The 1922 treason trials were the culmination of forces and events that had been building for two decades in the coal mining districts of West Virginia. Beginning in the late 1800's the rich coal fields of the southern counties had begun producing vast quantities of coal. This coal was sold in markets where it competed with coal from the unionized mines of Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, and Illinois. As a result, the United Mine Workers of America began trying to organize West Virginia's miners in 1902 as a matter of survival.

Initially, the union focused on the New River fields but was more successful along Paint Creek and Cabin Creek in the Kanawha district near Charleston where they organized several thousand miners. Even so, within a short time, the union was broken on Cabin Creek and in order to keep them out, coal operators there imported hundreds of mine guards and Baldwin Felts Detectives to act as an armed barrier to any further attempts at organization.

What developed on Cabin Creek can only be described as a industrial police state where all roads, train depots, and towns were patrolled by armed guards who decided who could enter, who could meet, and what they could do or say. To defy the guards or to even hint at union sympathy was to invite a beating, exile, or even death. Constitutional guarantees such as freedom of speech and freedom of assembly were strictly denied.

To the miners and mountaineers this arrangement became know as the "mine guard" or "Baldwin Felts system" and it became prevalent throughout the southern West Virginia counties of Mingo, Mercer, Mcdowell, Wyoming, and Pocahontas. Private police forces, paid for by the coal companies, ruled southern West Virginia absolutely and with impunity. Hundreds were deputized by the counties and so acted under the authority of the law with the power to arrest any individual. Their purpose was to keep out the UMWA and they did so with ruthless efficiency. In Logan County guards were unnecessary because its legendary sheriff, Don Chafin, ruled his kingdom with an army of over three hundred deputies whose salaries were also paid for by the coal operators. For his efforts, Chafin received a royalty on every ton of coal mined in Logan County.

In 1912, the coal operators on Paint Creek refused to renew their contract resulting in a strike by the miners of Paint and Cabin Creeks. The operators imported hundreds of guards who evicted thousands of miners and their families and who then began a brutal campaign of intimidation and terrorism against them. The miners, who had experienced the brutality of the guards on Cabin Creek, were prepared and began fighting back. The level of violence grew resulting in three declarations of martial law. Among the more notable events was the running of the "Bull Moose Special," an armor-plated train outfitted with machine guns which the operators used to spray a miners tent colony at Holly Grove. Adding insult to injury, military tribunals were set up under martial law and in violation of the state and national constitutions to try miners accused of various offenses. Many were sentenced to prison including the famous labor activist Mother Jones who was sentenced to twenty years for reading the Declaration of Independence in public. Eventually the new governor, Henry Hatfield, forced a settlement but the miners, angry at the continued presence of mine guards, defied the governor and forced full recognition of the UMWA.

In 1914, the union organized the New River fields and in 1916, the Fairmont field. By the end of World War I, well over half of the state was unionized and so in the spring of 1920, the final effort to organize the southern fields began in Mingo County. Within weeks, thousands of miners had joined the UMW. In an effort to reverse this development, the coal operators again began importing hundreds of mine guards. When Baldwin Felts agents defied Sid Hatfield, police chief of Matewan, and evicted miners within his jurisdiction, a gun fight broke out between the detectives and Hatfield who was backed by miners and citizens. As a result, seven guards, two miners, and the mayor of Matewan were killed. Hatfield became a hero to the miners but on August 1, 1920, he and an associate were assassinated by Baldwin Felts Deputies on the steps of the McDowell County Courthouse.

This event sparked one of the most remarkable events in American history, the 1920 miner's rebellion in which roughly 15,000 men armed themselves and began marching south with the avowed intention of overthrowing the governments of Logan and Mingo Counties. President Harding sent Brigadier General H.H. Bandholtz to assess the situation and also dispatched General Billy Mitchell and a squadron of bombers to Charleston, the only time in U.S. history that air power has been deployed against civilians. The miners army eventually faced off with a force of 5000 men, organized by Sheriff Chafin, at Blair Mountain where they were subjected to machine gun fire and bombs dropped from aircraft. After three days of fighting during which perhaps two dozen men were killed, federal troops arrived and the miners broke off the engagement hoping that at last, the mine guard system would be ended. Instead, in only four days, Logan authorities indicted nearly a thousand individuals on various charges including twenty four for treason.

Charles Town was chosen as the venue for the trials. Approximately 800 men were brought here to face charges and on April 22, 1922 Bill Blizzard became the first to be tried for treason. The trial was a national sensation with dozens of reporters from around the country in attendance. Most, like the local citizenry, were sympathetic to the miners. The New York Times observed that "constitutional guarantees...have been suspended by a conspiracy of non-union operators," and the New York Herald added that West Virginia's government had "broken down" and its power had "passed… to the coal operators." On May 27th, 1922 the jury returned a verdict of not guilty. Blizzard was carried through the streets of Charles Town by joyous miners and their ranks, swelled by local citizens, soon formed into an impromptu parade. In the next trial, the Reverend J.E. Wilburn and his son were both found guilty of murder as the result of a gun battle on Blair Mountain and in August, another miner, Walter Allen, was tried and convicted of treason. By this time, the town had become weary of the distractions caused by the trials so the rest of the defendants were given a change of venue.

The choice of Jefferson County as the site for the trial determined that juries that were generally southern and agrarian in character would pass judgment on insurrectionists who had been battling the oppression and exploitation of northern inustrialists. The farmer jurymen of Jefferson County acquitted themselves well in their duties. If one accepts the view that the West Virginia Rebellion was not just a fight for union recognition but a struggle for human and constitutional rights, then the significance of the 1922 treason trials changes from interesting and colorful history to something much more important. Further, when compared and contrasted to the John Brown trial, the historical significance of those events and of the Jefferson County Courthouse and Jail compares favorably to any historical site in the nation. Consider these facts. The John Brown trial marked the beginning of the largest insurrection in US history, the Civil War. The Bill Blizzard trial marked the end of the second largest insurrection in American history, the Miners' Rebellion. Both were fought in defense of constitutional and human rights. In the first trial, John Brown was charged with treason against the state of Virginia. In the second, Bill Blizzard was charged with treason against the State of West Virginia. In the first trial, John Brown stood in opposition to the tyranny and oppression of southern agrarian interests. In the second trial, Bill Blizzard stood in opposition to northern capitalists. In the first trial, John Brown was found guilty and hanged. In the second trial, Bill Blizzard was acquitted and released. Despite the outcome of the first trial, John Brown's cause was won. Despite the outcome of the second trial, Bill Blizzard's cause was lost. It is an incredible story.

The importance of the jail lies not as a monument to the union but as a monument to ordinary citizens who were willing to risk everything to live in freedom. Americans rightly honor those who have done likewise from the men at Concord Green and Little Round Top to those who stormed the beaches of Normandy. Why not West Virginia's coal miners and citizens? Were they not fighting for the same principles? These were people who were determined to live free and to exercise their constitutional rights or to die in the quest. What more fitting place is there to recognize them than the place where the most incredible chapter in their struggle ended? And what more symbolic structure could we find to illustrate the dangers they faced and the fates they risked than those we find in the masonry and steel, and in the bars and cells of the Jefferson County Jail?