Mother Jones - The Miners' Angel

Mother Jones

    Mary Harris Jones - usually just called Mother Jones - was the most remarkable woman in the labor union movement in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

   Mother Jones was born in Ireland in the 1830s, but her family moved to Canada when she was a child, and later to the U.S. She was briefly a teacher in Michigan, then moved to Memphis, Tennessee. There she married an iron worker, and had four children.

   Tragically, in 1867 her husband and her four children died in a yellow fever epidemic. She decided to devote the rest of her life to improving the lives of American workers - especially mine workers.

The photo below shows miners, including a 13 year old boy, working in a coal mine.
Miners often worked in dangerous conditions for very low pay. Mother Jones traveled
the country and went into mining camps to organize labor unions to fight for better
treatment of the workers. At times she faced down threats of jail and
violence. Before long, she was being called "The Miners' Angel."

Coal mine scene

Mother Jones also fought for an end to child labor, which was quite common in the
1800s and early 1900s. In Pennsylvania she organized a march of children who worked
in textile (cloth) mills to draw public attention to the issue. The "Children's Crusade"
march started in Philadelphia, went through New Jersey, and into New York.

The photo shows the start of the march in 1903.

Mother Jones - start of the Mill Children's March

Mother Jones - start of the Mill Children's March

By the time she died in 1930, conditions for workers were improving as a result of
efforts by Mother Jones and others pushing for laws to protect workers' rights.
Her funeral in Washington, D.C., was attended by labor leaders and
many other admirers. She was buried, as she requested, in a
mine workers' cemetery in Illinois.

Mother Jones - funeral 1930

You can learn more about Mother Jones with this link to her page
on the web site of the National Women's Hall of Fame:

Mary Harris "Mother Jones"

Her book, Autobiography of Mother Jones, is fascinating
to read, and can be found in any good library or bookstore.

The photos are from the Library of Congress.