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Full-Text Articles in Labor History
All You Knew: Twentieth Century Southern Appalachian Coal Miners And Their Experience With Death And Danger, Steven M. Malachowski 2978994
All You Knew: Twentieth Century Southern Appalachian Coal Miners And Their Experience With Death And Danger, Steven M. Malachowski 2978994
History Theses
Nineteenth century coal miners' oral interviews from Kentucky, West Virginia, and Virginia convey their experiences as individuals and of a general community. Southern Appalachian coal miners experienced nearly constant dangers and threats to their lives underground which helped shape their relationships between other miners and industry controls. Added to coal miners’ occupational hazards, the long term emphysemic effects of coal mining and the physical prevalence of coal dust in the coal miner’s life created a life defined by danger. Miners reconciled this dehumanizing lifestyle through readily predictable methods, such as spirituality and camaraderie but also seemingly paradoxical methods, including carelessness …
Oral History Interview: William T. Arnold, William T. Arnold
Oral History Interview: William T. Arnold, William T. Arnold
0064: Marshall University Oral History Collection
William T. Arnold (Bill Arnold), a Native West Virginian, lived the majority of his life in Clay County. Mr. Arnold spent his early childhood on a farm on Galon Mountain. After the death of his father, Mr. Arnold moved with his family to various towns within Clay County. In 1911, when he was eleven years old, Mr. Arnold started his first job in coal mining, working thirteen hours a night as a water dipper. When he was eighteen years old, Mr. Arnold began working as a postman and delivered mail on a route near the New River, between the towns …