The illustrated featured story on “Pennsylvania Profiles” from the Sunbury Daily Item, June 1, 1985, was about the exploitation of the people of the anthracite coal regions.
Panel 1 – The ugliest effects of the industrial revolution surfaced in the anthracite coal region of northeastern Pennsylvania during the mid-19th century. Greedy, ruthless coal barons stripped and blackened the landscape while exploiting men, women and children to mine the black diamonds. My manipulating immigration laws, the mine owners flooded the coal region with eager “greenhorns” willing to work in the mines for any wage. Southern cotton growers had Black slaves; Pennsylvania coal operators had Irish “labor.”
Panel 2 – A mine worker who earned $20 to $35 per month lived with his wife and 5 to 10 children in a drab small company row house located in a muddy block from the colliery. The rent was $5 per month.
Panel 3 – Mine operators compelled their employees to whop in the company store for overpriced food and merchandise. Miners who did not were fined and blacklisted.
Panel 4 – By 1862 the country was fighting the Civil War, with the Irish very tense about their lot at the bottom of the socio-economic mine shaft. Pennsylvania was about to explode in a civil war of its own against the Molly Maguires.
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An explanation of the series “Pennsylvania Profiles” appeared in the Sunbury Daily Item, May 10 1985:
For the stories behind… forgotten but fascinating facts, you’ll want to read “Pennsylvania Profiles,” a weekly feature with vivid illustrations… in this newspaper…. Pennsylvania Profiles delves into the nooks and crannies of the Keystone State’s hectic heritage. [It] is researched, written and illustrated by Patrick M. Reynolds of Willow Street, a town in southern Lancaster County. He is a graduate of Pratt institute, Brooklyn, New York, and Syracuse University, New York. His features are available in books. Reynolds is a Vietnam War veteran and an Army reserve Infantry officer.
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Obtained through Newspapers.com.
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