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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... army of whites and Indians from South Carolina campaigned into the Tuscarora areas and destroyed them. More serious for the Carolinians was the Yamasee War of 1715–1717, which involved several other tribes beside the Yamasee—the Creeks ...
... army of Scottish regulars and colonial militia under the command of Archibald Montgomery invaded Cherokee lands, destroying crops and orchards and wiping out the Lower Cherokee town of Keowee. But when Montgomery moved into the Overhill ...
... army twice his strength. Then he divided his force in the face of the enemy and skillfully attacked one group of Virginians separately. But at the Battle of Point Pleasant on October 10, 1774, he found that he could not defeat even a ...
... army, Boone met John Finley, an adventurous trader of some experience, who filled the young Boone with dreams about Kentucky. With the Pennsylvania–Virginia frontier pacified and the French power destroyed by 1759, Boone along with ...
... army at Saratoga, New York, on the edge of the northern Appalachians when an exhausted British army faced a vast gathering of militia and American Continentals fully three times its size. Saratoga was the turning point of the American ...