COAL MINES

How do your parents keep your house warm during the winter? A long time ago, it was much harder to heat a home. People who lived near the woods had to spend a lot of time and energy chopping down trees to burn for heat. But for city people who didn’t live near the forest, something else was needed.

C, or dug, from the earth. are materials in nature that humans use. Coal is used for electricity and heat. Companies also use coal when making plastic, tar, fertilizers, and some medicines.

Starting in the 1700s, people in cities used coal for heat because they didn’t have easy access to firewood. In the 1800s, many coal-powered machines were created. Many coal mining companies were started in the United States to meet the additional need for coal.

Coal mining in the 1800s and 1900s was a difficult job. The miners worked extremely for very low wages, or pay. Conditions in the coal mines were very dangerous and uncomfortable. The workers worked 14-hour shifts in the dark mines. When a worker got injured, he was replaced and sent home with no way to support himself or his family. Sometimes the machines would start a fire, killing miners.

The mine owners didn’t listen to any complaints about working conditions. They knew there were plenty of other people who needed jobs. The mine owners often owned the entire town where the workers lived, too. They owned all the houses, schools, and stores. These towns were known as coal patch towns. Coal miners in coal patch towns were paid in scrip instead of money. Scrip was fake money that was only accepted in the coal town. This meant they could only shop in the stores in the coal patch town. These stores always had very high prices.

By 1925, the mine owners were earning more than $100,000 a day in profits. Even though they were making a lot of money, they lowered the workers’ wages in September 1925. The workers had had enough. About 150,000 miners went on strike at 828 coal mines in Eastern Pennsylvania. A strike is when people stop working until the owners meet their demands. The owners lost a lot of money every day that no one worked. Many violent fights broke out between the workers and the owners.

The strike lasted six months and ended on February 12, 1926. The miners and owners agreed on slightly improved wages and working conditions.

mined - dug natural resources - materials in nature that humans use wages - pay coal patch towns - towns owned by the mine owners strike - when people stop working until the owners meet their demands.

Today, there are many laws about mining conditions. These laws keep miners safer than they were in the 1800s and 1900s. However, accidents can still happen, and coal mining is still a dangerous job.