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Judi Lynn

(160,211 posts)
Fri Oct 2, 2015, 05:01 AM Oct 2015

‘Rape Rooms’: How W.Va. Women Paid Off Coal Company Debts

October 2, 2015
‘Rape Rooms’: How W.Va. Women Paid Off Coal Company Debts

by Mark Hand

Long-time residents of West Virginia’s coal fields can recite stories, passed down from generation to generation, of appalling working conditions, chronic hunger and violent mine guards. It was only in recent decades that these residents found the courage to tell their stories to historians and writers. Scores of articles and books have now been published on the history of West Virginia’s coal industry from the perspective of these coal mining families.

Missing from most of these published works, though, is a critical look at the coal camp experiences of women. Labor historian Wess Harris targets this lost history in a brand new book that provides jaw-dropping accounts of how women were treated by an industry already widely known for its ruthlessness and callousness.

The groundbreaking book, Truth Be Told: Perspectives on the Great West Virginia Mine War, 1890 to Present, spends a few chapters examining what is known as the “Esau” system.

When husbands or sons were injured in the mines and there were no other men available to work, women could receive Esau scrip, which in turn could be used to buy food or other necessities. Coal companies typically issued wages in a special form of money called scrip, redeemable only at coal company-owned stores and other company-owned places of business.

More:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/10/02/rape-rooms-how-w-va-women-paid-off-coal-company-debts/

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‘Rape Rooms’: How W.Va. Women Paid Off Coal Company Debts (Original Post) Judi Lynn Oct 2015 OP
Wow - this is not something I had heard about before. A Little Weird Oct 2015 #1
The human race will "go down in flames" for it's ladjf Oct 2015 #2
Company Store... awoke_in_2003 Oct 2015 #3
Sixteen Tons - Tennessee Ernie Ford LiberalElite Oct 2015 #4

A Little Weird

(1,754 posts)
1. Wow - this is not something I had heard about before.
Fri Oct 2, 2015, 07:53 AM
Oct 2015

I'm not surprised by the sexual exploitation, but I am surprised that it was such a formalized system.

I posted a link to your thread over in the Appalachia group.

 

awoke_in_2003

(34,582 posts)
3. Company Store...
Fri Oct 2, 2015, 08:25 PM
Oct 2015

A big part of my family lives in Appalachia, and many of them worked the mines. Our company has a souvenir shop, and the decided to take a poll on what to name it. They decided to go with "The Company Store". I stated my strong objections, but people just didn't get it.

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