App./Ky. StudiesYou need one ½ sheet of paper.

1. When referring to those who first settled what is identified as Appalachia as Borderlanders, what does this mean?

2. Approximately when (give a 50 yr. span) did these Borderlanders arrive in America?

3. What were the characteristics of this migration?

4. What type of individuals were the first to move into the Appalachian Mtns.?

Quiz

5. How were the Borderlanders suited to the Great Awakening in America?

6. What is meant by describing these Borderlanders, and then the Appalachians, as possessing cultural anxiety?

7. Who belongs to Appalachia (portions of which states) according to the current Appalachian Regional Commission boundaries?

Geography Test Tuesday!

The Borderlands◦ A people with a unique history and

culture that eventually transplanted it in the Appalachian Mountains

◦ They, and their ancestors, became the periphery in America as well

◦ Get to this later

Peripheral people

Appalachia’s first settlers: over 14,000 years ago

Ancestors of Iroquois and Cherokee migrated here 12,000 BC

Cherokee most prominent in pre-colonial Appalachia◦ but not only: Shawnee, Yuchi, Carawba and many

others

The beginnings….

16th c: Spanish explorers in Florida told by the Apalachee peoples that there was gold in the mountains north. (truth??)

By 1562, “Appalachen” appeared on European maps

De Soto’s journey took him as far as Mountains in East TN

Iroquois began to expand their territory south (VA, SC, NC)◦ The clashes in Appalachia were multicultural and

multiethnic!

And the Europeans came…

Cherokee: humans were just another part of nature, not superior to animals, trees, etc. As a result, they didn’t believe in land ownership

European: humans on a mission from God to conquer nature, interested in expanding territory. Native societies viewed as primitive and savage.

Competing perspectives:

First exploration into the S. Appalachians were fur traders around 1650

Virginian Governors would periodically commission explorers into the mountains

Early exaggerations: Lions and tigers Indians dominated and the fur trade

was abundant (many of the traders coming out of Charleston)

Many of the traders were adopted into the Native cultures and took Indian wives

1730: VA offered land grants in the Shenandoah Valley

1750’s: settlers reached western NC and East TN

To prevent white settlers from overrunning Native lands, British gov’t issued Proclamation of 1763: banned all settlement west of the Appalachian Mtns.◦ but largely ignored!

First white settlers:

The legendary long hunters came through Cumberland Gap during the 1760’s (despite the Proclamation!)

Despite some differences, mostly able to coexist with the Indians.

"All you need for happiness is a good gun, a good horse and a good wife."– Daniel Boone

My Old Kentucky Home

From where they came:

Early 1900s, Cecil Sharp collected songs, ballads, etc. from Appalachia and found that the people “come from a part of England or the Border Country between Scotland and England where civilization is least developed.”

Even today the region is bare, empty, with deep valleys

The Borders of North Britain

Post 1715 – the migration to America was dominated by small independent farmers, or people who sought land ownership◦ Yeoman culture (small land owners)

Old World Backgrounds

So many immigrants from the Borderlands arrived in Pennsylvania, “a swarm of people… strangers to our laws and customs, and even to our language.”

They looked different◦ Tall, lean and weathered with a felt hat,

loose sackcloth shirts, close belted at the waist and baggy trousers

Total number◦ 250,000 with 1/3 of them coming in the

four years prior to the American Revolution

It was a movement of families◦ 61% of those from N. England came w/

families◦ 73% from Border Scotland◦ 91% from N. Ireland

Fairly even ratio of males to females (149/100)

Why did they come?◦ Material betterment and a shot at land;

most were farmers back home◦ How does this differ from many others in

New England who had come to America?

They possessed significant confidence and pride despite their poverty.

They demanded respect despite their rags.

The Borderlanders demanded the same from the English authorities

What were they called?◦ Ulster Irish, Northern Irish, Scotch

Irish, Scots Irish, Anglo Irish, Saxon Irish

1-2% were elite gentry (would become important in American politics)

“statesman” were a small group of independent yeoman

majority were farmers and farm laborers who did not own land

a large minority were semiskilled craftsmen (weavers) or traders

They were mostly poor, but not desperately poor!

The People

Caudill’s book discusses the plight of the indentured servants, who moved from NC and SC up into KY

Many in Eastern KY came from the Pennsylvania region, down through Northern Carolina, then up into KY◦ Ex: Daniel Boone

KY vs. southern App. regions

The kings of Scotland and England could not agree:◦ From 1040-1745 all but three English

Monarchs suffered Scottish invasion or invaded Scotland

Endemic violence perpetuated poverty Land ownership not as important as a

horse and weapons Blood relations were highly important;

families became clans; loyalty to the clan, not the Crown

There was little trust in legal institutions; settled own disputes through violence

Cultural character came from 1 unique issue:Who owned this Borderland?

The first U.S. census identified these Borderlanders as up to 90% of the inhabitants of SW Pennsylvania, Western Maryland and Virginia, N. and S. Carolina, and Georgia and Tennessee

Mostly Presbyterians and Anglican with a strong tendency towards New Light Christianity (Great Awakening)◦ A belief in free grace, field meetings,

prayer societies; a settled hostility towards the established church

◦ A group in Scotland founded by Richard Cameron was known for a Bible in one hand and a weapon in the other; sermons were overly militaristic

Religious origins

Intensely resistant to change, suspicious of “foreigners” (anyone not neighbor or kin!)

They disliked the great planters and the abolitionists

Possessed cultural anxiety and insecurity born of centuries of violence and uncertainty

Associated with the Regulator Movement◦ Against wealthy, corrupt colonial officials (inner

circle of knowledgeable individuals)◦ Post defeat there was an attempt to form an

independent Republic of Franklin and the Republic of Watauga in Tennessee

Their Colonial Mind

2 waves of immigrants into Appalachia:◦ People seeking land ownership (and some

religious freedoms) that came into Pennsylvania, them migrated south into VA and NC, and finally into KY

◦ People brought to America as indentured servants to work plantations in NC and SC, who then got free of masters and migrated north

◦ Most of these came from what area?

Review from yesterday:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypk5mG5JDvk

Understand the “cultural anxiety” of these people.

Not called “frontiersman” at the time “Backcountry” or “backsettlers”

Traits of the backcountry:

“We never let go of a belief once fixed in our minds”

Clung tenaciously to their customs, culture and characteristics

The words of the American backcountry or the same words recorded in the language of the Scottish lowland and highland speech, as well as that of Northern Ireland and the Northern English border

Name some unique “Appalachian” expressions/words:

Speech Ways

Whar Thar Hard Critter Sartin A-goin Hit He-it Far Be-it Narrer

Deef Pizen Nekkid Fetch Boosh Wrassle Chaney Chaw Poosh Shet Young-uns

Speech Ways – distinct pronunciations

He come in She done finished They growed up They is judged You wasn’t there, was you He done did it She had a one He don’t have none

Verb forms

Fornenst Skift Fixin Brickle Swan Hant Hate Nigh Scawmy

Lowp Lettin’ on Bumfuzzled Scoot Honey

Own distinct vocabulary

http://www.dailyyonder.com/mountain-talk/2010/07/13/2837

It’s an earthy dialect that didn’t contain the taboos of Puritan English◦ Sexual processes and natural

functions were freely used in figurative expressions

◦ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03iwAY4KlIU

The log cabin Simple, suitable to migrating

people, impermanent, and an expression of insecurity on the borders

Perfect for a scarce environment Creates a strong sense of family

and a weak sense of individual privacy – one great room

Building Ways

One English soldier upon seeing a borderlander’s home: "husbandmen's houses ... resemble our swine coates, few or none of them have more storeys than one, and that very low and covered usually with clods of earth, the people and their habits are suitable to the dwellings.”

Size was similar on both sides of the Atlantic, about 16 ft.

“any sort of rude enclosure, commonly built of the cheapest materials that came to hand: turf and mud in Ireland, stone and dirt in Scotland, logs and clay in America....”

Logs were “daubed” with clay◦ Communal event called a “clay daubin” for

a newly married couple In the American backcountry this was

referred to as “wattle and funk” Larger cabins were often referred to as

“dog-trot cabins”

As late as 1939 there were 270,000 occupied log cabins in the United States. Many were in the southern highlands. In the county of Halifax, Virginia, 42 percent of all houses were log cabins as recently as World War II

The mobile home preserves an architectural attitude that was carried to the backcountry nearly three centuries ago—a cabin on wheels!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxjCeDDOJek

(show this later!)

Derbfine - all kin within the span of four generations. For many centuries, the laws of North Britain and Ireland had recognized the derbfine as a unit which defined the descent of property and power. It not only connected one nuclear family to another, but also joined one generation to the next.

Family Ways

Clan – a group of related families who lived near to one another, were conscious of a common identity, carried the same surname, claimed descent from common ancestors, and banded together when danger threatened.◦ Blood relations◦ Called each other cousin◦ 25% married within the clan◦ highly effective adaptation to a world

of violence and chronic insecurity.

Family Ways

“My grandfather and grandmother were born in Scotland about the [year] 1670. They were cousins and both of one name. His name was John and hers was Janet. They lived in their younger years in or near Glasgow and in 1695 they left Scotland and settled in Ireland in the county of Down . . . where he lived in good circumstances and in good credit until the year 1734, [when] he removed with his family to South Carolina.”

(grandparents, 7 children, 17 grandchildren, uncles and cousins!)

A migration of whole families:

“We did not all come in one ship nor at one time.”

was a classic example of serial migration or stream migration which was common in the peopling of the backcountry. A few clan members opened a path for others, and were followed by a steady stream of kin.

In North Carolina's Catawba County, the first United States Census of 1790 listed 300 nuclear families named Alexander

"so numerous were the tribe of the Alexanders that they had to be designated by their office, their trade or their middle name." The most eminent Alexander was called "Governor Nat" to distinguish him from "Red Head Nat" and "Fuller Nat." This became a common custom throughout the southern highlands”

among the distinctive features of clan organization was the emphasis on collateral (equal importance) rather than lineal descent

This fit in well with the mobility of the countryside, which prevented the formation of 'lineal families' in which sons succeeded to their fathers' lands.

“All the children in the district are related by blood in one degree or another. Our roll-call includes Sally Mary and Cripple John's Mary and Tan's Mary, all bearing the same surname; and there is, besides, Aunt Rose Mary and Mary-Jo, living yon side the creek. There are different branches of the Rogers family Clay and Frank, Red Jim and Lyin' Jim and Singin' Jim and Black Jim Rogers in this district, their kin intermarried until no man could write their pedigree or ascertain the exact relation of their offspring to each other.”

This loyalty to kin and clan was a way of dealing with the violent and disordered world from where they came.

It hung on once here—and thus the “family feud” so associated with this region.

Bride’s family vs. the groom’s Passing around the “Black Betty” ". ...marriages are early and

generally prolific. In one district, containing upwards of 17,000 white inhabitants, there is not one woman at the age of twenty-five who is neither wife or widow."

Marriage Ways

Clear-cut ideas of masculine and feminine

Even though both engaged in the heaviest labor, it’s a patriarchic society where men are the warriors and women are the workers

Gravestones for wives with the husband’s name at the top

Gender Ways

When a culture exists for many generations in conditions of chronic insecurity, it develops an ethic that exalts war above work, force above reason, and men above women.

Hostile environment plus evangelical Christianity

More open than other cultures- both in talk and behavior

Scantily clad Single room homes, so there was

little privacy Children run around naked High rates of pre-nuptial pregnancy

◦ 1767- 94% of brides were pregnant◦ Also the youngest average age of brides

Why?

Sex Ways

Scarcity of clergyLong night walks home

Openness since birth

Promiscuous dress

Always been a stereotype However, no more than the rest

of America (or the world) initially

But there is a particularly strong oral tradition◦ Education has always been tied to

the following Money Availability/accessibility Practicality of attendance Future prospects

Literacy

Brief quiz to see if you’ve been paying attention

What do you remember:

Early 19th c: white children only went to school for about 2 yrs

Rates of schooling lower here than any other part of US from 19th-late 20th c

Root of this? Formal education very limited in those border areas

School

Since its inception in 2001, the Appalachian Education Initiative has been dedicated to ensuring that quality arts education should be a central part of the education of every public school student in West Virginia. 

AEI’s mission is to promote students’ personal development, academic performance and 21st century workforce preparation by ensuring that educators, parents, business and community leaders and others understand the value of arts education and support its place from Kindergarten through 12th grade

Appalachian Arts Initiative

The Appalachian Leadership and Education Foundation (ALEF), a non-profit organization funded by foundations and companies, supports and  enables young men and women from Appalachia to pursue higher education though scholarship and leadership curriculum. The program includes an emphasis toward the preparation required to be the leaders of the next decade.  The concept of operations for ALEF is to partner with established academic institutions across Appalachia to provide the technical skills necessary as the basis for credible leadership

ALEF

AHE Network centers provide grants of approximately $2,000–$10,000 to high schools in their service areas via a competitive process. The schools then implement low-cost, high-impact activities and services to encourage participation in postsecondary education, such as college campus and worksite visits, financial aid training, occupational interest surveys, and assistance with college selection and application processes.

Appalachian Higher Education Network

Clabber – unpasteurized milk that is allowed to sour, then add brown sugar, molasses, cinnamon, etc.

Bonnie clabber –brought by the Ulster Scots◦ It’s a Gaelic combination: milk and sour milk

Whiskey – distillation tech. brought from Africa and the Middle East and settled in Scotland/England in the Monasteries at first◦ With the Act of Union of 1707, high taxes

drove it into illegal production (esp. at night to hide the smoke)

Food Ways

Levels on Inactivity: Dark blue is >32% inactive

The British, French, and various Indian tribes

The British had allied with the Iroquois, and the French are concerned

The French fur trade depended on the relations with the many Algonquin-speaking Indians

Most of this conflict was in the N. Appalachians, but the French pressured the Southern Tribes. This worried the officials in Carolinas and Virginia

The Wars for Appalachia

Virginia settlement schemes to move into the Ohio Valley: Recruiting settlers

By 1754 Virginia had granted more than 2.5 million acres to companies in and beyond the mountains◦ One was the Loyal Land Co. of which

Dr. Thomas Walker and others came through the Cumberland Gap in 1750

The French and Indian War

The war involved many altercations between militia and the Cherokee in Virginia and the Carolinas

When the French were defeated that left only one foe- the British (and the Colonists who were growing increasingly independent of Britain, esp. those moving into the mountains)

After an initial “conspiracy” of Indians to defeat the British (led by Pontiac) London issued the Proclamation of 1763◦ Forbidding white migration and

settlement beyond the crest of the Appalachians

◦ Impact Colonists upset. Wasn’t that the

purpose for defeating the French? Speculator, hunter, settler, trader

There was an attempt in the 1760s to create a trans-Appalachian colony called Vandalia◦ It was to be about where West Virginia

is today Pennsylvanians who did not

possess western claims bought some land from the Iroquois, but it collapsed

London had no time for such nonsense

The colonies began allowing hunting parties into the Appalachian Region in the 1760s and 70s.

Long hunters enter Kentucky The legend of Daniel Boone and

others

Both the French and Indian War and the Am. Rev. had driven most Native Americans out of the area

Large tracks of land were made available to veterans◦ However, many speculators

purchased these lands from them, creating absentee land owners

Squatters were popular◦ A family could virtually move in

unnoticed and then easily move on

By 1780 America included all west to the Mississippi.

This meant 9 of the original 13 colonies had lands in the Appalachian Mtns.

Then the next 3 did as well: VT, KY, TN

By 1790 180,000 whites to less than 50,000 Indians

Most, whether they owned land or not, “ranched” in the mountains

The attempted State of Franklin during the late 1700s

About 20,000 in Eastern Tennessee sought their own State (they invited a few of NC’s counties

This very much aligned with the frontier spirit, but it collapsed due to the U.S. Constitution◦ No state can be divided without

Federal consent

Transylvania Company◦ Richard Henderson and Daniel Boone

move into the Bluegrass and “buy” land from the Cherokee (they didn’t really own it, the Iroquois were here as well)

◦ 1774 Boonesboro◦ After the Revolution it becomes a

county of Virginia◦ Statehood for Kentucky was eventually

a matter for the Ohio Valley and the Bluegrass area; Eastern Kentucky was embroiled in local issues

Most Appalachians were not even considered during ratification

However, they preferred the Articles of Confederation (limited government)

North Carolina did not even ratify the Constitution until it was functioning

The exception to not supporting the Constitution was Western Virginia◦ Why?

Appalachians and the New Nation

When the New Government takes hold, opposition from the hills◦ Whiskey Rebellion

Hamilton needed revenue for the new nation

Issued an excise tax on distilled whiskey

¼ of all national distilling took place in 4 Appalachian counties in Pennsylvania

Western farmers and Appalachians felt targeted They usually had little cash, so whiskey

served as a medium for exchange

Southern Appalachians upset over Indian policy◦ Washington felt the Federal

Government could only move against one group at a time They chose the Indians of the

Northwest, ignoring the South and Southwest

For these reasons, many in the Appalachians welcomed the decline of the Federalists and the incoming power of the Democrats◦ Jeffersonian democracy◦ By 1800, two societies were

developing Tuckahoes – wealthy lowcountry

elites Cohees – poor farmers from the hills

Cohee culture◦ Grazing, farmland economy with

cattle and hog grazing on an “open range” in the forests

◦ Patch farming in cleared portions◦ Families lived in isolated farmsteads◦ Neighborhood churches and school

houses were the center of community interest

◦ It was not a capitalistic oriented agriculture

◦ The focus was family survival

During the pre-Civil War era the Southern Appalachia economy was quite diversified◦ Farming with a broader market

based system◦ Small towns with stores

beginning to develop◦ Ores and coal produced

foundries◦ Salt mining ◦ Gold mining

Backwoods religion became inundated with Methodists and Baptists

The seminary-trained Presbyterians could not service a area with so few ministers

They established non-establishmentarian churches◦ They ordained any man whom a local

congregation deemed worthy ◦ All you needed was proper faith and an

open heart

When the Baptists have a split between missionary and anti-missionary (Primitive) most of the Primitive is concentrated in Appalachia

Jefferson’s policy of agriculture and expansion westward was favored by the Backcountry

With a few Indian Wars of the early 1800s over, the Southern Appalachians was a white man’s country

Andrew Jackson ◦ they get one of their own in the White

House◦ Indian Removal

Problems between the backwoods and the tidewater over representation

This was an issue of slavery◦ In Virginia the westerners argued

strongly for emancipation◦ Many Germans and Quakers argued

against slavery◦ Many Appalachia counties had

virtually no slaves (however that did not mean it wasn’t there)

Though the numbers were low in Appalachia, it was growing up until the Civil War◦ In Burke, NC, from 7% in 1790 to 26% in

1860◦ Why?

In Appalachia, the local elites did own several slaves, and theirs did not seem to be a consistent view across the board

One thing is for sure, many of the Appalachians opposed slavery because of opposition to the planter elite

There was a strong anti-slavery movement in the Appalachians

Many times “log cabin colleges” in TN taught an anti-slavery doctrine

Though Cohee society may have been largely antislavery, it had made peace with slave society

In Appalachia it really did pit father against son and brother against brother

Many areas of seceding states had treasonous section in the mountains◦ Many of these pro-union areas talked of

their own potential statehood

The Civil War

During the War this area was constantly part of the Western Campaigns

The War was destructive to the entire area◦ What little schools there were closed◦ Agricultural life was destroyed (raiders on

both sides)◦ Feuds developed◦ Also a haven for deserters (rich man’s war,

but a poor man’s fight: based on conscription laws in the South)

◦ Authority had collapsed

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNPEZRTpwPw

A brief visual:

He attributes most of the settlement of Appalachia to the plantation economy of the American South◦ When labor was in short supply the

planters looked to the streets of England These streets were “nauseous hell holes of

crime and venality.” Kids could be hanged for theft Fathers thrown in jail for life because of

debts Great hordes of orphans roamed the cities

and countrysides

Night Comes to the Cumberlands

Series of Parliamentary Acts made it possible to transport street orphans, debtors, and criminals to the New World- indentureships

Settlement of Georgia, Virginia, and the Carolinas

Even kidnabbers But not all who arrived could make it in a

stable society (some did though)◦ Death and even piracy◦ The rest fled to the interior – to the Piedmont

and then to the foothills of the Blue Ridge

These were the first Southern Mountaineers

Caudill does connect them to the Borderland tradition, especially by name: Adams, Allen, Anderson, Baker, . . . Wells, White, Williams, Workman, and Wright

They lived and learned amongst the Cherokees – even the cabin

They helped defeat the Crown at the Battle of King’s Mountain and were rewarded with allotments of “Western lands”

At this battle the British commander referred to the frontier militiamen as “barbarians”◦ Militiamen - 28 dead◦ British/loyalists – 1104 dead or

captured◦ Served as a major turning point for

the war

All he needed was land with an availability of game and some soil to lay down a corn patch

And until about 1830, “all of the parent stock of the basic population had arrived, and few settlers came into the region after that date.”

The Blue Ridge mountaineer became a farmer – dependant on crops and livestock◦ Indians (Choctaws and Shawnees)

became a threat, so the Appalachians needed long-barrelled “polkstalk” shotguns

◦ Mongrel dogs were bred◦ Established himself amongst his freedom

and did not seek to expand westward, keeping away from the advancement and restrictions of civilization

These mountaineers were able to withstand the Indians because they were like them – adopting the “red man’s skills and tactics and used them with greater tenacity and persistence”

Despite this, he mated with the red man’s squaws (mostly Cherokee and Choctaw)

As the farmer settled down, pork took over the staple diet

With money scarce the mountaineer manufactured whiskey to send down the river to the distilleries in Louisville or Frankfort

Most places did not get names until the railroads or coal mines came in and surveyors took over.

Lack of religious establishment allowed for a mix of Christian tradition and half-remembered beliefs (superstitions)◦ Page 25

Superstitions and Indian remedies for the sick◦ Page 26

Schooling◦ “the pioneer tended to reject all discussion and

consideration of ideas in the abstract.”◦ “Things and people were the ingredients of life.”

Food, whiskey, heat, cold, shelter, enmities, sexual gratification

◦ Not until 1864 did Kentucky levy a tax for support of schools Required owners of dogs paid $1 per dog (after the

second dog) ½ of fines collected from violators of the

antigambling laws Later the GA imposed a tax of 5 cents per one

hundred dollars of assessed property Kentucky was possibly hurt by not being in

Reconstruction like other southern states

Locals knew little about the coal beyond what it could do for them in their home, etc.

Outsiders were well aware of the economic potential◦ Speculators come after the Civil War as

America is expanding◦ Many of the mountaineers didn’t even own

the land they lived on in the first place◦ To claim land you had to survey it and pay a

fee to the state treasury In 1875 huge tracts of land went for 26.5 cents

per acre

Coal

The speculators were schooled in business and law

Some came and acquired the land in toto Others just came for the mineral rights

and the right of removal◦ This limited their tax liabilities (taxes applied to

the surface)◦ Because of the popularity of land purchases, in

many places the cost per acre had risen to $5-6

◦ Since “furriner” had no intention on utilizing the land, mountaineers had not problem selling these rights

The mountaineer was given an illusion of ownership

So when the “big shot” comes down from up East and butters up the mountaineer it makes him feel better about his poor lot in life (pg. 73)

No more than 25% of mineral deeds were signed by grantors who could so much as scrawl their names

Long-form deeds◦ Passes to the company the title to all “coal,

oil, and gas and all ‘mineral and metallic substances and all combinations of the same.’”

◦ They were given the right to excavate for minerals, build roads (or any other structure) convenient or necessary for extraction, to use the timber, to divert water, etc.

◦ The landowners land became servient to the dominant rights of the company

◦ The landowner got about $.50 per acre, and never exceeding $5.00 per acre

In 1913 coal companies were extracting 1,000 to 1,500 tons of coal per acre foot

a single acre (especially with more than one seam) could yield 15,000 to 20,000 tons

The mountaineer got a single half-dollar◦ The company got $3 million+

In the early 1900s, 85% of the minerals had passed out of the hands of the plateau dwellers

Exam on Friday◦ This exam will cover our work covering the first

137 pages of Night Comes to the Cumberlands and our discussion concerning mining in Appalachia

◦ The discussions did not all come in the form of specific notes on the board or through PowerPoint, but there has been general information regarding the impact of coal mining.

◦ This will also cover the three readings f