The Molly Maguires story is a fascinating insight into both Irish – American culture in the 19th century and America’s often troubled and brutal labour history. The Mollies were a secret society based among the Irish coal miners in the anthracite fields of northern Pennsylvania in the 1860s and 1870s.
Conditions for the workers in this period were dreadful and coal mining was a dangerous and poorly paid profession. Out of 22,500 miners working in Schuylkill country, 5,500 were children and some child labourers as young as five years old were employed by the coal companies. Another cause of complaint was the ‘company store’. Workers would have to buy their provisions from a mine owned store at hugely inflated prices. In many instances the workers would end up owing the company more money than they were paid just to buy the essentials of life.
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