To facilitate having the necessary workers, the coal mining companies would build communities next to the mines where the employees could live with their families. Of course, they had to rent their homes from the company, and buy their staples from the company store. Having the monopoly on housing, groceries, and pretty much everything, the mining companies would charge any price they wanted. They even offered loans to any(all) that needed it, with a healthy interest rate of course.
The employees soon realized that the expense owed to the company was greater than the paycheck from the company. The longer they worked there, the more they owed to the company.
When I was young, there was a song called 'Sixteen Tons' about this very practice. I believe the last lyric of the song went "St Peter don't you call me, 'cuz I can't go, I owe my soul to the company store". It was a slave song.
When I was born, Eisenhower was president. I was born owing the federal government about two-hundred dollars. I have worked, and paid taxes, for almost fifty years. My piece(and yours) of the federal debt is now around $100,000. The longer I work, the more I owe.
Why Do Liberals (Leftists) Support and Encourage Slavery? Power, and the corruption that comes with power.