Скачать или смотреть This Week in Morgan County - Mary Hott, Singer Songwriter, her new album

This Week in Morgan County - Mary Hott, Singer Songwriter, her new album

Mary Hott, singer songwriter, shares her journey of hearing a WV Public Radio story about a coal company store which inspired her to write songs and create her new album based upon the people’s stories from their time lived in the coal mine town. See https://www.reverbnation.com/maryhott and http://whipplecompanystore.com/.

Listen to a 46 second clip of “Take the Esau” by Mary Hott at time stamp 21:58.

The biblical story of Esau & Jacob is about giving up your birthright; for someone to call it Esau scrip means they knew they were forcing a woman to give up her birthright of being free from assault.

The personal stories in my songs tell of the rape, torture and murder used by coal company guards prior to 1933 as a means of maintaining control over the coal camp.

To be profitable, mine labor needed to be cheap or nearly free. Recent immigrants from Ellis Island and freed slaves were brought in by train to mine the coal. Miners were paid with the company’s own currency called “scrip” which could only be used in the company’s store, meaning the company earned back the workers’ money.

Armed guards were hired to live onsite and weld power over the operations and workers. Any hint of worker unionization for better pay and working conditions was a threat to company profits.

And we now know, based on the stories told by elderly men and women who visited the restored Whipple Company Store & Museum between 2008-2017, that those attempts at unionization were met with torture or death, and women were under threat of rape, long before the eventual worker uprisings known as the West Virginia Mine Wars.

— Mary Hott

This Week in Morgan County, which is hosted by Russell Mokhiber, is a weekly interview series addressing issues and topics affecting the citizens of Morgan County, West Virginia and the Eastern Panhandle.

This program is a production of the Digital Media Center for Community Engagement. Copyright 2020 Morgan Arts Council.

This program is presented by Russell Mokhiber who is wholly responsible for the content. The opinions expressed do not reflect the views of the Morgan Arts Council, Inc., the Digital Media Center for Community Engagement, Comcast NBC Universal or any governmental entities that may provide funding support to these organizations. None other than the program host are accountable for any of the material presented. For more information on this program contact Russell Mokhiber at https://www.morgancountyusa.org.

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