iple concern while the people and their culture are more of a hindrance than a priority. They are expected to shift right along with the rest of the changes. Their traditional way of life is subsequently threatened, altered, and eventually irretrievably lost. By the late nineteenth century, the economic potential emanating from the vast wealth of natural coal resources of the Appalachian Mountains were well recognized and Middlesborough, a once quiet rural community, had experienced an economic boom and grown into the industrial mining centre labelled the 'Magic City of the South'. The entire enterprise had been established under the singular leadership of the American Association Ltd., of London. Millions of dollars were pumped into the area but because of the ownership monopoly and primarily foreign investors, the mountain people themselves reaped little or none of the benefits. Their agrarian based mainstay was threatened and destroyed as the 'Anglo-American enterprise' expropriated acres and acres of mineral-rich land. "The acquisition of land is the first step in the process of economic development and the establishment of power." (Gaventa,1980:53). It was also the first step in the subordination of the mountaineers. Losing their land meant a change in lifestyle from a largely independent group of farmers to a group of coal miners dependent upon the Company for a salary. Mountaineers were most often 'voluntarily' bought out. Few cases of actual conflict occurred and the people's land was taken virtually without c...
