Rebecca "Becky" Bailey's family roots are in McDowell and Mercer Counties in West Virginia, USA. She first learned about Matewan through stories her coal miner grandfather told about witnessing Sid Hatfield's murder. Later, when she came to West Virginia University to study public history, she was hired to help collect oral histories in Matewan and Mingo County. She wrote Matewan Before the Massacre because she could not let the story go.
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Description
"A close-up history of economic and political factions struggling for control of the southern West Virginia coalfields. You couldn't create fiction with this much drama." Ronald L. Lewis, author Transforming the Appalachian Countryside "[Bailey] has saved from oblivion the massacre's local social, economic, and political context." Paul Salstrom, The Journal of Southern History "Bailey's study contributes to the breadth of work in Appalachian studies that is recontextualizing the complexities and nuances of Appalachian communities." Erica Lies, Oral History Review "...fascinating." Steve Fesenmaier, The Charleston Gazette "Rebecca J. Bailey's book makes early twentieth-century Mingo County come alive and emphasizes the significance of local history." Ginny Young, West Virginia History