Centuries of Exploitation in the Coalfields of Appalachia

Abstract

In her book, Digging Their Own Graves, Barbara Ellen Smith provides a meticulously researched and detailed account of Appalachian coal miners and their experiences with black lung disease. Starting with the discovery of the disease in 1831, Smith works her way through the contentious medicalization of black lung over the last two centuries. Black lung, formally known as coal workers’ pneumoconiosis (CWP), is a debilitating and fatal lung disease caused by chronic exposure to coal dust. The disease has plagued Appalachian coal miners and their families for centuries. Smith emphasizes that black lung is not simply a medical issue, but rather, involves an intricate web of bureaucracy, power, politics, and class. Even as the stranglehold of the coal industry in Appalachia slowly comes to a close, the legacy of black lung will remain for generations to come. Coal miners have long been aware of the health effects of black lung, made apparent by their recurrent heavy coughing fits and thick black sputum. One miner, Gary Hairston, shared a story about coughing so hard he spit up pieces of his own lung. Nonetheless, physicians were slow to acknowledge black lung as a legitimate disease, largely because of their fealty to company influence. While first “discovered” by Dr. James Gregory, a Scottish physician, in 1831, black lung was not recognized in the United States until 1869, roughly three decades later. Even after the initial discovery of disease, it was another century before regulations were established and miners began to be compensated for their illness. Smith points out that “Even as they shaped the production of death and disease, coal companies sought to control the definition and treatment of medical problems” (p. 27). The battle to protect miners in the mines and compensate them for their occupational illness continued for decades to come. The coal industry established total control in the coalfields of Appalachia in the early 1900s. They were able to do this by recruiting new immigrants to the isolated coalfields of central Appalachia, paying them in scrip, a nonlegal tender, and making them live in company-owned towns. The work was gruesome and dangerous, leading to the deaths of more than 45,000 miners between 1906-1935 (p. 27). This mono-economy secured the power and authority of the coal industry and warded off unionization for decades. The struggle to unionize in central Appalachia is perhaps one of the most notable labor histories in the United States. It took miners two decades of bitter, armed conflicts in the coal towns before miners began unionizing en masse in 1933. These bloody battles were fought at Matewan, Paint Creek, and Blair Mountain during the 1910s and 1920s, marking the largest armed insurrection in U.S. history. Miners prevailed, and by 1934, there were more than 400,000 miners enlisted in the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA). While strong unionization certainly helped regain some semblance of power among the rank-and-file miners, mechanization of the mines, particularly the introduction of the continuous miner, radically reshaped coal mining and the UMWA itself. Mechanization in the mines did three things, 1) it increased the amount of dust in the mines, 2) it deskilled coal mining and led to massive layoffs, 3) it reshaped the UMWA to favor productivity over worker safety. Despite successful unionization, miners were still falling ill due to the lack of preventative measures. Surprisingly, the UMWA did little to prevent black lung. Instead, the focus was on gaining compensation for miners for work-related illness. It was not until the Farmington Mine Disaster killed 78 workers on November 20, 1968 that miners were once again led to a surge of action and, ultimately, the birth of the historic black lung movement. Smith asserts, “The righteous anger that infused the black lung movement was rooted in miners’ experiences as workers in the post-war years, a time of deteriorating working conditions, rising dust levels, insecure jobs, and rank-and-file powerlessness” (p. 153). The black lung movement held more significance for miners than simply creating better prevention programs. More so, it was about getting what they felt they “were due” for the years of exploitation they experienced in the mines. Despite efforts to prevent black lung in the 19 century, it was the Farmington mine disaster that became a catalyst for massive regulatory change in the mines. More than 40,000 Book Review