Customer Reviews

The Coal King's Slaves

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Wow, I loved it. What a story. My grandfathers worked in mines. It gave me a great insight to their struggles. The stories they told me in my child hood were explained in detail. I am not much of a book reader, but I could not put this book down. Gripping. All persons who work for a living should read this book. See what these people did to pave the way for all of us. Be thankful and don't let their stuggles go for not in this era of corperate greed. A must read for all union members.

This is a griping historic novel. It brings forth emotions while being grounded in hard facts. Readers walk away with expanded knowledge of the events and issues facing miners of past years while reading expertly constructed storylines.
This book brings vivid images of life as a Scranton coal miner a century ago. The insensitivity of mine bosses is shown, as they were upset at mining accidents not for the sake of those injured yet because of production delays. Further lack of feeling is shown when mine owners would pay for the removal of dead mules in mines, yet families would have to pay to bring the bodies of their dead relatives from mines.
We learn a main reason why mine owners were insentivies was that it was railroad companies that owned most of the mines. Laws passed allowed rail companies to control the transportaiton of coal. Railrod companies gobbled up owning coal mines and refused to transport coal of competitors. The owners of railroads were generally not sympathetic to the plight of miners.
Miners suffered and they reacted. 61,000 miners died nationwide at work from 1838 through 1914. Growing labor unreast was met with company-sponsored attackers that put down unrest and killed some miners. Mine union members were barred from employment. Vigilantes struck back. Mine executives and public officials were killed. Miners marched, and Sheriffs and deputized Sheriffs opened fire shooting and killing miners.
Scranton a century ago was a city with much tension, struggles, and death. This novel brings that Scranton of yesteryear alive. This book about working underground is a rare gem.

As the descendant of a Welsh coal miner from Scranton I believe I am the exact target audience for this book and I really wanted to love it. Unfortunately, the author's heavy handed injection of historical facts completely disrupts the novel.

The author has obviously done a tremendous amount of research on the history of Scranton and the mining community in particular. He fills the pages with facts and figures about the development of the area. However, this makes the dialogue so stilted and unconvincing that you can't get immersed in the novel's world or even see the characters as actual people. Much of the action is contrived to have two characters sit down and ask each other questions about things they should already know. For example, the family hosts some baorders from Wales who appear one night, ask a bunch of questions about how mining in Scranton differs from the old country and then essentailly have no other function in the novel.

There is no plot other than a brief romance in the middle of the novel, and the characters are very one dimentional. The good guys act good all the time and the bad guys are always cads. There's no real tension, development or drama.

He could have written a very detailed history of the area using occasional hypothetical characters to illustrate points. Or he could have written a historical novel about turn of the century Scranton. By trying to do both at the same time he has unfortunately failed at both.

The story began promisingly enough, but was quickly bogged down by pages of historical information spouted by the main characters via completely unbelievable speechifying, or was worked into the text through the device of a character's reading. This had the effect of bringing what little action there was to a grinding halt.

Much of the information was only tangentially relevant to the story; for example, the main character sits his young protege down and tells him all about the Molly Maguires - thirteen pages of infodump. Mr. Williams should have written an anecdotal history of coal mining and not bothered with writing a novel.

The Coal King's Slaves provides an excellent overview of the everyday trials and tribulations of a Welsh mining family in the Anthracite coalfields of Pennsylvania in the last decade of the nineteenth century. The five members of the family are presented in a believable manner, and help to illustrate the dangers faced by underground miners. The tragedies presented in the loss of one son's hand in a mining accident and the death of another son illustrate the every day conditions faced in these under regulated mines. The concerns of the parents reminded me of my mother's narration of the death of her oldest brother in a mining accident shortly after his return from World War I.

The book is an excellent read for anyone interested in pick and shovel coal mining in the United States. The book also offers insights into the hostility between ethnic groups in nineteenth century America.

If you'd like to know more or learn about what it was like to be a coal miner - especially in Pennsylvania, then do read this book. Williams weaves an excellent novel based on the facts. He captures the essence of what the coal miners went through without exaggeration. A masterful tale or what really happened!