Author:   Edward M. Steel, Jr., Editor

Title:    Court-Martial of Mother Jones

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In March, 1913, labor agitator Mary Harris "Mother" Jones and forty seven other civilians were tried by a military court on charges of murder and conspiracy to murder, charges stemming from violence that erupted during the long coal miners' strike in the Paint Creek and Cabin Creek areas of Kanawha County, West Virginia. Immediately after the trial, some of the convicted defendants received conditional pardons, but Mother Jones and eleven others remained in custody until early May. The national outcry over Mother Jones' imprisonment led the U.S. Senate to appoint a subcommittee to examine mining conditions in West Virginia, the first Senate subcommittee ever appointed to investigate a labor controversy. Public sentiment eventually forced a release of the prisoners and brought about a settlement of the strike. In the face of overwhelmingly adverse publicity, the governor suppressed publication of the trial transcript. It was long thought to have been destroyed, until Edward M. Steel, Jr. uncovered the trial proceedings amid private papers at the West Virginia and Regional Collection.

University Press of Kentucky


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