mine and factory owners to break up strikes and get employees back to work. These strikebreakers had a history of using violence to meet that goal.

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The strike was subdued in 1913 when the governor of West Virginia, William E. Glasscock, sent a militia to the region and declared martial law. At the time, it was the largest use of martial law in US history.

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When the militia arrived and martial law was declared, strikers started getting arrested indiscriminately and without warrants. Mother Jones was also arrested, and sentenced to 20 years in prison.

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The fighting continued intermittently over the next few years. The next major event occurred in 1920, in the town of Matewan.

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The miners in Matewan began striking against the mine owners’ continued use of private security militias to control the workers and snuff out any signs of resistance. Shortly after the strike broke out, the mine owners once again employed the help of the Baldwin-Felts Agency.

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The superintendent of the Baldwin-Felts Agency himself, Albert Felts, came to Matewan with his detectives and immediately began unlawfully evicting miners and their families from their homes. After catching wind of the commotion, Sid Hatfield, the sheriff of Matewan, made his way to the miners’ camp and demanded to see the warrants that called for the evictions that were taking place.

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Of course, Felts had no such warrants, and lied to Sheriff Hatfield, telling him that he was acting on a court order. Once Hatfield realized this wasn’t true, the two began to quarrel.

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Their argument came to a head when someone fired a gun. Historians still aren’t sure who fired the first shot, but the chaos that followed left seven Baldwin-Felts militiamen (including Albert Felts himself) and two townspeople dead.

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The West Virginia Coal Wars reached its climax in August 1921, while a mass of miners were making their way south to Mingo County, where they intended to free the striking workers who had been imprisoned there.

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As they were crossing the ridgeline in West Virginia known as Blair Mountain, they came face to face with a civilian army that was organized by Don Chafin, the sheriff of Logan County who was infamously anti-union and vehemently protected the interests of the mine owners.

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The conflict that ensued was the bloodiest of the almost decade-long coal wars, and truly did resemble a war rather than a riot. Weaponry of all kinds were used, from rifles to machine guns and bombs.

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Sheriff Chafin even ordered his troops to fly over the union encampments and drop gas bombs and other bombs filled with gunpowder and nails. In the words of historian James Green, “American citizens were being subjected to aerial bombardment on their own soil.”

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Eventually, the federal government stepped in, and the strikers surrendered, thus effectively ending the West Virginia coal wars. Ever since, the Battle of Blair Mountain has remained the second-largest insurrection in American history, second only to the Civil War.

Sources: (National Parks Service) (West Virginia Mine Wars Museum) (History)