This Harper’s Weekly Magazine illustration shows the scenes at a Pennsylvania anthracite coal mine on pay day as workers and their family arrived to pick up their earned wages.

In the mid-19th century, the pay system for mineworkers was rife with manipulations by operators. Workers could be docked pay for any number of reasons, their tonnage of coal undercounted, and charged for the equipment they used. Company store systems were used in many mining communities, making the situation worse for mineworkers and their families.

The 1870s marked the earliest efforts by anthracite mineworkers to organize themselves in an effort to confront their employers through walkouts and strikes.

Issues of payment, along with safety, proved to be the reasons most mineworkers sought redress for their grievances. These efforts were put down by the coal companies, often by force. Violence occasionally flowed the other direction, with angry mineworkers attacking bosses and management, especially in the more rural mining villages.

Not until the arrival of the 20th century and the emergence of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA), would the issues of wages be addressed across the entirety of Pennsylvania’s anthracite coal fields.

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Read more about mining history in the Coal Region

“Among the Coal Mines” – A trip into the Coal Region in 1877

“Miners at work” – Harper’s Weekly illustrations of the Coal Region from 1869

“Assaults upon the senses” – The sights and sounds of the Coal Region in the 19th century

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