This haunting illustration from Harper’s Weekly Magazine shows a scene in in Pennsylvania’s Coal Region during the brutal winter of 1875.
During that winter, the Workingmen’s Benevolent Association launched a last ditch strike – known to history as the Long Strike – in a bid to fight back against corporate power being consolidated by the Reading Railroad in Schuylkill County and significant wage cuts.
The strike brought mineworkers and their families to the brink of starvation. Ultimately, the strike was doomed – so too was the labor union, the WBA.
The illustration shows the desperation in the anthracite coal fields that year. Titled “The Last Loaf,” it shows women and children at a small oven cooking their last loaf of bread as they try to keep warm.
A tavern in the distance can be seen, along with the ubiquitous sight of a massive silent coal breaker.
Read more about the Coal Region in the 1870s
Illustration of threats against non-union mineworkers in Schuylkill County| 1871
A tribute to a Coal Region labor leader | John Siney
Erecting the gallows at Pottsville for the first Molly Maguire executions | 1877
“The hour of doom” – The Molly Maguire executions in Pottsville on June 21, 1877
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