WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.339 So I want you to imagine a place that is just 00:00:04.339 --> 00:00:08.140 so incredibly rugged, completely defined by its 00:00:08.140 --> 00:00:10.599 geography. Yeah, a landscape that really dictates 00:00:10.599 --> 00:00:13.259 everything. Right. And its mountains didn't just 00:00:13.259 --> 00:00:15.039 shape its ancient cultures, but they eventually 00:00:15.039 --> 00:00:17.780 caused the land to literally break away from 00:00:17.780 --> 00:00:20.160 its parent state. During the bloodiest conflict 00:00:20.160 --> 00:00:22.460 in American history, no less. Exactly. I mean, 00:00:22.879 --> 00:00:24.539 you usually think of political borders being 00:00:24.539 --> 00:00:27.699 drawn on a map by politicians in a room somewhere. 00:00:27.879 --> 00:00:30.219 But what if the landscape itself drew the line? 00:00:30.539 --> 00:00:33.539 It really is the ultimate example of how geography 00:00:33.539 --> 00:00:36.159 is destiny. I mean, when you look at the history 00:00:36.159 --> 00:00:38.780 of West Virginia, you aren't just looking at 00:00:38.780 --> 00:00:41.960 dates and political treaties. You were looking 00:00:41.960 --> 00:00:44.899 at a master class in how physical terrain dictates 00:00:44.899 --> 00:00:48.060 economic survival, social structures, and eventually 00:00:48.060 --> 00:00:50.840 the creation of an entirely new identity. And 00:00:50.840 --> 00:00:53.140 that is exactly the mission of our deep dive 00:00:53.140 --> 00:00:56.439 today. We have a comprehensive historical overview 00:00:56.439 --> 00:00:59.299 source from Wikipedia that details the history 00:00:59.299 --> 00:01:01.179 of West Virginia. It's a fascinating source. 00:01:01.420 --> 00:01:04.379 It really is. We are going to figure out exactly 00:01:04.379 --> 00:01:08.019 how the mountain states challenging terrain forged 00:01:08.019 --> 00:01:10.859 this unique identity, how it quite literally 00:01:10.859 --> 00:01:13.299 fueled the American Industrial Revolution. Yeah, 00:01:13.299 --> 00:01:16.400 and how it sparked some of the most intense violent 00:01:16.400 --> 00:01:18.760 labor battles in the history of the United States. 00:01:18.959 --> 00:01:21.519 OK, so let's unpack this. Because to really understand 00:01:21.519 --> 00:01:25.769 this place, we have to start. long before European 00:01:25.769 --> 00:01:27.730 settlers ever saw these mountains, right? We 00:01:27.730 --> 00:01:30.090 absolutely do. And it's vital to start there 00:01:30.090 --> 00:01:34.030 because there is this persistent, really outdated 00:01:34.030 --> 00:01:36.489 historical myth of the empty frontier. Right, 00:01:36.489 --> 00:01:38.469 like the idea that Europeans arrived in this 00:01:38.469 --> 00:01:40.989 pristine, untouched wilderness. Exactly. But 00:01:40.989 --> 00:01:42.810 the archaeological record in West Virginia tells 00:01:42.810 --> 00:01:45.750 a completely different story. I mean, as of 2009, 00:01:45.890 --> 00:01:50.030 there are over 12 ,500 documented archaeological 00:01:50.030 --> 00:01:52.650 sites in the state. Wait, over 12 ,000? Yeah, 00:01:52.790 --> 00:01:55.180 over 12 ,000. So we aren't talking about like 00:01:55.180 --> 00:01:58.260 a few wandering hunters here. That is a massive, 00:01:58.879 --> 00:02:01.890 thriving, highly populated landscape. Precisely. 00:02:02.250 --> 00:02:04.750 The people living here were actively managing 00:02:04.750 --> 00:02:07.170 and utilizing this environment for thousands 00:02:07.170 --> 00:02:09.930 of years. If we go back to the early woodland 00:02:09.930 --> 00:02:13.349 period, we see the Adena culture. These were 00:02:13.349 --> 00:02:15.590 people who were practicing the cold working of 00:02:15.590 --> 00:02:18.169 copper. Wait, cold working? What does that actually 00:02:18.169 --> 00:02:20.889 mean in a prehistoric context? Why? I mean, they 00:02:20.889 --> 00:02:22.650 didn't have modern tools. Right. So it means 00:02:22.650 --> 00:02:24.889 they weren't smelting or melting the metal down 00:02:24.889 --> 00:02:28.229 in furnaces. They were taking raw nuggets of 00:02:28.229 --> 00:02:31.509 native copper and painstakingly hammering, annealing, 00:02:31.710 --> 00:02:34.189 and shaping it by hand at room temperature. Wow. 00:02:34.310 --> 00:02:37.069 That sounds incredibly tedious. It was. But they 00:02:37.069 --> 00:02:39.689 used this technique to craft these absolutely 00:02:39.689 --> 00:02:41.949 exceptional ceremonial pipes, which were just 00:02:41.949 --> 00:02:44.409 incredible works of art. And they lived in these 00:02:44.409 --> 00:02:47.090 really distinct round houses built with a double 00:02:47.090 --> 00:02:50.060 post method. How did that work? Well, they would 00:02:50.060 --> 00:02:52.939 drive two parallel rows of wooden posts into 00:02:52.939 --> 00:02:55.719 the ground, weaving wicker between them, and 00:02:55.719 --> 00:02:58.120 then capping it with bark sheet roofs. Which 00:02:58.120 --> 00:03:00.780 I imagine provided fantastic insulation against 00:03:00.780 --> 00:03:03.060 those harsh mountain winters. Oh, definitely. 00:03:03.139 --> 00:03:05.960 It was very well adapted to the climate. And 00:03:05.960 --> 00:03:09.139 as time moves on, the architecture and the lifestyle 00:03:09.139 --> 00:03:12.259 evolve. Right. The source mentions the Fort Ancient 00:03:12.259 --> 00:03:14.460 tradition and the Monongahela culture coming 00:03:14.460 --> 00:03:18.719 later. Yes. And this is where we see major ag... 00:03:18.219 --> 00:03:21.099 agricultural terraforming. The four ancient people 00:03:21.099 --> 00:03:23.659 were building much larger rectangular houses 00:03:23.659 --> 00:03:25.939 that were covered in hides. So they're scaling 00:03:25.939 --> 00:03:28.800 up. Exactly. And they weren't just foraging anymore. 00:03:28.939 --> 00:03:31.199 They were heavy into agriculture. They farmed 00:03:31.199 --> 00:03:34.400 a massive field of corn, beans, sunflowers, and 00:03:34.400 --> 00:03:37.400 squash, including pumpkins. Pumpkins. That's 00:03:37.400 --> 00:03:40.099 awesome. Yeah. They even raised domestic turkeys 00:03:40.099 --> 00:03:42.900 and kept dogs as pets. It's so relatable. It 00:03:42.900 --> 00:03:45.300 is. And up in the northern part of the state, 00:03:45.479 --> 00:03:47.659 the Monongahela culture lived in circular houses. 00:03:47.439 --> 00:03:49.759 houses, and they often had these unique storage 00:03:49.759 --> 00:03:52.340 nooks attached to them to hoard surplus food. 00:03:52.860 --> 00:03:55.599 So it paints a picture of a very settled, complex 00:03:55.599 --> 00:03:58.120 society. But the source also makes it clear that 00:03:58.120 --> 00:04:01.039 this region wasn't, you know, static. It was 00:04:01.039 --> 00:04:03.099 highly contested. It was incredibly dynamic. 00:04:03.259 --> 00:04:05.120 By the time we get to the historic period in 00:04:05.120 --> 00:04:08.340 the 17th century, the region is completely disrupted 00:04:08.340 --> 00:04:10.539 by the Beaver Wars. Let's break that down for 00:04:10.539 --> 00:04:13.520 a second, because Beaver Wars sounds almost, 00:04:13.520 --> 00:04:17.759 well, craned. but it was driven by some pretty 00:04:17.759 --> 00:04:20.759 ruthless economic mechanics, wasn't it? Oh, absolutely. 00:04:21.500 --> 00:04:23.839 The European demand for beaver pelts created 00:04:23.839 --> 00:04:26.980 a highly lucrative, completely cut -throat fur 00:04:26.980 --> 00:04:29.680 trade. Right. The Iroquois Confederacy, which 00:04:29.680 --> 00:04:32.079 was based further north in modern -day New York, 00:04:32.560 --> 00:04:35.199 essentially ran out of beavers in their own territory. 00:04:35.279 --> 00:04:37.060 So they just decided to take someone else's? 00:04:37.100 --> 00:04:39.899 Pretty much. They began aggressively expanding 00:04:39.899 --> 00:04:42.740 their influence southward into the Ohio Valley 00:04:42.740 --> 00:04:45.360 and West Virginia just to control those hunting 00:04:45.360 --> 00:04:47.879 grounds. It's honestly like a geopolitical chess 00:04:47.850 --> 00:04:50.189 Yeah, that's a great way to describe it. You 00:04:50.189 --> 00:04:53.209 have these massive native empires strategically 00:04:53.209 --> 00:04:56.209 managing and fighting over this land long before 00:04:56.209 --> 00:04:58.269 the British or the French even showed up. That's 00:04:58.269 --> 00:05:00.870 exactly it. The Iroquois were essentially placing 00:05:00.870 --> 00:05:03.970 allied or conquered tribes, like the Susquehannocks, 00:05:04.310 --> 00:05:06.889 in the West Virginia region as buffer states 00:05:06.889 --> 00:05:10.149 to hold the territory for them. Yeah. Eventually, 00:05:10.310 --> 00:05:12.550 due to this pressure, and of course later colonial 00:05:12.550 --> 00:05:15.269 expansion and broken treaties, tribes like the 00:05:15.269 --> 00:05:17.550 Shawnee and the Lenape were pushed further and 00:05:17.550 --> 00:05:20.350 further westward. The mountains made it a highly 00:05:20.350 --> 00:05:23.550 strategic, defensible zone. And that strategic 00:05:23.550 --> 00:05:26.149 mountainous zone became a massive physical barrier 00:05:26.149 --> 00:05:28.709 when European settlers finally started crossing 00:05:28.709 --> 00:05:31.009 over the Blue Ridge and Allegheny Mountains, 00:05:31.189 --> 00:05:33.129 right? It did. And this is where the geography 00:05:33.129 --> 00:05:35.850 begins to literally fracture the state of Virginia. 00:05:36.730 --> 00:05:40.149 Because those mountains created a massive cultural 00:05:40.149 --> 00:05:42.850 and economic wedge between the new settlers in 00:05:42.850 --> 00:05:45.649 the West and the elite political class back in 00:05:45.649 --> 00:05:47.910 Eastern Virginia. Right. It's the classic East 00:05:47.910 --> 00:05:50.230 versus West divide. In the East, you had the 00:05:50.230 --> 00:05:52.529 Tuckahos. The Tuckahos. Yeah. That was the nickname 00:05:52.529 --> 00:05:54.689 for the Tidewater elite who lived on these massive 00:05:54.689 --> 00:05:57.329 plantations running on enslaved labor. But in 00:05:57.329 --> 00:05:59.689 the West, you had the Cohes. OK. And who were 00:05:59.689 --> 00:06:02.470 they? Well, the rugged West of the Allegheny 00:06:02.470 --> 00:06:04.810 Mountains made plantation -style agriculture 00:06:04.810 --> 00:06:07.110 and slavery completely unprofitable. I mean, 00:06:07.209 --> 00:06:09.689 you simply cannot run a massive tobacco or cotton 00:06:09.689 --> 00:06:13.490 plantation on the side of a steep, rocky Appalachian 00:06:13.490 --> 00:06:16.029 mountain. So the demographics and the daily lives 00:06:16.029 --> 00:06:18.430 of the people were fundamentally different from 00:06:18.430 --> 00:06:21.480 day one. Entirely different. The West was settled 00:06:21.480 --> 00:06:24.459 mostly by Protestant Scots, Irish, and German 00:06:24.459 --> 00:06:27.439 immigrants. They ran small subsistence family 00:06:27.439 --> 00:06:30.139 farms. Just trying to get by. Right. They grew 00:06:30.139 --> 00:06:32.540 corn, raised some animals, maybe grew a little 00:06:32.540 --> 00:06:35.139 wheat. It was a completely different world from 00:06:35.139 --> 00:06:37.500 the coastal plantations. But, and this is the 00:06:37.500 --> 00:06:40.459 crazy part, they were governed by the exact same 00:06:40.459 --> 00:06:43.600 state legislature in Richmond. They were. And 00:06:43.600 --> 00:06:45.199 this is where the source material highlights 00:06:45.199 --> 00:06:48.240 something truly audacious. The Eastern planters 00:06:48.240 --> 00:06:50.860 held all the political power and they used it 00:06:50.860 --> 00:06:53.860 to write a state tax code that heavily favored 00:06:53.860 --> 00:06:56.620 their own economic interests. Very heavily. Wait, 00:06:56.800 --> 00:06:59.199 how did they even justify the mechanics of this 00:06:59.199 --> 00:07:02.000 tax inequality? Because it sounds blatantly rigged. 00:07:02.040 --> 00:07:04.459 Oh, it was explicitly designed to protect the 00:07:04.459 --> 00:07:07.079 wealth of the Eastern elite. So the Eastern controlled 00:07:07.079 --> 00:07:09.199 government decided that small farmers in the 00:07:09.199 --> 00:07:11.740 West would have all their assets like their land, 00:07:11.920 --> 00:07:13.660 their cows, their pigs. Right, the stuff they 00:07:13.660 --> 00:07:16.259 need to survive. Exactly. All of that would be 00:07:16.259 --> 00:07:19.860 taxed at its full, true market value. But for 00:07:19.860 --> 00:07:22.649 the wealthy Eastern planters. Well, the government 00:07:22.649 --> 00:07:25.610 completely exempted enslaved children under 12 00:07:25.610 --> 00:07:28.569 from being taxed at all, and older enslaved people 00:07:28.569 --> 00:07:31.589 were taxed at a flat capped rate of just $300, 00:07:32.170 --> 00:07:34.850 which was a tiny fraction of their actual financial 00:07:34.850 --> 00:07:38.430 value at the time. Wow. So Core Farmer in the 00:07:38.430 --> 00:07:40.889 Mountains is paying full price on a single horse, 00:07:41.529 --> 00:07:43.810 while a massive plantation owner is getting a 00:07:43.810 --> 00:07:46.689 huge tax shelter. on an enslaved labor force 00:07:46.689 --> 00:07:49.370 that is generating immense wealth. Exactly. That 00:07:49.370 --> 00:07:51.769 is staggering. And it bred deep, deep resentment. 00:07:52.220 --> 00:07:54.480 The Western Virginians were being heavily taxed, 00:07:54.560 --> 00:07:57.180 yet the state refused to spend any of that tax 00:07:57.180 --> 00:07:59.660 money on internal improvements in the West, like 00:07:59.660 --> 00:08:01.819 turnpikes or railroads. Of course not. Because 00:08:01.819 --> 00:08:04.079 of the mountains, commerce in the West naturally 00:08:04.079 --> 00:08:06.839 flowed down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers toward 00:08:06.839 --> 00:08:09.639 the Gulf of Mexico. The East looked toward the 00:08:09.639 --> 00:08:11.860 Atlantic, so they shared a name on a map, but 00:08:11.860 --> 00:08:14.459 they shared zero economic interests. And then 00:08:14.459 --> 00:08:16.720 we hit the boiling point. Yeah, 1859. Right. 00:08:16.839 --> 00:08:20.180 In 1859, the abolitionist John Brown leads his 00:08:20.180 --> 00:08:22.639 famous raid on the federal armory at Harpers 00:08:22.639 --> 00:08:24.620 Ferry, which is in modern -day West Virginia. 00:08:24.959 --> 00:08:28.120 He's trying to start a massive armed slave insurrection. 00:08:28.439 --> 00:08:30.939 Right. And he's captured by U .S. Marines, led 00:08:30.939 --> 00:08:33.519 by Robert E. Lee, convicted of treason against 00:08:33.519 --> 00:08:37.379 Virginia, and hanged. The entire South is terrified 00:08:37.379 --> 00:08:40.179 and enraged. The nation is spiraling toward the 00:08:40.179 --> 00:08:42.419 Civil War. And when the Civil War finally kicks 00:08:42.419 --> 00:08:46.019 off in 1861, Virginia votes to secede from the 00:08:46.019 --> 00:08:48.419 United States and join the Confederacy. But the 00:08:48.419 --> 00:08:51.679 Western counties overwhelmingly vote against 00:08:51.679 --> 00:08:54.740 secession. Because remember, they have no economic 00:08:54.740 --> 00:08:57.980 ties to the slaveholding plantation system, and 00:08:57.980 --> 00:09:00.399 they have spent decades despising the Richmond 00:09:00.399 --> 00:09:02.620 government. So here's where we get to the legal 00:09:02.620 --> 00:09:05.279 mechanics of the split. And it is honestly fascinating. 00:09:05.360 --> 00:09:07.940 It's wild. The Western counties decide they don't 00:09:07.940 --> 00:09:10.919 want to leave the union. But the U .S. Constitution, 00:09:11.600 --> 00:09:14.039 specifically Article 4 Section 3, says a new 00:09:14.039 --> 00:09:16.340 state cannot be carved out of an existing state 00:09:16.340 --> 00:09:18.759 without the original state legislature's permission. 00:09:18.879 --> 00:09:20.759 Right, you need permission. So how do they get 00:09:20.759 --> 00:09:23.240 Virginia's permission when Virginia has just 00:09:23.240 --> 00:09:26.440 joined the Confederacy? They execute what I can 00:09:26.440 --> 00:09:29.100 only describe as a political and corporate hostile 00:09:29.100 --> 00:09:32.169 takeover. That analogy fits perfectly. Think 00:09:32.169 --> 00:09:34.330 of it like a corporate board of directors just 00:09:34.330 --> 00:09:37.190 going rogue. Exactly. The Western leaders basically 00:09:37.190 --> 00:09:39.370 say, well, the board in Richmond just committed 00:09:39.370 --> 00:09:42.610 treason, so they are fired. They hold a series 00:09:42.610 --> 00:09:45.129 of meetings called the Wheeling Conventions, 00:09:45.389 --> 00:09:48.669 and they declare that because the pro -secession 00:09:48.669 --> 00:09:51.580 government in Richmond acted illegally, all of 00:09:51.580 --> 00:09:55.059 those state offices are now legally vacant. So 00:09:55.059 --> 00:09:58.100 the Western Unionists simply form their own shadow 00:09:58.100 --> 00:10:00.379 government. Just like that. Just like that. They 00:10:00.379 --> 00:10:02.559 call it the restored government of Virginia, 00:10:02.700 --> 00:10:05.419 and they elect their own governor, Francis H. 00:10:05.580 --> 00:10:08.159 Pierpont. Wow. And because President Lincoln 00:10:08.159 --> 00:10:10.559 and the U .S. Congress desperately want to keep 00:10:10.559 --> 00:10:13.159 this territory in the union, they officially 00:10:13.159 --> 00:10:16.679 recognize this small group of Westerners as the 00:10:16.679 --> 00:10:19.539 true legitimate government of the entire state 00:10:19.539 --> 00:10:21.860 of Virginia. Which is an incredible constitutional 00:10:21.860 --> 00:10:24.340 loophole. They become the real Virginia, and 00:10:24.340 --> 00:10:26.480 then acting as the real Virginia legislature, 00:10:26.980 --> 00:10:28.980 they basically just politely ask themselves, 00:10:29.419 --> 00:10:31.220 hey, can we have permission to break off and 00:10:31.220 --> 00:10:33.600 form our own new state called Kanawha? And they 00:10:33.600 --> 00:10:36.200 vote yes, absolutely, permission granted. It's 00:10:36.200 --> 00:10:39.419 a brilliant piece of legal gymnastics. And Kanawha 00:10:39.419 --> 00:10:42.220 later gets renamed West Virginia. It is clever, 00:10:42.580 --> 00:10:44.779 but we also have to look at this impartially 00:10:44.779 --> 00:10:46.779 based on the source material. Right, of course. 00:10:47.000 --> 00:10:49.179 The historical reality is that the creation of 00:10:49.179 --> 00:10:52.100 West Virginia was highly irregular, and the popular 00:10:52.100 --> 00:10:54.820 vote that officially approved the new state really 00:10:54.820 --> 00:10:57.990 reflects that. How so? There was an incredibly 00:10:57.990 --> 00:11:01.490 low turnout out of nearly 70 ,000 qualified voters 00:11:01.490 --> 00:11:04.169 in the region. There were only eighteen thousand 00:11:04.169 --> 00:11:06.990 four hundred and eight votes in favor and a mere 00:11:06.990 --> 00:11:09.269 seven hundred eighty one against. Wait, that 00:11:09.269 --> 00:11:12.110 is a wildly skewed ratio. What was actually happening 00:11:12.110 --> 00:11:14.690 on the ground to cause that kind of split? Several 00:11:14.690 --> 00:11:17.230 factors heavily influenced the outcome. First, 00:11:17.250 --> 00:11:19.549 there were union soldiers actively guarding the 00:11:19.549 --> 00:11:21.870 polling places. Oh, wow. That would do it. Yeah. 00:11:21.889 --> 00:11:24.070 Which certainly discouraged anyone with Confederate 00:11:24.070 --> 00:11:26.700 sympathies from showing up to vote. Right. Second, 00:11:27.139 --> 00:11:29.360 federal authorities had actively arrested many 00:11:29.360 --> 00:11:32.100 prominent local secessionists and interned them 00:11:32.100 --> 00:11:35.080 in prison camps like Camp Chase in Ohio. I had 00:11:35.080 --> 00:11:37.870 no idea. And third, most of the pro -Confederate 00:11:37.870 --> 00:11:40.309 citizens in the region simply refused to vote 00:11:40.309 --> 00:11:42.889 at all because they no longer considered themselves 00:11:42.889 --> 00:11:45.649 citizens of the United States. They viewed themselves 00:11:45.649 --> 00:11:47.909 as citizens of a foreign country, the Confederacy. 00:11:48.110 --> 00:11:50.789 So they just opted out entirely. Exactly. In 00:11:50.789 --> 00:11:53.830 some specific counties, the only votes cast were 00:11:53.830 --> 00:11:56.490 actually by the Union soldiers stationed there. 00:11:56.690 --> 00:11:59.370 That is a very messy birth for a state. Extremely. 00:11:59.710 --> 00:12:01.889 And Congress almost didn't let them in even after 00:12:01.889 --> 00:12:04.649 all that. The initial West Virginia Constitution 00:12:04.649 --> 00:12:07.029 didn't actually abolished slavery. No it didn't. 00:12:07.070 --> 00:12:09.470 They just had a policy of Negro exclusion hoping 00:12:09.470 --> 00:12:12.009 to keep any new slaves or free men out of their 00:12:12.009 --> 00:12:14.450 territory entirely. It actually took a federal 00:12:14.450 --> 00:12:16.889 mandate called the Willie Amendment which required 00:12:16.889 --> 00:12:19.549 the gradual emancipation of slaves based on their 00:12:19.549 --> 00:12:22.220 age. for President Lincoln to finally approve 00:12:22.220 --> 00:12:25.519 their statehood in 1863. So West Virginia has 00:12:25.519 --> 00:12:28.019 now achieved its political independence, but 00:12:28.019 --> 00:12:30.700 they face a massive immediate problem, which 00:12:30.700 --> 00:12:33.559 is they are a brand new state, completely isolated 00:12:33.559 --> 00:12:36.620 by their rugged geography, and they desperately 00:12:36.620 --> 00:12:40.000 need an economic engine to survive. And as it 00:12:40.000 --> 00:12:43.080 turns out, the exact same mountains that isolated 00:12:43.080 --> 00:12:46.240 them from the East Coast held the natural resources 00:12:46.240 --> 00:12:48.639 that were about to power the entire American 00:12:48.639 --> 00:12:50.759 Industrial Revolution. I'm talking about the 00:12:50.759 --> 00:12:54.240 billion -dollar coal field. But why was this 00:12:54.240 --> 00:12:57.639 specific coal so valuable? I mean, coal is coal, 00:12:57.799 --> 00:13:00.649 right? Not exactly. Beneath those small family 00:13:00.649 --> 00:13:04.549 farms lay massive, pristine seams of bituminous 00:13:04.549 --> 00:13:07.389 coal. Bituminous coal? Yeah. Bituminous coal 00:13:07.389 --> 00:13:10.529 is relatively soft. It burns incredibly hot. 00:13:10.590 --> 00:13:13.590 And it is the perfect metallurgical and steam 00:13:13.590 --> 00:13:17.230 coal. It was exactly what was needed to run the 00:13:17.230 --> 00:13:19.909 massive steel mills, the factory steam engines, 00:13:19.929 --> 00:13:22.409 and the National Railroad Network. OK, that makes 00:13:22.409 --> 00:13:24.909 sense. The issue was transportation. You couldn't 00:13:24.909 --> 00:13:27.309 easily get the coal out of those remote, steep 00:13:27.309 --> 00:13:29.860 halls. Right. That change with the arrival of 00:13:29.860 --> 00:13:32.120 the major railroads, which were heavily funded 00:13:32.120 --> 00:13:35.340 by national out -of -state capital. Right. Massive 00:13:35.340 --> 00:13:37.240 national monopolies like the Chesapeake and Ohio 00:13:37.240 --> 00:13:39.740 Railway and the Norfolk and Western, they start 00:13:39.740 --> 00:13:42.259 blasting tunnels and laying track into the deepest, 00:13:42.279 --> 00:13:44.480 most remote parts of the state. They do. And 00:13:44.480 --> 00:13:47.200 the source details the story of the Virginian 00:13:47.200 --> 00:13:49.779 Railway, which is just wild. It really is a crazy 00:13:49.779 --> 00:13:52.850 story. I have William Nelson Page. a mining manager, 00:13:53.409 --> 00:13:55.330 and Henry Hudson Rogers, who is a millionaire 00:13:55.330 --> 00:13:57.570 executive from John D. Rockefeller's Standard 00:13:57.570 --> 00:14:01.330 Oil Trust. The existing big railroad monopolies 00:14:01.330 --> 00:14:03.769 try to block them from building a competing line. 00:14:03.909 --> 00:14:06.490 So what do they actually do? They launch a stealth 00:14:06.490 --> 00:14:09.950 operation. I love this. They secretly use $40 00:14:09.950 --> 00:14:13.070 million of Standard Oil money to build a brand 00:14:13.070 --> 00:14:17.950 new, highly efficient, 440 -mile railroad straight 00:14:17.950 --> 00:14:20.600 from the southern West Virginia coal fields all 00:14:20.600 --> 00:14:22.840 the way to the Atlantic Ocean. Oh, wow. They 00:14:22.840 --> 00:14:25.200 called it the richest little railroad in the 00:14:25.200 --> 00:14:28.139 world. The sheer volume of wealth being extracted 00:14:28.139 --> 00:14:30.960 was just staggering. I mean, the population in 00:14:30.960 --> 00:14:32.980 those southern Coalfield counties quadrupled 00:14:32.980 --> 00:14:36.379 between 1890 and 1920 just to keep up with the 00:14:36.379 --> 00:14:38.379 labor demand. See, I have to push back on that 00:14:38.379 --> 00:14:40.320 billion dollar Coalfield nickname, though. Yeah. 00:14:40.360 --> 00:14:42.080 Because if it's a billion dollar Coalfield, who 00:14:42.080 --> 00:14:44.320 is actually getting that billion dollar? Because 00:14:44.320 --> 00:14:46.879 based on the safety records in this source, it 00:14:46.879 --> 00:14:49.500 clearly wasn't the local miners. You are exactly 00:14:49.500 --> 00:14:52.019 right. The wealth flowed almost entirely out 00:14:52.019 --> 00:14:54.519 of the state to the industrialists and shareholders 00:14:54.519 --> 00:14:56.799 in New York and Philadelphia. Leaving the miners 00:14:56.799 --> 00:14:59.240 with what? Well, the miners paid the ultimate 00:14:59.240 --> 00:15:01.899 price. Just look at the mechanics of early mining. 00:15:02.500 --> 00:15:05.139 There were virtually no safety regulations. None. 00:15:05.299 --> 00:15:08.340 Barely any. Mines weren't properly ventilated, 00:15:08.419 --> 00:15:11.320 which allowed highly flammable methane gas and 00:15:11.320 --> 00:15:13.580 coal dust to build up in the shafts. Which leads 00:15:13.580 --> 00:15:17.860 to December 6, 1907, the Monongah mining disaster. 00:15:17.940 --> 00:15:20.940 Yeah. It remains the worst coal mine explosion 00:15:20.940 --> 00:15:23.759 in American history. A spark ignited the gas 00:15:23.759 --> 00:15:26.740 and dust, causing a massive underground explosion. 00:15:26.840 --> 00:15:28.740 Go ahead, that's horrific. The official death 00:15:28.740 --> 00:15:32.440 toll is 362 men and boys, though the actual number 00:15:32.440 --> 00:15:34.740 is likely higher because company records were 00:15:34.740 --> 00:15:36.679 just so poor. And a lot of them were immigrants, 00:15:36.860 --> 00:15:39.000 right? Yes, half of those killed were Italian 00:15:39.000 --> 00:15:40.840 immigrants who had just arrived seeking a better 00:15:40.840 --> 00:15:44.059 life. And tragically, at the time, mine accidents 00:15:44.059 --> 00:15:45.840 like this were just considered an inevitable 00:15:45.840 --> 00:15:48.700 cost of doing business. That is incredibly bleak. 00:15:48.980 --> 00:15:50.759 And it wasn't just coal extracting wealth from 00:15:50.759 --> 00:15:53.460 the land. The timber industry completely stripped 00:15:53.460 --> 00:15:58.600 the state. Oh, yeah. Between 1870 and 1920. 30 00:15:58.600 --> 00:16:01.340 billion bored feet of virgin forests were logged. 00:16:01.759 --> 00:16:04.120 They used these horse -drawn logging trams and 00:16:04.120 --> 00:16:06.620 built temporary railroad spurs deep into the 00:16:06.620 --> 00:16:10.659 woods to literally clear cut the mountains. Today, 00:16:10.740 --> 00:16:13.440 there are only tiny pockets of original virgin 00:16:13.440 --> 00:16:15.980 forests left in the entire state. So you have 00:16:15.980 --> 00:16:18.919 a situation where massive wealth is being extracted 00:16:18.919 --> 00:16:21.500 by out -of -state tycoons, the working conditions 00:16:21.500 --> 00:16:24.240 are lethal, and the workers are living in extreme 00:16:24.240 --> 00:16:26.419 poverty under strict corporate control. Right. 00:16:26.600 --> 00:16:29.179 This inevitably leads to a breaking point, and 00:16:29.179 --> 00:16:31.679 that breaking point ushers in an era of intense 00:16:31.679 --> 00:16:34.460 social upheaval and literal warfare in the mountains. 00:16:36.559 --> 00:16:40.220 From 1912 to 1921, miners are demanding the right 00:16:40.220 --> 00:16:42.539 to unionize with the United Mine Workers of America, 00:16:42.720 --> 00:16:44.820 really just to secure basic pay and survivable 00:16:44.820 --> 00:16:46.879 conditions. Exactly. But the coal companies hold 00:16:46.879 --> 00:16:49.019 all the cards. I mean, they own the company towns 00:16:49.019 --> 00:16:50.820 where the miners lived. We really need to explain 00:16:50.820 --> 00:16:53.259 how absolute this system of control was. The 00:16:53.259 --> 00:16:55.399 coal companies didn't pay the miners in U .S. 00:16:55.759 --> 00:16:57.759 dollars. Wait, really? Yeah, they paid them in 00:16:57.759 --> 00:17:00.580 company, essentially private currency that could 00:17:00.580 --> 00:17:03.000 only be spent at the company owned store. Which 00:17:03.000 --> 00:17:06.180 I'm guessing charged a premium. Oh, highly - 00:17:05.740 --> 00:17:09.680 inflated prices for basic goods. And if a miner 00:17:09.680 --> 00:17:11.779 tried to strike or join a union, the company 00:17:11.779 --> 00:17:14.599 didn't just fire them, they legally evicted the 00:17:14.599 --> 00:17:16.539 miner and their entire family from their company 00:17:16.539 --> 00:17:18.859 owned home. So you lose your job and your house 00:17:18.859 --> 00:17:21.279 on the same day. Exactly. The union had to set 00:17:21.279 --> 00:17:23.859 up literal tent colonies in the freezing winter 00:17:23.859 --> 00:17:25.980 for these displaced families. That's brutal. 00:17:26.180 --> 00:17:28.259 And to enforce all of this, the coal operators 00:17:28.259 --> 00:17:31.200 hired private detective agencies, like the Baldwin 00:17:31.200 --> 00:17:34.099 -Fels agents, to act as heavily armed private 00:17:34.099 --> 00:17:36.400 police forces. It's a complete pressure cooker. 00:17:36.539 --> 00:17:39.319 Yeah. and the tensions escalate into open violence. 00:17:39.900 --> 00:17:42.359 In 1920, there was a deadly shootout in the town 00:17:42.359 --> 00:17:44.859 of Manawan between the private guards and the 00:17:44.859 --> 00:17:47.339 local pro -union police chief, Sid Hadfield. 00:17:47.440 --> 00:17:50.000 Right. And that sparks the Battle of Blair Mountain 00:17:50.000 --> 00:17:54.099 in 1921, which, this blew my mind, wasn't just 00:17:54.099 --> 00:17:56.880 a riot. It was the largest labor uprising in 00:17:56.880 --> 00:17:59.740 United States history. It was a literal war. 00:18:00.279 --> 00:18:03.559 Roughly 10 ,000 armed coal miners marched to 00:18:03.559 --> 00:18:05.680 free union men who had been imprisoned under 00:18:05.680 --> 00:18:08.799 martial law. 10 ,000. 10 ,000. And they were 00:18:08.799 --> 00:18:11.740 met by a private army of 3 ,000 heavily armed 00:18:11.740 --> 00:18:14.380 mine guards and state police entrenched on the 00:18:14.380 --> 00:18:17.460 ridge of Blair Mountain. For over a week, there 00:18:17.460 --> 00:18:21.000 was intense sustained gunfire. Wow. The coal 00:18:21.000 --> 00:18:23.980 operators even hired private biplanes to drop 00:18:23.980 --> 00:18:26.940 homemade bombs and tear gas on the miners' positions. 00:18:27.259 --> 00:18:29.579 Dropping bombs on American citizens on American 00:18:29.579 --> 00:18:31.640 soil. That is just... I can't even wrap my head 00:18:31.640 --> 00:18:34.099 around it. Yeah. Eventually, the governor begs 00:18:34.099 --> 00:18:36.259 the federal government for help. President Warren 00:18:36.259 --> 00:18:39.240 G. Harding sends in 2 ,500 U .S. Army soldiers 00:18:39.240 --> 00:18:43.000 to crush the strike. Yeah. And here is the historical 00:18:43.000 --> 00:18:45.640 irony that just leaps out at me. The Western 00:18:45.640 --> 00:18:48.380 Virginians fought so hard, used every legal loophole 00:18:48.380 --> 00:18:50.420 imaginable to side with the federal government 00:18:50.420 --> 00:18:52.519 during the Civil War. They created their state 00:18:52.519 --> 00:18:55.279 just to stay in the Union. But 60 years later, 00:18:55.700 --> 00:18:57.359 that exact same federal government sends the 00:18:57.359 --> 00:18:59.700 U .S. Army into those mountains to crush their 00:18:59.700 --> 00:19:02.380 own citizens' labor strike on behalf of out -of 00:19:02.380 --> 00:19:05.130 -state corporations. It's a stark reality check 00:19:05.130 --> 00:19:07.210 on the balance of power, isn't it? It really 00:19:07.210 --> 00:19:09.910 is. The strike was broken. The federal government 00:19:09.910 --> 00:19:12.430 refused to prosecute the coal operators for the 00:19:12.430 --> 00:19:15.309 violence. And the state government ended up prosecuting 00:19:15.309 --> 00:19:18.509 hundreds of union leaders for treason and murder. 00:19:18.970 --> 00:19:21.529 But this era of marginalized groups fighting 00:19:21.529 --> 00:19:24.170 entrenched power structures wasn't just happening 00:19:24.170 --> 00:19:26.670 in the coal fields, right? While the miners were 00:19:26.670 --> 00:19:29.049 fighting for an economic voice, women in West 00:19:29.049 --> 00:19:31.549 Virginia were fighting for a political voice. 00:19:31.809 --> 00:19:35.329 Yes, the early 20th century also saw major progressive 00:19:35.329 --> 00:19:38.549 era victories. We have to highlight Lena Lowe 00:19:38.549 --> 00:19:41.369 Yost. OK, who was she? She was the chair of the 00:19:41.369 --> 00:19:43.990 state's ratification committee for women's suffrage. 00:19:44.430 --> 00:19:47.289 In 1920, she organized what was called a living 00:19:47.289 --> 00:19:50.130 petition. I love this concept. Instead of just 00:19:50.130 --> 00:19:53.089 mailing letters, suffragists physically flooded 00:19:53.089 --> 00:19:55.829 the state capitol. Right. They personally greeted 00:19:55.829 --> 00:19:58.710 and lobbied every single state legislator face 00:19:58.710 --> 00:20:00.720 to face. as they prepared to vote. That's a brilliant 00:20:00.720 --> 00:20:03.680 strategy. And it worked. West Virginia became 00:20:03.680 --> 00:20:06.660 the crucial 34th state to ratify the 19th Amendment, 00:20:07.119 --> 00:20:09.500 helping secure the right to vote for women nationwide. 00:20:09.940 --> 00:20:13.680 It was a massive civil rights victory. But unfortunately, 00:20:13.940 --> 00:20:16.519 the state's reliance on single industry resource 00:20:16.519 --> 00:20:19.460 extraction remained a severe vulnerability. Because 00:20:19.460 --> 00:20:22.359 of the coal. Exactly. When the Great Depression 00:20:22.359 --> 00:20:25.700 hit in 1929, West Virginia's economy entirely 00:20:25.700 --> 00:20:28.279 collapsed. Coal production plummeted by over 00:20:28.279 --> 00:20:31.660 40 percent, bankruptcies were everywhere, unemployment 00:20:31.660 --> 00:20:34.660 soared to over 25 percent in the cities, and 00:20:34.660 --> 00:20:37.259 it was even higher in the mining towns. Nearly 00:20:37.259 --> 00:20:39.519 half of all families in the state were totally 00:20:39.519 --> 00:20:41.759 destitute. And this is where the federal government 00:20:41.759 --> 00:20:45.450 steps back into West Virginia. This time, not 00:20:45.450 --> 00:20:47.750 with the Army to break a strike, but with jobs. 00:20:47.809 --> 00:20:50.230 Right, the New Deal. Specifically, the Civilian 00:20:50.230 --> 00:20:53.549 Conservation Corps, the CCC, which was hugely 00:20:53.549 --> 00:20:56.109 impactful here. The mechanics of the CCC were 00:20:56.109 --> 00:20:59.349 brilliant for the time. They took 55 ,000 young, 00:20:59.349 --> 00:21:01.849 unemployed men from relief families and put them 00:21:01.849 --> 00:21:04.930 to work in 65 rural camps across the state. And 00:21:04.930 --> 00:21:06.670 the catch was how they were paid, right? Yes. 00:21:06.910 --> 00:21:09.190 They earned $30 a month, but the government required 00:21:09.190 --> 00:21:11.990 that $25 of that be sent directly home to support 00:21:11.990 --> 00:21:14.470 their families. So it fed the families back home, 00:21:14.490 --> 00:21:17.130 and it built the state. They constructed infrastructure 00:21:17.130 --> 00:21:19.920 that you can still use today. They built state 00:21:19.920 --> 00:21:22.819 parks like Cabway Lingo State Forest. They constructed 00:21:22.819 --> 00:21:26.059 bridges and engaged in massive reforestation 00:21:26.059 --> 00:21:29.039 efforts. Literally planting the trees to replace 00:21:29.039 --> 00:21:31.980 the virgin forest that had been clear -cut decades 00:21:31.980 --> 00:21:34.579 earlier. That's incredible. And this era also 00:21:34.579 --> 00:21:36.980 saw the revival of the United Mine Workers under 00:21:36.980 --> 00:21:40.200 John L. Lewis. The New Deal legislation finally 00:21:40.200 --> 00:21:42.339 gave unions the legal protection they needed 00:21:42.339 --> 00:21:45.940 to organize without facing, you know... private 00:21:45.940 --> 00:21:48.640 machine guns. Which is a pretty nice perk. Yeah, 00:21:48.859 --> 00:21:51.599 definitely a step up. Lewis rebuilt the Union 00:21:51.599 --> 00:21:54.859 into a massive political force. Eventually, during 00:21:54.859 --> 00:21:57.299 World War II, he used the threat of strikes to 00:21:57.299 --> 00:22:00.009 secure better wages and safety conditions. all 00:22:00.009 --> 00:22:02.170 while West Virginia was serving as the arsenal 00:22:02.170 --> 00:22:04.670 of democracy. Providing the immense amounts of 00:22:04.670 --> 00:22:07.230 coal and steel required to actually win the war. 00:22:07.589 --> 00:22:09.650 Exactly. It is an incredible journey. If we step 00:22:09.650 --> 00:22:12.109 back and look at the whole picture, the history 00:22:12.109 --> 00:22:14.690 of West Virginia is fundamentally a story of 00:22:14.690 --> 00:22:17.869 resilience in the face of incredible geographical 00:22:17.869 --> 00:22:21.150 and economic odds. It really is. Physical geography 00:22:21.150 --> 00:22:23.569 dictated their political separation from Virginia. 00:22:23.930 --> 00:22:27.009 It provided the immense natural resources that 00:22:27.009 --> 00:22:30.029 drove their economy. and it created the isolated 00:22:30.029 --> 00:22:33.210 conditions that led to their historic bloody 00:22:33.210 --> 00:22:35.450 labor struggles. Exactly. When you turn on the 00:22:35.450 --> 00:22:37.789 lights in your home today, or you look at the 00:22:37.789 --> 00:22:40.210 steel framing, the buildings in your city, you 00:22:40.210 --> 00:22:43.009 have to remember that those modern conveniences 00:22:43.009 --> 00:22:46.170 likely have roots deeply buried in the hard fought 00:22:46.170 --> 00:22:48.630 rugged history of the mountain state. Yeah. You 00:22:48.630 --> 00:22:51.130 are benefiting from the labor of people who fought 00:22:51.130 --> 00:22:54.390 literal wars for the weekend and for basic workplace 00:22:54.390 --> 00:22:57.069 safety. And the fascinating thing is the influence 00:22:57.069 --> 00:23:00.150 of that geography hasn't vanished. It continues 00:23:00.150 --> 00:23:02.309 to shape the state's political realities right 00:23:02.309 --> 00:23:04.230 now. It does. The source notes that in recent 00:23:04.230 --> 00:23:05.950 years there has been a serious movement in the 00:23:05.950 --> 00:23:08.609 eastern panhandle, so in counties like Morgan, 00:23:08.809 --> 00:23:11.089 Berkeley, and Jefferson. Right. Due to their 00:23:11.089 --> 00:23:14.269 proximity to Washington, D .C., residents there 00:23:14.269 --> 00:23:16.569 have felt increasingly economically neglected 00:23:16.569 --> 00:23:18.970 by their own state capital over in Charleston. 00:23:19.670 --> 00:23:21.809 There has actually been legislative momentum 00:23:21.809 --> 00:23:24.750 to allow those counties to secede from West Virginia 00:23:24.750 --> 00:23:27.420 and rejoin the Commonwealth of Virginia. which 00:23:27.420 --> 00:23:29.180 leaves you with this incredible thought to mull 00:23:29.180 --> 00:23:32.559 over. West Virginia was quite literally born 00:23:32.559 --> 00:23:34.880 out of western counties, feeling economically 00:23:34.880 --> 00:23:37.359 neglected and ignored by their eastern capital, 00:23:37.440 --> 00:23:40.299 Enrichment. Could the future of this state involve 00:23:40.299 --> 00:23:42.980 a reverse secession, driven by the exact same 00:23:42.980 --> 00:23:45.839 feelings of geographic and economic alienation? 00:23:46.519 --> 00:23:48.420 It all comes back to the mountains. When the 00:23:48.420 --> 00:23:50.220 landscape is rugged enough, it doesn't just shape 00:23:50.220 --> 00:23:51.960 your culture, it might just draw the borders 00:23:51.960 --> 00:23:52.400 for you.