Economic-Coercion

Company Towns and Debt Peonage: Corporate Control of Coal Mining Communities

1890-01-01 00:00:00 +0000 UTC | Importance: 8/10

Pennsylvania coal companies established hundreds of “patch towns” where corporations owned all housing, stores, and infrastructure, creating systems of debt peonage that trapped workers through company scrip and inflated prices. Coal operators “controlled employment, housing, local …

Coal Mining Companies Coal and Iron Police Pennsylvania Coal Operators labor-suppression corporate-power economic-coercion gilded-age institutional-capture

Pullman Company Town Established as Model of Corporate Paternalistic Control

1880-01-01 00:00:00 +0000 UTC | Importance: 7/10

George M. Pullman establishes the town of Pullman, Illinois, just outside Chicago city limits as one of the most substantial and comprehensive company towns in the United States. Entirely company-owned, the town provides housing, stores, a library, churches, parks, and entertainment facilities for …

George Pullman Pullman Palace Car Company Company town workers gilded-age company-towns corporate-control labor-suppression paternalism +1 more