Come All You Coal Miners

Come all you coal miners wherever you may be
And listen to a story that I'll relate to thee
My name is nothing extra, but the truth to you I'll tell
I am a coal miner's wife, I'm sure I wish you well

I was born in old Kentucky, in a coal camp born and bred
I know all about the pinto beans, bulldog gravy and cornbread
And I know how the coal miners work and slave
in the coal mines everyday
For a dollar in the company store, for that is all they pay

Coal mining is the most dangerous work in our land today
With plenty of dirty slaving work and very little pay
Coal miner won't you wake up and open your eyes and see
What the dirty capitalist system is doing to you and me

They take your very life blood and they take our children's lives
They take fathers away from children and husbands away from wives
Oh miner, won't you organize wherever you may be
And make this a land of freedom for workers like you and me

Dear miner, they will slave you until you can't work no more
And what'll you get for your living but a dollar in a company
store
A tumble-down shack to live in, snow and rain pours in the top
You have to pay the company rent, your paying never stops

I am a coal miner's wife, I'm sure I wish you well
Let's sink this capitalist system in the darkest pits of hell

by Sarah Ogan Gunning
SOF