|
 If
you visit the Pennsylvania coal country today, you’ll find few that
remember the Molly Maguires. You might better travel to Australia
to hear an Irish folk group of the same name. Or head to Seattle
for a friendly pint at the Molly Maguires Pub.
The original
Mollies have been lost in time, clouded by controversy. Born in
desperation and passion, they believed in retribution against those
who violated justice and humanity.
“Take that
from a son of Molly Maguire!” was often heard in Ireland before a
landlord was assailed for evicting a starving neighbor. In the grip
of the potato famine, it mattered little
 if
these Irish peasants were prosecuted; no retaliation would stop
their starvation. The Mollies became an open secret. Like every
group that resorts to violence, they believed it was the only voice
they had.
America in the
late 1800s was a land of great dreams and brutal realities. Textile
workers labored in appalling conditions. Children worked from dawn
to dusk and rarely saw the sun. A coal miner’s work was dangerous,
while low wages kept him at the mercy of the Company Store. Many of
these workers were Irish immigrants who had arrived without a solid
trade or profession.
Most had
nothing but their dreams. They were willing to fight for them --
for fair wages, safe working conditions, better lives.
When a strike
was called by the Workingman’s Benevolent Association in 1875, it
was violently smashed by the coal and railroad barons. Pinkerton
detectives, government officials and the press helped to break it.
The Mollies sent “coffin notes” to the bosses:
“You are
the damdest turncoats in the State – there is no ples for you
bute Hell and will soone be there.
Molly.
Sind by
the real boys this time – so you better loocke oute.”
A
confrontation with management left six people killed. The Mollies
continued to harass
their tormenters. They were not above raiding police stations and
blowing up railroad tracks. Mine and railroad baron Franklin Gowen
hired the Pinkerton Agency to infiltrate the union movement.
Whether the charming James McParlan was a detective, or agent
provocateur, is still a question. He won the trust of the miners,
then betrayed them by naming alleged Molly Maguires The subsequent
trials were a travesty. Gowen himself was the primary prosecutor.
He handpicked the jury and was a good friend of the judge. “All the
state provided,” noted one historian, “was the courtroom and the
hangman.”
They
hanged 20 men before they were done, including Alexander
 Campbell,
Michael Doyle, Edward Kelly, Black Jack Kehoe. All claimed innocence. A New York World reporter wrote of the last
executions, of
Charles Sharpe and John McDonald: “The demeanor of
the men on the scaffold, their resolute but quiet protestations of
innocence, were things to stagger one’s belief in their guilt.”
A recent
analysis of surnames of the 51 alleged Molly Maguires revealed a
curious fact: most of the names were unique or common to northwest,
north-central Ireland – and to one county in particular, County
Donegal. This area was one of the hardest hit by famine. It
suggests a clear link between the tactics of the Irish peasants and
the Pennsylvania coal miners.
The Mahanoy
City Herald received a letter from an alleged Molly Maguire:
“i am
against shooting as mutch as ye are, But the union is Broke up
and we Have got nothing to defind ourselves with But our
Revolvers and if we dount use them we shal have to work for 50
cints a Day. i have told ye the Mind of the children of the
Mistress Molly Maguire, all we want is a fare Days wages for a
fare Days work, and thats what we cant git now By a Long shot.”
Labor’s bitter
fight went on. Mother Jones, born Mary Harris in County Cork, was
unfazed by repeated arrests and death threats. “I was born in
revolution,” she said. Michigan Gov. Frank Murphy, in 1937, refused
to use violence against striking autoworkers in Flint. The union
won concessions – a happier outcome in a more enlightened time.
Today unions
are struggling. Some blame them for Michigan’s troubled economy.
Yet every American who earns a fair wage, works an 8-hour day or
40-hour week, enjoys a paid holiday and safe working conditions,
owes a debt to the unions. They fought for every crumb. Sometimes
they failed, sometimes they despaired.
Sometimes
they died, like the Molly Maguires. If you listen closely you
can hear their voices still, demanding justice, chasing our
elusive American dream.
Author's Note:
Quotes from the Molly Maguires
are presented as actually written.
CITATIONS
Campbell-Bartoletti, Susan, “Growing Up in Coal
Country,” Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1996
Donnelly, James S. Jr., “The Great Irish Potato
Famine,” Sutton Publishing, Gloucestershire, UK, 2003
Kenny, Kevin, “Making Sense of the Molly Maguires,”
Oxford University Press/USA, New York, 1998
McLaughlin, Doris B., “Michigan Labor: A Brief
History from 1818 to Present,” Institute of Labor & Industrial
Relations, University of Michigan/Wayne State, Ann Arbor, 1970
O’Donnell, Edward T., “1001 Things Everyone Should
Know About Irish American History,” Random House Inc., New York,
2006
Suggested Viewing
The
Molly Maguires (1970) directed by Martin Ritt,
starring Richard Harris and
Sean Connery
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Silver Threads and Golden Needles Series . . . .
