The Coal Town System 

My mother was born and raised in a coal town. She said the coal company treated the people very well. (The Page Coal Company). They were generous with resources and treated the workers well. My grandparents had a nice home with three “drops” which was and electric cord dropped in certain rooms. Their home was $15 a month. They had a “drop” in the kitchen, bathroom, living room, and two bedrooms. Grandpa worked as a butcher in the company store. The town was segregated. A sweet black woman knocked on their door needing work. Her husband and son were killed in a coal mining accident, and she needed work. My grandmother and grandfather loved her and she worked with them for 17 years. My mother, who was 5 years old, was so in love with her, she stuck to her like gum. I remember mom visiting as an adult when I was 10 years old. They were both were crying in each other’s arms they were so happy to see one another. Her name was Edna Saunders. The family loved her so much…..then had to move. She was family to them.

Amazon wants to bring company towns back

Industrialized feudalism basically

“16 tons and what do you get, another day older and deeper in debt....” A few tech corporations are bringing this back in the form of corporate municipalities where you live, work and buy everything from the “company store”. The more things change the more they stay the same....only cleaner but the grind is still there.

I grew up a ways outside of coal country in Kentucky, but my ancestors come from there. Lately I've been learning about the exploitation of my people in earnest, after hearing about the evil of the coal companies my whole life. Words can't accurately describe how evil they were, nor can they describe how strong the Appalachian people are.

It’s crazy how this is happening in 2021

This was true in some places in the early years of industry but not later. Miners unionized, towns became incorporated, schools were built. Not much different than living in a prosperous town today.

My Grandaddy worked for the coal company during the Battle of Blair Mountain. He got his children educated and OUT of WV - and the rest is fortunate history.

Kinda reminds me how Facebook & Google though

Young people these days have no clue what could be.

Its funny cause this is an Ancaps wet dream lol

I worked for a big Ivy league university hospital. They used this business model to setup their health insurance for employees.

"Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go, I owe my soul to the company store."

They thought coal would be King for ever.

I can't believe this country tolerated fellow citizens being treated so poorly for so long. The government should have stepped in and done something long before it go so bad.

Company Store has gone virtual and renamed itself Credit Cards

These towns were virtually the same as collective farms in the u.s.s.r..

Hello Nevada, funny seeing you all the way back here!

Family History

I was brought up in a coal town in Yorkshire, England in the 1950s and was destined to follow generations down the pit. At 16 I left and went working casual labour in France picking grapes, veg etc, still hard work but at least I was in the fresh air and well fed. To this day I don't understand why anyone would choose to go underground just to earn money.

My daddy moved my mom and my brother and sister to Coalwood WV. My sister recmemberd often the days.

Mann vs machime

Get this: people could have MOVED.

Is there much difference now? Does anyone have any freedom from price gouging. your wages never keep up with the cost of living.

It is ridiculous how people like to make blanket statements about history whether it be coal mining or something else. Peale, Pa Coal Mine - Owned by Clearfield Coal Company from 1883 to 1912. It is now a literal ghost town (very cool to explore) but here is a bit of real history from a primary source. "The houses are 2 story frame buildings painted brick red; wainscoted to 4 ft. and plastered throughout; three rooms on the first floor, 2 or 3 on the second. They rent for $4.25 - $6.75 per MONTH including water. Altogether they are the most comfortable miners' cabins seen throughout the county and the rent is not high for a man earning $9 - $12 per WEEK." They also had a school, railroad station, swimming pool, a park, icehouse, butcher, store, town hall, cemetery, etc. Were all coal towns great? No of course not but many were not like this "documentary" claims. "As we came in sight of town we were in full view of the most magnificent gorge it has ever been our fortune to behold. On our left was the beautiful natural park, where the party was to spend the day; on our right a ravine, at the bottom of which fully one thousand feet below where the cars ran is the beautiful little stream of the Moshannon; on the other side of this ravine, on a gently sloping hillside, stands the town of Peale, elegantly located for health and comfort. With the best of drainage and abundance of pure water, which is carried into every house and barn in the town, by pipes running from the fountain, it is destined to become a place of some importance." From: The Raftsman's Journal, August 20, 1885

How history repeats itself

sounds like animal crossings

slave camp

We have the nerve to complain about working conditions of today!!!

That white privilege

So sad😰😰😰😰

I feel their pain...my internet connection is slow. 😂

No you don’t understand it’s a cheaper prices

This is Republican heaven.

Coal camps were not built to hold the miners and their family hostage. The reason coal camps were built and much needed was they were built in very remote parts where the local population was to low in numbers to supply all the vast labor needed to mine the coal. Large coal camps housed these new miners by the thousands. Miners immigrant's came from Europe to work the mines. Blacks came from the South for the same reason. In the larger more modern coal towns every thing modern was added to improve people's daily lives to have found more in a city you would have had to went to the big cities in the North. Not all miners lived in the coal camps. The company store was the down fall of a lot of miners getting in debt and never could get back out of debt. It is true a lot of coal miners were treated bad at some of the mining company mines.

Sounds like the Communist Russia except on the other end of the spectrum.

This is like real world the outer worlds, without the sci-fi stuff.