A History of AppalachiaRichard Drake has skillfully woven together the various strands of the Appalachian experience into a sweeping whole. Touching upon folk traditions, health care, the environment, higher education, the role of blacks and women, and much more, Drake offers a compelling social history of a unique American region. The Appalachian region, extending from Alabama in the South up to the Allegheny highlands of Pennsylvania, has historically been characterized by its largely rural populations, rich natural resources that have fueled industry in other parts of the country, and the strong and wild, undeveloped land. The rugged geography of the region allowed Native American societies, especially the Cherokee, to flourish. Early white settlers tended to favor a self-sufficient approach to farming, contrary to the land grabbing and plantation building going on elsewhere in the South. The growth of a market economy and competition from other agricultural areas of the country sparked an economic decline of the region's rural population at least as early as 1830. The Civil War and the sometimes hostile legislation of Reconstruction made life even more difficult for rural Appalachians. Recent history of the region is marked by the corporate exploitation of resources. Regional oil, gas, and coal had attracted some industry even before the Civil War, but the postwar years saw an immense expansion of American industry, nearly all of which relied heavily on Appalachian fossil fuels, particularly coal. What was initially a boon to the region eventually brought financial disaster to many mountain people as unsafe working conditions and strip mining ravaged the land and its inhabitants. A History of Appalachia also examines pockets of urbanization in Appalachia. Chemical, textile, and other industries have encouraged the development of urban areas. At the same time, radio, television, and the internet provide residents direct links to cultures from all over the world. The author looks at the process of urbanization as it belies commonly held notions about the region's rural character. |
From inside the book
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... British–Iroquois alliance system some scholars refer to as the “Covenant Chain.” This Covenant Chain was disrupted in Pennsylvania by the grants of land made by the sons of William Penn in the 1730s, and the affected Indian groups were ...
... British colonies of Pennsylvania and New York. The Hurons, Erie, Neutrals, Delaware, and Conestogas, however, were unfortunate enough to be outside the confederacy itself, and to be occupying adjoining lands in Ontario or Pennsylvania ...
... of 1688 and the “Settlement” that followed, British politics became quite stable and even prosperous for those defined within this “Settlement.” But life was very different for those left “outside the Settlement.” The pioneers who.
... British migration to North America in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries reinforces this emphasis upon the different kinds of people who left England at different times. Fischer makes much of the various areas in Britain from ...
... British Isles was often desperately poor, and many were a part of those restless, rootless drifters into England's towns and cities. A majority of those who came did so as indentured servants, persons without money even to pay for their ...