Community Support for Union
During the struggle for industrial freedom in West Virginia, documents like these were common. Wives, sisters, mothers, and daughters of coal miners added their names to this document to show their support for the fight that was raging between coal miners and coal companies. This showed the amount of support that the miners had from the women in their lives, which is a great testament to the depth and reach of the hurt that the miners and their families experienced living and working in coal towns. Bill Blizzard grew up with a father who was a coal miner and a mother and sister who were not only passionate, but active, for their men's causes (Slavin). These family members of miners supported the men in their family as well as other coal miners and their families. This mutual support created a strong bond between the families living in coal towns and a distrust for the Union and coal company leadership that was attempting to prevent such a bond at every turn. As a coal miner by the age of 10, William was deeply rooted in the coal mining culture and understood everything about it. This is what made him a popular choice to be elected to UMWA leadership by the time he was 19 years old (Slavin).
The documents above include the signatures of nearly 400 wives, mothers, and daughters pledging their support for the coal miner's movement.