'It Didn't Pump Itself'

  1. Ariel Aberg-Riger

The Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company was wildly successful, but the key to its profits lay in a deadly contract negotiated with the State of Alabama in 1888.

This post is part of a CityLab series on power—the political kind, the stuff inside batteries and gas tanks, and the transformative might of mass movements.

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