Miners’ Benevolent Association Collection
Description
This collection consists of two documents attributed to the Miner’s Benevolent Association, one of the earliest miners’ unions in Pennsylvania and the United States. One, a manuscript broadside titled “Notice to All Whom it may concern July, 26, 1866,” documents labor strife in the coal fields of Pennsylvania predating the period known as the “Long Strike” in the early 1870s and possibly involving Irish-American miners, affiliated with the Ancient Order of Hibernians and its secret violent branch, the Molly Maguires. The broadside contains candid language and threats against any strikebreaker or “black sheep” daring to defy the strike order and enter the mines to load union coal. This collection also contains an 1864 Miner’s Benevolent Association membership certificate issued to Edward Sweny, with a handwritten note on the back attesting to Sweny’s good standing as “a true union man and Black listed at that.”
Description adapted from the holding repository’s finding aid; it may describe the larger collection that contains the AOH/LAOH material.
The AOH does not hold these materials. Access, reproduction, and rights are governed by the holding repository under its own terms.