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The Mannington Mine Disaster

by Hazel Dickens

on Harlan County USA: Songs Of The Coal Miner's Struggle (2006), They'll Never Keep Us Down: Women's Coal Mining Songs (1984)

We read in the paper and the radio tells
Us to to raise our children to be miners as well
Oh tell them how safe the mines are today
And to be like your daddy, bring home a big pay
Now don't you believe them, my boy
That story's a lie
Remember the disaster at the Mannington mine
Where seventy-eight miners were buried alive
Because of unsafe conditions your daddy died
They lure us with money, it sure is a sight
When you may never live to see the daylight
With your name among the big headlines
Like that awful disaster at the Mannington mine
So don't you believe them, my boy
That story's a lie
Remember the disaster at the Mannington mine
Where seventy-eight miners were buried alive
Because of unsafe conditions your daddy died
There's a man in a big house way up on the hill
Far, far from the shacks where the poor miners live
He's got plenty of money, Lord, everything's fine
And he has forgotten the Mannington mine
Yes, he has forgotten the Mannington mine
There is a grave way down in the Mannington mine
There is a grave way down in the Mannington mine
Oh, what were their last thoughts, what were their cries
As the flames overtook them in the Mannington mine

So don't you believe them, my boy
That story's a lie
Remember the disaster at the Mannington mine
Where seventy-eight good men so uselessly died
Oh, don't follow your daddy to the Mannington mine
How can God forgive you, you do know what you've done
You've killed my husband, now you want my son