Bonfire Music Group has a new single for South Carolina singer/songwriter Andrew Crawford, one that takes a look at a tragic and bloody event that took place about a hundred years ago in his home state.
The song is called The Millworker’s Wage, and it tells the story of a time shortly after the Great Depression, when textile workers all along the east coast went out on strike. On September 6, 1934, the Mayor of Honea Path ordered strikebreakers to fire on striking workers at the Chiquola mill, who were picketing outside their workplace. Seven workers were killed and 30 more injured on what came to be known as Bloody Thursday.
Believe it or not, it got worse. Other striking workers were evicted from their company-owned homes, which they were forced to rent, and municipal authorities even prohibited the local churches from providing funerals for the slain men.
The strike was officially broken on September 23, with the union obtaining none of its demands, a most disheartening end to a disastrous ordeal.
Andrew says that this song hits close to home.
“I wrote this one with my wife, Brandi Colt. It’s about the rarely talked-about Chicola Massacre in Honea Path, South Carolina, when a textile strike turned violent and seven mill workers were killed, one of whom was a distant relative of mine. I grew up hearing stories about mill life: the hard work, the long hours, and the way generations of families gave everything to those factories. This song is about that fight for dignity, about how some things change and some don’t.”
Crawford sings lead, and plays guitar and mandolin, with support from Tim Crouch on fiddle and bass, and Brandi Colt on harmony vocals.
Check it out.
The Millworker’s Wage is available now from popular download and streaming services online, and to radio programmers via AirPlay Direct.
