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- Title
Esau in the Coal Fields: Owing Our Souls to the Company Store.
- Authors
Kline, Michael
- Abstract
This article discusses the Whipple Colliery Company Store, a store owned by a mining company in West Virginia which catered to the needs of miners and their families in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Particular focus is given to the author's visit to the Whipple Company Store Museum and Learning Center. According to museum owner and interpreter Joy Lynn, company store employees would sometimes demand sexual favors from miners' wives in exchange for food. The paper scrip used to administer the food was called Esau, in reference to the Bible story in which the brother of a starving man forced him to sign away his birthright in exchange for food. Other topics include working conditions in the mines, oral history, and labor unions.
- Subjects
WEST Virginia; UNITED States; COMPANY stores; COAL miners; COAL miners' spouses; COAL mining; SEX crimes; ESAU (Biblical figure); SMALL museums
- Publication
Appalachian Heritage, 2011, Vol 39, Issue 3, p69
- ISSN
0363-2318
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1353/aph.2011.0081