I Owe My Soul to the Company Store

Sixteen Tons
Lyrics by Tennessee Ernie Ford

Some people say a man is made outta mud
A poor man's made outta muscle and blood
Muscle and blood and skin and bones
A mind that's a-weak and a back that's strong

You load sixteen tons, what do you get
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store

I was born one mornin' when the sun didn't shine
I picked up my shovel and I walked to the mine
I loaded sixteen tons of number nine coal
And the straw boss said "Well, a-bless my soul"

You load sixteen tons, what do you get
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store

I was born one mornin', it was drizzlin' rain
Fightin' and trouble are my middle name
I was raised in the canebrake by an ol' mama lion
Cain't no-a high-toned woman make me walk the line

You load sixteen tons, what do you get
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store

If you see me comin', better step aside
A lotta men didn't, a lotta men died
One fist of iron, the other of steel
If the right one don't a-get you
Then the left one will

You load sixteen tons, what do you get
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store


Prior to the unionization of coalminers, and for some time afterward, the company store was a very real institution in the mining towns which grew up amid the great coalfields of Appalachia. Under the company store system, miners were paid not in money but in script redeemable only to purchase items for sale at the company store. This system kept miners in debt-bondage to the coal companies while adding to their profitability. It was not invented by the big Appalachian coal companies but it was perfected by them.

To see pictures of company stores and the Appalachian mining communities built around them, many of them now ghost towns, in areas pertinent to Melungeons and reflated families:

• East Tennessee: Click Here.
• Southwest Virginia: Click Here.
• Eastern Kentucky: Click Here.

For pictures from other areas and to see a map of the major Appalachian coalfields: Click Here.