The workers are constantly in debt from paying board at the coal camps, plus the prices at all the company store where they are required to buy stuff at, are inflated. Rondal Lloyd, who grows up in one of the coal camps, describes the brutal work conditions and the poverty those who live in the coal camps face. As the company begins to settle in, it begins to hire more and more individuals in the town, building camps for their workers to live in. Although some are forced off of their own property, and their homes are taken and destroyed like Marcum’s as a result of these coal companies moving in, Carrie Bishop’s family, who runs a farm called Homeplace, are lucky to have their land and their farm untouched by the ruthless companies. Despite Marcum knowing that his grandfather was illiterate, and it was impossible that he signed his own name, he and his family are forced to move off of the property. Later, a sheriff then tries to convince Marcum that his grandfather gave into the agent’s requests, and signed off on the property, Marcum however, knows better than this. The story begins with railroad agents trying to force CJ Marcum’s grandfather off of his own property, however, failing to do so, the agents in turn end up brutally murdering Marcum’s grandfather.
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