THE MOST DANGEROUS WOMAN IN AMERICA

                May 1, 1830 is the official date for the birth of a woman who was described as “the most dangerous woman in America” during the growth of labor unions. 

1..Mary Harris Jones was born in Ireland.  Her family was forced to immigrate to Canada at age ten due to the Irish Potato Famine.  Her first job was as a teacher making $8 per month.  She quickly decided that was not for her and moved to Memphis as a dressmaker. 

2. She married a labor union organizer, but in 1867 a yellow fever epidemic took her husband and four kids (all under age 5). Four years later, she lost her home in the Great Chicago Fire.  Support from the Knights of Labor caused her to join the labor union movement.  When the Knights died out due to the Haymarket Affair, she joined the United Mine Workers. 
3. She traveled the country supporting strikers. It was around this time she took on the persona of “Mother Jones”,  dressing in black and exaggerating her age.  She was a feisty grandmother to her boys.  “Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living.”  She organized women and children to demonstrate in support of strikes.  She led them on marches banging pots and pans to intimidate strike-breakers.  In 1903, she led children who worked in the mills and mines on a “children’s march” from Philadelphia to Pres. Teddy Roosevelt’s home in Oyster Bay, New York.  Many of the kids had suffered from injuries on the job.  Their mantra was “we want to go to school and not the mines.”  The President refused to meet them, but the publicity brought attention to child labor abuses.  
4. In 1905, she helped organize the radical International Workers of the World (“the wobblies”).
5. She angered many suffragists by being opposed to women voting. She felt it would take away from her main emphasis on worker rights.  “You don’t need the vote to raise hell.”
6. It is claimed that the song “She’ll Be Coming Around the Mountain” is about her travels in the Appalachian coal mining country.
7. She was arrested at age 82 for supporting a strike in West Virginia. Sentenced to 20 years, her supporters put pressure on the governor to give her a pardon.
8. When she was in her 90’s, she was visiting a friend. When a burglar broke into the house, Mother Jones KICKED HIM TO DEATH WITH HER HEAVY BOOTS.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_Jones

https://www.biography.com/activist/mother-jones