The Hard Work Of Coal Miners In The Film Matewan

The Homestead Strike During the late 1800’s, the United States went through an immense amount of growth that marked a waypoint in the country’s history, named The Industrial Revolution. This period marked a milestone in development and industry U.S., causing the nation to become the leading country in industrial production. In many ways the United States created its own “American dream”, with more individuals becoming wealthier because of this economic explosion; however, not everyone received the long end of things. Life for factory workers deemed particularly difficult, with workdays lasting up to 16 hours for 6 days a week.

With promises of riches and better living condition than in their respective countries, these immigrants began monopolizing the coal mining camps. However, the ever capitalist Colorado Fuel and Iron Company began reducing cost by exploiting the immigrant laborers and gaining the highest possible profits. These cost reducing changes began a spirit of unevenness to the coal miners that led them to establish

If their bosses told them to work down there then they did not really stand a chance. It was their job to work in these mines. Mr. Tobar stated that when these men were getting interviewed by television shows, magazines, and more that the questions they asked almost made no sense. They did not ask about how they found food or how they managed to even make it out. These reporters asked unnecessary questions about having sex in the mine and the thoughts of eating each other, and these questions had little to do with the tragedy these men had gone through.

It was April of 1914 when the National Guard went into the tent colony of Ludlow. The people of the Colorado Coal Strike were protesting for better working conditions and better pay after one person was killed on the job. THis strike leads to the Ludlow Massacre. The Ludlow Massacre was horrifying. The Ludlow Massacre killed many people by burning, shooting, or suffocation them.

“A man who dies rich thus dies in disgrace.” Andrew Carnegie was known as the father of steel and became one of the most powerful men alive at his time. Carnegie was a Scottish-born immigrant. His story is what people would call the american dream, coming from nothing into being extremely successful in his industry. As boy he worked in a cotton factory in Pittsburg and eventually worked up to a superintendent position in railroad in Pennsylvania.

Living conditions for the miners were cramped and unacceptably filthy. The quality of drinking water, living conditions, and safety plummeted. Advancements in technology like power drills and electrical lights increased production, but also increased mortality rates due to more dust and deaths by electrocution. In addition, the cowboys faced many problems as well like dangerous stampedes, cow attacks, conflicts with the farmers, and “rustlers”.

In April 2013, Matthew Yglesias, an American Economics Journalist proposed the people of Bangladesh would not appreciate having stronger safety standards in their country because it would cause undue harm economically. He asserts Bangladesh should have different lower standards for safety because they are a poorer country. Most of the people involved in the New York tragedy of 1911 also known as the Triangle Fire, would not agree with Matthew Yglesias on his assertion that lower economic status would be an indication of lower safety standards in factories. Namely, the workers, the union leaders, the progressive reformers and the political leaders would all vote for higher standards commiserate with the United States. The only ones who would not argue with Yglesias are the owners of the Triangle Factory with their vested interest, their own problems of multiple fires and accusations of safety neglect.

This could have caused lots of damage to Carnegie’s factory, and so he locked out the workers the next day. The workers went home and then returned with weapons and fight with the Pinkertons. Numerous people were killed. (Document G1) Many owners and managements saw their workers as the equivalent of machines.

The appeal to reason is one that Liebelson uses liberally by commenting on the workers’ sexual abuse, meager pay, and dangerous work conditions. The author talks about a 16-year-old that “was badly injured by a machine belt that snapped and hit her eye”, workers being subjected to “between 8 and 13 hours daily, plus overnight shifts”, and much more (Liebelson 49). By writing about these conditions extensively, Liebelson appeals to the reasonable reader who understands them. At no point does she outright denounce the mills or their connected companies, but she does give the necessary context for the reader to formulate their own opinions against them. Liebelson is more focused on the impact the factories had on the workers than the factories themselves and because of this, she makes it a secondary point to make an argument against the mills.

After the police stopped several of these meeting the workers didn’t stop there, they started to publicly express the wrongs in these industries. Some of these actions would be creating small strikes, creating slogans heard everywhere like "Eight Hours for Work, Eight Hours for Rest, Eight Hours for What We Will!" or "Shortening the Hours Increase the Pay". , or even creating songs like "the Eight Hour Day". Soon after that the works started to arrange marches through the middle of down town. Nearly 100 thousand workers marched through the middle of down town chanting about the eight-hour day.

As industrial strength grew and technology advanced, labor in America changed. Machines replaced many of workers’ old duties and some skilled laborers who had been previously valued became easily replaced. Immigrants who were willing to work under poorer conditions flooded into the United States, big businesses grew, and political machines whose interests were not that of the people occupied the government. Laborers worked ten hour shifts, six-day workweeks, and started work as children. In The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair, he describes the painful and vigorous work in the meat-packing industry, saying, “The hands of these men would be criss-crossed with cuts, until you could no longer pretend to count them...

However the dangerous working conditions were not the only reason for the nightmare like conditions of the work place. Another factor was the constant speeding up that the workers were subjected to. The workers felt that the factory managers were “… speeding them up and grinding them into pieces…” (76), which was not far from the disturbing truth. For, the inhabitants of Packingtown did not live this American dream too long with the severe conditions that were imposed upon

The Devil’s Miner is heartbreaking and heavy direct cinema documentary that can leave the viewer feeling sympathy and pity. But, if approached with the right mindset, the film can also leave the viewer with a message of human strength in the face of adversity. The film presents many themes to call people to action, such as social injustice, and the problems with child labor, but the main theme that resonates throughout the film is that strength can be found even in the darkest of places. The directors of The Devil’s Miner employ a filming style that allows the people of Potosi to have the loudest voice possible.

Righteous Religion James Baldwin, a writer from Harlem, New York, is particularly studied because of how he addresses race in the United States. Though he saw himself as a “witness to the truth,” Baldwin becomes a leader in black freedom particularly in his collection of essays, The Fire Next Time (The Chicago Tribune). In the essays explored in class, “My Dungeon Shook” and “ Letter from a Region in My Mind,” religion is a reoccurring theme that played an integral part in Baldwin’s life. Although the streets would usually be seen as a more dangerous and deteriorating lifestyle than the church; chapters from The Fire Next Time demonstrate that the institution of the black church created an equally negative and lasting impression that mirrored the impact of street life. Though “My Dungeon Shook” focuses less on religion and more on identity, the first paragraph introduces religion with a negative implication attached.

Throughout this novel Go tell it on the Mountain; James Baldwin examines the different roles of his characters in the Christian church, in the lives of African-Americans. In the context of the biblical language, gender roles; masculinity and femininity are rendered in indubitable. Because John considers the man in the woman on Sundays through a lens he adopts from things he has “read of in the Bible,” he understands men to be, and become strong or “mighty” whereas he interprets the women’s strength as “patient” and “long suffering.” Just as Florence's use of skin creams makes the real racialized constructions of beauty, so do Elizabeth’s actions make real for John traditional oppositional gender roles; Baldwin again emphasizes the interconnections