Autobiography of Mother Jones by Mary Harris Jones

Joining strikers in the coal mines of Pennsylvania in 1873, she witnessed conditions bordering on slavery and children near starvation. She could inspire workers to stay with the union during the hard days of labor action, when there was neither work nor money. The Knights of Labor often sent her to particularly tense spots during strikes. Mary discovered she had a real talent for inspiring others with her speeches. This union was founded in 1869 in an attempt to unite all workers under a single organization. Mary Jones began working as a union activist with the Knights of Labor.

From that time on, she pursued union organizing with an astonishing enthusiasm that made her an American legend. She felt that the union had saved her life. Their compassion towards her touched her heart. Homeless and penniless, she turned to her deceased husband's fellow union members for help. She returned to Chicago and worked as a dressmaker, but her bad luck continued when her dressmaking business was destroyed in the Chicago Fire of 1871. At 37, Mary Jones's life was devastated and she was completely on her own. But in 1867 a sudden yellow fever epidemic swept through Memphis, taking the lives of Mary's husband and all of her children. Work was plentiful in Tennessee, and for a time the family enjoyed a modest prosperity. During the first four years of their marriage they had four children. There she met and married Robert Jones, an iron worker who was an enthusiastic member of the Iron Moulder's Union. She moved to Chicago to explore the possibilities of becoming a professional dressmaker, but, at age 30, returned to teaching, this time in Memphis, Tennessee. She became a teacher at a Catholic school in Monroe, Michigan, soon after graduation. Mary was an excellent student and she graduated with high honors from high school. The family first settled in Toronto, Canada, where Mary's father was working on one of the first Canadian railroads. Once he became a naturalized American citizen around 1840, he sent for his wife and daughter. When Mary was five years old, her father came to America, where he went to work building canals and railroads, a job similar to the one he had held in Ireland. 'Mother Jones' was born in 1830, near Dublin, Ireland to parents who were eager to emigrate. She did this for seventy years as a trade union organizer, a feminist, and a campaigner against child labor in America. Losing her own family to yellow fever, Mary Jones found in the lives of the downtrodden a new family to nurture and support. Mary 'Mother' Jones (1830 –1930) is one of the great legends of American progressive politics.

Autobiography of Mother Jones by Mary Harris Jones