"Odyssey of revolt”: the life and times of Mother Jones

“Her story was a veritable Odyssey of revolt”. These are the words of Upton Sinclair, an early 20th century “muckraking” journalist who excoriated the mistreatment of working-class Americans. Sinclair is describing the life of a remarkable woman; ‘Mother Jones’, with whom he helped to organize labour strikes in Colorado. Indeed, Mother Jones’ life and activism would lead to her being described as the “most dangerous woman in America.”

In this essay, I will describe Mother Jones, a self-described “hell-raiser”, and her fascinating life. I will look at how she organized strikes, gave speeches, and used her charm and leadership skills to improve the lives of American workers. Her legacy continues to this day — a well-known left-wing American magazine bears her name. Let’s look at her “Odyssey of revolt.”

Mary Harris, as she was then known, was born near Cork City in July 1837, the daughter of tenant farmers. At the age of 10, she and her family emigrated to Toronto to escape the clutches of the potato famine. After leaving school, she moved to the United States. At the age of 23, she met and married George Jones, a metalworker and member of the International Iron Moulders Union, in Memphis, Tennessee.

In 1867, Jones lost her husband and four children, all under the age of five, to yellow fever, an infectious disease that claimed the lives of thousands of Memphis’ people during the 19th century. Jones, now single and destitute, moved to Chicago, where she opened a dressmaking business. She moved to a city that was experiencing a population explosion — between 1840 and 1890, it would go from a town of 4,000 to a metropolis of one million. The construction of railroads, coupled with technologies like the telephone and electricity, made urban life more appealing. However, it would not be experienced equally by all.

In her autobiography, Jones remarked on the horrifying contrast between the wealth and opulence of her customers, and the “poor, shivering wretches” that also lived in the city. This was the “Gilded Age” in Chicago, a period in which one in five Chicago households employed domestic servants, while thousands lived in unsanitary and crowded slums. Indeed, Jones’ shop would be destroyed by The Great Chicago fire of 1871, which would leave one-third of the city’s population homeless.

However, Jones would not be deterred. She joined the Knights of Labour, an American labour organization that advocated for an eight-hour workday, an end to child labour, and equal pay for women. “In all the great industrial centres,” Jones wrote years later, “the working class was in rebellion”. She was destined to be their Prophet.

As a member of the Knights of Labour, Jones organized labour strikes. In Pennsylvania in 1873, she joined strikers in the coal mines – most of whom had, like Jones herself, fled famine in Ireland. In 1877, she rallied and organized railroad workers in Martinsburg, West Virginia, who refused to accept wage cuts. She was appalled by the plight of the coal miners that she encountered on a daily basis – they were regularly threatened by collapsing mines, suffocation and explosions.

Jones also joined the United Mine Workers (UMW), who paid her a stipend to speak at rallies. She organized miners’ wives into teams armed with mops and brooms to guard the mines against scabs. Ever the polemicist, Jones summed up her activism by stating “My address is like my shoes. It travels with me. I abide where there is a fight against wrong”.

Jones used her natural wit to appeal to the coal miners, and told her workers not to trust the churches, since they were financed by the mine owners. When one preacher blasted her for holding a union meeting in a “house of God”, Jones responded “Oh, that isn’t God’s house. That is the coal company’s house … Gold almighty never comes around to a place like this”.

Moreover, Jones understood the importance of cultivating a distinctive public persona. She embraced the title of “Mother Jones,” given to her by appreciative workers. At rallies she would wear a black dress, lace collar and plain head covering, making herself the matriarch of American workers. She embellished her notoriety, frequently proclaiming “I’m not a humanitarian. I’m a hell-raiser”.

Mother Jones combined her “Odyssey of revolt” with a career in political activism. In 1901, she was a co-founder of the Socialist Party of America. She held rallies in support of Eugene V. Debs, leader of the American Railway Union and the Socialist candidate for US President on five separate occasions. Indeed, she, along with Debs, would be founding members of the International Workers of the World (IWW) labour union. She even raised funds for exiled Mexican revolutionaries who had taken refuge in the United States, and believed that the Mexicans could make common cause with the American working class.

Jones’ Odyssey of revolt had tangible results. In 1914, she rallied coal miners striking against the Colorado Fuel & Iron Company, owned by the Rockefeller family. The unrest that followed left dozens of people dead, including women and children. In response to a government enquiry, the Rockefellers prohibited discrimination against unionized workers and allowed worker representation on committees to discuss health and safety. These reforms would spread to other industries, making life better for workers.

Jones would continue her commitment to the cause of labour until her death, giving speeches at a 1917 streetcar strike in Bloomington, Illinois. When asked to testify in front of the US Senate late in her life, she was denounced as the “grandmother of all agitators”. In response, she smiled and said, “I hope to live long enough to be the great-grandmother of all agitators.”

Here, I have profiled Mother Jones, whose life and activism was both fascinating and effective. I have told you about how an Irish immigrant become the great-grandmother of all labour agitators. Indeed, her Odyssey of revolt has been followed by Irish labour leaders throughout history, from Jim Larkin to James Connolly to Mick Lynch. She was a true Irish hell-raiser indeed.