THE APRIL 14, 1914, LUDLOW MASSACRE: Please like and share and tell your friends to follow this page. FB is removing this site from peoples newsfeeds if they do not stay active. Our likes, reach, and visits have dropped a lot since they started doing this. We love doing the work; but, we want people to see it. The Ludlow, Colorado Massacre Began when miners got fed up with their meager wages, deadly working conditions, and their oppressive living conditions. The major coal companies owned whole towns, including the homes of the miners. No-win situation because miners were only paid for the tonnage of coal mined, making them risk their lives to get bigger amounts of coal to feed their families. Colorado National Guard and Colorado Fuel & Iron Company camp guards attacked a tent colony of 1,200 striking coal miners and their families at Ludlow, Colorado on April 20, 1914. The massacre resulted in the violent deaths of between 19 and 25 people; sources vary but include two women and eleven children, asphyxiated and burned to death under a single tent. John D. Rockefeller was the principle owner of the mines. Upon striking, the miners and their families were evicted from company-owned houses and lived in a tent colony on public property. The massacre occurred in a carefully planned attack on the tent colony by Colorado militiamen, coal company guards, and thugs hired as private detectives and strike breakers. The day after Easter the militia descended upon the tent colony and set up their machine guns. The colony returned fire. By the end of the day, many in the colony were dead. A fair number escaped when a train passed by and momentarily stopped to shield the miners and their families. Unfortunately, however, there were women and children trapped when the camp was set on fire. The Baldwin Felts Detective Agency, hired to suppress the Colorado miners, used an armored car mounted with a machine gun—the Death Special. The day of the massacre miners were celebrating Greek Easter. At 10:00 AM April 14, the militia ringed the camp, firing into the tents. Not one of the perpetrators of the slaughter were ever punished, but scores of miners and their leaders were arrested and black-balled from the coal industry. They shot and burned to death 20 people, including a dozen women and small children. Later investigations revealed that kerosene had intentionally been poured on the tents to set them ablaze. The miners had dug foxholes in the tents so the women and children could avoid the bullets that randomly were shot through the tent colony by company thugs. The women and children were found huddled together at the bottoms of their tents. In December, 2008, the U.S. Department of the Interior designated the Ludlow site as a National Historic Landmark. youtube/watch?v=XDd64suDz1A
Posted on: Sat, 13 Sep 2014 20:54:23 +0000
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