Participation Type
Panel
Session Title
Session 8.11 History
Presentation #1 Title
Sexual Secrets of a Company Store: Are They True and if so How Do We Report Them?
Presentation #1 Abstract or Summary
Recently published research on the Whipple Company Store in Scarbro, WV, claims there existed a well-established pattern of sexual servitude exacted by early coal operators through their company stores. According to an article by oral historian Michael Kline, the abuse kept generations of coal camp women besieged with traumatic shock and mortification. These whispered, demeaning coal company practices, allegedly long ignored by regional scholars and historians, weakened the fabric and structure of many working families at a time when the miners' union was struggling to gain a foothold in the extractive State of West Virginia. The imbalance of power in coal camps, particularly when times were tough, and the common lament that bosses abused their power, makes it easy to conclude that they would take sexual advantage of the women when they could. But, is there proof that such outrageous activities occurred, and does this recent research support that allegation? Such questions raise important issues about how we view and document history by using oral sources. We will frame this discussion within the collection of oral history and its presentation to readers both general and academic, applying social history as articulated by Paul Thompson in his classic, "The Voice of the Past.” The recent publication of Kline’s article “Esau in the Coal Fields: Owing Our Soul to the Company Store” will be used as a window to examine questions of veracity and documentation.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #1
Michael Kline is an independent folklorist and audio/radio producer who since the mid 1960s has been documenting the spoken words and music of West Virginians. He holds a PhD in Folklore from Boston University.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #2
Dr. David Mould is Professor Emeritus of Media Arts and Studies at Ohio University and the co-author of Catching Stories: A Practical Guide to Oral History
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #3
Jack Wright, retired professor, Ohio University School of Film and recipient of the annual Appalachian Studies Association’s Cratis Williams Service Award (2010), Producer, Music of Coal: Mining Songs from the Appalachian Coalfield
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #4
Dr Theresa Burriss, Director of Radford University's Appalachian Studies Program Tentative
Catherine Moore is a freelance writer and radio producer from West Virginia, Tentative
Sexual Secrets of a Company Store: Are They True and if so How Do We Report Them?
Harris Hall 234
Recently published research on the Whipple Company Store in Scarbro, WV, claims there existed a well-established pattern of sexual servitude exacted by early coal operators through their company stores. According to an article by oral historian Michael Kline, the abuse kept generations of coal camp women besieged with traumatic shock and mortification. These whispered, demeaning coal company practices, allegedly long ignored by regional scholars and historians, weakened the fabric and structure of many working families at a time when the miners' union was struggling to gain a foothold in the extractive State of West Virginia. The imbalance of power in coal camps, particularly when times were tough, and the common lament that bosses abused their power, makes it easy to conclude that they would take sexual advantage of the women when they could. But, is there proof that such outrageous activities occurred, and does this recent research support that allegation? Such questions raise important issues about how we view and document history by using oral sources. We will frame this discussion within the collection of oral history and its presentation to readers both general and academic, applying social history as articulated by Paul Thompson in his classic, "The Voice of the Past.” The recent publication of Kline’s article “Esau in the Coal Fields: Owing Our Soul to the Company Store” will be used as a window to examine questions of veracity and documentation.
