The
Lattimer massacre refers to the violent death of 19 unarmed
strikingStrike action, often simply called a strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to perform work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became important during the industrial revolution, when mass labour became important in factories and mines...
immigrant anthracite
coalCoal is a readily combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock normally occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...
miners at the Lattimer mine near
Hazleton, PennsylvaniaHazleton is a city in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 23,329 at the 2000 census.-Greater Hazleton:The City of Hazleton and its surrounding communities are collectively known as Greater Hazleton. Greater Hazleton encompasses an area located within three counties:...
, on September 10, 1897. The miners, mostly of
PolishThe Polish people, or Poles , are a Western Slavic ethnic group of Central Europe, living predominantly in Poland. Poles are sometimes defined as people who share a common Polish culture and are of Polish descent. Their religion is predominantly Roman Catholic...
,
SlovakThe Slovaks are a western Slavic people that primarily inhabit Slovakia and speak the Slovak language, which is closely related to the Czech language....
, and
LithuanianLithuanians are the Baltic ethnic group native to Lithuania, where they number slightly over 3 million people. Another million or more make up the Lithuanian diaspora, largely found in countries such as the United States, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Russia, United Kingdom and Ireland...
ethnicity, were shot and killed by a
Luzerne CountyLuzerne County is the most populated county in northeastern Pennsylvania, with a total population of 319,250 . It is located in the northern Anthracite area called "The Coal Region". Its county seat is Wilkes-Barre.- History :...
sheriff's
possePosse comitatus or sheriff's posse is the common-law authority of a United States county sheriff to conscript any able-bodied male older than 18 to assist him in keeping the peace or to pursue and arrest a felon; compare hue and cry...
. Scores more workers were wounded. The Lattimer massacre was a turning point in the history of the
United Mine WorkersThe United Mine Workers of America is a North American labor union that represents not only coal miners, but also clean coal technicians, health care workers, truck drivers, manufacturing workers and public employees throughout the United States and Canada...
(UMW).
The economies of
CentralCentral Europe is the region lying between the variously defined areas of Eastern and Western Europe. The term and widespread interest in the region itself came back into fashion after the end of the Cold War, which, along with the Iron Curtain, had divided Europe politically into East and West,...
and
Eastern EuropeEastern Europe is a region lying in the Eastern part of Europe. The term is highly context-dependent and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
were in difficulty in the late 19th century.
The
Lattimer massacre refers to the violent death of 19 unarmed
strikingStrike action, often simply called a strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to perform work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became important during the industrial revolution, when mass labour became important in factories and mines...
immigrant anthracite
coalCoal is a readily combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock normally occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...
miners at the Lattimer mine near
Hazleton, PennsylvaniaHazleton is a city in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 23,329 at the 2000 census.-Greater Hazleton:The City of Hazleton and its surrounding communities are collectively known as Greater Hazleton. Greater Hazleton encompasses an area located within three counties:...
, on September 10, 1897. The miners, mostly of
PolishThe Polish people, or Poles , are a Western Slavic ethnic group of Central Europe, living predominantly in Poland. Poles are sometimes defined as people who share a common Polish culture and are of Polish descent. Their religion is predominantly Roman Catholic...
,
SlovakThe Slovaks are a western Slavic people that primarily inhabit Slovakia and speak the Slovak language, which is closely related to the Czech language....
, and
LithuanianLithuanians are the Baltic ethnic group native to Lithuania, where they number slightly over 3 million people. Another million or more make up the Lithuanian diaspora, largely found in countries such as the United States, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Russia, United Kingdom and Ireland...
ethnicity, were shot and killed by a
Luzerne CountyLuzerne County is the most populated county in northeastern Pennsylvania, with a total population of 319,250 . It is located in the northern Anthracite area called "The Coal Region". Its county seat is Wilkes-Barre.- History :...
sheriff's
possePosse comitatus or sheriff's posse is the common-law authority of a United States county sheriff to conscript any able-bodied male older than 18 to assist him in keeping the peace or to pursue and arrest a felon; compare hue and cry...
. Scores more workers were wounded. The Lattimer massacre was a turning point in the history of the
United Mine WorkersThe United Mine Workers of America is a North American labor union that represents not only coal miners, but also clean coal technicians, health care workers, truck drivers, manufacturing workers and public employees throughout the United States and Canada...
(UMW).
Background
The economies of
CentralCentral Europe is the region lying between the variously defined areas of Eastern and Western Europe. The term and widespread interest in the region itself came back into fashion after the end of the Cold War, which, along with the Iron Curtain, had divided Europe politically into East and West,...
and
Eastern EuropeEastern Europe is a region lying in the Eastern part of Europe. The term is highly context-dependent and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
were in difficulty in the late 19th century. The European rural population was growing faster than either the agricultural or
new industrial sectorsIndustrialisation is the process of social and economic change whereby a human group is transformed from a pre-industrial society into an industrial one...
of the economy could absorb, industrialization was disrupting both the agricultural and
craft economyCraft production is the process of manufacturing by hand with or without the aid of tools. The term Craft production refers to a manufacturing technique applied in the hobbies of Handicraft but was also the common method of manufacture in the pre-industrialized world...
, and competition from
large-scale commercialIndustrial agriculture is a form of modern farming that refers to the industrialized production of livestock, poultry, fish, and crops. The methods of industrial agriculture are technoscientific, economic, and political...
and foreign agricultural producers. These factors drove most of the mass immigration to the United States. Disproportionate numbers of new
SlavicThe Slavic Peoples are an ethnic and linguistic branch of Indo-European peoples, living mainly in eastern and central Europe. From the early 6th century they spread from their original homeland to inhabit most of eastern Central Europe, Eastern Europe and the Balkans...
immigrants worked in the the
coal miningCoal mining is the extraction or removal of coal from the earth by mining. When coal is used for fuel in power generation it is referred to as steaming or thermal coal. Coal that is used to create coke for steel manufacturing is referred to as coking or metallurgical coal...
industry, where they were among the most exploited of all mine workers. During strikes in Northeast Pennsylvania by English-speaking miners in 1875 and 1887, many Slavic miners were imported as strikebreakers, and were "despised as scabs" by the English-speaking immigrant and American miners of the region.
Conditions in coal mines of the late 1800s were harsh. Mine safety was very poor, such that 32,000 miners in Northeast Pennsylvania had lost their lives between 1820 and 1870. Wages, already low in a highly competitive industry, fell 17 percent during the mid-1890s after a coal industry slump. Although wages had improved some by the fall of 1897, anthracite coal companies in the region cut wages and consolidated operations within the mines (often resulting in more laborious working conditions). In some cases, companies forced workers to lease homes from the company and required them to only see company doctors when injured.
Strike
In August 1897, the Honey Brook division of the Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre Coal Company laid off workers at its strip mines, cut the pay of the remaining employees, and raised fees for workers residing in the area's
company townA company town is a town or city in which much or all real estate, buildings , utilities, hospitals, small businesses such as grocery stores and gas stations, and other necessities or luxuries of life within its borders are owned by a single company...
s. The company also consolidated its
muleA mule is the offspring of a male donkey and a female horse. Horses and donkeys are different species, with different numbers of chromosomes. Of the two F1 hybrids between these two species, a mule is easier to obtain than a hinny...
stableA stable is a building in which livestock, especially horses, are kept. It most commonly means a building that is divided into separate stalls for individual animals...
s, forcing its teenaged mule drivers to travel much further each day to pick up their animals (time they were not compensated for). After inconclusive talks, 25 to 35 teenaged drivers struck on August 14, 1897. A scuffle between a supervisor and some drivers led to additional walkouts by strip miners as well as underground coal miners, and by August 16 nearly 2,000 workers were on strike. Nearly all the miners joined the UMW on August 18, and within two days almost all the mines in the region had closed due to the spreading strike. Many Slavic miners had not joined the nascent United Mine Workers, both because of ethnic discrimination exhibited by English-speaking and American miners but also because of the poor relationships between unionized miners and the former strikebreakers. But worsening working conditions and a UMW call for a 15 percent wage increase drew many Slavic miners into the union. The first wave of the strike ended on August 23, after the company agreed to pay overtime, bring wages up to the regional average, allow miners to see their own doctors when injured, and no longer force miners to live in company-owned housing.
A second strike began on August 25. Teenaged boys who acted as
slate pickersA coal breaker was a coal processing plant which broke coal into various useful sizes. Coal breakers also removed impurities from the coal and deposited them into a culm dump...
(removing nonflammable
slateSlate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low grade regional metamorphism. The result is a foliated rock in which the foliation may not correspond to the original sedimentary...
from the coal) at the A. S. Van Wickle
coal breakingA coal breaker was a coal processing plant which broke coal into various useful sizes. Coal breakers also removed impurities from the coal and deposited them into a culm dump...
operation at the nearby village of Coleraine struck for higher wages as well. When Van Wickle attempted to use Slavic workers as strikebreakers, the Slavs joined the strike instead. Although the strike spread to two other nearby coal works, the company quickly agreed to raise wages up to the regional average and the strike ended on or about August 28.
But when the new pay rates were announced on September 1, only a limited number of workers received raises. Management did agree to treat Slavic workers more fairly, but the mine owners reneged on their other promises. The strikes resumed. On September 3, 3,000 workers marched on four mines, shutting them down.
The strikes provoked a response. The mine owners' private armed force, the
Coal and Iron PoliceThe Coal and Iron Police was a private police force established by the Pennsylvania General Assembly but employed and paid by the various coal companies. The origins of the Coal and Iron Police begin in 1865. Law enforcement in Pennsylvania at that time existed only on the county level or below;...
, proved too few in number to break the strike, so the owners appealed for help from Luzerne County Sheriff James L. Martin. Martin established a
possePosse comitatus can refer to:* Posse comitatus , regarding sheriffs' authority to conscript for law enforcement* Posse Comitatus Act, a United States federal law...
of about 100
EnglishThe English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity as a people is of early medieval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn....
and
IrishThe Irish people are a Western European ethnic group who originate in Ireland, in north western Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolgs, Tuatha Dé Danann and the Milesians The Irish...
citizens to prevent any further marches from occurring. Within five days, 8,000 to 10,000 miners were on strike. On September 8, mine owners demanded that the sheriff of
Schuylkill CountySchuylkill County is a county located in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania where the Schuylkill River starts. It is located in the heart of the anthracite Coal Region of Pennsylvania. Schuylkill County was created on March 1, 1811, from parts of Berks and Northampton Counties and named for the...
arrest several thousand miners who had assembled near
PottsvillePottsville is the largest and only chartered city in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, USA, and is its county seat. The population was 15,549 at the 2000 census. The city lies along the west bank of the Schuylkill River, 97 miles north-west of Philadelphia...
and had forced a mine to shut down, but the sheriff refused.
Massacre
On Friday, September 10, about 300 to 400 unarmed strikers—nearly all of them Slavs—marched to a coal mine owned by Calvin Pardee at the town of Lattimer to support a newly-formed UMW union. Their goal was to support the newly-formed UMW union at the still-open Lattimer mine. The demonstrators were confronted by law enforcement officials several times on the road and ordered to disperse, but kept marching.
The deputies had spent most of the morning joking about how many miners they would kill. While on a streetcar headed for Lattimer with the sheriff and his comrades, one deputy was overheard saying "I bet I drop six of them when I get over there."
When the demonstrators reached Lattimer at 3:45 PM, they were met again by the sheriff and 150 armed deputies. Sheriff Martin ordered the marchers to disperse, and then attempted to grab an American flag out of the hands of the lead marcher. A scuffle ensued, and the police opened fire on the unarmed crowd. Nineteen miners died, and anywhere from 17 to 49 others wounded. All had been shot in the back, and several had multiple gunshot wounds which indicated that they had been targeted by the deputies.
Aftermath
The strike led to temporary mob rule in the area, and after Sheriff Martin telephoned for help the
Pennsylvania National GuardThe Pennsylvania National Guard is composed of the Pennsylvania Army National Guard and the Pennsylvania Air National Guard. It is one of the largest National Guards in the nation. It has the largest Army National Guard of all the states and the fourth largest Air National Guard. These forces are...
was dispatched to the county to restore order. Late on the evening of September 10, more than 2,500 troops of the Third Brigade (partly stationed in Luzerne County) had been deployed. Local Slavic community leaders held a rally on September 11 to try to calm the workers, raise money for the provision of the families, and seek the prosecution of Sheriff Martin and his deputies. Outraged miners searched in vain on September 12 for Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre Coal Company mine superintendant Gomer Jones, and destroyed his home when they could not locate him. Some unrest continued, however. On September 20, a group of Slavic women (armed with
fireplace pokerA fireplace poker is a short, rigid rod, preferably of fireproof material, used to adjust coals and wood fuel burning in a fireplace. It is often metallic and has a point at one end for pushing burning materials and a handle at the opposite end, sometimes with an insulated grip...
s and
rolling pinthumb|A wooden rolling pinA rolling pin is a cylindrical food preparation utensil used to shape and flatten dough. Two styles of rolling pins are found; roller and rods. Roller types consists of a thick cylindrical roller with small handles at each end; rod type rolling pins are usually thin...
s) led a group of about 150 men and boys to shut down the McAdoo coal works, but were turned back by the quick arrival of National Guard troops. The Guard's artillery unit was withdrawn on September 24, and the rest of the troops on September 29.
Sheriff Martin and 73 deputies were arrested and put on trial. At trial, the defendants claimed that the marchers had refused to obey an order to disperse and were charging toward the sheriff and his deputies. But medical evidence that nearly all the strikers had been shot in the back proved this to be a lie. Nontheless, the sheriff and his deputies were acquitted.
The Lattimer massacre was a turning point in the history of the
United Mine WorkersThe United Mine Workers of America is a North American labor union that represents not only coal miners, but also clean coal technicians, health care workers, truck drivers, manufacturing workers and public employees throughout the United States and Canada...
(UMW). The UMW, struggling to establish itself in Pennsylvania's coal mines, witnessed a dramatic upsurge of more than 10,000 new members. The incident helped end a longstanding "myth" about the docility of non-English speaking miners. Just three years later, the union would be powerful enough to win very large wage increases and significant safety improvements for miners throughout the region. It also significantly boosted the union career of
John MitchellJohn Mitchell was a United States labor leader and president of the United Mine Workers of America from 1898 to 1908....
, an activist for the UMW who would be elected President of the national union due to his efforts during the Lattimer strikes.
The crossroads where the Lattimer massacre occurred remained unmarked for 80 years. In 1972, the United Labor Council of Lower Luzerne and Carbon Counties and the United Mine Workers erected a small memorial on the site.
External links