Fleeing famine and brutal oppression, more than a million Irish refugees flocked to the United States between 1846-1855 in search of opportunity and a better life. Like Hispanic immigrants today, they worked whatever jobs they could find and were routinely exploited.
Many found their way to Pennsylvania’s anthracite coal region where they encountered some of the worst exploitation and hatred.
By the 1870s, mine owners and their employees, particularly the Irish immigrants, are in conflict over working conditions.
Private police forces commissioned by the state but paid by the coal companies are sworn to protect property of the mine owners. The miners know their real purpose is to spy upon targeted agitators and intimidate and break up strikers.
The Mollie Maguires—a secret society some see as working to improve the lot of the Irish and which others damn as a terrorist organization—long viewed by the mine owners as a problem, are now seen as an increasing threat.
Benjamin Franklin Yeager is a coal company police officer. He does his best to follow orders while trying to be fair to the workers whose lot he sees as little different from his own. Despite his efforts at fairness, Yeager’s job makes him the enemy of the Irish.
And that’s the crux of his troubles.
For Ben has fallen in love with an Irish girl.
