High Mountains Rising (2 page)

High Mountains Rising
begins with a discussion of Native American life that focuses on the Cherokees in the Southern mountains. It then moves into an analysis of early Europeans in the region, with an emphasis on the migration patterns and settlements of Ulster-Scots farmers into the colonial backcountry. Appalachian development through the nineteenth century is featured in chapters that delve into slavery and African American life in the region, the Civil War and Reconstruction in Appalachia, and the antebellum industrialization of the region.

The industrialization of Appalachia was gradual but nonetheless resulted in significant social, cultural, economic, and political change in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The Great Depression is treated in a chapter that focuses largely on understanding the economic strategies and adaptation that occurred across the course of industrial development and decline in Appalachia. A related issue and a powerful theme of twentieth-century Appalachian life is the migration of people out of the region, mostly in search of improved economic opportunities. Beginning during the Great Depression and then accelerating during and after World War II, the role of the federal government in Appalachia has been crucial. In the concluding chapter of the book, Ron Eller shows us that when modernization swept over Appalachia in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries it left problems and promises, as it did everywhere. In the Southern mountains people have struggled to adapt to the shock of the modern in ways that have drawn strength from their rural past.

Appalachian history cannot be understood without reference to and an appreciation of the diverse cultures that have evolved in the region over the past several hundred years. Several chapters in this book explore the rich and varied cultural life of mountain people. Appalachian music, literature, folklore, language, and religion are explored in depth, as are the origins and history of the stereotypes that have so unfairly labeled Appalachians in the past and into the present.

As the title of this volume suggests, it is about both place and time. It is about culture and history. What Appalachia is and where Appalachia is are essential questions that we need to address before we can begin to understand its history. Appalachia as a place has been so difficult to define that some have suggested that it is more akin to an idea than a geographic locale. These chapters generally reject that notion and instead focus on specific historical occurrences and a shared culture that has evolved over time. The editors of this volume imposed no boundaries or definitions of Appalachia on
the authors of these chapters. For most who work in the region, it is the area of the United States that is situated mostly in the Southern mountains of the eastern half of the nation. For some it is better known as southern Appalachia, but regardless, it is made up generally of a core area: West Virginia, southwestern Virginia, eastern Kentucky, eastern Tennessee, western North Carolina, and the northern mountains of Georgia.

As you read this book you will notice that a number of themes emerge that will help you better understand what Appalachia is and has been. These are common ideas about Appalachia that help us to see it as a place with a shared history and culture. One major theme is the cultural diversity of Appalachia and the interaction of various ethnic and religious groups throughout the history of the region. For example, on the colonial frontier and in the backcountry settlements of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries Ulster-Scots, Germans, English, and Native Americans interacted freely. There is ample evidence that on its farms and in its small manufacturing settlements and in the coal mines and cities of the twentieth century, Appalachia has been and continues to be both ethnically and culturally diverse. This can be seen particularly well in its music, which is defined by influences from a variety of traditions both black and white; its religions; its folklore, which adopted many Native American themes; its language; its history of immigration from many areas of the world, not only the British Isles; and its economic development.

As with any study of history, in Appalachia it is important to recognize the significance of change over time and the adaptability of its residents to change. In their history of out-migration to seek economic opportunity, Appalachian people have had to adapt to new and changing circumstances: From their earliest contacts with one another, Native Americans and European settlers were forced to change and adapt; in the religions that evolved in the region, resilience and flexibility were paramount values; and particularly in the economic development of the region, adaptability to new markets and new ways of making a living were essential qualities for survival. During the industrialization of the mountains beginning in the late nineteenth century, the region's life and culture were made richer by an influx of new immigrants from eastern and southern Europe and African Americans from other areas of the South.

Several other important ideas present in many of these chapters could be helpful in guiding our understanding of Appalachia. The region has been characterized by and labeled with inaccurate and negative stereotypes about its history, culture, and people. It is our hope that the ideas and arguments presented in these chapters, particularly those on race and slavery, pioneer settlement, economic and industrial development, religion, language, music,
and out-migration, will help the reader form a more accurate image and interpretation of this region and its people.

Many of the chapters in this book support the well-established notion that Appalachia was never the truly isolated or historically backward place that has existed in the popular image of the mountain South in literature and the media. Many historians have shown that Appalachian rural communities were not completely shut off from the world outside the mountains. But they have also shown us that isolation is itself a historically relative term. A careful reading of these chapters reveals that although Appalachia certainly did not always interact with all aspects of American life, it was not completely set apart, either. To what extent Appalachia, as it developed, was connected to the rest of the United States remains an important question.

Another important issue raised in many of these chapters is the extent to which Appalachia has been a unique part of America. It is impossible to assert that Appalachia is a completely unique culture because Appalachians are Americans and share most of the language, values, religions, and economies with most of the rest of the country. But it is also undeniable that there are speech patterns, values, music, religion, folklore, and historical developments that are readily identified with Appalachia. Appalachian history and culture have evolved in different ways from other parts of America, although not in every way, and it certainly is not unique in this pattern. It is our hope that Appalachia emerges from these pages as a vital part of American history but also as a place where at least some parts maintain significant differences from what most people think of as mainstream America.

Appalachia has been and to a significant degree remains a rural world where people derive much of their identity from ties to land and family. The rural economy that Appalachian people have developed to sustain themselves makes up another major theme of this collection. Appalachia has been historically depicted as a land of small, backward outpost farms within a very limited or even nonexistent regional economy. Through the work of many historians, some of whom are represented here, we know the historical reality to be much more complex than this. We know that Appalachian farms have been smaller and more diversified than many in other parts of the nation, but this has not forced most farm families in Appalachia into a humble, isolated self-sufficiency. Although it is clear from these readings and the work of other historians that Appalachia was a household-based economy—particularly until the late nineteenth century—there is ample evidence that Appalachian farmers and artisans from varied economic circumstances were involved in local, regional, and even national trade networks that sent food out of the region in exchange for necessary material supplies. Several chapters in this collection tell the story of how the
particular economic resources found in Appalachia were developed and exploited in the decades between the Civil War and World War I. Of particular importance in this context is Ronald Lewis's analysis of the economic connections between agricultural and industrial areas of Appalachia and the larger markets of the United States and the world. Taken as a whole, these chapters tell us that mountain people in Appalachia have not been strangers to change but that Appalachian people have sometimes struggled over the past three centuries to adapt to the best of the new while working very hard to keep their feet planted firmly on the ground of tradition.

Most teachers hope that their students will be changed in some positive way by what they hear, read, and think about in the classroom. In that vein, we hope that you will be enlightened and perhaps even changed a little by what you read in this book. Some of its themes will be familiar to students of the region who are aware of the work of many scholars who have done the research into Appalachia's past that informs this collection. But for those of you who are reading about Appalachia for the first time or who are familiar with only the popular images and interpretations of this region, the ideas presented here may be new and challenging. Despite the work of many dedicated scholars in a number of different disciplines, many negative impressions and ideas about Appalachia persist. It would be naive of us to think that the conclusions arrived at in this volume will permanently alter the major stereotypes and popular notions about Appalachia. However, we believe that if those who read this collection of essays consider its ideas carefully, there is a chance that it will make a difference in people's thinking about the region. Popular myths and stereotypes are not easily altered by the work of scholars, no matter how fine or meticulous their research, but the excellent work of many scholars represented here and others who are not can make a difference.

From the perspective of thirty years of reading, thinking, teaching, and writing about Appalachia I understand now why my professor believed at that time that Appalachia did not have a history. I know now that what he meant was that Appalachia was not an area discrete enough or even united enough to have a shared culture or past. Today when students ask for my thoughts on Appalachian history, I am much better equipped because of the work of the scholars represented in this book to fit Appalachia into the American history puzzle. Appalachian history and culture is a piece of that puzzle that cannot and will not be left out again.

1

C. Clifford Boyd Jr.

The southern Appalachians of the early historic period (the seventeenth through early eighteenth centuries) were home to the Cherokees, who had a total population of possibly 20,000 at the beginning of this period. The Cherokees occupied settlements along river valleys in five geographically distinct areas. These settlement groups included the Lower Towns in the Piedmont of northeastern Georgia and northwestern South Carolina; the Middle, Valley, and Out Towns in the Blue Ridge of southwestern North Carolina; and the Overhill Towns in the Ridge and Valley province of eastern Tennessee.
¹
The Cherokee language was part of the larger Iroquoian language family, and the Cherokees called themselves Ani-Yunwiya, or the “principal people.”
²

This chapter provides a brief overview of the history of the Cherokees from their origins to the current status of the Eastern Band of Cherokees in North Carolina. The extremely well-documented story of the Cherokees illustrates the dynamic changes that affected Native Americans in the southern Appalachians in their encounters with Europeans and Anglo-Americans.

Archaeologists still debate whether the Cherokees have a long history and prehistory in the southern Appalachians or whether more recent developments led to the creation of the historic Cherokees. Because Cherokee is an Iroquoian language, linguists have compared Cherokee with languages spoken by other native Iroquoian speakers around the Great Lakes region. These linguistic studies suggest that the ancestors of the Cherokees may have moved into the southern Appalachians from the north perhaps 3,500 years ago, based on language differences between these groups.
³

However, tracing a historic tribe back into such a remote prehistoric past and confirming this antiquity cannot be done, even with the best linguistic and archaeological information. Archaeological excavations and studies in western North Carolina, northeast Georgia, and East Tennessee do suggest that the historic Cherokees in these areas may have evolved out of earlier cultures beginning at least 1,000 years ago.
⁴

Prehistoric cultures from about
A.D.
1000 to 1540 living in the southern Appalachians were part of the broader Mississippian stage of cultural development in the southeastern United States.
⁵
Mississippian culture represented the culmination of perhaps 15,000–20,000 years of prehistoric human occupation of North America and was the most complex sociopolitical development by pre-Columbian peoples north of Mexico. Many large villages or towns were established along river valleys, where the fertile floodplain soils of the region supported agricultural production of squash, corn (maize), and, later, beans. Although wild plant foods and game were still used, these domesticated plants (which had their origin in Mexico) were the staple foods for most large Mississippian settlements.