According to Martelle, the majority of these workers were immigrants who were lured to the coal mines with promises of good jobs and affordable housing.
The Rockefeller family, along with other mining companies, followed very few safety regulations and paid workers very small wages for the work they did. Miners did not receive any of the bonuses they do today, including down-time work, such as clearing cave-ins, or given fair weighs.
The coal mine managers, local law enforcement, and the Colorado National Guard were all called upon to maintain peace during the coal miner strikes, which were organized by the union in an effort to improve the lives of the miners. However, these enforcers primarily sided with the coal companies. Martelle wrote that the events surrounding the Ludlow Massacre were less about 'the romantic notion of the resilience of the union men and women in the face of oppression,' and more about class distinctions, as the coal company managers and law enforcers were all white and upper middle class.
This book helps history students understand that the rights that Americans take for granted today, like labor laws, did not always exist. People like the coal miners in Blood Passion had to fight for them. Instead of an 8-hour work day with weekends off, these workers endured 16-hour days and were lucky to have one day a week to rest. The mine shafts were not held to safety law standards, so workers worked in environments that included carcinogenic and flammable coal dust and methane gas that could suffocate workers or explode at any time.
It is important that students learn about the...
Students have always learned about the American Revolution and other famous wars. However, many history books do not include the Ludlow Massacre, which was fought on American soil and exposed the frustration of coal miners. Martelle's book, which is perhaps even more historically accurate than actual history books, bridges this gap.
Book reviewer Jenny Shank (2007) attended a presentation by Martelle in 2007 when six miners were trapped beneath the earth in Utah's Crandall Canyon coal mine. The fact that Martelle was presenting his book while miners were in danger proves the timeliness of this book. "Mining has always been a dangerous profession, and Martelle's account details a time when being a miner was just as dangerous above ground as below it, " wrote Shank.
Martelle's work gives a thorough account of this war, with detailed documentation and photographs from various sources. This war is an important war to learn about, as it exposes an important time of domestic turbulence that inspired major changes in relations between labor and management.
Works Cited
Martelle, Scott (2007). Blood Passion: The Ludlow Massacre and Class War in the American West. Rutgers University Press.
Shank, Jenny. (August 23, 2007). Martelle's "Blood Passion" Uncovers the 1914 Ludlow Mining Massacre. New West. Retrieved from the Internet at http://www.newwest.net/index.php/topic/article/martelles_blood_passion_uncovers_the_1914_ludlow_mining_massacre/C39/L39/.
Martelle, p. 13.
Martelle, p. 57.
Martelle, p. 77.
