19th Century Tin Cup- Latimer Mine, PA
In the mid 1800s, the Pennsylvania coal industry had evolved from small, independent operations to large companies taking over whole towns. Pardee & Co. was a coal operator that specifically managed Hazleton and other small communities throughout Luzerne County. Native Pennsylvanians often protested against work conditions, pay cuts and the perpetual debt of living and working in company owned towns.
To lower the threat of future strikes, operators relied on immigrant labor. The first wave of immigration began with highly skilled English and Irish mine workers. However, increased industrialization no longer required skilled workers to keep up with high demands. By the end of the Civil War, labor agents recruited non-skilled workers from Slovakia, Poland, Lithuania and other Easter European countries. The latter wave was seen as a union busting move against the skilled workers that had arrived ten years earlier.
Pardee & Co. assumed that the mix of unskilled laborers from Eastern Europe would lessen the chance of forming labor unions. However, this community also organized a number of strikes between August and September of 1897. The deadliest took place on September 10 when 400 unarmed Eastern European workers marched to show their support for the United Mine Workers (UMW). When they arrived, the county sheriff and deputies opened fire on the crowd, killing 19 protesters. These artifacts are evidence of the event, including the tin cup with a single bullet hole in the center.
