The Divides of my Brethren

A small farming community in Southwest Virginia has maintained their way of life since the Revolutionary War, but after the discovery of natural gas seams underneath their soil, they’ll find themselves under threat by invading coal barons. The Divides of My Brethren is a poignant, and at times humorous, account of regional tensions related to farming and coal mining in Southern West Virginia and Southwest Virginia. In a community where civility and good graces have given way to self-aggrandizement, favors for social status, political corruption, and ill-gotten financial gain, wealthy coal barons’ deceptive practices and ill-treatment of workers has become the norm. Young and naive, Garnet Ray learns that ideals can be paradoxical in the world of material and political power. As he navigates life within his hamlet, he discovers there is much to learn from those controlled by greed and a desire for political power. And there’s Austin Mayhan who hauls coal for a living. Struggling to support his family, he endures the harsh conditions of his work environment, but for how long? Overseeing the workers’ interests is the union president Morris Seylor, whose leadership and allegiance is continuously tested. Just like the Civil War, the geological site between the coal town of Bluefield, WV and the farmland of Tazewell County, Virginia known as 'The Divides,' pits brother against brother. And as demands for coal increase along with the discovery of the Marcellus and Utica natural gas seams far beneath the rock strata in Tazewell County, the coal barons look to own or control the gas rights on the Virginia side under the rich grass lands cattle are raised on. Having witnessed the wax and wane of human greed for decades, these laborers are no strangers to land grabs, but the question of gas mining rights leads to an even bigger threat. Based on author W. Roger Angles’s recollection of rural Virginia in the last half of the twentieth century and first decades of the twenty first century, The Divides of My Brethren considers the cost of loyalty in the face of life’s struggles. A must read for anyone working in mining operations, union members or those in need of bargaining rights and union representation!