In the town of Springhill, Nova Scotia, Late in the year of '58...      (10/23/1958, 8:06 pm)
  
                  "The Ballad of Springhill," Peggy Seeger

This was the 453rd earth movement in the area since 1917 and it caused a cave-in. 75 died. 12 (including Caleb Rushton) were rescued after 6 days underground; 7 more were rescued 2 days later. The main pocket was 3' high and 100 long & 13,000' from the pithead. Some of the rescuers wore oxygen masks, some were bare-faced.

18 of the 99 men rescued, including the mulatto M Ruddick, accepted Gov. Griffin of Georgia's invitation to recuperate in his state..on a segregated basis.

A number of the miners arrived NY City Nov 2 to promote fund-raising for families of the deceased. The fund was later stolen in Toronto.

(per Life 11/3 & 11/10/1958; Newsweek 11/10/1958; NY Times)

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Steven Sellors informs us about another song, "The Springhill Mining Disaster" by Maurice Ruddick. Steven says: "I like it because it was written by someone actually trapped in the mine. Now there's something you don't see much in the folk music industry these days: a song about the working man written by the working man."

There are songs written about Springhill disasters dating back to 1891. Words and music for many or all of them are found in the bookAnd Now The Fields Are Green A Collection of Coal Mining Songs in Canada , compiled by Jack C O'Donnell; Univ. College of Cape Breton, ISBN 0-920336-43-4; 1992.

Peggy wrote the song (a few lines added by MacColl) from her hotel room in France. Livetime. Watching it on television. The cave-in had the distinction of being the world's first live, full-access media disaster event. A new era had begun.

Her biography includes interesting material on her visit to Springhill in 1997. Many there think the Ballad is a folksong and schoolchildren learn it as a matter of course. It was performed at a school assembly and Caleb Rushton stood up and spoke his part from verse six. A nice example of a wrote song going, effectively, into tradition.

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