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Autobiography of Mother Jones
Among the most stirring works of labor history ever written, this autobiography of Mother Jones (née Mary Harris) chronicles the life of a woman who was considered a saint by many, and by others, "the most dangerous woman in America." A forceful and picturesque figure in the American labor movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Mother Jones was a born crusader.
Widowed at the age of 30 when her husband and four young children died during a yellow fever epidemic, Mother Jones spoke out tirelessly and effectively for the rights of workers and unionists. She played a significant role in organizing mining strikes in West Virginia and Colorado, as well as the Pittsburgh steel strike of 1919. She was instrumental in the formation of the United Mine Workers union (UMW) in 1890 and the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) in 1905.
An important addition to feminist literature, the Autobiography of Mother Jones is also "a great piece of working-class literature…probably the most readable book in the whole field of American labor history." — Clarence Darrow.
Widowed at the age of 30 when her husband and four young children died during a yellow fever epidemic, Mother Jones spoke out tirelessly and effectively for the rights of workers and unionists. She played a significant role in organizing mining strikes in West Virginia and Colorado, as well as the Pittsburgh steel strike of 1919. She was instrumental in the formation of the United Mine Workers union (UMW) in 1890 and the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) in 1905.
An important addition to feminist literature, the Autobiography of Mother Jones is also "a great piece of working-class literature…probably the most readable book in the whole field of American labor history." — Clarence Darrow.
160 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1925
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About the author
Mary Harris Jones
19 books26 followersMary Harris "Mother" Jones (1830–1930) is one of the great legends of American progressive politics. After losing her own family to yellow fever, Mary Jones found in the lives of the downtrodden a new family to nurture and support. She did this for seventy years as a trade union organizer, a feminist, and a campaigner against child labor in America.
"Mother Jones" was born in 1830, near Dublin, Ireland to parents who were eager to emigrate. When Mary was five years old, her father came to America, where he went to work building canals and railroads, a job similar to the one he had held in Ireland. Once he became a naturalized American citizen around 1840, he sent for his wife and daughter.
The family first settled in Toronto, Canada, where Mary's father was working on one of the first Canadian railroads. They later moved to Michigan. Mary was an excellent student and she graduated with high honors from high school. She became a teacher at a Catholic school in Monroe, Michigan, soon after graduation.
She moved to Chicago to explore the possibilities of becoming a professional dressmaker, but, at age 30, returned to teaching, this time in Memphis, Tennessee. There she met and married Robert Jones, an iron worker who was an enthusiastic member of the Iron Moulder's Union. During the first four years of their marriage they had four children. Work was plentiful in Tennessee, and for a time the family enjoyed a modest prosperity. But in 1867 a sudden yellow fever epidemic swept through Memphis, taking the lives of Mary's husband and all of her children. At 37, Mary Jones's life was devastated and she was completely on her own.
She returned to Chicago and worked as a dressmaker, but her bad luck continued when her dressmaking business was destroyed in the Chicago Fire of 1871. Homeless and penniless, she turned to her deceased husband's fellow union members for help. Their compassion towards her touched her heart. She felt that the union had saved her life. From that time on, she pursued union organizing with an astonishing enthusiasm that made her an American legend.
Mary Jones began working as a union activist with the Knights of Labor. This union was founded in 1869 in an attempt to unite all workers under a single organization. Mary discovered she had a real talent for inspiring others with her speeches. The Knights of Labor often sent her to particularly tense spots during strikes. She could inspire workers to stay with the union during the hard days of labor action, when there was neither work nor money.
Joining strikers in the coal mines of Pennsylvania in 1873, she witnessed conditions bordering on slavery and children near starvation. Her own Irish heritage caused her to work passionately on behalf of the mostly Irish workers. It was her kindly, protective concern for the workers in the Pennsylvania coal mines that earned her the nickname "Mother Jones."
Mother Jones moved from strike to strike. In 1877 she was involved in the nationwide walkout for better conditions for railroad workers. In 1880 she was in Chicago on behalf of workers trying to obtain an eight-hour day. She also took part in the strike at the McCormick-Harvester works, where a bomb killed several policemen and police fired randomly into a crowd of union workers, killing 11 people and wounding dozens of others.
In her 60s Mother Jones became an organizer for the United Mine Workers Union. Since judges were reluctant to jail such an elderly woman, her age was an asset to the union movement. As she grew older, her attention focused on securing laws that prohibited child labor. She made speeches and engaged newspaper writers to accompany her to places where children were working in slave-like conditions. She also became active in the movement to obtain the right of women to vote.
"Mother Jones" was born in 1830, near Dublin, Ireland to parents who were eager to emigrate. When Mary was five years old, her father came to America, where he went to work building canals and railroads, a job similar to the one he had held in Ireland. Once he became a naturalized American citizen around 1840, he sent for his wife and daughter.
The family first settled in Toronto, Canada, where Mary's father was working on one of the first Canadian railroads. They later moved to Michigan. Mary was an excellent student and she graduated with high honors from high school. She became a teacher at a Catholic school in Monroe, Michigan, soon after graduation.
She moved to Chicago to explore the possibilities of becoming a professional dressmaker, but, at age 30, returned to teaching, this time in Memphis, Tennessee. There she met and married Robert Jones, an iron worker who was an enthusiastic member of the Iron Moulder's Union. During the first four years of their marriage they had four children. Work was plentiful in Tennessee, and for a time the family enjoyed a modest prosperity. But in 1867 a sudden yellow fever epidemic swept through Memphis, taking the lives of Mary's husband and all of her children. At 37, Mary Jones's life was devastated and she was completely on her own.
She returned to Chicago and worked as a dressmaker, but her bad luck continued when her dressmaking business was destroyed in the Chicago Fire of 1871. Homeless and penniless, she turned to her deceased husband's fellow union members for help. Their compassion towards her touched her heart. She felt that the union had saved her life. From that time on, she pursued union organizing with an astonishing enthusiasm that made her an American legend.
Mary Jones began working as a union activist with the Knights of Labor. This union was founded in 1869 in an attempt to unite all workers under a single organization. Mary discovered she had a real talent for inspiring others with her speeches. The Knights of Labor often sent her to particularly tense spots during strikes. She could inspire workers to stay with the union during the hard days of labor action, when there was neither work nor money.
Joining strikers in the coal mines of Pennsylvania in 1873, she witnessed conditions bordering on slavery and children near starvation. Her own Irish heritage caused her to work passionately on behalf of the mostly Irish workers. It was her kindly, protective concern for the workers in the Pennsylvania coal mines that earned her the nickname "Mother Jones."
Mother Jones moved from strike to strike. In 1877 she was involved in the nationwide walkout for better conditions for railroad workers. In 1880 she was in Chicago on behalf of workers trying to obtain an eight-hour day. She also took part in the strike at the McCormick-Harvester works, where a bomb killed several policemen and police fired randomly into a crowd of union workers, killing 11 people and wounding dozens of others.
In her 60s Mother Jones became an organizer for the United Mine Workers Union. Since judges were reluctant to jail such an elderly woman, her age was an asset to the union movement. As she grew older, her attention focused on securing laws that prohibited child labor. She made speeches and engaged newspaper writers to accompany her to places where children were working in slave-like conditions. She also became active in the movement to obtain the right of women to vote.
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July 31, 2019
When Irish-born school teacher Mary Harris Jones was in her late thirties, a yellow fever epidemic swept Memphis, TN, where she lived with her iron-molding husband and their four children:
For the rest of her life, Mary Harris Jones (better known as Mother Jones by the millions of surrogates who stood in for her four lost little ones), agitated ceaselessly for the rights of the poor and the workers across the United States. Her autobiography describes in vivid detail the plight faced by these poor nameless hordes, from coal miners toiling at a seam miles below ground to six-year old children bobbing around hand-crushing textile machinery for pennies a week.
Religion and labor, part I:
Replace "mine owners" with "corporate conglomerates" and nothing much has changed in the last century. Then, as now, the wealthy paid for the shaping of public opinion and the re-writing of history:
The grueling reality of the miner's life:
On the futility for working folks of replacing rent-a-cops with the real deal:
The unmitigated evil that is child labor:
This barbarism was only 108 years ago?!
But of course, the religious leaders were against something so obviously immoral, right? Alas, no. Then as now, more preachers preached on behalf of Mammon than against him. (Religion and labor, part 2):
We working folks are all in this together, and the standard elite tactic is to divide us based on anything:
Some things never change. Will we spend the money on the working class by enriching their lives or by buying more weapons and building more prisons?
Patriotism, then as now, meant following orders for some, and war profiteering for others:
Contemporary protestors and activists could learn something from Mother Jones:
She also had advice for the womenfolk:
Mother Jones' thoughts on prohibition. Mentally replace "alcohol" with "drugs" and you will find yet another feature of American society that hasn't changed much in the intervening century:
In conclusion:
This book should be required reading for anyone who continues to thank the military for our freedoms, because it clearly shows how often police and military power have been used to repress and enforce the status quo, rather than to liberate and turn the world upside-down. It should also be required reading for those who believe that lawlessness on the part of government (e.g., renditions, torture, denial of habeas corpus, suppression of civil rights, etc.) began with the so-called War on Terror. It is essential that we see how things were the last time the gap between wealth and poverty was so vast, if we are to make it through these times.
All about my house I could hear weeping and the cries of delirium. One by one, my four little children sickened and died. I washed their little bodies and got them ready for burial. My husband caught the fever and died. I sat alone through nights of grief. No one came to me. No one could. (1)
For the rest of her life, Mary Harris Jones (better known as Mother Jones by the millions of surrogates who stood in for her four lost little ones), agitated ceaselessly for the rights of the poor and the workers across the United States. Her autobiography describes in vivid detail the plight faced by these poor nameless hordes, from coal miners toiling at a seam miles below ground to six-year old children bobbing around hand-crushing textile machinery for pennies a week.
Religion and labor, part I:
"You have to have religion to make a colony successful, and labor is not yet a religion with labor." (12)
"Now, boys, you are twelve in number. That was the number Christ had. I hope that among your twelve there will be no Judas, no one who will betray his fellows. The work you do is for your children and for the future. You preach the gospel of better food, better homes, a decent compensation for the wealth you produce. It is these things that make a great nation." (36)
Replace "mine owners" with "corporate conglomerates" and nothing much has changed in the last century. Then, as now, the wealthy paid for the shaping of public opinion and the re-writing of history:
Taking men into the union is just the kindergarten of their education, and every force is against their further education. Men who live up those lonely creeks have only the mine owners' Y.M.C.A.s, the mine owners' preachers and teachers, the mine owners' doctors and newspapers to look to for their ideas. So they don't get many. (25)
[In response to the Ludlow massacre] Rockefeller got busy. Writers were hired to write pamphlets which were sent broadcast to every editor in the country, bulletins. In these leaflets, it was shown how perfectly happy was the life of the miner until the agitators came; how joyous he was with the company's saloon, the company's pigsty for homes, the company's teachers and preachers and coroners. How the miners hated the state law of an eight-hour working day, begging to be allowed to work ten, twelve. How they hated the state law that they should have their own check weighman to see that they were not cheated at the tipple.
And all the while the mothers of the children who died in Ludlow were mourning their dead. (118)
The grueling reality of the miner's life:
Men's hearts are cold. They are indifferent. Not all the coal that is dug warms the world. It remains indifferent to the lives of those who risk their lives and health down in the blackness of the earth; who crawl through dark, choking crevices with only a bit of lamp on their caps to light their silent way; whose backs are bent with toil, whose very bones ache, whose happiness is sleep, and whose peace is death. (122)
On the futility for working folks of replacing rent-a-cops with the real deal:
[Workingmen] hated the coal and iron police of the mine owners and thought anything preferable to them. They forgot the coal and iron police could join the constabulary and they forgot the history of Ireland, whence the law came: Ireland, soaked with the blood of men and of women, shed the the brutal constabulary.
"No honorable man will join," said a labor leader to me when I spoke of my fears.
"Then that leaves the workers up against the bad men, the gunmen and thugs that do join," I answered. (33)
The unmitigated evil that is child labor:
In the spring of 1903, I went to Kensington, Pennsylvania, where seventy-five thousand textile workers were on strike. Of this number at least ten thousand were little children. The workers were striking for more pay and shorter hours. Every day little children came into Union Headquarters, some with their hands off, some with the thumb missing, some with their fingers off at the knuckle. They were stooped little things, round shouldered and skinny. Many of them were not over ten years of age, although the state law prohibited their working before they were twelve years of age. (40)
Little girls and boys, barefooted, walked up and down between the endless rows of spindles, reaching thin little hands into the machinery to repair snapped threads. They crawled under machinery to oil it. They replaced spindles all day long, all day long: night through, night through. Tiny babies of six years old with faces of sixty did an eight-hour shift for ten cents a day. If they fell asleep, cold water was dashed in their faces, and the voice of the manager yelled above the ceaseless racket and whir of the machines.
Toddling chaps of four years old were brought to the mill to "help" the older sister or brother of ten years but their labor was not paid.
The machines, built in the north, were built low for the hands of little children.
This barbarism was only 108 years ago?!
But of course, the religious leaders were against something so obviously immoral, right? Alas, no. Then as now, more preachers preached on behalf of Mammon than against him. (Religion and labor, part 2):
Not far from Shamokin, in a little mountain town, the priest was holding a meeting when I went in. He was speaking in the church. I spoke in an open field. The priest told the men to go back and obey their masters and their reward would be in Heaven. He denounced the strikers as children of darkness. The miners left the church in a body and marched over to my meeting.
"Boys," I said, "this strike is called in order that you and your wives and your little ones may get a bit of Heaven before you die."
(51)
We working folks are all in this together, and the standard elite tactic is to divide us based on anything:
"Brothers," I said, "You English speaking miners of the northern fields promised your southern brothers, seventy percent of whom do not speak English, that you would support them to the end. Now you are asked to betray them, to make a separate settlement. You have a common enemy and it is your duty to fight to a finish. The enemy seeks to conquer by dividing your ranks, by making distinctions between North and South, between American and foreign. You are all miners, fighting a common cause, a common master. The iron heel feels the same to all flesh. Hunger and suffering and the cause of your children bind more closely than a common tongue.... I know no East or West, North or South when it comes to my class fighting the battle for justice...." (57)
I am not blind to the short comings of our own people. I am not unaware that leaders betray, and sell out, and play false. But this knowledge does not outweigh the fact that my class, the working class, is exploited, driven, fought back with the weapon of starvation, with guns and with venal courts whenever they strike for conditions more human, more civilized for their children, and for their children's children. (120)
Some things never change. Will we spend the money on the working class by enriching their lives or by buying more weapons and building more prisons?
"I would make the operators listen to the grievances of their workers. I would take the $650,000 spent for the militia during this strike and spend it on schools and playgrounds and libraries that West Virginia might have a more highly developed citizenry, physically and intellectually. You would then have fewer little children in the mines and factories; fewer later in jails and penitentiaries; fewer men and women submitting to conditions that are brutalizing and un-American." (100)
Is it any wonder that we have murders and holdups when the youth of the land is trained by the great industrialists to a belief in force; when they see that the possession of money puts one above the law. (66)A good question, and one that is relevant today with its trillion-dollar bankster bailouts and growing economic depression for the rest of us.
The moneyed interests and their servants, the officials of county and state, howl and yammer about law and order and American ideals in order to drown out the still, small voice of the worker asking for bread. (126)
Patriotism, then as now, meant following orders for some, and war profiteering for others:
The cost of living during the [First World] war went rocket high. Copper stock made men rich over night. But the miner, paying high prices for his food, his living, was unpatriotic if he called attention to his grievances.
Contemporary protestors and activists could learn something from Mother Jones:
I told the people after they had cheered me for ten minutes, that cheering was easy. That the side lines where it was safe, always cheered.
"The miners lost," I told them, "because they had only the constitution. The other side had bayonets. In the end, bayonets always win." (124)
As I look back over the long, long years, I see that in all movements for the bettering of men's lives, it is the pioneers who bear most of the suffering. When these movements become established, when they become popular, others reap the benefits. Thus is has been with the labor movement. (148)
She also had advice for the womenfolk:
"No matter what your fight," I said, "don't be ladylike! God almighty made women and the Rockefeller gang of thieves made the ladies." (125)
I am not a suffragist nor do I believe in 'careers' for women, especially a 'career' in factory and mill where most working women have their 'careers.' A great responsibility rests upon women--the training of the children. This is her most beautiful task. If men earned money enough, it would not be necessary for women to neglect their homes and their little ones to add to the family's income. (147)
Mother Jones' thoughts on prohibition. Mentally replace "alcohol" with "drugs" and you will find yet another feature of American society that hasn't changed much in the intervening century:
"Prohibition came," said I, "through a combination of business men who wanted to get more out of their workers, together with a lot of preachers and a group of damn cats who threw fits when they saw a workingman buy a bottle of beer but saw no reason to bristle when they and their women and a little children suffered under the curse of low wages and crushing hours of toil.
"Prohibition," said I, "has taken away the workingman's beer, has closed the saloon which was his only club. The rich guzzle as they ever did. Prohibition is not for them. They have their clubs which are sacred and immune for interference. The only club the workingman has is the policeman's. He has that when he strikes." (148)
In conclusion:
In spite of oppressors, in spite of false leaders, in spite of labor's own lack of understanding of its needs, the cause of the worker continues onward. Slowly his hours are shortened, giving him leisure to read and to think. Slowly his standard of living rises to include some of the good and beautiful things of the world. Slowly the cause of his children becomes the cause of all.His boy is taken from the breaker, his girl from the mill. Slowly those who create the wealth of the world are permitted to share it. The future is in labor's strong, rough hands. (149-150)
This book should be required reading for anyone who continues to thank the military for our freedoms, because it clearly shows how often police and military power have been used to repress and enforce the status quo, rather than to liberate and turn the world upside-down. It should also be required reading for those who believe that lawlessness on the part of government (e.g., renditions, torture, denial of habeas corpus, suppression of civil rights, etc.) began with the so-called War on Terror. It is essential that we see how things were the last time the gap between wealth and poverty was so vast, if we are to make it through these times.
June 7, 2020
“I asked a man in prison once how he happened to be there and he said he had stolen a pair of shoes. I told him if he had stolen a railroad he would be a United States Senator.”
Marry Harris Jones wrote this account of her labor union activities when she was a very old lady. A living example of working-class direction action, she was a pioneer American socialist and helped found the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) in 1905. For fifty years she supported many and various efforts to build more effective forms of labor solidarity. She worked for the railroad shop unions, for coal and metal miners, and along the way she helped myriad other working men, women, and children – decade after decade, in different industries and places. Mother Jones was the most beloved individual in the whole history of US labor movement. And she definitely wasn’t pronounced “the most dangerous woman in America” for nothing.
Her memories, as recorded in The Autobiography, summarize the long story of American labor organization. Prior to the Fire of 1871, she made her living as a dressmaker in Chicago.
When, in 1897, at the time of the Lattimore massacre, she visited a utopian colony at Ruskin, Tennessee, she found that a simple congregation of men and women of good will wasn’t enough to give the working class a chance. She saw West Virginia and Colorado coal companies domineer like absolute monarchs; over the years, she saw successful union officers become officers of coal corporations. She witnessed unions been coerced to accept token gains and accommodate themselves to the views of the powerful, avoiding any expression of hostility towards the wage system. She had known a textile president, who explained to her that he would be cheating his stockholders if he paid the workers a penny more.
Her memoirs comprise an impressively long working class experience. For me, they were both interesting and inspirational. Mary Harris Jones was “a hell raiser”, not “a lady” because a lady is the last thing she wanted to be, and – indeed – without even the right to vote, she managed “to raise hell” all over the country with her voice, fighting passionately for the workers’ rights, becoming their savior, their legend.
The Autobiography is a great piece of working class literature. Recommendable.
Marry Harris Jones wrote this account of her labor union activities when she was a very old lady. A living example of working-class direction action, she was a pioneer American socialist and helped found the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) in 1905. For fifty years she supported many and various efforts to build more effective forms of labor solidarity. She worked for the railroad shop unions, for coal and metal miners, and along the way she helped myriad other working men, women, and children – decade after decade, in different industries and places. Mother Jones was the most beloved individual in the whole history of US labor movement. And she definitely wasn’t pronounced “the most dangerous woman in America” for nothing.
Her memories, as recorded in The Autobiography, summarize the long story of American labor organization. Prior to the Fire of 1871, she made her living as a dressmaker in Chicago.
When, in 1897, at the time of the Lattimore massacre, she visited a utopian colony at Ruskin, Tennessee, she found that a simple congregation of men and women of good will wasn’t enough to give the working class a chance. She saw West Virginia and Colorado coal companies domineer like absolute monarchs; over the years, she saw successful union officers become officers of coal corporations. She witnessed unions been coerced to accept token gains and accommodate themselves to the views of the powerful, avoiding any expression of hostility towards the wage system. She had known a textile president, who explained to her that he would be cheating his stockholders if he paid the workers a penny more.
Her memoirs comprise an impressively long working class experience. For me, they were both interesting and inspirational. Mary Harris Jones was “a hell raiser”, not “a lady” because a lady is the last thing she wanted to be, and – indeed – without even the right to vote, she managed “to raise hell” all over the country with her voice, fighting passionately for the workers’ rights, becoming their savior, their legend.
The Autobiography is a great piece of working class literature. Recommendable.
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July 14, 2007"Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living."
December 27, 2023
It's been a while since I've finished a book in 3 days, but this was one of those books.
I was inspired to read it when recently reading a collection by Trotsky on art and revolution, which included a review of this autobiography which he read in exile and was blown away by.
I can see why. The book is short and the writing style simple, but the stories - each chapter being a short episode in the mines, steel mills and prisons, wherever Mother Jones' organising took her - are extremely powerful. A fierce class fighter and a proud American citizen, she's a real representative of the US working class, it's best features and traditions.
I was inspired to read it when recently reading a collection by Trotsky on art and revolution, which included a review of this autobiography which he read in exile and was blown away by.
I can see why. The book is short and the writing style simple, but the stories - each chapter being a short episode in the mines, steel mills and prisons, wherever Mother Jones' organising took her - are extremely powerful. A fierce class fighter and a proud American citizen, she's a real representative of the US working class, it's best features and traditions.
April 26, 2016
Mother Jones has been called "the most dangerous woman in America". Some refer to her as an anarchist, but in her autobiography, she denounces anarchism, though allows that these folks have their hearts in the right place. She has been called a syndicalist (which is probably closer to the truth), but the fact is that she was motivated by what she saw right there on the ground in front of her. When the Russian Revolution unfolded, she was by her own account past 90, and by the account of another biographer, in her mid-80's, so either way, she was very, very elderly, yet she championed its achievement at the Pan-American labor conference held in Mexico:
"...a new day, a day when workers of the world would know no other boundaries than those between the exploiter and the exploited. Soviet Russia, I said, had dared to challenge the old order, had handed the earth over to those who toiled upon it, and the capitalists were quaking in their scab-made shoes."
Jones' career as a political organizer began shortly after she turned 30. She was a married woman, her husband an iron worker, and she stayed home with their four small children. "Yellow fever" (which I think is malaria) came and killed her whole family, and then as if that wasn't enough, the great Chicago fire swept away her home and all her possessions.
Some would have turned to suicide. Some would have gone looking for an elderly widower to marry. Some would have gone off to find distant relatives and live with them as little more than domestic servants.
Jones reinvented herself and gave the next fifty-plus years of her life to making the world a better place.
Still clad in a widow's black garments, she put her hair up in a chaste bun and left Mary Harris Jones behind. From this time forward, she would be "Mother Jones". Think of it! The cinders from the American Civil War were barely cold, and women had no position in American political life, including the labor unions. Yet by becoming a mother to workers everywhere, including the women and small children laboring in mines and textile mills, she became a force to be reckoned with. It was a brilliant piece of theater, entirely sincere in its intention and in many cases successful. She was one of the most ardent champions of the 8 hour day:
"The person who believed in an eight-hour working day was an enemy of his country,a traitor, an anarchist...Feeling was bitter. The city [Chicago] was divided into two angry camps. The working people on one side--hungry, cold, jobless, fighting gunmen and policemen with their bare hands. On the other side the employers, knowing neither hunger or cold, supported by the newspapers, by the police, by all the power of the great state itself."
When Mother speaks, people feel they should listen, and if she speaks in their better interests, they listen harder. And in the early days, at least, the boss's goons and the local law thought twice about putting a hand on Mother. It wasn't nice!
Later, as her impact on their wallets hardened their resolve, they would deal with her less gently. She didn't care. She spent nights in jail when she could have left town instead. Sometimes she traveled into a coal mining enclave where every bit of property besides the public roads was owned by the mine owners. Even homes that had been rented to miners were closed to her, as was made clear enough to break almost anyone's heart. She describes a mining family that held a union meeting at which she was present in the coal fields of Arnot, Pennsylvania. The following day the company fires and evicts the family, and "they gathered up all their earthly belongings, which weren't much...and the sight of that wagon with the holy pictures and the sticks of furniture and the children" made the local miners so angry that they decided to strike and refuse to go back to work till their union was recognized.
The quote most well known that shows up on tee shirts, posters, and coffee mugs among the liberal and radical milieu today is knocked clean out of context, in my view. "Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living" was delivered in order to get working men out of the local church, where the priest was trying to cool down the heat and persuade the coal miners to wait for a reward in heaven. "Your organization is not a praying institution," she reminded them, "It's a fighting institution!" She tells them to leave the church and meet in the local school, which their own tax dollars had bought. And she later tells other miners that striking is done to provide "a little bit of heaven before you die."
From Chicago to the coal fields of West Virginia, from New Mexico to Pennsylvania, she was found among railroad men and their families, machinists, textile workers, and above all, miners. She had no use at all for union officialdom, and though she occasionally praised a senator or governor who saw the light of day and called off the hounds of vengeance so that unions could be organized and the workers represented, more often than not she saw them as perfidious and untrustworthy.
When Eugene Debs became a candidate for U.S. president, she embraced his campaign, though she stayed among the workers, which I think was the correct thing to do. But when Debs comes to speak to coal miners and the union officialdom wants to meet his train quietly with a few representatives, Jones proposes all the union members go to greet him. They stampede down to the train, leap over the railings, and lift Debs onto their shoulders, she says, shouting, "Debs is here! Debs is here!"
I could have been finished with this slender volume quite quickly if I hadn't been making notes (most of which, as usual, I cannot fit into my review, but then I should leave you some choice tidbits to find for yourself, and there are still many of them!) The chapters are brief, and so the book can be read just a few minutes at a time. And the introduction is written by one no less auspicious than Clarence Darrow himself.
You may look at the price and wonder whether you should pay that price for this slender little volume. The answer is, oh hell yes. Please remember that the words of the woman herself are worth twice as many from some armchair hack who wants to pick it apart and wonder whether she was really 83 or 85 at such-and-such moment? Spare yourself the blather and go straight to the primary source. It's worth double the cover price!
"...a new day, a day when workers of the world would know no other boundaries than those between the exploiter and the exploited. Soviet Russia, I said, had dared to challenge the old order, had handed the earth over to those who toiled upon it, and the capitalists were quaking in their scab-made shoes."
Jones' career as a political organizer began shortly after she turned 30. She was a married woman, her husband an iron worker, and she stayed home with their four small children. "Yellow fever" (which I think is malaria) came and killed her whole family, and then as if that wasn't enough, the great Chicago fire swept away her home and all her possessions.
Some would have turned to suicide. Some would have gone looking for an elderly widower to marry. Some would have gone off to find distant relatives and live with them as little more than domestic servants.
Jones reinvented herself and gave the next fifty-plus years of her life to making the world a better place.
Still clad in a widow's black garments, she put her hair up in a chaste bun and left Mary Harris Jones behind. From this time forward, she would be "Mother Jones". Think of it! The cinders from the American Civil War were barely cold, and women had no position in American political life, including the labor unions. Yet by becoming a mother to workers everywhere, including the women and small children laboring in mines and textile mills, she became a force to be reckoned with. It was a brilliant piece of theater, entirely sincere in its intention and in many cases successful. She was one of the most ardent champions of the 8 hour day:
"The person who believed in an eight-hour working day was an enemy of his country,a traitor, an anarchist...Feeling was bitter. The city [Chicago] was divided into two angry camps. The working people on one side--hungry, cold, jobless, fighting gunmen and policemen with their bare hands. On the other side the employers, knowing neither hunger or cold, supported by the newspapers, by the police, by all the power of the great state itself."
When Mother speaks, people feel they should listen, and if she speaks in their better interests, they listen harder. And in the early days, at least, the boss's goons and the local law thought twice about putting a hand on Mother. It wasn't nice!
Later, as her impact on their wallets hardened their resolve, they would deal with her less gently. She didn't care. She spent nights in jail when she could have left town instead. Sometimes she traveled into a coal mining enclave where every bit of property besides the public roads was owned by the mine owners. Even homes that had been rented to miners were closed to her, as was made clear enough to break almost anyone's heart. She describes a mining family that held a union meeting at which she was present in the coal fields of Arnot, Pennsylvania. The following day the company fires and evicts the family, and "they gathered up all their earthly belongings, which weren't much...and the sight of that wagon with the holy pictures and the sticks of furniture and the children" made the local miners so angry that they decided to strike and refuse to go back to work till their union was recognized.
The quote most well known that shows up on tee shirts, posters, and coffee mugs among the liberal and radical milieu today is knocked clean out of context, in my view. "Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living" was delivered in order to get working men out of the local church, where the priest was trying to cool down the heat and persuade the coal miners to wait for a reward in heaven. "Your organization is not a praying institution," she reminded them, "It's a fighting institution!" She tells them to leave the church and meet in the local school, which their own tax dollars had bought. And she later tells other miners that striking is done to provide "a little bit of heaven before you die."
From Chicago to the coal fields of West Virginia, from New Mexico to Pennsylvania, she was found among railroad men and their families, machinists, textile workers, and above all, miners. She had no use at all for union officialdom, and though she occasionally praised a senator or governor who saw the light of day and called off the hounds of vengeance so that unions could be organized and the workers represented, more often than not she saw them as perfidious and untrustworthy.
When Eugene Debs became a candidate for U.S. president, she embraced his campaign, though she stayed among the workers, which I think was the correct thing to do. But when Debs comes to speak to coal miners and the union officialdom wants to meet his train quietly with a few representatives, Jones proposes all the union members go to greet him. They stampede down to the train, leap over the railings, and lift Debs onto their shoulders, she says, shouting, "Debs is here! Debs is here!"
I could have been finished with this slender volume quite quickly if I hadn't been making notes (most of which, as usual, I cannot fit into my review, but then I should leave you some choice tidbits to find for yourself, and there are still many of them!) The chapters are brief, and so the book can be read just a few minutes at a time. And the introduction is written by one no less auspicious than Clarence Darrow himself.
You may look at the price and wonder whether you should pay that price for this slender little volume. The answer is, oh hell yes. Please remember that the words of the woman herself are worth twice as many from some armchair hack who wants to pick it apart and wonder whether she was really 83 or 85 at such-and-such moment? Spare yourself the blather and go straight to the primary source. It's worth double the cover price!
July 28, 2021
What an eye opening book to the strikes and unionization of the late 1800s into the early 1900s. Mother Jones was an American hero in the truest sense of the word. She fought strongly against large corporations that sought to profit from the poor and voiceless. The countless atrocities committed in the interest of capitalism are movingly and deftly described through various accounts of the strikes which she helped initiate and take part in.
I was moved and shocked with every event she recorded. Took me by surprise to learn that an 8 hour work day was once considered anarchic. We have come far since her writing of the book, yet still many of the issues she was addressing can still be seen in the work environments of today. The violence committed against strikers was simply atrocious and heartbreaking to hear about. Children forced to work in factories from a young age, families never getting to see each other because their lives are spent in the clutches of the factory owners. The revolutionary nature of her actions is an inspiring call to social action. Though she had done much in her life, there was still much that she sought to do and she ends with a call to bring people together and progress in spite of leaders. Though our leaders may fail us we can always push on by joining together. It's the kind of rallying call that seems just as relevant in this era as it was 100 years ago.
I can recommend this book to anyone interested in the labor movements of days past or in an amazing woman who truly believed in making a difference even if it called for radical action or potentially being hurt.
I was moved and shocked with every event she recorded. Took me by surprise to learn that an 8 hour work day was once considered anarchic. We have come far since her writing of the book, yet still many of the issues she was addressing can still be seen in the work environments of today. The violence committed against strikers was simply atrocious and heartbreaking to hear about. Children forced to work in factories from a young age, families never getting to see each other because their lives are spent in the clutches of the factory owners. The revolutionary nature of her actions is an inspiring call to social action. Though she had done much in her life, there was still much that she sought to do and she ends with a call to bring people together and progress in spite of leaders. Though our leaders may fail us we can always push on by joining together. It's the kind of rallying call that seems just as relevant in this era as it was 100 years ago.
I can recommend this book to anyone interested in the labor movements of days past or in an amazing woman who truly believed in making a difference even if it called for radical action or potentially being hurt.
June 4, 2012
This is a call for every teacher of American history and/or civics. You need to have this book included in your curriculum.
Those accustomed to polished modern "autobiographies" written by professional ghost writers need to brace themselves. Mother Jones is not, and never professes to be, a writer. She is a woman who spent her life fighting for the working class, and there is nothing polished about her prose. She says what she thinks, and you're welcome to disagree. Just don't stand in her way when there's an injustice to be righted.
The reason this book is so important now is its unrelenting description of the lives of the working class, and the horrors they endured while their employers dined on champagne and caviar. If it rings a familiar note, consider it a warning. It may be that unreasonable demands by modern labor organizations have contributed to weakening the economy, but they are still all that stands between those who do the work and those who take the money.
More important, her graphic descriptions of the violence perpetrated on men, women and children whose only desire was to live a decent life remind us of what those seeing to destroy the labor movement very much want us to forget. And we must not. Ever.
Those accustomed to polished modern "autobiographies" written by professional ghost writers need to brace themselves. Mother Jones is not, and never professes to be, a writer. She is a woman who spent her life fighting for the working class, and there is nothing polished about her prose. She says what she thinks, and you're welcome to disagree. Just don't stand in her way when there's an injustice to be righted.
The reason this book is so important now is its unrelenting description of the lives of the working class, and the horrors they endured while their employers dined on champagne and caviar. If it rings a familiar note, consider it a warning. It may be that unreasonable demands by modern labor organizations have contributed to weakening the economy, but they are still all that stands between those who do the work and those who take the money.
More important, her graphic descriptions of the violence perpetrated on men, women and children whose only desire was to live a decent life remind us of what those seeing to destroy the labor movement very much want us to forget. And we must not. Ever.
February 1, 2024
We need our own Mother Jones today with only 12% of jobs remaining unionized and two states now (2023) permitting children under age 15 to work 8 hour shifts.
Mary Harris "Mother" Jones (1830-1930) was a fierce and tireless advocate of the labor movement. A trade union organizer, a feminist, and a working class hero, Mother Jones spent years fighting for the labor rights of miners, industrial workers, and children.
Mary Harris "Mother" Jones (1830-1930) was a fierce and tireless advocate of the labor movement. A trade union organizer, a feminist, and a working class hero, Mother Jones spent years fighting for the labor rights of miners, industrial workers, and children.
December 29, 2023
Humor and humanity in the face of horror.
September 2, 2025
granny's raisin hell
May 1, 2017
Mother Theresa canonized?
Hell, canonize Mother Jones- she's got a spot heaven if there is one but if there is a heaven I rather think she's organizing in Hell fighting the Devil and giving water to the damned than sitting on a cloud strumming a harp. Sitting she said was too easy- she preferred to fight on her feet.
There was never a fight too daunting for Mother Jones, no loss ever felt more deeply than by her and no victory she didn't honor the workers before herself. If there was something that needed to be done for the working man, woman or child anywhere in the country there she was.
She made the steel baron quake and the copper baron shrink and all the moneyed kings couldn't stack their wealth as tall as she stood.
I could not help but become teary eyed reading the simple dignity she gave the downtrodden and how despite the thousands of people she talked to she never reduced them to a number- every one of them was a vibrant life to her.
This is a very wonderful and very human book.
Hell, canonize Mother Jones- she's got a spot heaven if there is one but if there is a heaven I rather think she's organizing in Hell fighting the Devil and giving water to the damned than sitting on a cloud strumming a harp. Sitting she said was too easy- she preferred to fight on her feet.
There was never a fight too daunting for Mother Jones, no loss ever felt more deeply than by her and no victory she didn't honor the workers before herself. If there was something that needed to be done for the working man, woman or child anywhere in the country there she was.
She made the steel baron quake and the copper baron shrink and all the moneyed kings couldn't stack their wealth as tall as she stood.
I could not help but become teary eyed reading the simple dignity she gave the downtrodden and how despite the thousands of people she talked to she never reduced them to a number- every one of them was a vibrant life to her.
This is a very wonderful and very human book.
June 30, 2011
I very much admire Mother Jones in many ways, but I was not at all impressed by her autobiography. It has a self-important tone, which is pretty off-putting. Add to that the fact that Jones is simply not a very good writer and that she is slightly chauvinistic and a bit reactionary on questions of women's emancipation, and the result is that, as much as I wish I could, I just could not see myself recommending this to someone interested in learning more about either her or the labor movement. That said, there is probably a better biography out there, which takes account of the tremendous role that she obviously played in the labor movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Any recommendations?
July 20, 2016
What a fascinating woman! Here is a woman who, well into her senior years, was actively organizing labor strikes for the poorest of workers. In and out of jail. At personal risk to her safety. She was, for all intents and purposes, absolutely fearless.
She does not mince words. The horrors of child labor in particular are described in meticulous detail. Some passages are difficult to read, as she recalls children permanently disfigured or disabled by work in the mills or coal mines.
Her fierce spirit and determination shine through the pages of this autobiography. I have taken one of my favorite quotes of hers and claimed it as my own mantra: "I'm not a humanitarian, I'm a hell-raiser!" Definitely recommended for people who are human rights activists.
She does not mince words. The horrors of child labor in particular are described in meticulous detail. Some passages are difficult to read, as she recalls children permanently disfigured or disabled by work in the mills or coal mines.
Her fierce spirit and determination shine through the pages of this autobiography. I have taken one of my favorite quotes of hers and claimed it as my own mantra: "I'm not a humanitarian, I'm a hell-raiser!" Definitely recommended for people who are human rights activists.
June 18, 2020
I received this as a graduation gift 12 years ago and only now did I finally sit myself down to read it. I knew nothing about Mother Jones, so it was interesting to learn about her accomplishments and incredible perseverance. But it is rather dry for one who is not especially invested in Labor Movement history; there isn't much in the way of character, for example, except for a few bits of biting dialogue that strain my suspension of disbelief (Did she really have such perfect comebacks? Did she really remember exactly what had been said all those years before?). But it is concise and informative.
January 2, 2010
Amazing, of course. Jones' writing is as plain, gusty and ascerbic as everyone says she was in person. If anyone else had written it, it might sound self-aggrandizing in places -- but that's only because the actions she recounts were in fact heroic and ingenious. Every chapter summarizes an organizing event or series of events, and if you try to read the whole thing straight through, it can get a bit repetitive, so I suggest doing the material justice by reading a chapter a week and being mightily inspired.
February 7, 2017
This book gives a good sense of what organizing is. It also really gives a sense of what miners faced a hundred years ago. There are moments when Mother is racially problematic, but for a modern reader this can be a point of learning how to better talk about labor organizing without resorting to problematic rhetoric.
April 9, 2014
A good read despite the hyperbole and factual errors. Mary Harris "Mother" Jones was one of the early leaders of the American Labor Movement. Her autobiography is both an important historical document for scholars and students and worthwhile for anyone interested in American or labor history.
August 22, 2007
UMW Forever! Solidarity Forever!
April 27, 2015
Amazing the backbone and fearless drive of this woman. Without her things would surely be different in america. Mother jones should never be forgotten.
July 13, 2016
Courageous beyond belief!
June 25, 2014
She's my #1 hero in history.
February 15, 2022
This absolutely awesome tour de force was born Mary Harris in 1837 in Cork and emigrated with her family to Toronto in the 1850s. She worked briefly as a teacher, resettled in Memphis marrying George Jones who died along with their 4 children in the 1867 Yellow Fever epidemic. She only emerged as a public figure in the 1880s, reinventing herself into her new persona: having lost her own children she becomes the mother to all, Mother Jones, one of America’s leading labour activists. For forty years she crisscrossed the country by railroad, by foot, marching for workers rights, organising protests and pro-union rallies. She led labour strikes in the steel and coal-mining country of Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Colorado. Jones was a self-professed hell-raiser and fearless agitator in the fight for social justice and labour rights for the working classes. No surprise having come directly from the rebel county of Cork. She brought that Irish grit with her and took on Rockefeller, Carnegie and Morgan. America's most dangerous woman, she made rousing speeches mobilising men to unionise. She faced down gunmen, spent time in prison, was slandered and tortured, met the opposition of press and capital and pressed for senatorial commissions to investigate dire working conditions across the USA.
Men who unionised were blacklisted. Strikers were brutally beaten, shot and disappeared. Coal barons owned the towns so storekeepers, schools churches were ordered not to accommodate union members or their families. Meetings were held at night in the woods or barns. People starved, children were maimed in the mills and mines while making wealth for others. The fight was long and bloody and she fought it until she was well into her eighties. That sense of injustice she felt materialised in Ireland, and the suffering that was allowed by the British there, was replicated in the sanctioned suffering taking place right across the states.
Her autobiography is an early history of the modern American labour movement. It’s the story of a public life, we know little about Mary Jones, the person. As Eric G. Waggoner suggests in his essay: ‘Radical Rhetoric, American Iconography, and "The Autobiography of Mother Jones"’, it’s a biography not of private life but public action and as such serves to draw attention to the labour movement, and connect its premises to a specific brand of populist American rhetoric. It’s interesting reading this alongside Peig Sayers autobiography, another social document that spoke to populist Irish rhetoric. Both are sketchy enough on dates and details, adhering to the ‘prophetic’ style of autobiography Waggoner describes, where story + truth trumps story + fact, also when you take into account the women’s ages and that dictation played a role in documenting both memoirs, it’s comprehensible that some inaccuracies have been forgiven. Waggoner also discusses James Darsey’s (1997) thesis on ‘Radical Rhetors’- speakers like Jones whose persona glides so seamlessly to contemporary myth it allows them to assume the mantle of prophet within their communities, to judge a corrupt government and call for the re-establishment of its originary foundations. Mother Jones’s reputation as an agitator certainly preceded her, there was never again a mention of Mary Harris, always ‘I am Mother Jones’. This immediately reminds me of the activist for female education, Malala Yousafsai, whose autobiography ‘I am Malala’, although much more personal, marks her out as a modern-day prophet whose self-sacrifice - being shot by the Taliban - gives her her power to censure the state.
I wondered while I was reading though, why when other women in public life were fighting for women’s rights, Jones was opposed to women’s suffrage or careers for women at all - she felt their most important role was rearing children. Was it due to the tragic loss of her own kids, an unconscious Victorianism or did her matronly persona oblige her to adopt a regressive catechism in relation to women's rights? I don’t know.
In any event, Mother Jone’s achievements are phenomenal and multitudinous. The fact they are all recorded in this book, makes, at times, for monotonous reading.
Men who unionised were blacklisted. Strikers were brutally beaten, shot and disappeared. Coal barons owned the towns so storekeepers, schools churches were ordered not to accommodate union members or their families. Meetings were held at night in the woods or barns. People starved, children were maimed in the mills and mines while making wealth for others. The fight was long and bloody and she fought it until she was well into her eighties. That sense of injustice she felt materialised in Ireland, and the suffering that was allowed by the British there, was replicated in the sanctioned suffering taking place right across the states.
Her autobiography is an early history of the modern American labour movement. It’s the story of a public life, we know little about Mary Jones, the person. As Eric G. Waggoner suggests in his essay: ‘Radical Rhetoric, American Iconography, and "The Autobiography of Mother Jones"’, it’s a biography not of private life but public action and as such serves to draw attention to the labour movement, and connect its premises to a specific brand of populist American rhetoric. It’s interesting reading this alongside Peig Sayers autobiography, another social document that spoke to populist Irish rhetoric. Both are sketchy enough on dates and details, adhering to the ‘prophetic’ style of autobiography Waggoner describes, where story + truth trumps story + fact, also when you take into account the women’s ages and that dictation played a role in documenting both memoirs, it’s comprehensible that some inaccuracies have been forgiven. Waggoner also discusses James Darsey’s (1997) thesis on ‘Radical Rhetors’- speakers like Jones whose persona glides so seamlessly to contemporary myth it allows them to assume the mantle of prophet within their communities, to judge a corrupt government and call for the re-establishment of its originary foundations. Mother Jones’s reputation as an agitator certainly preceded her, there was never again a mention of Mary Harris, always ‘I am Mother Jones’. This immediately reminds me of the activist for female education, Malala Yousafsai, whose autobiography ‘I am Malala’, although much more personal, marks her out as a modern-day prophet whose self-sacrifice - being shot by the Taliban - gives her her power to censure the state.
I wondered while I was reading though, why when other women in public life were fighting for women’s rights, Jones was opposed to women’s suffrage or careers for women at all - she felt their most important role was rearing children. Was it due to the tragic loss of her own kids, an unconscious Victorianism or did her matronly persona oblige her to adopt a regressive catechism in relation to women's rights? I don’t know.
In any event, Mother Jone’s achievements are phenomenal and multitudinous. The fact they are all recorded in this book, makes, at times, for monotonous reading.
July 24, 2019
A very fun read. Mother Jones is likely the most exciting raconteur of labour woes I’ve encountered. Her personal story of loss and the death of her husband and children at the book's opening has a way of drawing you right into this storm of a life. I also found it really neat that she grew up in Toronto, and her father was a railway worker here. She went to Toronto Normal School (where Ryerson is today), and her brother actually became a fairly reputable Catholic priest in Toronto.
I spent a lot of time exploring the destructive facet of mills along the Credit River in Mississauga, and it was fascinating and also heart-breaking to read about the rampant child labour present in cotton and textile mills Mother Jones visited and worked in while roaming about America. It made me wonder if there were child labourers in mills around the Greater Toronto Area during the mid-19th century because child labour laws only arrived in Ontario later in the century, but I have found it difficult to find documentation.
Anyways, Jones’s prose is tough as hell; Hemingway can look like a delicate flower next to her. I’m in the middle of watching a show called Damnation, and I thought many of its plot points to be somewhat exaggerated, but actually a lot of the same type of stuff in that show is described fairly vividly by Mother Jones. While the show (Damnation) is focused on a farm worker’s strike, and Jones focuses on industrial workers, reading a chapter of Mother Jones’ autobiography often felt like wading through an episode of Damnation. It was exhilarating.
Mother Jones also has this sort of biblical pace and cadence. It feels like you're reading a prophetic verse from Isaiah, the Torah or even a Gospel. It’s very compelling stuff, and her biblical allusions are often so subtle and well integrated. I suspect some of that might have been related to her activism alongside Thomas J. Hagerty a Wobbly and Catholic priest, who is featured for a whole chapter in this autobiography. One of my favourite biblical references though is a very overt one, I want to write so much more about this book, but am really behind on a lot of stuff, so I will just finish with this great section:
"So you want a permit to speak in Duquesne, do you?" he grinned.
"We do that," said I, "as American citizens demanding our constitutional rights."
He laughed aloud. "Jesus Christ himself could not hold a meeting in Duquesne!" said he.
"I have no doubt of that," said I," not while you are mayor. "You may remember, however, that He drove such men as you out of the temple!"
He laughed again. Steel makes one feel secure.
We spoke. We were arrested and taken to jail. While in my cell, a group of worthy citizens, including town officials and some preachers came to see me.
"Mother Jones," they said, "why don't you use your great gifts and your knowledge of men for something better and higher than agitating?"
"There was a man once," said I, "who had great gifts and a knowledge of men and he agitated against a powerful government that sought to make men serfs, to grind them down. He founded this nation that men might be free. He was a gentleman agitator!"
"Are you referring to George Washington?" said one of the group.
"I am so," said I. "And there was a man once who had the gift of a tender heart and he agitated against powerful men, against invested wealth, for the freedom of black men. He agitated against slavery!"
"Are you speaking of Abraham Lincoln?" said a little man who was peeking at me over another fellow's shoulder.
"I am that," said I.
"And there was a man once who walked among men, among the poor and the despised and the lowly, and he agitated against the powers of Rome… he agitated for the Kingdom of God!"
"Are you speaking of Jesus Christ?" said a preacher.
"I am," said I. "The agitator you nailed to a cross some centuries ago. I did not know that his name was known in the region of steel!"
They all said nothing and left.
I spent a lot of time exploring the destructive facet of mills along the Credit River in Mississauga, and it was fascinating and also heart-breaking to read about the rampant child labour present in cotton and textile mills Mother Jones visited and worked in while roaming about America. It made me wonder if there were child labourers in mills around the Greater Toronto Area during the mid-19th century because child labour laws only arrived in Ontario later in the century, but I have found it difficult to find documentation.
Anyways, Jones’s prose is tough as hell; Hemingway can look like a delicate flower next to her. I’m in the middle of watching a show called Damnation, and I thought many of its plot points to be somewhat exaggerated, but actually a lot of the same type of stuff in that show is described fairly vividly by Mother Jones. While the show (Damnation) is focused on a farm worker’s strike, and Jones focuses on industrial workers, reading a chapter of Mother Jones’ autobiography often felt like wading through an episode of Damnation. It was exhilarating.
Mother Jones also has this sort of biblical pace and cadence. It feels like you're reading a prophetic verse from Isaiah, the Torah or even a Gospel. It’s very compelling stuff, and her biblical allusions are often so subtle and well integrated. I suspect some of that might have been related to her activism alongside Thomas J. Hagerty a Wobbly and Catholic priest, who is featured for a whole chapter in this autobiography. One of my favourite biblical references though is a very overt one, I want to write so much more about this book, but am really behind on a lot of stuff, so I will just finish with this great section:
"So you want a permit to speak in Duquesne, do you?" he grinned.
"We do that," said I, "as American citizens demanding our constitutional rights."
He laughed aloud. "Jesus Christ himself could not hold a meeting in Duquesne!" said he.
"I have no doubt of that," said I," not while you are mayor. "You may remember, however, that He drove such men as you out of the temple!"
He laughed again. Steel makes one feel secure.
We spoke. We were arrested and taken to jail. While in my cell, a group of worthy citizens, including town officials and some preachers came to see me.
"Mother Jones," they said, "why don't you use your great gifts and your knowledge of men for something better and higher than agitating?"
"There was a man once," said I, "who had great gifts and a knowledge of men and he agitated against a powerful government that sought to make men serfs, to grind them down. He founded this nation that men might be free. He was a gentleman agitator!"
"Are you referring to George Washington?" said one of the group.
"I am so," said I. "And there was a man once who had the gift of a tender heart and he agitated against powerful men, against invested wealth, for the freedom of black men. He agitated against slavery!"
"Are you speaking of Abraham Lincoln?" said a little man who was peeking at me over another fellow's shoulder.
"I am that," said I.
"And there was a man once who walked among men, among the poor and the despised and the lowly, and he agitated against the powers of Rome… he agitated for the Kingdom of God!"
"Are you speaking of Jesus Christ?" said a preacher.
"I am," said I. "The agitator you nailed to a cross some centuries ago. I did not know that his name was known in the region of steel!"
They all said nothing and left.
February 23, 2025
Mother Jones is an almost legendary figure in labor organizing. The death of her entire immediate family saw her adopt the common laborer as her new children and she would protect these children with every tool at her disposal. Jones's autobiography details decades in the labor movement, moving from community to community to help with strikes and organizing efforts. She lead meetings and was arrested repeatedly and was under constant threats against her life.
The copy of the autobiography I read was extensively annotated and noted that it was likely dictated by Jones and not written. She was in her 90s, after all. They point out the numerous spelling errors and the chronological inaccuracies. The editors do not judge these. The book is Jones's recollections and not investigative journalism. She had 50 years of memories rolling around to sort through and I understand if she got some dates out of order. She was a part of dozens of labor actions over those 50 years and her efforts were tireless.
The autobiography paints a heroic but complicated picture of Jones. She always went where she was needed and whipped up the workers to a fervor so they'd be fired up for the hardships of a strike. She was arrested several times and repeatedly defied government orders to leave and cease her activities. Just knowing Mother Jones was in town was often enough to have the local police ordered to arrest her.
Mother Jones would, several times, go to the wives of the workers and organize them into an ad hoc militia armed with brooms and mops and lead them against strike breakers and scabs. I think the idea was that strikebreaking Pinkertons might be less likely to shoot women and that they might shame the scabs in to going home.
She always held a special place for child workers and frequently infiltrated factories known to employ them so she could document herself the horrible conditions under which they labored. Mother Jones was an incredibly brave woman who never backed down in the face of incredible violence and threats. But she was hesitant to see violence carried out by the workers. She almost always cautioned the workers to not resort to violence though at other times she would tell them to buy any gun available to them. This at a time where the most effective form of strikebreaking involved troops firing on strike camps with machine guns, and Jones writes of such incidents in which fleeing strikers and their families are cut down by hails of bullets.
The really weird parts come at the end where Jones spends quite a few pages railing against womens' suffrage. Jones was consistently fueled by her fervent christianity and this seems to have lead her to conclude that husbands could just vote in the interests of their wives. She had no problem organizing women for labor but felt that women should be in the home with children. It's so weird in 2025 to see an ardent socialist who emphatically did not support the emancipation of women. Perhaps Jones was also a product of her time.
The copy I read also had several supplementary essays and columns some contemporary and some modern. Most were about Jones as a person but one was about the autobiography itself pointing out some peculiarities such as the omission of any mention of the IWW. I don't know if Jones soured on the IWW in her twilight years.
It's an interesting collection of stories from the labor movement from the late 19th to early 20th centuries featuring one of its most fiery orators and figures.
The copy of the autobiography I read was extensively annotated and noted that it was likely dictated by Jones and not written. She was in her 90s, after all. They point out the numerous spelling errors and the chronological inaccuracies. The editors do not judge these. The book is Jones's recollections and not investigative journalism. She had 50 years of memories rolling around to sort through and I understand if she got some dates out of order. She was a part of dozens of labor actions over those 50 years and her efforts were tireless.
The autobiography paints a heroic but complicated picture of Jones. She always went where she was needed and whipped up the workers to a fervor so they'd be fired up for the hardships of a strike. She was arrested several times and repeatedly defied government orders to leave and cease her activities. Just knowing Mother Jones was in town was often enough to have the local police ordered to arrest her.
Mother Jones would, several times, go to the wives of the workers and organize them into an ad hoc militia armed with brooms and mops and lead them against strike breakers and scabs. I think the idea was that strikebreaking Pinkertons might be less likely to shoot women and that they might shame the scabs in to going home.
She always held a special place for child workers and frequently infiltrated factories known to employ them so she could document herself the horrible conditions under which they labored. Mother Jones was an incredibly brave woman who never backed down in the face of incredible violence and threats. But she was hesitant to see violence carried out by the workers. She almost always cautioned the workers to not resort to violence though at other times she would tell them to buy any gun available to them. This at a time where the most effective form of strikebreaking involved troops firing on strike camps with machine guns, and Jones writes of such incidents in which fleeing strikers and their families are cut down by hails of bullets.
The really weird parts come at the end where Jones spends quite a few pages railing against womens' suffrage. Jones was consistently fueled by her fervent christianity and this seems to have lead her to conclude that husbands could just vote in the interests of their wives. She had no problem organizing women for labor but felt that women should be in the home with children. It's so weird in 2025 to see an ardent socialist who emphatically did not support the emancipation of women. Perhaps Jones was also a product of her time.
The copy I read also had several supplementary essays and columns some contemporary and some modern. Most were about Jones as a person but one was about the autobiography itself pointing out some peculiarities such as the omission of any mention of the IWW. I don't know if Jones soured on the IWW in her twilight years.
It's an interesting collection of stories from the labor movement from the late 19th to early 20th centuries featuring one of its most fiery orators and figures.
June 24, 2021
I found the Autobiography of Mother Jones to be quite inspiring. Mary G. Harris Jones (1837-1930) known as Mother Jones was an Irish-born schoolteacher and dressmaker who became an influential union organizer and activist. She helped coordinate major strikes and co-founded the Industrial Workers of the World. Because of her effectiveness in organizing workers and their families, she became known as "the most dangerous woman in America."
In 1867 her husband and four children all died of yellow fever. This was followed in 1871 by another tragedy; her dress shop was destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. As part of the effort to rebuilt the city, she became an organizer for the Knights of Labor and the United Mine Workers. A powerful and charismatic speaker, she was particularly successful in organizing the wives and children of striking workers in demonstrations on their behalf. Often bullied and threatened, even sometimes jailed, she traveled all across the country to in her tireless struggle to achieve fairness and justice for working people.
I am reminded of Tom Joad from John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath who, inspired by the Christ-like Preacher Casy, gave a farewell speech to his Ma. “Then it don’ matter. Then I’ll be all aroun’ in the dark. I’ll be everywhere — wherever you look. Wherever they’s a fight so hungry people can eat, I’ll be there. Wherever they’s a cop beatin’ up a guy, I’ll be there. If Casy knowed, why, I’ll be in the way guys yell when they’re mad an’ — I’ll be in the way kids laugh when they’re hungry an’ they know supper’s ready. An’ when our folks eat the stuff they raise an’ live in the houses they build–why, I’ll be there. See?”
And so she was.
June 24, 2021
In 1867 her husband and four children all died of yellow fever. This was followed in 1871 by another tragedy; her dress shop was destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. As part of the effort to rebuilt the city, she became an organizer for the Knights of Labor and the United Mine Workers. A powerful and charismatic speaker, she was particularly successful in organizing the wives and children of striking workers in demonstrations on their behalf. Often bullied and threatened, even sometimes jailed, she traveled all across the country to in her tireless struggle to achieve fairness and justice for working people.
I am reminded of Tom Joad from John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath who, inspired by the Christ-like Preacher Casy, gave a farewell speech to his Ma. “Then it don’ matter. Then I’ll be all aroun’ in the dark. I’ll be everywhere — wherever you look. Wherever they’s a fight so hungry people can eat, I’ll be there. Wherever they’s a cop beatin’ up a guy, I’ll be there. If Casy knowed, why, I’ll be in the way guys yell when they’re mad an’ — I’ll be in the way kids laugh when they’re hungry an’ they know supper’s ready. An’ when our folks eat the stuff they raise an’ live in the houses they build–why, I’ll be there. See?”
And so she was.
June 24, 2021
September 8, 2022
Mother Jones is another one of those historical names I had heard, but didn't really know much about. I knew she'd been a labor organizer and had been accused of being a "communist." (Mostly by the coal, railroad and steel barons who she took to task for abusing the American working man and their families.)
By the time Mary Harris Jones, widowed and with her children taken by yellow fever thrust herself into the nascent labor movement in the last part of the nineteenth century, she was already middle-aged. The last time she was jailed for defying the wealthy baron's lackeys in the military and police and speaking out publicly about the abuses of the wealthy despots who owned most of America, she was in her upper 80's.
Mother Jones autobiography brings to life the struggle, the hardships workers and their families had to endure and the stubborn resistance of the obscenely wealthy to grant any kind of basic living wage and decent working conditions to the people who created their life of privilege. She was totally devoted to the cause, and because of her efforts (and those of other organizers) we got the 40 hour week, safer working conditions and the outlawing of sending children as young as 6 into the mills and factories to make a pittance to help their families survive.
I was moved by her story and came away believing Mother Jones was a true American hero. I'd love to see a movie based on this book. It would be a great starring role for a versatile actress. Meryl Streep, are you listening?
By the time Mary Harris Jones, widowed and with her children taken by yellow fever thrust herself into the nascent labor movement in the last part of the nineteenth century, she was already middle-aged. The last time she was jailed for defying the wealthy baron's lackeys in the military and police and speaking out publicly about the abuses of the wealthy despots who owned most of America, she was in her upper 80's.
Mother Jones autobiography brings to life the struggle, the hardships workers and their families had to endure and the stubborn resistance of the obscenely wealthy to grant any kind of basic living wage and decent working conditions to the people who created their life of privilege. She was totally devoted to the cause, and because of her efforts (and those of other organizers) we got the 40 hour week, safer working conditions and the outlawing of sending children as young as 6 into the mills and factories to make a pittance to help their families survive.
I was moved by her story and came away believing Mother Jones was a true American hero. I'd love to see a movie based on this book. It would be a great starring role for a versatile actress. Meryl Streep, are you listening?
March 26, 2023
What an interesting story. What a brave person. She should be on the list of heroes for freedom. She certainly believed in the constitution.
But, like lots of heroes she had some blind spots. She didn’t believe in votes for women she felt that raising the wages would bring women home to take care of families which she thought was the highest calling for a woman. (This was before birth control, before child care, etc.)
She also had a few racist comments in her book. But if she were alive today I’d like to think she would see that differently.
Ultimately she was on the side of the poor, poor working classes, their families and the hard lives they, men, women and children all led. And really, she herself was a feminist in that she stood shoulder to shoulder with leaders and would not take no for an answer. She was jailed many times.
I LOVED this quote, still working to get rid of the word ladies from our lexicon.
“Don’t be ladylike, God almighty made women and the Rockefeller gang of thieves made the ladies. I have just fought 16 months of bitter warfare in Colorado. I have been up against armed mercenaries but this old woman, without a vote, and with nothing but a hat pin has scared them.”
But, like lots of heroes she had some blind spots. She didn’t believe in votes for women she felt that raising the wages would bring women home to take care of families which she thought was the highest calling for a woman. (This was before birth control, before child care, etc.)
She also had a few racist comments in her book. But if she were alive today I’d like to think she would see that differently.
Ultimately she was on the side of the poor, poor working classes, their families and the hard lives they, men, women and children all led. And really, she herself was a feminist in that she stood shoulder to shoulder with leaders and would not take no for an answer. She was jailed many times.
I LOVED this quote, still working to get rid of the word ladies from our lexicon.
“Don’t be ladylike, God almighty made women and the Rockefeller gang of thieves made the ladies. I have just fought 16 months of bitter warfare in Colorado. I have been up against armed mercenaries but this old woman, without a vote, and with nothing but a hat pin has scared them.”
March 26, 2025
Writing Style: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆
Plot & Events: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆
World-Building: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆
Characters: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆
Originality: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
Personal Interest: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆
Ending: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
Average: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ 3.7 stars
"We want President Roosevelt to hear the wail of the children who never have a chance to go to school but eleven and twelve hours a day in the textile mills of Pennsylvania; who weave the carpets that he and you walk upon; and the lace curtains in your windows, and the clothes of the people. Fifty years ago there was a cry against slavery and men gave up their lives to stop the selling of black children on the block. Today the white child is sold for two dollars a week to the manufacturers. Fifty years ago the black babies were sold C. O. D. Today the white baby is sold on the installment plan.
In Georgia where children work day and night in the cotton mills they have just passed a bill to protect song birds. What about the little children from whom all song is gone?
I shall ask the president in the name of the aching hearts of these little ones that he emancipate them from slavery. I will tell the president that the prosperity he boasts of is the prosperity of the rich wrung from the poor and the helpless."
Plot & Events: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆
World-Building: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆
Characters: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆
Originality: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
Personal Interest: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆
Ending: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
Average: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ 3.7 stars
"We want President Roosevelt to hear the wail of the children who never have a chance to go to school but eleven and twelve hours a day in the textile mills of Pennsylvania; who weave the carpets that he and you walk upon; and the lace curtains in your windows, and the clothes of the people. Fifty years ago there was a cry against slavery and men gave up their lives to stop the selling of black children on the block. Today the white child is sold for two dollars a week to the manufacturers. Fifty years ago the black babies were sold C. O. D. Today the white baby is sold on the installment plan.
In Georgia where children work day and night in the cotton mills they have just passed a bill to protect song birds. What about the little children from whom all song is gone?
I shall ask the president in the name of the aching hearts of these little ones that he emancipate them from slavery. I will tell the president that the prosperity he boasts of is the prosperity of the rich wrung from the poor and the helpless."
September 3, 2021
This book makes for powerful reading, as it chronicles the life an impressive person in her own words (for the post part; there's a foreword and an afterword, and in introduction to the 1925 edition my Clarence Darrow). This facsimile edition has a number of footnotes added, to explain where the original text got a date wrong or misspelled someone's name, but there's not enough of that to distract the reader very much, because MJ's stories are so compelling.
The amount of heartbreak that the book records is intense: Some fever sweeps through Chicago, and and the author loses all her children to it. Once her own family are out of the picture, she volunteers to help others who are suffering. Once she's out of quarantine, she leaves Chicago behind and begins her career of union organizing all over the country. She's a champion of the downtrodden everywhere, and unflinchingly describes the many failed campaigns as well as those that ended in victory. I won't go into detail here, but instead encourage you to read this book.
The amount of heartbreak that the book records is intense: Some fever sweeps through Chicago, and and the author loses all her children to it. Once her own family are out of the picture, she volunteers to help others who are suffering. Once she's out of quarantine, she leaves Chicago behind and begins her career of union organizing all over the country. She's a champion of the downtrodden everywhere, and unflinchingly describes the many failed campaigns as well as those that ended in victory. I won't go into detail here, but instead encourage you to read this book.
May 14, 2024
A very interesting account of Mother Jones' experiences as an agitator helping to establish trades unions in the states. Some really frank descriptions of the working and living conditions of the workers of the time, particularly the parts about child labour
Sara Nichols did an amazing job narrating this and bringing Mother Jones to life, I've seen some reviews saying that they thought it was dry or boring at times, but I never felt that way listening to it. The various rants and dressings down that she goes off on throughout the book were particularly entertaining to listen to
Also, just a thought, but I find it really interesting how Mother Jones describes the anarchists of Chicago and the meetings they held that she attended during her earlier years (at the time of the Haymarket affair). She overall seemed to disagree with them and their ideologies, but to be honest I think her role as an agitator and her condemnation of capitalism and the institutions that put capital gain above human lives is pretty anarchist
Sara Nichols did an amazing job narrating this and bringing Mother Jones to life, I've seen some reviews saying that they thought it was dry or boring at times, but I never felt that way listening to it. The various rants and dressings down that she goes off on throughout the book were particularly entertaining to listen to
Also, just a thought, but I find it really interesting how Mother Jones describes the anarchists of Chicago and the meetings they held that she attended during her earlier years (at the time of the Haymarket affair). She overall seemed to disagree with them and their ideologies, but to be honest I think her role as an agitator and her condemnation of capitalism and the institutions that put capital gain above human lives is pretty anarchist
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