"The Bottom Would Drop Out of Everything": A Brief History of the Battle for Blair Mountain

Authors

Brandon Neely, Gettysburg CollegeFollow

Class Year

2023

Document Type

Student Research Paper

Date of Creation

Spring 2022

Department 1

History

Abstract

In the summer of 1921, thousands of Appalachian miners took up arms and marched in southwest West Virginia. Fighting back against attacks on miners' unions like the United Mine Workers of America, the conflict quickly turned violent. The Battle for Blair Mountain, as it came to be known, was one of the largest labor strikes in American history and impacted the history of the Coal Wars and the United States for decades to come. This analysis uses interviews with people who experienced the battle as well as the speeches of labor leaders Samuel Gompers and John Lewis to discuss the events and implications of the battle.

Comments

Written for HIST 348: Early 20th Century America

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Recommended Citation

Neely, Brandon, ""The Bottom Would Drop Out of Everything": A Brief History of the Battle for Blair Mountain" (2022). Student Publications. 997.
https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/student_scholarship/997