Ella May Wiggins Research Paper

Rebekah Manning
D. Noblitt
IB HoA
10/22/14
Ella May Wiggins and The Loray Mill Strike of 1929
Extra Credit Ella May Wiggins was a native of Sevierville, Tennessee, but her impact on the world took place here in Gastonia. Ella and her brother started careers as mill workers at a very young age after the death of her father. At the age of twenty Ella married Johnny Wiggins; he, like her father worked in the timber region. Johnny and Ella soon left the mountains of Sevierville and headed for the booming industrial region of Gaston County.
Johnny and Ella settled in Bessemer City, where they both took jobs at the American
Mill. Ten years and seven children later, Johnny deserted Ella. Ella worked the night shift and took care of the children by day. Mill workers didn’t make much, so money and food were
When faced with adversity, Ella was still the one everyone looked to for support.
Lucy Penegar, a local historian said that “due to Ella’s financial challenges, she lived in a predominantly black neighborhood, and with that she had her finger on the pulse of oppression”.
Ella knew that her future was going to be grim; just like the people’s around her.

Gaston was the leading textile county in the south, it was the geographical center of the textile industry. Between 1909 and 1929, the amount of mills more than doubled. Soon after the boom, declining markets and increasing prices of materials, labor and machinery brought on a practice known as a “stretch out”. Penegar said this essentially meant “people would get laid off, then others would be forced to pick up the slack… for an even lower wage than before” With this
“stretch out” taking place, Ella was forced to support five kids on $9.00 a week.
Enraged by the effects of the “stretch out”, Wiggins along with other Gaston County workers organized a fight for higher wages and better working conditions. The Loray Mill of
Gastonia, which employed over 2,000 people, became the focus of the National Textile
This disruption sparked a shooting in the “tent colony”. It injured four policemen and one unionist. Seventy one unionists were arrested. Of those seventy one, sixteen were taken to trial. On September 9th, a mistrial was declared. That evening, an angry mob of over one hundred men formed in response to the dismissal of the case, wrecked the NTWU’s headquarters in Gastonia and Bessemer City, and terrorized, kidnapped, flogged, and threatened to kill several union members. The next day, the mob regrouped and raided the headquarters of the International Labor Defense (ILD) due to their part in the NTWU case. To protest these unruly actions, the NTWU announced a huge rally for
September 14.
Ella was known as a balladeer. As the events of the strike unfolded, Ella recorded them in song. She used the strike, the union, and the men and women in jail all as subjects of her meaningful ballads. Folklorist Margaret Larkin said her songs were “better than a hundred speeches” Ella’s spirit is captivated in her ballad “The Mill Mothers Lament”
We leave our homes in the morning,
We kiss our children good bye,
While we slave for the bosses,
Our children scream and