Black men generally went on strike for the same reasons their White counterparts did—for better pay and improved working conditions.  Most strikes were peaceful, but not all.

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CHARLESTON, W. Va., April 17.—An extensive and important strike among the laborers upon the new Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad, from White Sulphur Springs to Kanawha Falls, is in progress. The strike is for about four month’s back pay, and the number of men engaged in it is estimated at from 800 to 1,000, mostly negroes. 

The strike began near Stretcher’s Neck, on New River, and the negroes from there marched along the road westwardly, compelling all laborers, of both colors, with whom they came in contact to stop work.

The strikers were augmented in strength as they proceeded, and when they arrived at Kanawha Falls last night there was a very large force of them. They have continually shown a very hostile and mutinous feeling towards the railroad company and its officers. At the Hawk’s Nest, about twelve miles east of Kanawha Falls, on New River, the negroes took possession of the station, and among other acts of violence broke and turned a switch so that a train going east a short time afterwards collided with a construction train upon the switch. The collision resulted in the wrecking of an engine and slight injury of several persons on board the train. At about the same time a very large rock and two or three stumps were rolled down the steep mountain next above the Hawk’s Nest upon the track, and the probabilities are undoubted that the strikers were the perpetrators of the acts.

The belligerent spirit manifested by the negroes has inspired travellers and residents of the sections in which they are figuring with fear and anxiety, and the conduct of the strikers thus far means mischief beyond a question. 

The amount for which the strike was made is variously estimated, but it is probably in the neighborhood of $150,000. Much apprehension is felt by the people along the line, as the negroes will undoubtedly do a great deal of sacking and plundering for the means of subsistence, the country in that section being comparatively poor in supplies. Major A. H. Perry and Colonel Vancleve, Superintendents of the road, have gone to the New River country to see what can be done in the matter, but the strikers are bitterly determined to have their money or hold the road and stop the telegraph and trains.

If an adjustment is not effected in the course of forty-eight hours, or even less, the trains will probably stop running from necessity, as landslides are constantly occurring on the road. 

E. C. B.

Source: Reprinted in Foner, Philip S., and Ronald L. Lewis, eds. Black Worker: A Documentary History, Volume II: The Black Worker During the Era of the National Labor Union. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1978.

Document 4.10.4: “Colored Trouble at Stretcher’s Neck,” New York World, April 20, 1873