Profit and Power: Company Towns and the Exploitation of Appalachia

The end of the Civil War granted ascendancy of industry over agriculture. This economic shift in the American ideal gave birth to a new generation of American capitalist focused on exploiting rich Appalachian resources exposed during the Civil War. The need for profits and power over-shadowed ideas of American individualism, concepts of self-sufficiency, and concern for human conservation. A new America was on the rise. Storytellers and musicians, Rhonda and Sparky Rucker; adjunct history professor, Andrew Baskin of Simmons College of Kentucky (Kentucky’s only private HBCU;) and Dr. William Turner, Director of Education at the Appalachian African-American Cultural Center present a discussion exploring “profit and power” in Appalachia. The discussion is facilitated by Freedom Stories Project Director, Dr. Alicestyne Turley, and includes live Q&A with our viewing audience.