On June 21, 1877, known as 'Black Thursday,' ten Irish-American coal miners were hanged in Pennsylvania for murder and conspiracy. They were allegedly members of the Molly Maguires, a secret society accused of assassinating mine bosses and terrorizing the anthracite coal region. The evidence that convicted them came largely from James McParlan, a Pinkerton detective who had infiltrated the organization for three years. The trials were prosecuted by attorneys paid by the coal companies. The juries were packed with non-Irish Protestants. The executions were carried out on a single day, in two prisons, as if staging a spectacle. Were the Molly Maguires violent terrorists who murdered in cold blood? Or were they union organizers framed by coal barons who wanted to crush labor resistance? The debate continues. What's certain is that twenty men died on the gallows in a campaign that destroyed labor organizing in the Pennsylvania coalfields for a generation.
Pennsylvania's anthracite coal region in the mid-nineteenth century was one of the most brutal industrial environments in America. Irish immigrants, fleeing the Great Famine, descended into dark mines where cave-ins, explosions, and black lung were routine. They worked twelve-hour days, six days a week, for wages paid in company scrip redeemable only at company stores that charged inflated prices. They lived in company housing that could be revoked at any time. They had no unions - the companies crushed organizing attempts. When miners protested, coal and iron police beat them. The only protection came from ethnic solidarity. Irish communities maintained their own institutions, including, allegedly, secret societies modeled on Irish resistance movements against the British.
Between 1862 and 1875, a series of murders and assaults rocked the anthracite region. Mine bosses were shot. Company men were beaten. Buildings were burned. The coal companies blamed the Molly Maguires, supposedly a secret society of Irish Catholic miners who used violence against their oppressors. Some historians believe the Mollies were real - an organized group that killed in pursuit of labor goals. Others argue they were largely invented by mine owners seeking to discredit all Irish workers and justify violent suppression. The violence was real enough. At least sixteen mine officials and others were killed. But determining who was responsible, and why, proved impossible without infiltration.
In 1873, Franklin Gowen, president of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, hired Pinkerton's National Detective Agency to infiltrate the Molly Maguires. James McParlan, an Irish immigrant himself, assumed the identity of 'James McKenna' and spent three years in the coal region. He joined the Ancient Order of Hibernians, which prosecutors claimed was a front for the Mollies. He participated in drinking and fighting and, according to his testimony, witnessed planning of murders. When the trials began in 1876, McParlan was the star witness. His testimony sent twenty men to the gallows. But his credibility has been questioned ever since. He was paid by the coal companies. His notes were edited by Pinkerton supervisors. Some alleged coconspirators were never charged while denying any conspiracy existed.
The executions began in June 1877 and continued into 1879. Twenty men were hanged in all, ten on a single day - June 21, 1877. The condemned maintained their innocence, some until the noose tightened. The Catholic Church initially refused them sacraments, viewing them as murderers, but eventually relented. One prisoner, Thomas Duffy, reportedly left a handprint on his cell wall that believers claim persists despite attempts to paint over it - a symbol of injustice that won't be erased. The executions devastated labor organizing in the coal region. The message was clear: challenge the companies and you will hang. It would be decades before miners successfully organized.
The anthracite coal region of northeastern Pennsylvania preserves multiple sites connected to the Molly Maguires. The Old Jail Museum in Jim Thorpe (formerly Mauch Chunk) offers tours of the prison where seven Mollies were hanged; Cell 17 supposedly contains the mysterious handprint. The Molly Maguire Pub in the town honors their memory. Pottsville, where the trials were held, has the Schuylkill County Courthouse. The Pioneer Tunnel in Ashland offers tours of an actual anthracite mine. Throughout the region, patch towns - mining communities - preserve the atmosphere of the era. The landscape is scarred by strip mining and culm piles but beautiful in its harsh way. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport (AVP) is in the region; Philadelphia International (PHL) is 100 miles south. The story of the Molly Maguires remains contested - heroes or terrorists, martyrs or murderers - but the region where they lived and died invites reflection on labor, justice, and whose history gets told.
Located across the anthracite coal region of northeastern Pennsylvania, centered around Schuylkill County at approximately 40.70°N, 76.20°W. From altitude, the region is marked by forested ridges of the Appalachian Mountains, scarred valleys from strip mining, and small towns nestled in narrow valleys. The landscape shows the legacy of coal extraction: culm piles, abandoned breakers, and reclaimed land.