The Ludlow Strike

Sparked by the Colorado Coal Strike of 1913-1914, the Ludlow Massacre of April 20, 1914 left two women and eleven children burned to death by the National Guard. This final and severe effort to destroy the strike was financially supported by John D. Rockefeller. The miners of Rockefeller’s Colorado Fuel and Iron Corporation, who were mostly non-English speaking immigrants, were living a life of serfdom in the Corporation-owned mining towns. Rockefeller collected their rent, sold them their necessities, and hired officials to police potential unionization. When young, English organizer Gerry Lippiatt was murdered in Trinidad, Colorado, the miners were infuriated and voted to strike against low pay, dangerous conditions and feudal domination. In September, 1913, after the coal companies evicted eleven-thousand mine workers and their families from their huts, the strikers packed their belongings onto carts and embarked on a journey through a mountain blizzard to tent colonies set up by the United Mine Workers. For seven months they endured starvation and illness, picketed the mines to prevent the presence of strikebreakers, and defended themselves against armed assaults. Rockefeller, threatened by the persistance of the strikers, hired the Baldwin-Fets Detective Agency to break their morale. The detectives used rifles, shotguns, and machine guns to fire into the miners’ tents.

The strikers refused defeat, however, and Colorado governer collaborated with Rockefeller to send in the National Guard. The miners initially assumed that the Guard was sent to protect them, and welcomed their presence with American flags and cheers. The rude awakening hit when the men in uniform started escorting strikers to the mines through beatings and jailings. The strikers counteracted the violence by killing four mine guards, a strikebreaker and Liappiatt’s murderer, George Belcher, (a Baldwin-Felts detective) who was freed by a coroner’s jury composed of Trinidad businesmen who claimed the murder was "justifiable homicide."

The miner’s held out through an extreme winter and feeling threatened, the mine owners called for more drastic measures. On the morning of April 20, 1914, the National Guardsmen, stationed in the hills above the largest tent colony in Ludlow (it housed a thousand men, women and children), fired machine guns into the tents. The miners crawled away and fired back while their wives and children dug into the tent floors to hide. These underground pits served as a trap however when, at dusk, the Guardsmen descended from the hill and torched the tents. The occupants fled, but a telephone linesman, going through the ruins of Ludlow the next morning, lifted the iron cot that covered a pit in one of the tents and found the mangled and charred bodies of thirteen women and children. This event became known as the Ludlow Massacre.

		Sparked by the Colorado Coal Strike of 1913-1914, the Ludlow Massacre of April 20, 1914 left two women and eleven children burned to death by the National Guard. This final and severe effort to destroy the strike was financially supported by John D. Rockefeller. The miners of Rockefeller’s Colorado Fuel and Iron Corporation, who were mostly non-English speaking immigrants, were living a life of serfdom in the Corporation-owned mining towns. Rockefeller collected their rent, sold them their necessities, and hired officials to police potential unionization. When young, English organizer Gerry Lippiatt was murdered in Trinidad, Colorado, the miners were infuriated and voted to strike against low pay, dangerous conditions and feudal domination. In September, 1913, after the coal companies evicted eleven-thousand mine workers and their families from their huts, the strikers packed their belongings onto carts and embarked on a journey through a mountain blizzard to tent colonies set up by the United Mine Workers. For seven months they endured starvation and illness, picketed the mines to prevent the presence of strikebreakers, and defended themselves against armed assaults. Rockefeller, threatened by the persistance of the strikers, hired the Baldwin-Fets Detective Agency to break their morale. The detectives used rifles, shotguns, and machine guns to fire into the miners’ tents.
The strikers refused defeat, however, and Colorado governer collaborated with Rockefeller to send in the National Guard. The miners initially assumed that the Guard was sent to protect them, and welcomed their presence with American flags and cheers. The rude awakening hit when the men in uniform started escorting strikers to the mines through beatings and jailings. The strikers counteracted the violence by killing four mine guards, a strikebreaker and Liappiatt’s murderer, George Belcher, (a Baldwin-Felts detective) who was freed by a coroner’s jury composed of Trinidad businesmen who claimed the murder was "justifiable homicide."
		The miner’s held out through an extreme winter and feeling threatened, the mine owners called for more drastic measures. On the morning of April 20, 1914, the National Guardsmen, stationed in the hills above the largest tent colony in Ludlow (it housed a thousand men, women and children), fired machine guns into the tents. The miners crawled away and fired back while their wives and children dug into the tent floors to hide. These underground pits served as a trap however when, at dusk, the Guardsmen descended from the hill and torched the tents. The occupants fled, but a telephone linesman, going through the ruins of Ludlow the next morning, lifted the iron cot that covered a pit in one of the tents and found the mangled and charred bodies of thirteen women and children. This event became known as the Ludlow Massacre.