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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... William Byrd II, for one, as early as 1728 saw the folk of backwoods North Carolina as “Lubbers,” who wasted away their lives in laziness. Yet John Filson made such a hero of Daniel Boone, his idealized Kentucky backwoodsman, that the ...
... William Penn in the 1730s, and the affected Indian groups were forced to migrate again into areas farther west, particularly the mountains of West Virginia and southern Ohio. The Covenant Chain remained in effect for another generation ...
... William Bartram, who visited the Cherokee town of Whatoga in the 1770s, wrote the following about that town: “Riding through this large town, the road carried me winding about through their little plantations of corn, Beans, and up to ...
... Williams, W.D. Weatherford, Norman Simkins, Forrest MacDonald, Grady McWhiney and others—have presented what they call a “Celtic Thesis” to explain this new kind of emigrant during the eighteenth century, thus focusing on racial ...
... William Penn and other colonial proprietors were recruiting thousands of New World immigrants within the Rhineland area. Though German settlement also spread eastward in these years, Germany had no other overseas areas to focus her ...