The Tug Valley: a Study of The Matewan Crisis

The Matewan crisis was a dramatic series of events that forever changed not only the Tug Valley, but also coal unions in the entire United States. This event was a wakeup call for people across the country including policy makers who realized that the current system of coal mining couldn’t survive in its present form. I believe John Sayles did a very good job at portraying the events of the Matewan strike. However, Sayles representation of West Virginia does have some differences from Giardina’s.

I think John Sayles did a good job of portraying the events of the Matewan strike. One way he did this is by portraying the racial differences that existed between the miners. I think this is often underplayed by those who discuss the mine wars but I feel John Sayles’ movie does a good job in showing how the coal company would use these racial differences to divide the miners. This is shown by the conflicts between the white, Italian, and African America miners in the film. Another way Sayles’ film did a good job is in its portrayal of the Baldwin-Felts agents’ disregard for local authorities. It was common in this time period for coal operators to either have complete control over the local authorities, or to simply use their resources to undermine local authorities in order to accomplish their agenda. I feel this was well represented in Matewan as the Baldwin-Felts agents expected that the mayor and Sheriff Sid Hatfield would go along with the decisions of the coal operators. I feel the confrontations in the film between Hatfield and the Baldwin-Felts agents shows how these beliefs signify the local social structure in West Virginia at this time. These are some things that John Sayles did a good job of portraying in his film.

However, I think Sayles missed a few key aspects in his portrayal of the Matewan crisis. One thing that I don’t think the film portrayed very well was the relationship between the miners of Paint and Cabin Creeks and the union heads in Charleston. These two sides were often in conflict with each other as their goals were somewhat different. The miners were looking for immediate help and change in the West Virginia area that would have an impact on their lives. The union heads however were more interested in the union movement as a whole. This would sometimes lead them to neglect the West Virginia mines in an attempt to strike a blow for the elsewhere. This led to a lot of resentment between the miners and the union heads. This is one aspect of the Matewan crisis that I believe the film overlooked.

In my opinion, one of the most interesting aspects of the film and of the Matewan crisis in general is the conflict between the local Sheriff Sid Hatfield and the Baldwin-Felts agents. I found this interesting because it seems to be fundamentally different from the usual interaction between local officials and the agents of the coal company. For example, in the film, the union operator is shocked by Sid Hatfield’s “bucking a company gun” when he prevents the agents from evicting miners from their houses. This shows how much control coal agents usually had over local authorities if they were able to force evictions without any resistance from local authorities. Another example of this conflict is the showdown towards the end where Sid Hatfield and some of the miners get into a shootout with the Baldwin-Felts agents. This scene not only shows the level the Matewan conflict had reached, but it also shows how the coal operators felt they had enough power in the area that they were willing to have a gunfight with a local police officer. To a person living in our times an event where the head of a company would give someone the authority to murder a police officer sounds outrageous. This is another example of how much power the coal operators were able to muster in these areas. These are some reasons why I believe the conflict between Sid Hatfield and the Baldwin-Felts agents was one of the most interesting aspects of the Matewan Crisis.