Matewan Before the Massacre: Politics, Coal and the Roots of Conflict in a West Virginia Mining Community

Matewan Before the Massacre provides the first comprehensive history of the area, beginning in the late eighteenth century continuing up to the Massacre.

Author: Rebecca J. Bailey
Publisher: West Virginia University Press
Published: 09/01/2008
Pages: 224
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.10lbs
Size: 9.00h x 5.90w x 1.00d
ISBN13: 9781933202280
ISBN10: 1933202289
BISAC Categories:
- History | United States | State & Local | South (AL,AR,FL,GA,KY,LA,MS,

About the Author

Rebecca "Becky" Bailey's family roots are in McDowell and Mercer Counties in West Virginia. She first learned about Matewan through stories her coal miner grandfather told about witnessing Sid Hatfield's murder. Later, when she came to West Virginia University to study public history, she was hired to help collect oral histories in Matewan and Mingo County. She wrote Matewan Before the Massacre because she could not let the story go.