Blair Mountain, West Virginia Coal Wars. Video worksheets, differentiated.

Please ensure you can access the video before you get this resource. A very detailed and thorough account of the crisis -almost unknown outside the USA- and its consequences (WV is still the third poorest state in the USA). Covering: economic and industrial consequences of WW1, growth of the AFL and UMWA. President Wilson and the unions; ‘company towns’, ‘company stores’, yellow-dog contracts, the Paint Creek-Cabin Creek strike, Mother Jones, the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency as union busters. Unionization in Matewan, mayor Testerman killed, the Matewan Massacre. Strike, and miners’ poverty. WV Governor calls on Washington to intervene, without success. Hatfield murdered. Charleston rally. A close account of the lead-up to the Battle of Blair Mountain. Federal troops arrive. The aftermath. The New Deal and unionization. All sources fully cited on the YT page.

Find the film by searching YouTube’s The Great War channel for “The Battle of Blair Mountain - West Virginia Coal Wars I THE GREAT WAR 1921”. My link omits a brief trailer at the end, the film will stop straight after my sheet’s final question if you use my embedded link.

16 questions for the 20-min film (not inc. the omitted trailer). Differentiated! Both versions look very similar, but “B” version has subtle clues. Questions right up to the end (of my embedded link), no slack time! Answer sheet. Very easy to mark. .doc & .pdf for all files.