As I recall, 16 tons is about the life of a coal miner.
A coal miner who was "another day older and deeper in debt", and who "owed his soul to the company store". The song wasn't about the mining; it was about the debt.
16 posted on 12/05/2013 7:10:38 AM PST by Sans-Culotte
( Pray for Obama- Psalm 109:8)