The Story of the Latimer Massacre

1. The Story of the Latimer Massacre By: Luther Aungst

2. Why it all started • The Workers in the mines were all immigrants. • The immigrants that worked in the mines had to live in the houses the mine own chose for them but the immigrants also still had to pay rent even though they didn’t get to choose where they lived. • The immigrants had to pay for their houses and also had to pay something called an alien (The word alien as I say it here is another word for immigrant or a person who was born in another country) tax. • On top of paying for the house and alien tax they also were forced to shop at the business owned stores. • One day the mine workers got sick of being treated like dirt so they went on strike but being treated like dirt wasn't the only reason they went on strike they also went on strike because a little girl was shot for picketing. (picketing is when something goes agents or pretests against something with picket signs.)

3. The push for freedom • Luzerne County Sheriff James Martin grouped together about eighty men and armed them with the new Winchester rifles with metal-piercing bullets with Buckshot (Buckshot is an extra amount of led in the bullet to do more damage.) in the shells. • On September 9th the strikers got word to the Latimer mine workers that they needed to get out and they would come and help to shut down the mine. • On September 10th about 300 of the mine workers who took a couple flags with them set off for Latimer to help them shut down the mine. • Sheriff Martin and his troupes got word that the protesters were on their way to Latimer so they went out to stop them.

4. The First Fight • When the sheriff got to where the protesters were he put a gun to one of the protesters heads and demanded that they turn back now and go back to town but the workers just kept marching. • The sheriff and deputies did not like this to much so a fight started. • During the fight one of the deputies grabbed one of the American flags and tor it to pieces and threw it on the ground. • Finally one of the men stopped the fight and the sheriff agreed that they can keep protesting as long as they stay in Hazelton.

5. The Massacre • After the fight stopped the sheriff and his men got on a trolley where a whiteness says they heard the men talking about a shooting. The people on the trolley also reported hearing one of the men saying that he bets he drops 6 of them by himself. • When the marchers finally showed up at Latimer the sheriff showed up again and pointed his gun to one of the men in the second row and told them to leave but they wouldn't so he pulled the trigger of his gun but nothing came out. • All of a sudden the rest of the sheriffs troops started shooting and everyone thought they were shooting blanks until the flag holder in the front row fell down dead. • After the marches saw this they started running but the sheriff and his troops kept shooting until there was 19 people dead and 36 wounded.

6. The trial • The sheriff and his troops were tried for murder but they say there was no witnesses but in my opinion there were people who probably saw it but were to afraid to come up and tell about it • The trial took almost a year but in the end the men were found not guilty because there was no proof because the men took the dead bodies and hid them.

7. My source • http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/events/4279/lattimer_massacre/478735 • http://www.hmdb.org/Photos1/114/Photo114079.jpg • http://standardspeaker.com/polopoly_fs/1.1066888!/image/3224011828.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_490/3224011828.jpg • http://explorepahistory.com/kora/files/1/2/1-2-463-25-ExplorePAHistory-a0b6v2-a_349.jpg • http://www.umwa.org/images/history/lattimer.jpg • http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Lattimer+massacre+pictures&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.,cf.osb&biw=1024&bih=571&wrapid=tlif133665131872610&safe=active&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=srGrT6SHKOSY6AGp_sGJAQ