Description
Book SynopsisCharcoal and Blood is a detailed account of a heinous crime perpetrated on Italian immigrants engaged in the production of charcoal on Nevada’s mining frontier at the close of the nineteenth century. On August 18, 1879, in a canyon near Fish Creek, outside Eureka, Nevada, five Italian charcoal burners were slain and six more were wounded, while fourteen were taken prisoner by a sheriff’s posse.
Through meticulous research on the event, relying on such primary sources as newspaper articles, author Silvio Manno provides the only comprehensive account of Eureka’s charcoal crisis and what came to be known as the Fish Creek Massa-cre. This is a well-documented narrative history of an important instance of class and ethnic conflict in the West. Readers interested in Nevada history, Italian American history, frontier trade unionism, and mining in the West will find this book a unique examination of an incident that occurred almost a century and a half ago and that has, until now, been largely over-looked.
Trade Review“This is an extremely significant topic covered with passion and relying on excellent research. Silvio Manno has crafted a portrait of the immigration story by revealing a tragic episode that deserves to be remembered and understood.” -- Ronald M. James, author of
A Short History of Virginia City“The book contributes our clearest account yet of this important episode in Nevada history, in which mining history, immigration and social history, political economy, and frontier violence are all intertwined. It also helps shed more light on the history of Eureka, which has been understudied in Nevada historiography.” -- Eric Nystrom, author of
Seeing Underground: Maps, Models, and Mining Engineering in America
