Curated OER
History Matters: "To This We Dissented": The Rock Springs Riot
Read the description of the Rock Springs massacre written by the Chinese workers who lived through the massacre and presented to the Chinese Consul in New York. Included is a report of an investigation of those who died in the massacre....
Internet History Sourcebooks Project
Fordham University: Modern History Sourcebook: Women Miners in English Coal Pits
Detailed essay, written in 1842, on women and girl miners' working conditions in Great Britain. Includes the personal accounts of two women miners.
US Department of Labor
U.s. Department of Labor: The Coal Strike of 1902: Turning Point in u.s. Policy
Read about the background of coal miners and coal mine operators prior to the coal strike in 1902. Find out the significant role of the federal government in bringing the strike to an end.
![Holmes Safety Association Bulletin: The Boys in the Breakers [Pdf] Article](https://d15y2dacu3jp90.cloudfront.net/images/attachment_defaults/resource/large/FPO-knovation.png "Holmes Safety Association Bulletin: The Boys in the Breakers [Pdf] Article")
Other
Holmes Safety Association Bulletin: The Boys in the Breakers [Pdf]
A heartbreaking account of child labor in the coal mines at the turn of the century - 1904. Click on the article title in the table of contents to read this account published in 1904 by Peter Roberts.
Other
Economic History Services: The Us Coal Industry in the Nineteenth Century
A look at the coal industry in the United States across the entire nineteenth century. Halfway through the page there is information about the advent of unions to represent the coal miners doing such a dangerous job.
Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Comission
Expore Pa History: Stories From Pa History: Labor Strikes and Mine Disasters
Read about the dangers of coal mining in Pennsylvania, the emergence of unions in an attempt to protect the miners, and some of the mining disasters that took place in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Other
Oral History Digital Collection
First-person narratives of northeastern Ohioans who have participated in, or closely observed events which have significantly affected both the state and nation.
Ohio State University
E History: Coal Mining in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era
A look into the coal mining industry in the Gilded Age through maps, timelines, images, and primary source documents.
Ohio State University
E History: Hazards of 19th Century Coal Mining
Information from an Ohio State University site. You can read about the many hazards coal miners in the 19th century faced while digging coal to fuel the emerging industry of America.
Other
Lehigh University: The Molly Maguires
An interesting site compiled by a Lehigh University undergraduate student, regarding a secret mining organization known as the "Molly Maguires" who operated in the Pennsylvania coal mines during the latter part of the 19th century.
University of Missouri
Famous Trials: Molly Maguires Trials (1876 77)
In 1875, a writer of the time observed, there came from coal-mining district of Pennsylvania "an appalling series of tales of murder, of arson, and of every description of violent crime." Mine company superintendents and bosses "could...
Other
Msha's Page for Kids: The Dirty Children
A report on the terrible conditions children had to face in the coal mines during the late 19th century.