Dark as a Dungeon: Coal Mining and Inquiry Tim Little Michigan State University NCSS Regional Conference Bloomington, Minnesota April 20, 2001.

Dark as a Dungeon: Coal Mining and Inquiry

Tim LittleMichigan State University

NCSS Regional Conference Bloomington, MinnesotaApril 20, 2001

One Picture is Worth a Thousand Words-Chinese Proverb

What can you infer about the nature of American coal mining from thisphotograph circa 1902?

Some Guidelines for Inferential Looking

1. What is your first impression about thisphotograph? What seems to be happening in the picture?

2. How would you describe the people (their clothing, age, economic status, working conditions0 ?

3. What does this photograph tell me? What idea or thought is suggested by the photograph?

4. Why did the photographer take this picture? -Dr. Joseph Braun

Coal Mining: 1902-1970

A Photo Album The Working

Environment Children and the

Mines The Living

Environment The Family

Community

The Working Environment

Going Down to the Mine: 1902

Ramshackle transport

Entrance structure looks flimsy

Not too safe ?

Cutting Into the Face of the Coal Vein

Cramped Shaky supports ?

The Hazards of Mining Up Close and Personal

In from 50 to 70 per cent. of the cases the victims lost their lives by their own carelessness.

Last year there were 411 lives lost and 1,057 persons injured. This loss of life made 230 widows and 525 orphans.

Mine accidents are caused by the explosion or inhalation of gas, by blasting, by fall of roof, or by miscellaneous causes, such as being crushed between cars, falling down shafts, and being kicked by mules. During last year half of the fatal accidents occurred in the "breasts" by the fall of rock or coal.

Bureau of Mines of the State of

Pennsylvania for the Year 1900

Children and the Coal Mines

Staffing the Mines “A coal car, drawn by

mules, came along. I thought they must be men, who threw ..the coal in... and drove the mules;

but on looking closely I found that one of them was a boy about 12 years old. My companion shook his head. "It is only half past seven o'clock in the morning. Boys of his age should be eating breakfast and getting ready for school,"

Sorting the Coal

The Building

The Labor Force

The Task

The Living Environment

Coal Town in a Valley Ramshackl

e Congested Poor Orderly &

standar-dized housing

?

Coal Train Rumbles Through Town

Noisy Work and

Resi-dence Mixed

No Escape

?

The Company Store Economic

control of miner families

?

The Family Community

Burial Service in Coal Town

PatrioticExtended Families??

Summary Generalization

Life in a coal mining community is

about the same? better than? worse than? middle class life

in modern suburbia?

Are we comparing apples and oranges? 1902 vs 2001?

Middle class and blue collar?

Regional differences? How might we

improve the generalization?

The Matter of Framing the Issue

If…..one picture is worth a thousand words -Chinese Proverb

Then if you want to win a debate, make certain that you get to choose the pictures - Tim Little Proverb

The Labor View

The Company View

Steps in the Michigan Systematic Reasoning Model

Analyzing Data

Making a Decision

Framing the Issue

Three Interconnected Steps in the Model

The Company Frame

Mining in 1902- Frame II

Hi tech Sturdy shaft

support Clean faced

operator ?

Mining in 1930s- Frame II A miner's day's work is done

when he has cut enough coal to fill the cars assigned him by the mine boss. He may do this in three or four hours, when he goes home to smoke his pipe and talk politics, leaving the laborers to load the cars..

The miner likes his job,—his place is cool in summer and warm in winter, the hours are short, the labor light, and the element of danger is never calculated upon.

A Reformist Public Frame

Reformist Public Frame

Desecration of the environment

?

Reformist Public Frame

While the public freezes due to coal strike…

The miners and owners struggle for economic advantage

?

The Coal

Strike of 1902

Generating Hypotheses About Life in the Coal Fields

The Labor Frame

The Company

Frame

A Reformist

Frame

Synthesized FrameNext Step:

Analyzing Data:

Historical Statistics of

the US Thank you…questions?

Major Sources for this Lesson

http://www.cohums.ohio-state.edu/history/projects/Lessons_US/Gilded_Age/Coal_Mining/default.htm

Credit: Patrick J. Hall