The Coming of the Coal Industry

Abstract

This chapter provides historical context for the book and anchors the text in place. Drawing on archival data collected form Kentucky and Alabama-based archives and oral history data collected from African Americans in the sample population, Brown describes the conditions under which the coal mining industry emerged in eastern Kentucky at the turn of the twentieth century. She also describes the economic and social conditions of black life in post-Reconstruction Alabama. Through this historical analysis, Brown reveals the antecedents of the mass migration of African Americans from the Alabama black belt into the coalfields of eastern Kentucky. Moving beyond the individual level push-pull framework of mass migration analysis, this chapter focuses on the role of corporations and fin de siècle northern industrialists in initiating calculated mass migration streams to meet their demand for labor.