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What happened next was like a mini-Gettysburg. The miners and company fought for days, with the miners doing their best to take advantage of their numbers, and the company doing their best to out-Snidely Whiplash the little guys. They had better weapons and more ammunition, and at one point, they even wrangled up a bunch of planes that had been used in World War I and bombed and gassed the miners. The U.S. Air Force supplied more modern bombers, who flew in from Maryland and took aerial photos of the miners' positions, making it one of the only times air power was used on U.S. citizens.



Like 1920s Google Maps, if Google was openly trying to kill you.

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Despite their many disadvantages, the miners actually managed to get into the counties they wanted to unionize. However, they had to relent when the Army arrived with enough ground troops to paint the town with anyone the coal bosses pointed at. The miners retreated, hiding their guns and ammo on the way in case the battle sparked up again.

Preservation Alliance of West Virginia

"You two for treason and you two for dressing like newsies."

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When the battle ended, 100 people were dead and over 1 million bullets had been fired. To this day, you can still find weapons and ammunition where the fleeing miners hid it inside old trees and crevices between rocks.

The government tried to keep it quiet that they'd supplied bombers, the military, and flat-out war against people who only wanted what the rest of the United States had. But the miners would ultimately be vindicated in the 1930s when the horrific working conditions in Appalachian coal mines were exposed. Fourteen years later, all of West Virginia was unionized, and American corporations never abused their power ever again.

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When not finding ways businesses have screwed people over, Evan V. Symon is a workshop moderator and can be found on Facebook.

For more companies to boycott, check out 6 Companies That Are Clearly Catering to Supervillains and 6 Companies That Rigged the Game (And Changed the World).

And stop by LinkSTORM to learn why you should just go ahead and live off the grid.

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