Turning Back Time

When Angelina first came to me with the idea of the Chiquola Mill Massacre, I was instantly intrigued. I have lived in South Carolina my entire life and have lived in the little town of Pelzer for about sixteen years. Pelzer just so happens to be only about twenty-five minutes from Honea Path, but only a short ten-minute drive from Piedmont. Piedmont is a town I frequent, as I have family that lives in that area, and one thing that always stuck out to me as a kid was the remaining structure from an old textile mill. It was weathered and partially falling down, and was eventually torn down, but I still remember looking at it and feeling like I was within reach of a large part of history.

I have come to learn that Honea Path, much like the little old town of Piedmont, was shaped immensely by a mill, only the Chiquola Mill has a far bloodier history than the textile mills that shaped other little towns all around the upstate. In order to even attempt to understand the tragedy that claimed the lives of seven workers and injured dozens more, we must first go back to the very beginning and to the roots of the unrest that inevitably led up to Bloody Thursday.

It was 1934 and America had just survived the Great Depression. The country and economy were still recuperating, but the united front that may have existed after pulling through the Great Depression was shattered by the surging demand for better wages and safer working conditions. Unions were gaining in popularity for mill workers as they recognized the severity of many mill owners’ disregard for their safety and well-being. Workers were fed up with being paid miniscule wages that could not sustain their families and working in cramped, filthy, hot buildings with dangerous equipment and zero safety mechanisms. These were the days when a small fire could wipe out an entire mill of workers because there were no emergency exits and the buildings were not designed for safety.

One interesting thing that is very important to keep in mind is that mills controlled nearly every aspect of their workers’ lives. They owned their houses, the stores they shopped at, even their churches. If this does not strike you as overbearing and a dangerous level of control, it soon will.

Chiquola Mill strikers

The National Textile Workers Union called for a nationwide strike on September 3rd. Strikes occurred across the country, but in the little mill town of Honea Path the strike that would quickly become a tragedy would not occur until September 6th.