The mist-shrouded hills of southern West Virginia’s coalfields bore witness to America’s most explosive class war. This rebellion, often referred to as “Blood on the Coal,” took place in Lincoln and Boone Counties—ground zero for the state’s labor convulsions—where miners forged a movement that shook the nation. Their story, etched in gunpowder and solidarity, reveals the brutal cost of dignity in the face of industrial tyranny.
The Company Town Cage: Economic Enslavement in Appalachia
By the early 1900s, coal operators had perfected an architecture of control:
- Scrip Slavery: Miners were paid in company-issued tokens (“scrip”) valid only at inflated-priced company stores, trapping families in perpetual debt. A miner loading six coal cars might still lack “enough food to feed your family”.
- Cribbing & Theft: Operators altered coal cars to hold 2,500 lbs. but paid for 2,000 lbs., while checkweighmen docked pay for “slate and rock” with impunity.
- Racial Division: Companies imported Black workers from the South (McDowell County’s Black population surged to 30.7% by 1910) and European immigrants to fragment solidarity—yet this strategy ultimately failed.
Death was a daily companion. West Virginia’s mine fatality rate (1890–1912) exceeded all other states. The 1907 Monongah explosion killed 361 men—a toll surpassing WWI battlefronts.
Seeds of Revolt: Paint Creek, Cabin Creek, and the Radicalization of Boone County
The 1912–13 Paint Creek-Cabin Creek strike ignited the tinderbox. Miners demanded:
“The right to organize […] alternatives to company stores […] prohibition of cribbing […] union checkweighmen”.
Boone County miners joined the fray, facing Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency mercenaries who:
- Machine-gunned tent colonies from an armored train (“Bull Moose Special”)
- Evicted families at gunpoint in rainstorms, leaving newborns exposed
Mother Jones, then in her 80s, rallied miners with incendiary speeches: “All men that wanted to be let out of slavery [should] follow her” . Frank Keeney and Bill Blizzard emerged as leaders who would later mobilize Boone and Lincoln miners for the climactic Blair Mountain battle.
The Road to Rebellion: Lincoln County’s Invisible Warriors
Lincoln County miners operated in the shadows of history. Though records are sparse, their role was critical:
- Strategic Geography: Situated between militant Mingo County and organizing hubs in Charleston, Lincoln became a corridor for union messengers and arms.
- Community Networks: Families like the Spurlocks (early settlers documented in Lincoln’s Union District) formed kinship ties that aided underground organizing.
- Martial Law Resistance: After the 1920 Matewan Massacre, Lincoln miners joined guerrilla campaigns, sabotaging mines and defying mine guards.
Blair Mountain: The Army of Boone and Lincoln
The August 1921 march was the apocalypse of labor strife. Triggered by the assassination of pro-union sheriff Sid Hatfield:
- Miners as Soldiers: 10,000+ miners (including hundreds from Boone/Lincoln) organized into military units with medics, passwords, and supply trains. Boone County miners commandeered the “Blue Steel Special” train to join the front.
- Cross-Racial Solidarity: Black, immigrant, and white miners—segregated in life—fought shoulder-to-shoulder. One group held cafeteria workers at gunpoint to eat together, declaring: “The only way to shut down the mines was to make sure everybody participated”.
- Battle Tactics: For five days, Boone and Lincoln miners advanced under machine-gun fire and aerial bombs (the first U.S. bombing of civilians) dropped by Chafin’s forces.
Why Blair Mountain Still Echoes in Boone County:
“It was the closest thing to a class war this country has seen. […] They were rebelling against the mine guard system, but they were also avenging the death of their friend.” – Historian Chuck Keeney
Suppression and Silencing
The U.S. Army crushed the rebellion with 2,500 troops. Afterward:
- Legal Persecution: Bill Blizzard faced treason trials; Frank Keeney became a parking attendant.
- Historical Erasure: West Virginia textbooks (1930s–1980s) omitted Blair Mountain. Governor Morgan’s American Constitutional Association purged “subversive” labor history.
- Land Warfare: Coal companies attempted strip-mining Blair Mountain until the 2018 National Register designation—won after a 9-year legal battle.
Legacy: The Unbroken Line
Today’s Appalachian labor movements stand on the shoulders of Boone and Lincoln’s rebels:
- The Mine Wars Museum (Matewan) preserves artifacts like bullet casings from Blair Mountain.
- Teacher Strikes: The 2018 West Virginia teachers’ walkout invoked Mine Wars solidarity, defeating corporate-backed legislation.
- Environmental Justice: Modern fights against black lung disease and strip-mining trace directly to 1921: “Miners are exposed to higher levels of rock silica […] slowly dying from a disease that steals breath daily”.
As UMWA President Cecil Roberts, descendant of march leader Bill Blizzard, declared:
“It is one of the most amazing confrontations […] and no one knows about it. […] It seems almost impossible unless there’s a concerted effort for people not to know”.
This is the suppressed history of Lincoln and Boone Counties—where miners dared to imagine freedom and paid in blood for the dream.
Bibliography
Bailey, Kenneth R. “Battle of Blair Mountain.” West Virginia Encyclopedia. Last modified February 16, 2024. https://www.wvencyclopedia.org/articles/532.
Corbin, David A. Life, Work, and Rebellion in the Coal Fields: The Southern West Virginia Miners 1880–1922. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1981.
“Let’s Teach Histories of Left-Wing Rebellion, Like the Battle of Blair Mountain.” Truthout. Accessed June 7, 2025. https://truthout.org/articles/lets-teach-histories-of-left-wing-rebellion-like-the-battle-of-blair-mountain/.
“A Century Ago, Miners Fought in a Bloody Uprising. Few Know About It Today.” United Mine Workers of America. September 7, 2021. Originally published in The New York Times. https://umwa.org/news-media/news/a-century-ago-miners-fought-in-a-bloody-uprising-few-know-about-it-today/.
Robertson, Campbell. “A Century Ago, Miners Fought in a Bloody Uprising. Few Know About It Today.” The New York Times, September 7, 2021.
Savage, Lon. Thunder in the Mountains: West Virginia’s Mine Wars. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1990.
“Series: West Virginia Mine Wars.” National Park Service. Accessed June 7, 2025. https://www.nps.gov/articles/series.htm?id=C8B39227-C269-2EE9-F318CA6374FA310F.
“West Virginia’s Mine Wars, 1920–1921.” libcom.org. Accessed June 7, 2025. https://libcom.org/article/west-virginias-mine-wars-1920-1921.
“What Made the Battle of Blair Mountain the Largest Labor Uprising in American History.” Smithsonian Magazine. Accessed June 7, 2025. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/battle-blair-mountain-largest-labor-uprising-american-history-180978520/.
https://youtu.be/gfT9jUB_Hy4
Visibility: Partly Cloudy
*GPS Coordinate Data Provided on bottom left corner with date and speed*
Destinations in West Virginia by appearance:
South Charleston
Southridge
US119/Corridor G – South Charleston (30:00)
Alum Creek
Sod
Sumerco
WV214/Midway Road – Sumerco (45:00)
WV214/Midway Road – Sumerco (1:00:00)
US119/Corridor G – Alum Creek (1:15:00)
US60/MacCorkle Avenue – South Charleston (1:30:00)
Dunbar
I64W – Institute (1:45:00)
Institute
Cross Lanes
Nitro
Kanawha Turnpike – Spring Hill – South Charleston (2:00:00)
Charleston
US119/Corridor G – South Hills – Charleston (2:15:00)
Ending: Oakwood Road – South Hills – Charleston
Listen while you ride: My Spotify Playlists
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5FI2WfzKqFIz5dD0BOA1iw?si=4f12084e12b247ec – Mix
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5IWoDtlir7k6eww0PNVdGh?si=dca253ebf4e94ac1 – Chill
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