Course: us history Theme: The Development of the Industrial United States 7: Boom to Bust: Social & Cultural Issues to 1945

“The age of combination has come; the age of individualism is gone.” With this statement, John D. Rockefeller summed up a central theme of industrialization. As Rockefeller saw it, large corporations such as Standard Oil should now be accepted as setting “the standard” for social values in American society. American individuals, however, as human beings at all times, understand themselves in terms of family, local and regional traditions. Industrialization and the increased mobility that accompanied it, uprooted entire populations and forced isolated regional cultures to deal with the challenge of cultural diversity, a challenge we still face.

This unit uses the example of a 1920 labor conflict in rural West Virginia to illustrate this general problem with a specific case. The unit is unique in drawing from two unusual sources: the homepage of the town of Matewan, telling its own history in the words of its own citizens, and the depiction of the event in the film Matewan by John Sayles. The film shows the reality of the conflict between the workers, attempting to organize a union, and the company, ready to use any means necessary to keep them out.

The film is not a documentary, but it is a good example of well-researched historical fiction. It manages to show some encouraging and optimistic aspects of this struggle. It emphasizes the social role played by the union, the United Mine Workers, in uniting the various ethnic groups the mine owners were attempting to pit against each other: African Americans, Italian immigrants, and locals. Along the way it introduces students to the concept of an industrial union that drove the formation of the CIO and the UAW during the thirties.

The film illustrates their growing sense of unity by showing how musicians from each group end up playing together. It is unclear if this aspect of the story is historical in its reproduction of specific events in Matewan in 1920, but it is does accurately represent the circumstance that the Appalachian folk styles known as Old Timey or Hillbilly, but also Bluegrass, developing against the same background, are syntheses of diverse European American and African American elements. A side effect of this unit is, then, the suggestion that American music provides a metaphor and a hopeful model for approaching cultural diversity.

Culminating Assessment:

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  Critical Response
  
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  DBQ
  
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  Essay
  
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  Imaginative Writing
  
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  Project
  

Write the story of Matewan from the point of view of a person involved in the conflict.

To what extent have the reception of immigrants and the experience of being an immigrant changed?

How did the social activism of the early 20^th century change the USA?

To what extent did technological innovation in the early 20^th century empower and disempower Americans (this from theme 5: The Development of the Industrial USA)

Give an example of the way American culture, specifically music, represents a synthesis of a variety of ethnic traditions.

Explain why workers organized unions and why the idea of an industrial union appealed to minorities such as new immigrants and African Americans.

1) I like to start students with the video documentary Appalachian Journey by Alan Lomax from his American Patchwork series (information at ) which introduces students to Appalachian folk culture in a thoughtful and engaging way. It includes clips that demonstrate clearly the key role played by African Americans in this cultural and musical tradition, erroneously stereotyped as exclusively “white”. It culminates in a performance by a bluegrass band with instruments and styles showing these contributions (harmonica with African American blues background; guitar, a Spanish instrument played introduced to the Appalachians by African American railroad workers, banjo, an African American instrument, fiddle, a European instrument played in a Scotts-Irish musical tradition; and mandolin, representing Italian influence. The lead singer and harmonica player is an immigrant from Wales.) Watching and discussing the whole documentary takes two days, but it can be meaningfully excerpted and shown in one class period.

2) To introduce students to the dangerous conditions under which coal miners worked and still work, read and discuss: The Deadliest Industry -- A Close Look At Coal Miners: We Are Bound To An Economy On Their Backs by Melanie Light [Sanfrancisco Chronicle, 1/15/06, page E3. Online at

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3) The homepage of the town of Matewan, West Virginia, provides excellent material on the historical Matewan massacre, including testimony by the son of the town’s mayor, one of victims, and a character portrayed in Sayles’ film. The teacher can either copy and paste a document to hand out, or have the students visit the site in the school computer lab.


4) Watch the film. It runs 132 minutes. Have the students take notes on the working and living conditions of the workers; the interactions between the various groups of workers (locals and African Americans and recent Italian immigrants brought in to break the strike), paying special attention to the role of music.

5) Writing assignment: On the basis of what you have learned about the conditions of mine workers in the Appalachians, write a first-hand account of one of those involved in the incidents at Matewan. You might be a local coal miner, an Italian immigrant, an African American miner, one of the men hired by the Baldwin-Felts “Detective” agency to break the strike. Use your imagination, but make the events and responses of your character plausible and reasonable within this historical context. You may invent minor details to develop your character, but stay true to the historical events and context.