T-Bone Slim, born on this day in 1880, was an IWW member, working class songwriter, and author. Due to his popular, labor themed tunes, Slim was dubbed the "laureate of the logging camps".
Born Matti Valentin Huhta to Finnish immigrant parents in Ashtabula, Ohio, Slim became an itinerant worker after leaving his wife and family in 1912. It isn't known when Slim became a Wobbly, a member of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), but he first appeared in the IWW's press in the 1920 edition of the IWW Songbook.
Slim became one of the IWW's most famous writers during the 1920s and 30s, and many people would buy the "Industrial Worker" just to read his articles - one ad from the paper read "there's a lot more in Industrial Solidarity and Industrial Worker than T-Bone Slim's columns".
Slim did not presume his working-class readership to be unintelligent people, making use of complex wordplay and experimental writing techniques, playing with ambiguity, satire and surrealism.
Slim was also well-known for his songs, such as the "Lumberjack's Prayer", a parody of the Lord's Prayer about the poor quality of food available for the working class, and "The Popular Wobbly", which experienced a revival among civil rights activists during the 1960s.
In spite of his renown in radical circles during his lifetime, many details of Slim's life remain unclear. During the mid-1930s, he settled in New York City, where he worked as a barge captain on the docks.
In May 1942, Slim's body was found in the East River. His cause of death remains unknown and has been subject to speculation. Following his death, Slim largely faded into obscurity, especially compared to more famous IWW-associated writers such as Joe Hill.
Slim's songs have been preserved, however, re-published in editions of the Little Red Songbook and covered by musicians such as Pete Seeger, Utah Phillips, and his own great-grandnephew, John Westmoreland.
Until recently, there was thought to be no surviving photographs of Slim, however, in 2019 two photos were discovered and published by Working Class History in a Newberry Library collection.
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so a friend is insisting that King James is the sole reason that there is anything homophobic in the bible and that it was all hunky dory peachy keen with gays before that, and he refuses to even listen to counterarguments. every source i find says that christianity has pretty much always been interpreted as being against homosexual acts if not orientation, even if the specific term 'homosexuality' isn't used and some translations are questioned. like i'm not trying to retcon others spirituality, i don't care about anyone's personal beliefs and theres definitely modern and hypothetical formulations of christianity that are non- or less- problematic. but as a historical institution and social force christianity has definitely been largely interpreted as homophobic almost everywhere it has had power by its own adherents. Charitably one could blame st. Paul for solidifying the church's position on homosexuality, but idk how anyone would blame King James specifically. i mean Leviticus is in the Torah and jewish law has historically been interpreted as being against homosexuality. i can't find any sources for the claim that it was all or even partially King James anyway, but google sucks these days. any other sources or info would be appreciated. It just seems like they are discounting a large well documented history of oppression of non-hetero-normative people for the sake of their own myopic interpretation of myth and history, and that makes me very upset even though we agreed (that is, he insisted) to drop the topic.
In my experience all Christians have twisted themselves into knots believing that their particular interpretation of their particular strain of Christianity is uniquely good and kind and there's nothing you can say to convince them otherwise
The King James Version is horridly translated. That aside what the fuck does he think Leviticus is about? Every version of the Bible includes that part of the Old Testament