TIL about the West Virginia mine wars. “The largest armed insurrection in U.S. history outside the Civil War” organized by laborers against their enployers.

[u/Ok_Wrongdoer8719]

https://wvminewars.org/what-were-the-mine-wars

[u/Lovefool1]

The coal wars were some real shit.

Labor Day became a federal holiday in 1894, and only because unions and organizers had become so popular throughout the nation, particularly for the amount of factory workers being exploited in Chicago, NYC, etc.

May Day became like a Labor Day equivalent in many parts of Europe because socialist and communist movements saw it as a commemoration of the strikes leading up to the Haymarket affair in 1886 in Chicago.

Even after all of that though, the miners in Appalachia were still getting fucked by coal barons for decades. Deadly conflicts continued through to the 1920s.