University of Kentucky UKnowledge Appalachian Studies Arts and Humanities 2-28-2001 A History of Appalachia Richard B. Drake Click here to let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Thanks to the University of Kentucky Libraries and the University Press of Kentucky, this book is freely available to current faculty, students, and staff at the University of Kentucky. Find other University of Kentucky Books at uknowledge.uky.edu/upk. For more information, please contact UKnowledge at [email protected]. Recommended Citation Drake, Richard B., "A History of Appalachia" (2001). Appalachian Studies. 23. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/upk_appalachian_studies/23 R IC H ARD B . D RA K E A History of Appalachia A of History Appalachia RICHARD B. DRAKE THE UNIVERSITY PRESS OF KENTUCKY Publication of this volume was made possible in part by grants from the E.O. Robinson Mountain Fund and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Copyright © 2001 by The University Press of Kentucky Paperback edition 2003 Scholarly publisher for the Commonwealth, serving Bellarmine University, Berea College, Centre College of Kenhlcky Eastern Kentucky University, The Filson Historical Society, Georgetown College, Kentucky Historical Society, Kentucky State University, Morehead State University, Murray State University, Northern Kentucky University, Transylvania University, University of Kentucky, University of Louisville, and Western Kentucky University. All rights reserved. Editorial and Sales Offices: The University Press of Kentucky 663 South Limestone Street, Lexington, Kentucky 40508-4008 www.kentuckypress.com 12 11 10 09 08 8 7 6 5 4 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Drake, Richard B., 1925- A history of Appalachia / Richard B. Drake. p. cm. ISBN-lO: 0-8131-2169-8 (cloth: alk. paper) ISBN-I0: 0-8131-9060-6 (paper) 1. Appalachian Region-History. 1. Title. F106 .073 2001 974-dc21 00-032059 ISBN-13: 978-0-8131-9060-0 (pbk. : alk. paper) This book is printed on acid-free recycled paper meeting the requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence in Paper for Printed Library Materials. §® Manufactured in the United States of America. ~~·~'I. Member of the Association of 'I~ .. American University Presses Contents List of Maps vi Introduction vii Part 1 The Contest for Appalachia 1. The Indian Era 3 2. The Old World Backgrounds 14 3. The Coming of the Europeans 25 4. The Wars for Appalachia 40 Part 2 The New Nation and the Appalachian Backwoods 5. Backwoods-Cohee Society 59 6. The Challenge to Cohee Society, 1820-1860 80 7. The Civil War Era, 1860-1877 93 Part 3 Modern Appalachia 8. The "Discovery" of Appalachia 119 9. The Coming of the Machine Age 131 10. From Plutocracy to Welfare State and Back 153 11. Regional Society and Social Change 183 12. "The New Appalachia," 1930-2000 194 13. The Appalachian Mind 217 14. The Appalachian Future 237 Sources 247 Index 275 Illustrations follow page 148 Maps Physiographic subregions Vlll Settlement crosses the Appalachians 34 Southern Appalachia in the Civil War 96 Regional natural resources 140 Railroads, 1860 & 1880 142 ARC subregions 176 Metropolitan statistical areas 191 The Great Migration 208 Introduction MANY ARE THOSE WHO CONSIDER Appalachia a mysterious re­ gion. Even in the seventeenth century, when the French Huguenot developer Charles Rochefort promoted a colony he called"Apalache" in the Georgia uplands, and even before, when the high country be­ hind the Apalache Indians of northern Florida appeared on maps as the " Apalachean Mountains," the definition of these mountains has been inexact. Modem scholars even today often approach the region having in mind different areas within the eastern mountains of the United States. The region's principal geographic study presents a useful review of the many designations of Appalachia used within the past century, but concludes by appropriating within"Appala­ chia" vast non-mountain areas, including the Southern Piedmont. On the other hand, there are those who reserve as Appalachian only those areas of the Southern Appalachians that are" the real moun­ tains." In Horace Kephart's view, this area included only the Smokies and the Unakas along the Tennessee-North Carolina border. And the historian Ralph Mann has recently been at considerable pains to exclude from Appalachia the Valley of Virginia, the Tennessee Valley, as well as the Piedmont. James Still, perhaps the region's premier poet, while admitting that Appalachia is a "somewhat mythical region," insists that "the heart of it [is] in the hills of East­ ern Kentucky." The Appalachia discussed in this book will be quite inclusive, extending to those portions of Appalachia including all of the prov­ inces of the Southern Appalachians-the Blue Ridge, the Ridge and Valley section, and the Cumberland-Allegheny Highlands. In fact, this narrative will encompass much of Appalachian Pennsylvania during the period before 1820, when western Pennsylvania's history was closely tied to that of Virginia. After the War of 1812, Pennsylvania's story drifted away from the more southern story due to different experiences with slavery as well as the massive immigra­ tion into Pennsylvania from southern and eastern Europe. James Still has referred to the "myth of Appalachia." In fact, con- PHYSIOGRAPHIC SUBREGIONS Introduction ix siderable scholarly literature has emerged in recent years claiming that Appalachia, especially as related to the people who live within its perceived boundaries, is really an invention of certain writers during the late nineteenth century. Since the appearance of Henry D. Shapiro's Appalachia on Our Mind in 1978, probably most scholars of the region have accepted the view that the notion of "Appalachia" was really an invention of northern writers, who perceived of a "pe­ culiar people" with particular stereotypical characteristics. Shapiro'S study should be viewed as an intellectual historian's study of the growing awareness of Appalachia that developed among certain mainline American intellectuals. Shapiro's notion that a par­ ticular picture emerged in the minds of northern, literate Americans seems quite clear. But to conclude that Appalachia existed only in this northern, literate mind-thus a myth agreed upon by these writ­ ers-seems to me an overly Platonic conclusion. The overwhelming evidence from contemporary observers-teachers who worked with the region's youth, as well as those Appalachians who have left a record of the overwhelmingly rural society that existed before 1930- all this seems to indicate that a unique and distinctive people existed in the region. This book will be clearly influenced by five basic themes or in­ terpretations. The first is the belief that Appalachia represents a sig­ nificant and distinct region within the larger American society. Appalachia is not merely a figment of a reformist, mainline imagina­ tion in the nineteenth century. It is true that the term" Appalachian" was applied especially to the folk of the Southern Appalachian area by missionaries and writers prior to 1920. But in fact a sense of sepa­ rateness has been a historic reality for many years, for most of those in the region, whether they called themselves "backwoodsmen" or "Cohees" in the antebellum period, or saw themselves as "moun­ taineers" or "Appalachians" in more modem times. A second theme will be the emergence of a regional economy largely dependent upon outside sources of cash, and the concomi­ tant loss of economic control of the region's resources as develop­ ment took place. This has led many scholars of the region to see Appalachia as a mineral colony of industrial America. Indeed, Ap­ palachian coal and other fossil fuels have fired the engine of Ameri­ can industry from the earliest days of industrial development. Other scholars have shown how Appalachia became an exploited periphery in the development of world capitalism that has spread since the fifteenth century. Clearly this colonial notion is a view that x A History of Appalachia must be taken seriously in any narrative of the Appalachian experi­ ence. But the Appalachian experience has been even more complex than a colonial interpretation can encompass. There are at least three other themes that significantly inform the Appalachian experience. One is the remarkable persistence in the region of what can be termed a "yeomanesque mentality" or attitude-essentially an ideology of agriculture that approaches farming as a largely self-sustaining ac­ tivity. In this view, land was seen as a resource that provided for the family; it was not a commodity to be bought or sold. Such an approach to farming can provide for family sustenance in a well­ watered area such as Appalachia, but it can never lead to much wealth and comfort. Clearly, yeomanesque self-sufficiency existed for most American farmers before about 1820. But as transportation and technology have developed, an increasing number of farmers have come to produce for local and national markets. In the more remote mountain regions of the Appalachian South, however, yeoman-style agriculture has persisted rather remarkably until World War II and after. Another unusual Appalachian characteristic that will enlighten this narrative is the strong and continuing presence of wilderness. Early in the Euro-American settlement of Appalachia, this wilder­ ness was seen as a massive, seemingly inexhaustible area full of wild animals and Indians. Some traders and mountain men found this wilderness-dominated region challenging, but most Euro-Americans saw the wilderness as something to be overcome. Even before trans­ portation technology penetrated parts of the region, first the Indian societies, then the yeomanesque, Euro-American settlers, claimed parts of the wilderness for farming. As time went on, this wilderness receded, so that today there are many who fear that civilization may have already gone too far in replacing this matchless Appalachian wilderness. Air and water pol­ lution are already well advanced in many areas, yet there are still areas of the Appalachian wilderness that can hide an Eric Rudolph, a suspected terrorist in the late 1990s and skilled survivalist, who can­ not be found in western North Carolina's dense forests.