Former Wilmington resident's latest book chronicles 'Rednecks' in West Virginia
Former Wilmington resident Taylor Brown takes the long view of things.
His first novel, "Fallen Land," was set in the Civil War. His "River of Kings" dealt, in part, with a French effort to plant a settlement in Georgia in the 1500s, before Walter Raleigh's "Lost Colony."
"Gods of Howl Mountain" followed moonshine runners in the North Carolina mountains in the 1950s, the era of "Thunder Road." "Wingwalkers" flew with barnstorming pilots in the 1920s.
Brown returns to the '20s in his latest novel, "Rednecks," to a half-forgotten chapter of American history, the "Coal Mine Wars" in southwestern West Virginia.
It's quite a yarn.
Unless you're from West-By-God-Virginia or happened to see the John Sayles movie "Matewan," chances are you've never heard of all this.
In 1920 and 1921, coal miners in Mingo and Logan counties tried to join the United Mine Workers of America.
They worked up to 14 hours a day in dangerous conditions. (The coal companies at first provided metal helmets for the mules who pulled carts underground, but not for the men. Mules cost more money.) Boys as young as 11 or 12 were laboring at dangerous jobs. The miners and their families had to live in squalid, company-owned shacks, shop at company-owned stores that often took only company script, and charged outrageous prices.
Even the churches were company-owned.
When miners began to strike for safer conditions and more pay, the coal companies sent in mine guards and "detectives" -- essentially, gunmen.
The fight was bloody.
In the "Matewan Massacre," a shootout between miners and company gunmen, more men died than at the OK Corral. Tht town of Matewan was different since the chief of police, Sid Hatfield, was a former miner and sympathetic to their cause. A not-so-distant relative of the feuding Hatfields, Sheriff Hatfield would become a hero of the miners' cause.
In the climactic "Battle of Blair Mountain" -- when the National Guard got involved -- both sides fired more than a million rounds of ammunition, making it the largest land battle on North America since the Civil War. The coal-company thugs actually fired World War I-surplus poison gas at the miners.
Brown shows the action mainly through the eyes of "Doc Moo," a Lebanese-born physician who treats a lot of wounded men. (In an author's note, Brown explains the doctor is based on his own great-grandfather.) Another key character is Big Frank Hugham, an African-American miner and union organizer.
Mixed in are actual historical figures, including the dashing Hatfield and Mary Harris "Mother" Jones, the lady who inspired the magazine. Once reviled as "the most dangerous woman in America," Jones was an Irish immigrant, a former schoolteacher turned union activist. Well into her 80s, she traveled to West Virginia to rally the miners with rousing speeches.
Brown writes in the "Rough South" tradition of Harry Crews, Tim McLaurin and Larry Brown. His prose is vivid, brisk with the ear of a storyteller, and the events he describes are so bloody, they'd make Cormac McCarthy cringe. "Rednecks" is a hard book to forget.
Book review
Rednecks
By Taylor Brown
St. Martin's, $29
This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: 'Rednecks' book covers coal mine wars in southwestern West Virginia
