Harlan Miners Speak

by Dreiser, Theodore; Hennan, John C.; Cohen, Lester; Walker, Charles R.; Walker, Adelaide

• ISBN13: 9780813191874
• ISBN10: 0813191874
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-04-18
• Publisher: Univ Pr of Kentucky

Summary

The Dreiser Committee, including writers Theodore Dreiser, John Dos Passos, and Sherwood Anderson, investigated the desperate situation of striking Kentucky miners in November 1931. When the Communist-led National Miners Union competed against the more conservative United Mine Workers of America for greater union membership, class resentment turned to warfare. Harlan Miners Speak, originally published in 1932, is an invaluable record that illustrates the living and working conditions of the miners during the 1930s. This edition of Harlan Miners Speak, with a new introduction by noted historian John C. Hennen, offers readers an in-depth look at a pivotal crisis in the complex history of this controversial form of energy production.

Table of Contents

Aunt Molly Jackson's Blues	p. v
A Statement of the Purposes of the National Committee for the Defense of Political Prisoners	p. ix
Introduction	p. 3
Bloody Ground	p. 17
Class War in Kentucky	p. 20
Organizing a Union in Kentucky	p. 38
Who Owns the Mines?	p. 50
The Lawlessness of the Law in Kentucky	p. 59
Dynamite and Harlan County Jail	p. 69
Harlan County and the Press	p. 75
Representing the Press	p. 80
Living Conditions in the Coal Fields	p. 83
The Miners Speak for Themselves	p. 91
The Writer's Committee
Affidavits of Jim Grace and Debs Moreland
Arrival in Pineville and Testimony Taken in Pineville
Harlan Town and Testimony Taken in Harlan
Further Testimony in Harlan
What the Law Had to Say	p. 229
The Free Speech Speakin's	p. 277
I Want to be Counted	p. 298
A Hearing in Washington	p. 313
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.