The Ludlow Massacre
Welcome to new subscribers and regular readers! Thank you for joining me for today’s song, “The Ludlow Massacre” by Woody Guthrie. If you’d like to hear the song before you read about it, I’ve included a YouTube video below the article.
Below, you’ll find my summary of the lyrics which are written in italics. For Japanese students, vocabulary words in bold are provided in Japanese below. TOEIC (PBT) 450+, Eiken 2, CEFR B1.
You can read about the background of the union movement in the U.S. here.
(649 words)
Woody Guthrie was a songwriter back in the 1930s and 40s. He wrote songs about average American people and about the problems that they had. He traveled around the U.S. singing these songs, and teaching people about important events. This song tells the story of what happened to the families of the miners in Ludlow, Colorado in 1914.
In April, 1914, coal miners were on strike in Ludlow, Colorado. The company they worked for made them leave (drove them out of) the houses that the company had provided. The families had to live in tents.
It was early springtime when the strike was on
They drove us miners out of doors
Out from the houses that the company owned
We moved into tents up at old Ludlow
Soldiers were guarding the area, and sometimes bullets would fly near the people in the tents.
I was worried bad about my children
Soldiers guarding the railroad bridge
Every once in a while a bullet would fly
Kick up gravel under my feet
The miners were scared that their children might get hurt, so they dug a deep cave. They put the children and a pregnant woman there so they would be safe.
We were so afraid you would kill our children
We dug us a cave that was seven foot deep
Carried our young ones and pregnant women
Down inside the cave to sleep
One night, while everyone was sleeping, the soldiers went quietly into the tent town, poured kerosene on the tents, and set them on fire. They also used their guns to shoot at the miners. The fire was so big that the miners couldn’t save their children, and thirteen children died.
That very night your soldiers waited
Until all us miners were asleep
You snuck around our little tent town
Soaked our tents with your kerosene
You struck a match and in the blaze that started
You pulled the triggers of your gatling guns
I made a run for the children but the fire wall stopped me
Thirteen children died from your guns
I carried my blanket to a wire fence corner
Watched the fire till the blaze died down
I helped some people drag their belongings
While your bullets killed us all around
The miners remembered the day when they had to bury their friends and family.
I never will forget the look on the faces
Of the men and women that awful day
When we stood around to preach their funerals
And lay the corpses of the dead away
The miners asked the Colorado Governor to tell the President to stop the soldiers, but nothing changed because the owner of the mine was a friend of the Governor.
We told the Colorado Governor to call the President
Tell him to call off his National Guard
But the National Guard belonged to the Governor
So he didn't try so very hard
The women from a nearby town sold potatoes to buy guns and took them secretly to the miners. When the soldiers attacked again (jumped us), the miners fought back (mowed down these troopers) with those guns, and the soldiers ran away.
Our women from Trinidad they hauled some potatoes
Up to Walsenburg in a little cart
They sold their potatoes and brought some guns back
And they put a gun in every hand
The state soldiers jumped us in a wire fence corners
They did not know we had these guns
And the Redneck Miners mowed down these troopers
You should have seen those poor boys run
The miners later sealed up the cave where the children died. They were proud of the Mine Workers' Union but cried for the loss of those children.
We took some cement and walled the cave up
Where you killed these thirteen children inside
I said, "God bless the Mine Workers' Union,"
And then I hung my head and cried
How could this conflict have been resolved in a peaceful way?
Vocabulary
massacre 虐殺
gravel 砂利
pregnant 妊娠中
kerosene 灯油
sneak aroundこっそり歩く (snuck around 過去形)
soak 浸す
blaze 炎
belongings 所持品
preach 説教する
funeral 葬式
corpse 死体
call off 中止する
haul 中止する
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A terrible story.