250 Comments
Sep 10, 2022Liked by Darryl Cooper

Darryl, the picture you painted of the Appalachian folk prior to the coal mining really resonated with me. My political philosophy has evolved a lot over the years going from a tow-the-line republican as until two tours in Iraq cooled me off to the global adventures of our elite and then I delved deep into Libertarianism but after several years in the corporate world and all of the greed, corruption, and incompetence I saw there cooled me off to the idea of a completely privatized society, at least one in our modern corporate context. Now I don’t have any political philosophy, but whatever that pre-modern, honor-based, tight knit community you described is called- that’s what I am all about. All of modernity’s projects be damned, I’ll take the village’s rule of custom over the empire’s rule of law any day of the week.

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Sep 10, 2022Liked by Darryl Cooper

This was one of your best podcasts to date, and you already had a high bar set there. Every time MartyrMade releases a long one, I know, in some small way, it will change me. I was a New England kid, seems like we never got a seriously proper appreciation of what being an "American" is. It didn't carry a real identity with it. But there is such a thing as a real American, and i hope we remember what it was that these men and their families suffered and fought to the death for, it certainly wasn't simple in being "riled up" as you thankfully point out. The person who comes to that shallow of a conclusion isn't so much speaking of those miners, but of themselves. Those "deplorables", "rednecks", "hillbillys", "white trash" have more history here, have more America in their blood than just about anyone else. Their story is so untold, I would think most Americans don't even know that they have real stories like this, this summoned tears to me. Especially with Steve Earle at the end there, thanks for that.

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Whoooooo it's a labor day miracle!

Thanks for all the hard work Darryl! Really appreciate all the hard work that goes into these.

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Sep 9, 2022Liked by Darryl Cooper

My five- and six-year old kids got to listen to the first three hours on the ride home from our vacation. Not one peep did they make. I’m sure they were as captivated as me.

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Sep 9, 2022Liked by Darryl Cooper

From the hills of WV, thank you for this one. Cannot wait to listen to this one

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Sep 9, 2022Liked by Darryl Cooper

Damn! 6 hours of the best listening out there, work shall be better tomorrow, thank you for all the work you put into the content!

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Sep 9, 2022Liked by Darryl Cooper

Congrats on getting through this one Daryl. Looking forward to taking it in.

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Wow 5.5 hrs... Now that's a proper episode 1.

Feel free to take off early for the weekend .

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Sep 15, 2022Liked by Darryl Cooper

MartyrMade Sid Hatfield shirts?

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I got goosebumps listening to this. I grew up on the ohio side of the Ohio River Valley not far from the Huntington and Southern WV and a lot of that hillbilly culture permiates up here as well.

Years ago I did a 23andMe test and no surprise I'm Scots-Irish but when I asked my dad what his ancestry is he gave a simple reply "I'm an American". I thought it was an odd response at first but after listening to this you've given me a better perspective. Also helps that he's Union and knows some of the Hatfield's since he hauled cars for them when he was a teamster. This podcast was personal, thank you

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Sep 9, 2022Liked by Darryl Cooper

Darryl, I’m only 2 hrs in but I already believe this will be your best series. Great job!

As an fyi to other fans, I think some good background context to this episode are some series on the inward empire podcast- soldiers of capital covers the pinkertons, and the great strike covers the railroad strike of 1877

I’m not sure who ran that podcast but possibly a guest in a future martyr made conversation style podcast?

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Sep 9, 2022Liked by Darryl Cooper

As I am listening to this I can’t help but ask, what is the difference, if any, from a company town and a Soviet or Communist city?

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Sep 9, 2022Liked by Darryl Cooper

May have accidentally run an additional 5km while listening to this

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Sep 9, 2022Liked by Darryl Cooper

Nothing gets me more fired up than DC dropping an episode right as I get off work!

Many thanks for all your hard research and work in producing these phenomenal pieces.

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Sep 22, 2022Liked by Darryl Cooper

The mining companies' treatment of it's employees was despicable. The fact that our federal government sided with the mining companies is beyond despicable. Since history tends to repeat itself with governments there is no doubt in my mind our government would not hesitate for a nanosecond to use the FULL force of the American Military against We The People and sleep like babies at night while doing it. That is something we all need to be cognizant of.

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Sep 16, 2022Liked by Darryl Cooper

DC,

Thanks for covering yet another amazing, and yet totally unknown to me chapter in American history.

Seems like you took a different frame for this series. I liked the conclusion: WV coal miners were not living in a democracy, rather it was a terrible peonage second only to slavery earlier in our history. Mother Jones' laser eyes apparently saw this as the fulfillment of her Marxist class struggle ideology. But were the WV mining operators really 'capitalist' oppressors? Or were they state-sponsored mercantilists, like the South Sea Company?

For example, you do an excellent job tracing how the miners got to the region, but not much about how the operators did, other than they bought up strips of land (apparently very quickly). If they acquired that land by fraud, ripping off illiterate people, we can't say a free market exchange took place, and certainly not within the rule of law. Were they given land by the state, or leased it through uncompetitive auctions / low rates? Local & state officials were corrupt partners with the operators, which again is neither democratic, free market nor American. F these Robber Barons.

Dunno. Mother Jones strikes me as an ambivalent character. On balance her contribution seems good; inspiring the miners, shining a spotlight on their terrible oppression and forcing the operators to make concessions. On the other hand, we can draw a straight line from her Marxian rhetoric to the miner army's disastrous march up Blair Mountain. Sure, by then the whirlwind was too much for her to influence, but that's how all revolutions go. And the tragic end seems to be that the miners lose, going back into the black hole and union membership dries up. The country is horrified by armed proletariat wearing red scarves, perhaps because they'd heard how things were going in Russia around the same time. If that is right, then we'd say Mother had some brilliant tactical victories, but was a strategic failure. The broader American labor movement (/Progressive) was more successful than the WV miners, but those ideological roots produced mixed fruit, with Detriot / UAW as a case study. Curious what you think.

Lastly, my favorite part of the episode is your nimble treatment of violence, particularly at the end. Like the Israeli episode, you make it easy to empathize with the miners position and very difficult to imagine doing anything differently in their shoes. Do humans have a right to take up arms, let's say as a last straw to defend their lives and their families? Of course they do. Cue the Braveheart yell....

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