Today we had a meeting time of 9 am and I used every extra minute of sleep that I could. Breakfast was much more crowded today, there was a line to be seated and my usual breakfast items were not available anymore. I had to switch up my breakfast, but it was still pretty good.

We met at 9 am and went to the bus station. While we were waiting for the bus, we saw a massive running club go by. All different kinds of people were running, some people even had their dogs or speakers on their back to play music for everyone. A man in the group told us they meet every Friday and Saturday at 9 am to run together. Soon after the running group passed, the bus arrived. We took the bus all the way to a town called Dudley, it was a 50 minute bus ride. It was nice to see some neighborhoods outside of the center of Birmingham during the bus ride. When we arrived in Dudley, we walked past a cute little zoo and all the way to the Black Country Living museum. The Black Country Living museum showed us what a coal mining town would have looked like in the Birmingham area. The idea of these mining towns is that men would work for these companies to mine coal and the company would provide them a house, or just a space to live, in the mining town that was also owned by the company. Additionally, instead of being given money for their work, the miners were given a “script” to buy things like food from the company store. The company stores had inflated prices, so the company made all their money back from the miners and the miners could even go in debt to the company. Not only was the compensation poor, but if a miner got injured and could not work, the company would kick them out of the company housing. So, not only would the man be injured, but they would also be homeless and broke.

The Black Country Living museum is a life size reconstruction of what an old mining town in the area would have looked like. It is very interesting to learn about the history of coal mining and unions in Birmingham because there are some similarities between Birmingham and Pittsburgh. In both areas, coal mining created a harsh lifestyle but was essential for the industrialization of the cities. Coal mining in Pittsburgh helped fuel the steel industry, which is what the city is known for. Coal mining in Birmingham also helped the steel industry as well as other factories in the city to fuel their own industrial revolution. Although the miner were integral to the development of their cities, their working conditions were terrible. Daily work was incredibly dangerous and over time many miners developed various illnesses, injuries, and even disabilities. In response to these working conditions, both miners in Birmingham and Pittsburgh formed unions. In the US, one of the unions was called the United Mine Workers of America. This union fought for better wages, safer conditions, and shorter hours. In the UK, miners organized through the Miners’ Federation of Great Britian, which later became the National Union of Mineworkers. These UK unions fought for similar rights. To gain workers’ rights, the unions mainly used strikes.

After seeing the mines, we went to see a schoolhouse recreation. The woman who acted as the teacher was quite funny and we pretended to practice reading, spelling, math, and sang Hickory Dickory Dock. When the pretend class time ended, we were able to explore the museum. We wandered some of the streets and then got lunch. I got a ham and cheese toasty, which was delicious.