The 1895 Flat Top Coal Strike

In the spring of 1895, a sudden wage cut swept through the Flat Top-Pocahontas coal fields along the Virginia/West Virginia border, touching off one of the earliest large-scale labor confrontations in that part of Appalachia. What began as a wildcat strike quickly shut down mines along the Norfolk and Western Railroad, disrupted coal shipments to Norfolk, and brought state militia into the company town of Pocahontas.

Today we tell the story of the Flat Top miners’ strike of 1895.

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