The mineral wealth of the Appalachian mountains was being exploited.

Foreigners, at first, were coming into this country in sufficiently large numbers to meet the demand; but when this supply became inadequate, labor agents appealed to the blacks in the South.

Negroes then flocked to the mining districts of Birmingham, Alabama, and to East Tennessee.

A large number also migrated from North Carolina and Virginia to West Virginia and some few of the same group to Southern Ohio to take the places of those unreasonable strikers who often demanded larger increases in wages than the income of their employers could permit.

Many of these Negroes came to West Virginia as is evidenced by the increase in Negro population of that State.