History Research Exercise

My name is Annabelle Howard. I recently started living in Wheelwright Coal Camp with my parents and brother. I decided to write a journal throughout my time here. Our first day here I wondered around outside. The first thing I noticed was the housing arrangements. My father, like most people here, is a miner. We all have small simple homes with no bathrooms. Although the bosses have large elaborate homes with wrap around porches. They also have bathrooms inside their homes. When I went to the pool hall I observed that it was all white people in there. The blacks have a separate one. I overheard some men discussing putting food equipment in the blacks pool house. This is so that they do not touch our food, and so that they will never have a reason to come in to the white pool hall. Even in this time of hardships when everyone is coming together for the same cause there is still segregation. We are all here to help our families survive, but no one seems whites still overpower the blacks even though some of us are in their same position.

When I first arrived here I thought this was the perfect place to be. We were provided a home and schooling. What could go wrong? I have found a lot of flaws that seem to bother people, but no one will say a word or else they will be fired. My father and the rest of the miners here are paid in script. This is money that can only be used in the coal camp. If we were to ever wonder outside the boundaries we would have no money to spend. The owners of the coal camp are conniving to do this because they know no one can afford to argue against them. Since we only have script to spend we have to buy groceries and all other items from inside the walls of the coal camp. The prices are jacked up because once again they know we only have script to spend so we cannot go anywhere else to buy the items. My father complains about the market everyday. The clothes they sell are too nice to wear in the mines, and they are too expensive to afford. The owners do this so that when other people around the nation see pictures of the coal camp they will think it is nice. The whole system fools people.

My mother has been working just as hard as my dad. She cleans the hospitals, and even though it isn’t near as intense as working in the mines she goes in everyday to earn every penny she can. Although she is busy and hard at work she hardly gets any pay. Even the men who do the same