ddustyrose's Full Review: Chris Cawood - Tennessee's Coal Creek War: Another...
Chris Cawood is the author of several books; Sex, Lies, and Videotape (2006), How to Live to 100 (And Enjoy It!): Stories of Tennessee Centenarians, Legacy of the Swamp Rat: Tennessee Quarterbacks Who Just Said No to Alabama, just to name a few.
A friend loaned me her autographed copy of Tennessee's Coal Creek War: Another Fight for Freedom. Being from east Tennessee, and knowing of Chris's personal scandal(s), I wasn't sure he had anything of interest to write about (unless you wanted to read his Sex, Lies, and Videotapes) but I decided to chance it.
Chris has a law degree from the University of Tennessee, served in Tennessee's General Assembly, and practices law in Roane County.
Tennessee's Coal Creek War: Another Fight for Freedom caught and held my interest from the beginning to the end. From one page to the next I found myself caught up in east Tennessee history, or part of it, and even though I knew the general outcome, it was the people he brought to life, the people who kept me reading.
As Chris acknowledges, this book is "a fiction-enhanced story of real events."
In 1891, east Tennessee coal miners were replaced by convict's. The state didn't have a facility large enough to house all their prisoner's so they were leased to mining companies, which, in turn, eliminated the coal miner‘s job. The miner's were paid in scrip, and by law, they (the miner's) wanted to be paid with "real" money to spend as they deemed fit.
Betsy Boyd is the daughter of a miner, she's 17 years old and wants to attend college. She also wants the right to vote. The University of Tennessee didn't admit women as students, and as for voting, Governor Buchanan swore it would never happen in his life time.
The coal miners banded together trying peaceable measure's to end the strike. Each time convicts were brought in to replace the miner, the miner's would "free" and send them back to Knoxville, (or the convict would wonder off seeking another life).
Jake Drummond and his brother, Dick, are part of the miner's fight for their jobs and their right to legal tender. Jake is more peaceable than Dick. Jake wants to fight through the courts but Dick wants to fight with his fists or gun.
Betsy decides to get her high school diploma but has to travel to Knoxville, where she obtained a job at UT working for a professor transcribing notes on the university's first large, manual typewriter. The professor decides to help her and has hopes that by the time she graduates, UT will admit women as students. He wants Betsy to be one of the state's first females admitted.
The miner's peaceable actions aren't working. You can't fight the mine owners and win. More drastic measure's needed to be taken and thus ensues hard years of unimaginable poverty. A war is on and the miner's intend to win. With families to feed and clothe, they enter into battle with fierce determination.
How will Betsy manage to get her education under such circumstances? She wonders if the state allow her to marry and attend school at the same time. Just how far will the miner's go to be treated equally under the constitution (working for a mining company was equal to being a slave)? Can they stand up against the state's militia, a Gatlin gun, a howitzer and politician's?
Coal Creek War: Another Fight for Freedom is a story about miner's and their fight for decent working conditions, their very livelihood inside the mines of east Tennessee. You get a glimpse into how a mine operates, how deep underground the miner's work, and just how dangerous their jobs are. The pride in these men is beyond description; you root for their cause and you root for them. Your insides squirm with the injustice's they suffered and when they finally scream, "Enough is enough," you want to stand up and cheer!
It seems like women have always had the vote, always had the right to apply to college, always had control over their own bodies, their lives and yet we know this isn‘t true. It wasn't that long ago when women were denied many basic rights. Betsy was the first for a lot of us women: we can choose our own paths, our own dreams, and follow them.
Coal Creek War takes us back to the 1890's. Reading this book is a journey, an eye-opener, and after reading the epilogue, it was a journey well worth the time invested.
A phrase used, which I found humorous was Betsy's father, Daniel, telling her, "There's three things in life you can't speed up, Betsy: A man makin' whiskey, a woman birthin' a child, or a sow feedin' her young."
Ain't it the truth?
Format: Paperback, 266p Language: English Publisher: Magnolia Hill Pr (October 01, 1995) Measurements: 9"(h) x 6"(w) x 1"(d), 0.9 lbs. ISBN: 9780964223103
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