preview

Essay On Mother Jones

Decent Essays

Mother Jones Mary Harris Jones was born in Ireland in 1837, she came from a long line of freedom fighters. Mary’s father was a laborer on a railway construction crew. He went to Canada and prepared citizenship for his family. Mary was raised in Toronto, Canada and learned to be a dressmaker and a teacher. When Mary was twenty she earned her teaching certificate and moved to Michigan. She was a teacher there for eight months before moving to Chicago to become a dressmaker. Mary then moved to Tennessee, met her husband George jones and continued teaching. Her husband George was an iron worker and belonged to the Iron Moulders Union. It was with George that Mary’s interest in Unions and fairness to workers emerged. Mary learned about unions through her husband. Tragedy struck Mary’s family during the yellow …show more content…

Mary was even charged with a capital offense and sentenced for twenty years. The Governor was forced to release her due to such a large public outcry. Mary testified before The U.S. Congress because of the Ludlow Colorado incident where National Guardsmen raided a colony of miners. The Miners were on strike, they were living in tents along with their wives and children. Twenty people were killed during the raid, mostly women and children. Mary was deeply affected by this tragedy and referred to it as “The machine Gun Massacre”. Mary travelled across country telling everyone who would listen about what happened in Ludlow. In 1921 Mary settled in Washington D.C., but still travelled across the country doing what she could to help workers. Mary attended her last strike in 1924, she was 89 years old and could not even hold a pen in her fingers but she was still willing to fight. Mary died in Maryland, she was one-hundred years old. She was buried where she had requested, Union Miners Cemetery in Mt. Olive,

Get Access