Storming Heaven

Rondal visits Carrie in her tent on Ermel’s farm, where she and Albion are staying with the other evicted miners. He explains that they burnt down Lytton Davidson’s house the previous night. Inside Lytton Davidson’s house, Rondal found a woman crying, who mistook him for her son Francesco. Rondal took the woman to the hospital and learned that she lost all four of her sons in the explosion.

Despite living in tents, Carrie feels as though the strike is going well through the summer. “On every corner, an armed miner stood sentinel with his red bandanna knotted around his neck,” (200) and the union in Charleston sends them food. In the fall, the coal companies fire the strikers and bring in more Baldwin-Felts guards as well as strike-breakers, people from around the country “who believed they would make their fortunes digging coal” (201) to work in the mines. Albion and some other strikers go to shoot at the strike-breakers and dissuade them from working, but they shoot at the ground and over their heads. Doc Booker invites Carrie and Albion to live with him, but they decide to stay in the tents in solidarity with the other strikers. One night, Isom invites Carrie and Albion to his home, along with Doc Booker, Ermel, and Talcott. They convince Rondal to leave town because the guards have a target on his back. Rondal gives Carrie his banjo before he leaves.

The governor declares martial law, and one morning, state police swarm the tent colony, shooting and beating the strikers, and arresting over 400 men, including Doc Booker and Isom. Over the next few days, the police and Baldwin-Felts guards occupy Annadel where they burn down many offices and houses, including Talcott’s. Talcott runs off, and Pricie moves into her father, Ermel’s, farmhouse. Carrie learns that Albion was arrested along with Isom and charged with murdering the guards at the train station. Ermel, who is old friends with the local judge, promises to get them released. Doc Booker is quickly released since the police see him as “only a Negro who took up space in the jail” (209), and Doc Booker leaves town for Charleston. Eventually, Ermel raises bail money, and Isom and Albion are released as well. The following winter is extremely difficult. The Baldwin-Felts guards intercept food sent by the Charleston union. On Christmas Eve, a group of churchwomen from Justice are allowed to visit, bring food, and sing Christmas carols. Afterward, the Justice newspaper accuses the union of “monstrous inhumanity, as it forces women and children to suffer hunger and cold in order to advance its un-American and, ultimately, doomed goals” (211-212).

One day, Carrie takes a young girl to a nearby hospital. She waits at a restaurant while they treat the girl, where she runs into her brother Miles, a local coal mine superintendent. Miles insists that the coal companies aren’t monsters and says he even let his strikers move back home for the winter, but Carrie says she supports the union fully. 

A group of black women invite Carrie, Gladys, and Pricie to loot the stores in Felco with them. The group walks boldly past the guards, knowing they won’t shoot women. They take food and guns. Soon, the state police arrive, and Carrie shoots wildly at their feet with a looted gun. She doesn’t hit anyone, but the women scare the police away, and Carrie is left to contemplate whether she could ever kill someone. That night, she takes a walk past the railroad. As she is walking, a train rides past and guards shoot at the tents, killing many people and hitting Carrie’s arm. Carrie contracts pneumonia along with the gunshot wound and moves back to the Homeplace for a few months while she recovers.

The night before Albion and Isom’s trial in early June, Carrie returns to Justice. Carrie asks Albion if they can move back to the Homeplace once the strike is over, but Albion says he will think about it after the trial. But the next morning, as Albion, Carrie, Isom, Gladys, and Violet Marcum walk to the courthouse, Baldwin guards ambush them. The guards shoot Albion and Isom, killing them both. They place a gun in Albion’s hand and take pictures of the scene before leaving. Carrie notices Miles standing near them. Miles insists that he didn’t know about this plan, but Carrie doesn’t believe him. Carrie takes Albion’s body back to the Homeplace to bury him.