Timber Rattlers

The Piney Woods Labor Revolt

This vividly illustrated graphic history cuts deep into Jim Crow Louisiana and East Texas, where an interracial union of sawmill workers took on powerful lumber barons in a fight of strikes, spies, sabotage, and a murder trial that gripped the nation.

Timber Rattlers: The Piney Woods Labor Revolt

May 2027
softcover • 7" × 10" • 256 pp.
182 fully illustrated color pages
ISBN 978-0-917860-95-9

Timber Rattlers: The Piney Woods Labor Revolt reveals the incredible saga of the Brotherhood of Timber Workers, a union that waged an audacious battle for better working conditions against the lumber barons of western Louisiana and East Texas in the early 1900s. At the time, the South produced more timber than anywhere else in the country, with sawmills churning through hundreds of acres of old-growth forest every day. These lumber operations employed more people in the region than in any other industry—people who were overworked, underpaid, exposed to dangerous conditions at work, poor sanitation at home, and had little recourse against their bosses, who ran sawmill towns with near feudal authority.

Enter the Brotherhood, which recruited members of all racial and ethnic backgrounds, men and women, and even farmers and small business owners who had common interests. About half the membership was Black, making the union a dire threat to the Jim Crow order of the day. The Brotherhood raised the stakes by affiliating with the Industrial Workers of the World in 1912.

The feud between the workers and the sawmill operators involved strikes, espionage, covert negotiations, sabotage, vigilantism, and a murder trial that captivated the nation. At its core, the story of the Brotherhood is one of a diverse group of working-class people who put their lives on the line for each other, against all odds. It is a forgotten chapter of Louisiana history that—through breathtaking illustration and storytelling—examines the intersections of race, class, gender, the environment, and power in the Deep South.

Timber Rattlers: The Piney Woods Labor Revolt is volume two in the Louisiana Graphic History Series from the Historic New Orleans Collection. The series launched in 2021 with the award-winning Monumental: Oscar Dunn and His Radical Fight in Reconstruction Louisiana.

Praise for Timber Rattlers

“Here is history we all ought to know, about American workers refusing to let the weapon of racism defeat them.”

John Sayles, National Book Award–nominated author of Union Dues, and director of Matewan

“Take this spectacular journey into the Piney Woods with the Black and White timber workers who risked everything to stand up to their bosses, the lumber operators. You will not regret it.”

Scott Reynolds Nelson, author of Steel Drivin’ Man: John Henry, the Untold Story of an American Legend

“In vivid color and gripping narrative, Timber Rattlers recounts the often-overlooked story of one of the most remarkable unions in the history of the United States. Don’t miss this one!”

William P. Jones, author of The Tribe of Black Ulysses: African American Lumber Workers in the Jim Crow South

“By bearing witness to the Brotherhood of Timber Workers and their relentless battle against state and corporate violence, this graphic novel pulls from deep primary sources to honor the sacred, bloody river of American labor history.”

Gray Sage, a.k.a. Walter Greason, author of The Graphic History of Hip Hop

About the Authors

Dave “Mac” Marquis teaches at A-B Tech Community College in Asheville, North Carolina. After earning his PhD at the College of William & Mary in 2022 he has held postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Nevada, Reno, and the University of South Carolina. His work primarily focuses on the South’s timber industry during Jim Crow. Marquis co-edited Books Through Bars: Stories from the Prison Books Movement (University of Georgia Press), is active in the books-to-prisoners movement, and helps run Asheville Prison Books.

Rob Guillory is an Eisner Award–winning American comic book artist born, raised, and currently based in Lafayette, Louisiana. Guillory is most known for his eight-year run on Image Comics’ Chew, which won two Harvey Awards (including Best New Talent for Guillory), two Eisner Awards, and has been translated into a dozen languages. Guillory went on to helm his solo creator-owned series Farmhand (Image) and Mosely (BOOM Studios). He is currently developing Innards for Ignition Press and Ghostbrawler for Image Comics.

Nick Weldon is director of publications at the Historic New Orleans Collection (HNOC). He edited and co-authored Monumental: Oscar Dunn and His Radical Fight in Reconstruction Louisiana (2021), winner of the Louisiana Literary Award and the AASLH Leadership in History Publication Award, as well as Captive State: Louisiana and the Making of Mass Incarceration (2025), which earned an honorable mention for the National Council on Public History’s Book Award.