Coal Creek Wars. Basically miners in east Tennessee near knoxsviile go to war with the state of Tennessee because the state rented out convict labor to make money after the Civil War. When the mining company's figure out it was cheaper to rent convicts than to deal with miners trying to unionize and gain better working conditions, they fired the miners and just used convict labor. The miners put down their picks and picked up their rifles and fought for almost 2 years.