Written in Blood

Featuring Appalachia's leading scholars and activists, Written in Blood offers an accurate and uncensored understanding of coal mining history. Combining new revelations from the past with sketches of a sane path forward, this collection considers our past, present, and future. Sociologist Wess Harris further documents the infamous Esau scrip system for women, suggesting an institutionalized practice of forced sexual servitude that was part of coal company policy. In a conversation with award-winning oral historian Michael Kline, federal mine inspector Larry Layne explains corporate complicity in the 1968 Farmington Mine disaster which killed 78 men and catalyzed the passage of major safety reform. Moving to the next generation of thinkers and activists, attorney Nathan Fetty examines current events in Appalachia, and musician Carrie Kline suggests paths forward for people wishing to set their own course rather than depend on the kindness of corporations.