The Coal Creek War was the beginning of its own kind of wild labor strike, involving brave and strong-willed miners that weren’t backed or protected by a union. It became a true war as the miners’ careers and quality of life seemed to be diminishing and weren’t cared about or taken into consideration by the Governor. The war didn’t affect everyone from the South and there were other jobs available, including mining jobs, so was it worth the battle?
The problems in Coal Creek all began in 1877 when a rise in crime and a labor dispute led to the state bringing convicts into the mine to work (Legacy). So, some may argue that the miners were ultimately to blame for their own issue. Nonetheless, it was ideal for the state to lease convicts for this type of work for one reason: profit. The state made over seventy-five thousand dollars by leasing the cons, partly as they no longer had financial incentive to make mines a safe working environment (Legacy). When a con died in the mines there was no money are controversy as there would be if it were an actual miner, and all the state had to do was simply send another con in their place. Eventually, convict labor made a significant impact on budgets all across the southern states of the United States.
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Newspapers everywhere were filled with the quote, “Taking bread out of the mouths of honest law abiding people,” which describes perfectly how all the miners felt (Dalles). The miners were at first peaceful and gathered to march the convicts and the guards that accompanied them out of Coal Creek. In an attempt to make an offer for a peaceful solution, they sent a telegram to Governor Buchanan which included their explanation for the march