Switch County, Kentucky, is the rural area depicted in the novel Hardcastle by John Yount. Once a peaceful rural farming community, it was transformed into a coal mining region during the industrial revolution of the early 1900s. It soon lost its ties to subsistence farming and traded all its positives for the dirty negatives of coal mining. Although Yount honestly explores the difficulties of subsistence farming compared to the tempting security that coal mining seemed to offer in the 1930s, he concludes that farming was still a better way of life. Through the events and attitudes described in Hardcastle, he suggests that the industrial-technological modernity that replaced subsistence agriculture in Appalachia left its inhabitants without a sufficient quality of life, especially joy, pride, and basic security . Depicting life in a coal town in great detail and through the eyes of a well-developed character that the audience can easily relate to, Yount posits that anything, especially farming, is a better life than mining. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Although it was not easy to make a living on the rocky terrain of Appalachia, many families were able to do so. Unfortunately, as the demand for coal increased, so did the demand for that land, so it became increasingly difficult to maintain it (Brooks). Subsistence farmers are people who “grow what they eat, build their own homes, and live without making regular purchases in the market” (Waters). Not unlike coal mining, subsistence farming involves a great deal of manual labor. In Hardcastle, Bill Music attempts to prepare Regus for a life of subsistence farming, listing many things they must accomplish, including making and fixing rabbit tires, setting up a plow, building a barn in the stable, redoing the north wall, repairing all the fences – and that's just the beginning. When it comes to farming, “if you hope to make a decent living out of it, you have all kinds of work to do – small and large” (Yount 186). However, Yount casts a much more positive light on subsistence farming, creating a feeling of hope towards manual labor that allows a man to be his own boss, working to directly feed himself and his family. Unlike subsistence farming, coal mining is focused on subsistence farming. make money. When coal mining began, native farmers were the first to be hired, dramatically changing their lifestyle. Later, as the industry continued to grow and more labor was needed, immigrant miners and many black families flocked to the cities, ready to work. This led to the coal company taking over otherwise peaceful and self-sustaining towns throughout Appalachia (Brooks). One system, however, which was so successful in the early days of coal mining, was the convict leasing system. In this, states literally rented prisoners to work as unpaid miners. This provided an unlimited supply of labor thanks to the laws of the time, which quickly put men in prison for even petty crimes (Jones). The paid miners realized the negative impact this practice had on their wages and many strikes were organised. Some even launched “bold nighttime armed assaults on the prison complex with the intent tofree the prisoners” (Jones). However, as with Hardcastle, this strike had no lasting effect and the companies ultimately won. Convict leasing program thugs were even used against striking miners to break picket lines. Although it was finally abolished in 1892, the convict leasing system significantly lowered the cost of coal, making it easier to mine and allowing the business to expand (Jones). There were other factors that made coal such an important industry – mainly in the South. First, coal from the South was superior to coal from the North, but it was also cheaper. This was achieved thanks to “the geological position of mountain coal which made it easier to extract” (Jones). Additionally, trains charged less for longer rides, and thus transportation was less expensive. The most important factor in the rise of coal that allowed companies to take over much of Appalachian Pacific agriculture was the ever-increasing demand for coal energy, with the increase most dramatic in the South (Jones). Appalachia has also been targeted in the industrial sector. revolution as a place that desperately needs cultural and spiritual improvement. Jones discusses that “civilized” outsiders thought Appalachia was a “backward” place, inhabited by people behind the times. He states that: Visitors from the North identified the mountain peoples with other “backward peoples” whom the major industrial nations of the day sought to develop and to whom the term “natives” was commonly applied. the outside world dedicated itself to culturally improving the mountain populations and bringing them into the industrial age. Saving the mountain people was also a driving force in many efforts in Appalachia, as seen in the “massive homeland Protestant missionary movement” of the late 1800s and early 1900s (Jones). These efforts, however, did not take into account the fact that Appalachians did not see themselves as negatively as the rest of the world did, and had no desire to be bettered. Throughout this expansion, the coal industry continued to grow. Although the market was often unstable and unpredictable, demand for coal soared in the early 1900s with the Industrial Revolution. The new railroads that were being built throughout Appalachia became the vital factor that led to the expansion of coal. Since railroads made it easy to transport coal, the only thing left to do was get it out of the ground as quickly as possible. Miners worked in harsh conditions, often being injured or even killed in the mines (Brooks). They also worked for very low wages, as the companies they worked for constantly struggled to undercut each other in sales, and employees' wages suffered the consequences (Yount 161). Furthermore, because the company owned everything in the coal towns, its workers accepted the poor conditions often without complaint, knowing that unions were banned, and “a landless miner and his family were left homeless after leaving their jobs” (Jones). Unfortunately, farmers who turned to mining never saw the expected profit from the new coal industry. Or, as Worth Enloe explained to Bill Music, "The problem is, for every operator who came down here to mine coal and get rich, there were a hundred poor motherfuckers who threw down their plows and started digging it for him" ( Yount 76).Yount considers joy to be an important aspect of life for the people of Switch County, as its characters' lack of it – under the oppression of the coal company – isobvious. For example, mining families are filled with anger at the company, knowing they are being exploited, but powerless to stop it. When Music and Regus are carrying out the new mining contract, Merlee Taylor greets them with such anger "that, for a moment, Music was struck dumb" (Yount 72). His anger is easily understandable when considering the content of the contract. For example, Kenton Hardcastle reserves the right to immediately evict a family from company housing "for breaking any regulations" - especially for dealing with a union. Furthermore, signing it means “giving up any benefits or protections to which [one] might otherwise be entitled by law” (Yount 70). Unfortunately, poor people have no choice but to sign the contract if they wish to be paid or remain living in their company's shacks. People have no respect for the man they work for, due to very similar circumstances to signing that contract, and therefore have found no joy in their work. Another great example of the lack of joy in these miners' lives is found in the way the company treats its men. When a worker is suspected of having something to do with a union, he is automatically fired and forced to leave his home, which is provided by the company. Not only is he told to leave his house, but he also literally finds his belongings piled into trucks and taken away before he has a chance to move them himself. The men in the trucks then drive to the edge of the coal company's property and the family's possessions are “dumped along the way” (Yount 211). As in the case of the families abandoned in Regus' yard, the ex-miner, his wife, and children are left to follow them into the dust of pickup trucks, humiliated and homeless (Yount 212). This situation is surely enough to drive any hard-working man almost to madness or, at the very least, to completely break his spirit. Regus' meadow in “Judgment Day” (Yount 211). For example, the Hardcastle Coal Company does not generously care for the families of men who die in its mines. Merlee Taylor is a very young widow who must support her elderly aunt and her newborn child. Kenton Hardcastle doesn't charge rent on the humble shack he lets them stay in, but he doesn't give them any monetary support, even though their only source of income has died at his hands. Women like Merlee are left broken, distrustful, and paralyzingly angry, never sure where they will get their next meal (Yount 72). The security offered by the company is poor and easily lost, and therefore not worth the pain of working for it. On the other hand, when families are expelled from the control of the coal company, the relief and camaraderie they find in being responsible for their own lives is celebrated. For example, when Squatterville is founded, the men "hold Music and Regus in high regard" and many even make it a point to "apologize for thinking badly of them in the past" (Yount 216). As the people of Squatterville gain respect for those in charge, attitudes improve. Humor is also found when citizens refer to their rows of tents as streets, “Easy Street” and “Silk Stocking Row” (Yount 251). Likewise, as Arturo Zigerelli explains the work he has planned for them for the union, they realize that they are working for something they believe in for the first time since coal took over their city, and their “faces they seem to light up” (Yount 229). Music watches the “tough, brave band” head to the picket line each morning and is “amazed” by their “new spirit” (Yount 251). Not the times.