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>I am working on my masters thesis about miners who came from the >Allenheads/Allendale region of Northumberland to the Galena lead district of >Illinois and Wisconsin in 1849. I know there was a lead miner strike at >Allenheads, and I know that my great grandfather and many others were >blacklisted and effectively banished to the United States. Wendy, Your best published source of information would probably be Hunt, C. J., The Lead Miners of the Northern Pennines in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, (Manchester, 1970), particularly Chapter VI, Strikes and industrial disturbances, where pages 129-135 cover the imposition of regular working hours and the consequent Allenheads strike of 1849. I don't think it is correct to say the hard core of strikers were 'banished'. They were certainly not re-employed by the Beaumonts. Hunt quotes G. Dickinson (Allendale and Whitfield, 2nd edn, Newcastle, 1903) - 'about sixty persons, men women and children' left East Allendale on one day, 17 May 1849, 'to seek subsistence on the banks of the Illinois'. Employment in the the coalfields of north-east England was an option for the core of strikers but they were probably attracted by the prospect of greater freedom in their working practices in a familiar mining sector albeit in north America. If you would like a copy of the relevant sections of Hunt, please contact me off list. Peter ______________________________________________ Peter Claughton, Blaenpant Morfil, Rosebush, Clynderwen, Pembrokeshire, Wales SA66 7RE. Tel. 01437 532578; Fax. 01437 532921; Mobile 07831 427599 University of Exeter - School of Historical, Political and Sociological Studies (Centre for South Western Historical Studies) E-mail: [log in to unmask] Co-owner - mining-history e-mail discussion list. See http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/files/mining-history/ for details. Mining History Pages - http://www.exeter.ac.uk/~pfclaugh/mhinf/ _____________________________________________