Fannie Never Flinched: One Woman's Courage in the Struggle for American Labor Union Rights

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Fannie Never Flinched: One Woman's Courage in the Struggle for American Labor Union Rights

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$10.49 ~~$15.54~~ Save 32%

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Overview

Fannie Sellins (1872–1919) lived during the Gilded Age of American Industrialization, when the Carnegies and Morgans wore jewels while their laborers wore rags. Fannie dreamed that America could achieve its ideals of equality and justice for all, and she sacrificed her life to help that dream come true. Fannie became a union activist, helping to create St. Louis, Missouri, Local 67 of the United Garment Workers of America. She traveled the nation and eventually gave her life, calling for fair wages and decent working and living conditions for workers in both the garment and mining industries. Her accomplishments live on today. This book includes an index, glossary, a timeline of unions in the United States, and endnotes.

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ISBN-13:	9781613129722
Publisher:	ABRAMS
Publication date:	11/01/2016
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	12 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	10 - 14 Years

About the Author

Mary Cronk Farrell’s books have been honored with the SPUR Award for Best Juvenile Fiction, and as Notable Social Studies Books for Young People and NY Public Library Best Books for Teens. Mary speaks at schools, libraries, and women’s and family workshops. She lives in Spokane, Washington.

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Editorial Reviews

★ 09/12/2016
Farrell (Pure Grit) spotlights little-known activist Fannie Sellins (1867–1919) in an accessible biography that also serves as a valuable introduction to the U.S. labor rights’ movement. Widowed with four children, Sellins worked in garment sweatshops in St. Louis, Mo., at the turn of the 20th century. She successfully united her fellow workers to fight for better wages and working conditions, and went on to do the same for workers in other industries. She butted up against anti-union coal mine owners, and was ultimately killed for the causes she championed. Over six brief chapters, Farrell deftly places Sellins’s story within the larger context of immigration and industrialization at the time. Stitched blue-denim illustrations on the endpapers color coordinate with blue-tinted archival photographs of immigrant workers at sewing machines, in mines, and in company towns. In a nod to Sellins’s work as a seamstress, images of buttons, gears, and stitching help frame each spread. Readers interested in the history of workers’ rights shouldn’t miss this entrée to the subject, which is bolstered by a timeline of labor struggles, source notes, and other resources. Ages 10–14. Agent: Stephen Fraser, Jennifer De Chiara Literary. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

**STARRED REVIEW**

"Readers interested in the history of workers’ rights shouldn’t miss this entrée to the subject, which is bolstered by a timeline of labor struggles, source notes, and other resources."

Booklist

"A useful resource for students researching the violent era of American labor history."

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

★ 10/01/2016
Gr 4–6—The narrative begins with the murder of Fannie Sellins by deputies in Natrona, PA, in 1919 and then goes back 20 years to when Sellins first started working at the Marx and Haas garment factory and helped form the local United Garment Workers of America (UGWA) in St. Louis. Sellins moved up the UGWA ladder and traveled the country talking about the plight of factory workers: long days, low pay, and unsafe working conditions. Word of Sellins's abilities reached coal country, where she visited. Sellins supported the coal miners' efforts to unionize. When mine owners brought up scabs from the South, she chased their car along the railroad tracks, yelling at them not to break the coal miners' strike. Though there was no justice for her death, her memory lives on in coal country. In her author's note, Farrell details why she wrote about Sellins and discusses the difficulties she faced in finding reliable information about her subject's personal life. The text is matter-of-fact in tone, with captioned black-and-white photos and newsprint ads. The beige background features buttons, cogs, and stitches along the bottom of each page, and the end pages are scraps of seamed blue fabric. VERDICT An essential purchase for public or large school libraries interested in workers' rights and social justice.—Tamara Saarinen, Pierce County Library, WA

School Library Journal

2016-08-17
Farrell chronicles Fannie Sellins’ life as a garment worker, organizer, and martyr for workers’ rights at the turn of the 20th century.After Fannie’s husband died, leaving her with four children, she sewed in a St. Louis sweatshop. Women and girls worked 10 to 14 hours daily, six days a week, locked in deafening factories where tuberculosis ran rampant. Hearing of the United Garment Workers of America’s successes elsewhere, Fannie began organizing co-workers during breaks. In 1902, she helped form the Ladies Local 67 of the UGWA. In 1909, a worker’s punishment engendered a walkout, a lockout, a strike, and a boycott. As the local’s president, Sellins traveled on the workers’ behalf, raising strike fund money in union halls and successfully advancing the boycott. Next, Sellins helped coal miners fight brutal owners in West Virginia, where she was arrested and jailed. Organizing in western Pennsylvania, she was murdered during a fight between strikers and armed deputies. Farrell’s text and annotated timeline demonstrate that the early struggle for fair wages, hours, and benefits was rife with setbacks and bloodshed, as owners, government officials, and law enforcement colluded to break strikes and unions. Acknowledging the paucity of material on Sellins, Farrell includes well-captioned period photos and primary documents that deepen readers’ context for the workers’ exploitation and resistance. A cogent, well-documented, handsomely designed treatment of a heretofore forgotten hero of labor. (author's note, glossary, timeline, quotation notes, sources, websites, bibliography) (Nonfiction. 10-14)

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