# Federal Writers' Project – Life Histories/2020/Fall/105/Section003/Sam Brakefield
## Overview

Sam Brakefield was a White American miner and landowner during the time of the Great Depression. Brakefield was an interviewee for the Federal Writers Project.

## Biography
### Early Life and Family

Sam Brakefield was born in Lamar County, Alabama, on his family's hillside farm. He married his wife and started to form his own family at a young age. He and his wife had thirteen children, but only raised 8. He harped to his children to not follow his path, receive an education, and a good paying job.

### Career

Brakefield started his career at a very young age in 1887. After talking his dad out of letting him leave his home, he went to work at Gamble Mines, making 80 cents a day. Brakefield started his career digging coal but due to his strong work ethic, he was raised up to “shooting”, drilling holes in the coal and shooting a powder to dig it more easily. By 1903 he was promoted again to a foreman and was paid a salary of $75 a month. During his time at Gamble Mines, he became aware of the corruption of the mining industry. Mines made employees only buy from their commissaries as part of their salaries, and cheated employees' wages. Gamble Mines was taken over by Pratt Mines and Brakefield's salary was raised to $85 a month. At this time Brakefield began saving money to better support his family, and because he knew a slump in the mining industry was coming. In 1930, the mine was abandoned, and Brakefield was making $125 a month, the highest pay he had ever received. After the effects of the Great Depression, Brakefield went back to Pratt Mines and noticed much of his work had been replaced by machinery. He again left and went to Number Ten mine and worked as a foreman. Later in his career he opened a push mine and exported his own domestic coal for $1.75 a ton.

## Historical Context
### The Great Depression and the Mining Industry

The mining industry boomed when coal first became popular and was in such high demand. But, after many mines opened up across the United States and the world, coal became easily accessible. It is shown that the although the Great Depression had a significant impact on the industry, many of the changes that were identified as part of the Great Depression had occurred before 1929. Also, many people before the Great Depression took jobs outside of mines, factories, and farms, therefore manufacturing as a whole had been on the decline since the early 1920s and the mine industry was a part of this. However, the Great Depression fueled the fire to the downfall of the mining industry. In 1929, there were nearly 3,000 mines and mills operating in Alabama, but in 1933 only half were still in operation due to a decline in trade and demand. The mining industry underwent significant changes leading up to and during the Great Depression, that made it hard for some mines to ever financially recover and reopen. This was the case for many mines not just in Alabama, but throughout the country.

### The New Deal and Labor Concerns

One of the structural changes that was mentioned above is the labor strikes. Many upset mine workers demanded change of a standard 8-hour day and 40-hour week, regulations on safety, inspections of the mines, medical insurance, and payroll deduction of union dues. Many labor unions began to form, like the Knights of Labor and the United Mine Workers of America in response to unfair treatment and poor working environments. Under the Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the New Deal was put into place. This helped miners and other industrial workers out greatly. In 1935, the National Labor Relations Act, also known as the Wagner Act, was passed. This imposed sanctions on businesses who violated labor practices. Laws and acts from the government helped many upset mine workers across the United States. Another bill put into place in 1932 helped mine workers by giving them rights to have representatives in making wage agreements and making it illegal for a mine company to fire a worker based on union membership (Rosen 2005). Labor Strikes and issues in the workplace occurred in response to the poor conditions placed by employers. These issues were targeted through the presidency of Roosevelt and his New Deal.