Transcripts For CSPAN3 Appalachia In The American Imagination 20170601

This talk is about an hour. All right, lets go ahead and get started, everyone. Welcome to class. Over the course of this semester so far, we have seen how appalachia, perhaps to a greater degree than any other american region is defined to the world and in the minds of its residents by outsiders. We have seen, for example, how industrialists employed the negative stereotype of the violent hillbilly to rationalize the seizure of thousands of acres of land on the boundary between kentucky and West Virginia. The image of appalachia as an impoverished and backward area continues to haunt the region to this day. Indeed, many residents have absorbed and inverted negative stereotypes of the region and its people and have also constructed new identities for themselves based upon how they think they are perceived. A classic example of this, i think, is the recent bestselling book, j. D. Vances hillbillyology, a book well turn to later on in this lecture. For these reasons, its beholden on us, i think, to understand how appalachian stereotypes have evolved over time and how they have been mobilized in different circumstances for the benefit of outsiders and those who live here. But i think i would like to start our story with a negative stereotype, and i want to dissect a negative image of ap latchians in American Culture, beginning in the mid to late 19th century. Among the oldest and perhaps most persist eent aspects of th view of the people of the mountains is their cultural and economic backwardness, their supposed backwardness. Edgar alan poe set one of his short stories published in 1844, in a fictional location, situated to the south and west of charlottesville, virginia. He entitled this short story, the ragged mountains. And its an interesting story, partially because its the only short story that poe set in virginia, despite having attended university here, or at that point in virginia. Those hills, those ragged mountains, according to the main character of the story were a place of dreary isolation. And were steeped in a quote, solitude that seemed absolutely virgin. The narrow feared the area because of local tales regarding the, quote, unkuth and fierce races of men who tended their caverns. This early gothic rendering of appalachia touching on two themes, that would become main stays of outside perceptions of the region and its people. First the mountains are geographically isolated, and this becomes a key factor in the development of the hillbilly stereotype. Second, the geographic isolation of the region shelters the people of the mountains from modernity. Premodern traditions, according to those who subscribe to this image, survive in isolation in appalachia. The southern mountains in the words of one observer who well turn to in greater detail later on, are populated by, quote, our contemporary ancestors. Those the image of the mountain as a backward and isolated region has existed in one way or another for centuries, these stereotypes only became rooted in the National Consciousness after the civil war. Scholars argue that the whole idea of appalachia as a unique cultural and geographic region came into existence only in the late 19th century. And it came into existence for two reasons. One, the rise of what is known as local color, or regional literature in national magazines, and two, the rapid industrialization of the mountains resulting from the rise of the extraction industries. But before we turn to these topics, we must remember that the United States, in the 1870s and 1880s was a nation seeking to understand itself. And its place in the world. In the aftermath of extraordinary tragedy and in the midst of rapid economic change. The country as weve seen in past lectures emerged battered after the 1860s, following decades of sectional strife and the devastation of civil war. Americans particularly in the north, understandably chose to look at the possibilities of a new future rather than turn to their recent painful past. The u. S. In the gilded age was a nation infatuated with economic expansion, industrialization, and progress. Indeed americans were aware they were living in a period of change, and they were conscious that their country had emerged on the global stage as a world power. American progress and ingenuity had brought into being Thomas Jeffersons dream of an empire of liberty. In this environment of optimism and the faith in the new, the stubborn persistence of old customs in the Appalachian Mountains seemed a strange anomaly. But lets go back to local color literature. Industrialization brought prosperity on the cities and resulted in the swelling of the middle class. This new middle class had wealth and leisure time. Though economically well off, many northern urbanites craved distractions from the tedium and humdrum of everyday city life. Many found an escape in travel literature and local color or regional stories printed in the new monthly magazines that emerged in the year surrounding the war. Magazines such as harpers weekly, the atlantic, lippen cots, and cosmopolitan, thrived to tales of romance, travel, and adventure in strange and exotic corners of the nation and indeed in the world. Appalachia was a region very near the urban centers of the northeast. And was in the late 19th century rural, and to a large degree, forested. It was also culturally southern. All of this made it an ideal locale for local color scouts, who can contrast its picturesque landscape with the habits of its people with the new America Emerging in the cities across the north. And i think at this point, lets turn to our first handout for an example of local color literature. Published in 1899 in harpers weekly, this is a pretty famous example. And its handout number one, our contemporary ancestors. Its a brief reading, but turn to it quickly with these questions in mind. Who wants to answer that first question . Who wants to take a stab at that one . Michael . Wait for the i highlight from the text being in the conditions of the colonial times and i think thats reflective of the colonial economy that the coal industry brought from West Virginia and extorted from the Appalachian Region in general. And by saying our contemporary ancestors, hes making a reference to the english colonies themselves, but West Virginia, because of this colonial economy, hasnt been able to escape the extortion or the colonial economy that made up most of the colonies. So in a way, its still stuck in the past. Interestingly, hes certainly touching on this idea of sort of a pastoral, perhaps colonial past, survive sbog the into the present. How can you have an contemporary ancestors . Arent they deceased . The very nature of an ancestor is that they predate you . So what say contemporary ancestor . Its kind of like they were with the evolutionary theory of the caveman. Its like you found a caveman walking around. Its like, oh, my gosh, we found one, this is awesome. Our contemporary ancestors, we found one thats still alive. Thats our history. He approaches it with a scientific spirit, we can analyze these people and find out where we came from. Its kind of degrading and really interesting. Perhaps it is degrading, and you certainly see as part of this feuding hillbilly stereotype, this idea that these people are somehow, i wouldnt say sub human, but degraded. Like their condition is degraded. That certainly comes up in much of this literature. So a contemporary ancestor is who . A past person living amongst us, and this is a key component of the emerging sort of pastoral image of appalachia. Its inhabited by people of a bygone era, that survive into the present. Its like a museum. Its like colonial williamsburg, but it actually exists, its not a museum show. Right . Now why does the author say that the people of this region are impoverished while those other people in upstate new york are not . What saved the people of upstate new york from poverty . Michael again. In the second paragraph, he goes into this. In upstate new york, the building of the erie canal and the almost interstate linkage between upstate new york and its surrounding metropolises, kept it at least in stride with metropolis and evolution, societal evolution. Okay, yeah. Anyone else want to Say Something on this . Yeah, absolutely the erie canal is an important component here. Yeah . Later in the second paragraph when you talk about the railroads connecting with West Virginia, like we saw when the railroads came into the region, ideas, businesses, but those businesses were, once again, outsiders. So i think it was just the idea of how isolated the region was, and we needed transportation and like a belief in the conventions, we wanted transportation from the eastern side, and we finally got that. Good. Yeah. Industrialization, right . Industrialization, the connection to the modern economy has saved the poor people of upstate new york from the fate that the impoverished hillbillies are suffering in 19th century appalachia. So reading between the lines of the article, how might the people of appalachia escape their poverty . How might this conception of our contemporary ancestors, in other words, how might it be abused by outside interests . So in the same paragraph, he talks about intercommunication as a means of progress, and i thought that was really interesting, because he also talks about the mountain life as illiterate. So its like this communication, being able to read and write is put on this pedestal. If you can do this, youll be able to pull yourself out of poverty. The people of appalachia had a different way of communicating that necessarily couldnt be put pretty on a page, you know what i mean. So he was saying you can be saved if you can read and stop drinking and stop killing each other. But its a really derogatory way of looking at it. Yeah, yeah. Youve hit the nail on the head there. I think what theyre saying is, through progress, these people can be saved. And what is progress . Integration in the national economy, integration into American Progress and to this idea of sort of of america that had come into being in the gilded age. Yeah, thats what according to frost could save these people. I think thats the underlying assertion here. And that you could see how, for instance, when we looked at the rise of the extraction industries, we discussed the issue of land seizure, right . You can see how this sort of thinking could be used to justify certain actions, a certain treatment of people. Its all in the name of progress. Perhaps these people dont know whats best for them. We know whats best, right . All right, great, guys. While the local color back to the lecture, saw appalachian traditions as quaint curiosities, many leaders of the new south which emerged after the war viewed the people and the region as embarrassments and obstacles to progress. We have seen in our discussion of altina wallers, the fuse book, how state authorities from kentucky and West Virginia really got involved in the Hatfield Mccoy feud after the railroad had brought outside investment and National Attention to the area. The wheelie intelligencer, published outside of wheeling, bemoaned the effects that the National Coverage of feud violence had on industry in the state. Quote, capitalists refused to come and prospect because they say they are afraid of our outlaws. You cannot get them to go into the interior to inspect our timber and coal lands for fear they will be ambushed. The people of the mountains, in the eyes of these capitalists and outlined by the wheeling intelligencer, these people of the mountains with their strange ways, their preindustrial routine and their supposed penchant for violence had no place in the emergent new south after reconstruction or during reconstruction. They are obstacles to investment and hinder the advance of the extraction industry. As such, they should either be reformed in order to make them useful members of the new industrial order, or they should be marginalized entirely. Many industrialists and investors opted for the latter option as weve seen. Coal operators brought in workers in the form of African Americans from the deep south and Eastern European immigrants, who they believed would be better suited to Industrial Labor and who would work longer hours for less pay. As weve seen again in our last few lectures on the extractive industries, the perception of the ignorant mountain folk, now remember this is a perception fostered in this local color journalism and also within the sort of newspaper coverage of the feud. The perception of the ignorant mountain folk that they did not make the most of their land, that its potential, the potential of the rich Mineral Resources of the land was lost on them. This underpinned attempts by outside investors to seize the mineral rights of thousands of acres of land in southern West Virginia in Eastern Kentucky in the last decades of the 19th century. In the late 19th century, the dismissive hillbilly stereotype became a major justification for the swift acquisition of Mountain Land and resources by outside investors. And now the question is, this is a depiction of a kentucky moon shiner published in harpers weekly in the 1880s. The question is, what are the real world effects, again, for this of this stereotype . Its enough to just talk about how it develops, but did it really affect how people perceived appalachians . We can argue about how how it came into play when industrialists came into the area to invest in mining, et cetera. But how else might it have affected people on the ground . And to answer that question, i want you to turn to the second handout in your page in your packet. One of the things we talked about in our last lecture was the appalachian diaspora during a period of decline in the coal industry. We saw thousands of people move into the cities of the midwest and the eastern seaboard. This continued through the 19 fir 50s and 60s. What happened to these people when they got to the city . So this is a story published in the chicago sunday tribune, called girl reporter visits the jungle of hillbillies, and it depicts a neighbor on the Upper East Side of chicago that had become associated with rural, southern, working class whites who had come in to the city to get jobs in factories, namely in the canning and Food Production industry. You see it here. Its the front page of that chicago sunday tribune. Here is the story. Front page, right . Girl reporter. This is a serialized account, it stretches over several edition of the newspaper. So lets take a second to read it. And i think this is particularly shocking. I think this is one of the most shocking sources that weve looked at all year. But if you can take a look, read it, and then like we had with the last handout, take these questions into consideration, maybe we can talk about it as a group. Added so many questions to this. About gender, how does race play into this. All right, but lets start with an easy one. What adjectives does the reporter and her sources use to describe southern migrants . Yeah. I think my favorite one, well, my least favorite one, the plague of locusts that lasts for years, have the lowest standard of living and moral code, if any of all, the biggest capacity for liquor and the most savage and vicious tactics when drunk, which is most of the time. I mean, they had this stereotype in mind when they entered the jungle of the hillbillies. And they werent trying to find stories that would help them disprove their claims. So they went in with a mindset and i guess they accomplished what they were trying to write. Great. Yeah . With that, theyre like feeding the fire of whats going on. Its not theyre not making anything any better. In the other article before that was talking about trying to get out of it. Theyre just making it worse because its what more people are coming in to see to see whats going on and theyre not helping at all. They call it like a rare and strange breed. Feuding hillbillies and shooting cousins. You remember when we were discussing altina walers the feud, and the rise of feuding in the late 19th century appalachia as a whole. I said this image of the feuding hillbilly will haunt people from the region to this day. And this is evidence of this. Where did this notion of a feuding hillbilly come from . It comes from that News Coverage of that feud in the 19th century. It was a major news story that continues, i would argue, to haunt people from ach lafppalac this day. This line, skid row dives, opium parlors and other dens of inequity, compared with the joints taken over by the clans of southern, fighting feuding hillbillies and their shooting cousins who today constitute one of the most dangerous and lawless elements of chicagos fastgrowing migrant population. So theyre linking the internal migrants with the perceived threats of migrants as a whole. Right . Theyre linking it with other immigrant groups. I mean, i end it with this provocative question here at the end of this section here, which many of you who are from appalachia, you might be confronted with these similar stereotypes. You might feel when people ask you if youre from West Virginia, whether you might feel thats a loaded question, and they might come back with all sorts of assumptions based on similar stereotypes. So thats one of the reasons i wanted to bring this to your attention. Because again, were living in an era of diaspora, when many will leave appalachia for opportunities elsewhere. I feel that if i was in a work situation and somebody asked me, where are you from, and i said West Virginia and they came back with one of the usual stereotypes, like, oh, theyre hillbillies, theyre in the mountains, like how do you have an education or something along those lines, i would use it more as a learning component for them, kind of expose them to what i grew up with, the beautiful areas that i was around, and more of the natural learning environments that i got to be around. We had river lots, we went hiking, things like that, it was i think it really can enhance a childs life. And it wasnt the fighting, drunken hillbillies that most people think of. Okay, great. Its funny because i lived in chicago for a semester. I went to school there, obviously not in 1957. And i know its definitely different than that time. But i left after a semester, because the city was really overwhelming for me. And thats not to say that my story is the same as these migrants who are coming here and working in the sweatshops and stuff. But they call them super unsocial. Theres this disconnect with how theyre able to connect with a lot of the other people in chicago and i think that might just have been because there was this it was a huge Culture Shock for them. A Culture Shock on both sides sch that was creating this incredible fiction and xenophobia that was crazy right then. Wonderful. Anybody else have anything else to add on girl reporter visits the jungles of hillbillies . All right, michael, last word. Um, i had written down going back to some of the unionism, early unionism that we saw in West Virginia, i was wondering if, since unionism in 1957 was becoming pretty prominent in chicago, which was a way of also suppressing the forming of unions in chicago as well, by painting these West Virginians or people from appalachia as backwards, were industrialists trying to make a psychological move to say, if you go to the union, youre going to be backwards as well. Interesting. Food for thought. Great. All right, thanks, guys. The mountaineers as historian ronald eller has observed, would become hillbillies and, quote, poor whites in the eyes of many as a result of tourism and local color literature. The mountaineers would subsequently become hillbillies and would be seen in this negative light, in other words, in light of these phenomena. These phenomena brought the people of the southern mountains to the attention of missionaries who sought to transform them into ideal citizens and integrate them into contemporary american life. Later in the 20th century, hillbilly culture became a way of dismissing the poverty of the region. So thats all of that is to say, thats the roots of this negative stereotype, specifically in the late 19th century. Two phenomena, the local color literature published in the magazines in t that became popular. But there is a positive image of appalachia that emerges a little later at the turn of the 20th century. Lets turn to that one now. I would like to start the section by exploring the world which cecil sharp made in america. Who is cecil sharp . Hes a interesting character. Many of you may have seen the film song catcher which is a fictionalized account of his trip, his 1916 through 1918 trip through southern appalachia. Cecil sharp sais a londoner, an englishman, who becomes wrapped up in a form of socialism known as fabian socialism after attending a lecture by a prominent english designer, socialite and activist william morris. He becomes convinced that one of the tragedies of industrial britain, industrial england, is the fact that the poor, the working classes, the urban working classes of england, have become distanced from their own rural past, that industrialization has torn them out from the countryside and put them in these appalling situations of exploitation in the inner cities. He becomes convinced that in order to for any real reform to occur from the bottom up in england, what needs to happen is that the english working classes need to become aware of their own history and their own culture, the culture that they developed over millennia in the countryside. He becomes obsessed with reviving that culture. He founds several prominent snugedzs, the english folk dance and song society, which is around to this day and other groups to celebrate the Rural Heritage of england. But the problem, he came to realize, was that as a bipartisan of industrialization, so much had been lost. So much had been lost. He was only really finding the remnants of a past of past glories in england. So he thought to himself after reading perhaps some of these local color stories and communicating with ethno musicologists in the United States, he thought, where could i go in the englishspeaking world where i might find evidence of that pastoral culture . It has to be a place of isolation, which has been relatively untouched by industrialization, or so he thought. So over the course of the early sorry, the mid 19teens. He embarks on an appalachian journey and we goes through primarily Western North carolina, but also southern virginia. He spends about, i think, nine days in West Virginia, which he thinks is just infertile ground. Hes like, West Virginias horrible, were leaving. He doesnt find what hes looking for, but he spends most of his time in eastern tennessee and north carolina. And there he finds an extraordinary repository of old ballads that had been passed, that he believed had been passed down from generation to generation stretching back to the colonial period that had survived in the mountains in isolation. So thats but what i want to convey to you here, when he went to appalachia, he was searching for something. He was looking for england enshrined in amber, preserved. He wasnt necessarily curious about appalachian culture at large. He certainly didnt care with the culture of African Americans in the mountains or the italian immigrants that we discussed in the rise of the coal industry. Thats not what he was looking for. He was looking for english culture as it was preserved in the mountains. And thats what he found. But he was looking for a very specific reason. Remember, he was looking to take those ballads and reimport them back to the mother country as a way of reforming the english working classes. He had nothing its arguable, but some believe he was some scholars have argued that he might have even been hoping that such a move would cause a proletary yat revolution. Which is a bit farfetched, but thats what he was hoping to do. The fruits of his labor across appalachia was a twovolume set published in 1917 and you see it listed up here, english folk songs of the southern appalachia. It was a phenomenal bestseller, both in america and in england and it really helped to kickstart a folk revival in both countries. Published again in 1932 and draws National Attention to the area in a very positive light, right . Because these are people who are still living with elizabethan and shakespearean ballads. By virtue of the fact that hes an englishman, focusing on the english nature of appalachia, that leads many in north american in northern cities to reassess their image of these negative feuding hillbillies. These people become invested with a certain air of grace and tradition, and their tradition, for the first time, i would argue, following cecil sharp, is respected on a large scale. Sharps obsession, however, with the underlying english character of appalachian society and music at the expense of other aspects of the regions culture, led to his readers, observers and most americans today to imagine appalachia as almost an exclusively white place, a white ethnic space. And this is i just wanted to draw your attention to this. This is a personal favorite of mine, the cherry tree carol. Many ethno musicologists have argued that this ballad might go back to late medieval passion plays in england. So its quite an ancient, vintage, i suppose, and this is cecil sharp interviewing one of his many subjects on the tour. This is poly patrick in kentucky in august 1917. He interviewed these people and collected ballads such as this. Sharps work led to a resurgence in interest in the culture of the southern mountains, and went on a long to challenge the popular stereotype of a region populated by violent fueling hillbillies. In his introduction and throughout his letters he invests the people of the region with dignity and grace, describing them as leisurely cheery people in their quiet way, to whom the social instinct was very highly developed. Far from the ruthless, inbred savage of the popular lore. They possess an easy, unaffected bearing and the unselfconscious manners of the w manners of the well bread. Though he shared with their detractors a belief in the mountaineers inherent backwardness, he observed they possessed much of the culture of that pastoral ideal of preindustrial england. His efforts to document their culture was part of his larger project to revive popular interests in english folk traditions in the hopes that by so doing the english working classes could rekindle the dignity and selfworth of their ancestors. That same dignity that he observed among the people of appalachia on his journey. He was looking for england in the mountains and that is what he found. Image of the region sharps image of the region as a time capsule remains with us today. Its one of the most common trops through which outside ers continue to view the culture and people of the southern mountains. It is important to address an important aspect of the legacy of sharps work, english folk songs of the southern appalachians in the racial construction of appalachia, in the american, and indeed, british imagination, sharp was obsessed with national cultures, and the revival of english folk tradition at home. Sharps rendering threatened english appalachian culture continues to again to influence our perceptions not only of the mountain south, but American Culture more generally. Sharps appalachia is not a place one can find on a map. It wasnt even a place on the map really in 1916. There are accounts for instance of sharp going into isolated settlements in madison county, north carolina, encountering a black man on the road and turning away because he thought, okay, if this town is inhabited by African Americans, im not going to find english ballads there, so he didnt bother looking. So hes not interested in capturing a true depiction of the region or its culture. Again, hes there with an agenda. His nine weeks actually spent in the mountains were shaped by what he preconditioned himself to expect. He was after english ballads at the expense of banjo songs. He hated the ba banjo. He ignored immigrants songs and he also loathed to a degree and in his notes he said some of them are delightful, baptist hymns and other expressions of piety. Sharp had exclaimed in his correspondence that the people of the mountains, were, quote, english, by god. The success of english folk songs cemented the imabge of a white region in the publics imagination. Appalachia for sharp was a place where he is other likeminded urban intellectuals could escape the harsh realities of Industrial America and england. A place where he could find albion, a mythical depiction of the english yesteryear, alive in the hills and hollows of americas first and arguably last frontier. More than anyone, sescecil shars also responsible for publicizing the image of the region as a racial mon glot. But he would not be the last. And in that spirit, ill ask you just a quick question. If you were to take an image of this, if youre flipping through an inflight magazine and not paying attention, where would you assume this photograph was taken . Scotland . Ireland. One of the celtic countries, right . Youve fallen into my trap. Because this was taken in Western North carolina in the 1990s. Its a slide of the grandfather high land games in linzville, north carolina, an event begun in 1956. And that brings us to another model through which people have understood appalachian culture and development in the 20th century. The celtic south or herder model of appalachian cultural development. The previous characteristics explored here were crafted by outsiders to explain the otherness of appalachian culture. The celtic south model examines how those positive outsider views, namely people like cecil sharp of the regions of appalachia, when those outsider views are absorbed by residents of the region and how they contributed to how southern whites and appalachians saw themselves. So these depictions, both the negative and the positive of how the of the region and its people, do have an effect on how people within the region begin to selfidentify, certainly. And in the 1970s and 1980s, you see this upsurge in enthusiam for the supposed celtic roots of appalachian culture. To this end, the celtic south paradigm popularized by historians including forest mcdonald and grady mcquinny, notice their surnames, in the 1970s emerged in tandem with an upsurge in Public Interest in the scottish and irish roots of appalachian culture. With the intention of explaining differences between the north and south on the eve of the american civil war, mcwinnie and mcdonald argued that the nomadic culture and clannish Family Structures of early scottish and Northern Irish immigrants to the south allowed for the development of a distinct, southern, white culture. The herder cultures of north britain and ireland, the argument goes, emerged out of the violence and uncertainty that characterized the british frontier. When i sigh the internal frontiers of great britain, the borders between england and scotland, the borders between catholic and protestant. These meeting places between two cultures, often violent places. Life was harsh and competitive in these internal frontier areas. And its it necessitated the development of social strategies and skills, including individual selfreliance and tight kinfolk networks. These characteristics were then transferred to fit the needs of settlers on the american frontier after colonial migration intensified in the 18th century. Again this is part of that paradigm. This is the argument put forward like mcdonald, mcgrady and later, David Hackett fisher. The celtic southeast is built on the observation that the largest single ethnic group in the mountains and the largest european immigrant group to north america in the 18th century were of celtic origins, the scots irish and weve looked at them early on in the semester, talking about the original european migrations into the region. And well turn again to them in a second. The herder of scotland and ireland did not invest time in agricultural development, instead concentrating on live stock while supplementing their diet through primitive farming. Mcdonald and mcwinnie stressed their sense of family and personal honor. Mcwinnie and mcdonald argue that these, the sense of personal honor marked them out from their counterparts in the northern colonies. The southern culture, they argue, differed substantially from the agricultural heartlands of the midwest and new england, where more developed farming techniques allowed for the rise of large sedentary communities. At its heart the celtic south model was among poor whites committed to the cause of the exx confederacy. What theyre trying to understand is honor within the ranks of the armies of the confederacy, but theyre looking back to the early migrations and the colonial period to try to make sense of how people behaved in the 1860s. Appalachia, which absorbed the majority of scottish and irish settlers and remained isolated before the civil war was at the heart of mcdonald and mcwinnies study. Other books published in the last 25 years have posited a similar model for appalachian social development. David hackett fishers work stressed the Scottish Irish culture in the form of southern appalachian culture in society. That was central to the Later Development of the United States. For our purposes well focus on one, the herder folk way that predominanted in the tra transappalachian south. This was a culture established by the north british as they were dubbed by hackett fisher, settlers from north umbria and the Scottish Borders and ulster. Fishers argument shares many arguments with the celtic south model but is more nuances on several points. He avoids romanticism. The celtic south, though, like sharps english of appalachia is a historical construct, a sort of useable past for those who embrace the model. It enables those of again look at the surnames, mcwinnie and mcdonald again, it enables those of scots and scots irish ancestry to make sense of their connection to the land and the national story. It is akin to benign ethnic nationalism. That leads us perhaps to our last sort of loosely defined positive depiction of appalachian culture and identity. Some of you may know senator jim webb. And hes responsible, i think, in the last 20 years, for bringing about, helping to revise this sense of scotsirish identity among contemporary appalachians. Another variation on the celtic south herder theory of Southern Development is found in senator webbs 2004 book, born fighter. How the scotsirish shaped america. Again, you might know senator webb from his shortlived primary candidacy in the democratic primaries in 2015 and 2016. He was a senator from virginia before that, elected in 2007. And hes a prolific author. One of his perhaps best known works is this work, born fighting. It was a national bestseller. It was international. In Northern Ireland it gained currency, it was quite popular there as well. In a nutshell, the book claimed that the warrior impulse of the early scots irish shaped american working class culture, military traditions and popular politics. The book, while largely lambasted by scholars did find a sizeable popular audience and ensured that webb secured the support of voters in the districts of southern and West Virginia during his campaign of 2007. Again, if youre asking yourself, this all seems very abstract. So people are theyll use periodically to the protestants and the desen didnts to to frontier and is a term that achieved widespread use aj in the United States only in the early decades of the 19th century. There was a long time slide up here as a reminder of the volume of those migrations and who they were. But, again, the term scotts irish is really a 19th century construct. Descendants of the 18th century immigration in their attempt to differentiate themselves from the ways of poor catholic immigrants and crowding to American Cities in the 1840s and 1850s as the irish potato. If the 18th century irish migration which would become the United States. The desen dents of those irish immigrants notice that in the 1840s and 1850s to be labeled irish was a negative thing. This was an era that infamously we signed in places like new york city, boston and chicago. You saw signs that said irish need not apply and Polite Society, irish is in dirty words. They were loads because, many of them did not speak english. The volume of the migration was large and they were Roman Catholic at a point where that was not an accepted aspect of Polite Society in america. So the second and Third Generation scotts irish, what they do to differentiate themselves from the other irish then arriving on american shores was to say, look, you know, were irish but were scotts irish. Were not irish like the catholic irish. And so doing what they attempted to do was say, say to other white protestants, look we were like you. Our ancestors were fought in the army of washington. Were not like these new immigrants. They also made the argument and therefore i like you in that regard. The table of whiteness in the 19th century. There was a way of saying, look, we are as, american, as white protestant groups. And in light of this new catholic migration. So it was a way it was a way of trying to break into a white club. It was a way for previously maligned group to claim respectability by association. These advocates of this new term would claim that they were white, protestant and like those other new englanders, their ancestors were instrumental in the founding nation. They deserved a seat at the table. In recent decades, however, the scotts irish identity has become an ethnic marker used as a way to distinguish themselves as over arcing White American identity. Jd who i alluded to in the introduction, arthur of claimed that in that book he claimed i may be white, but i do not identify with the wasps of the northeast, instead, i identify with the millions of working class White Americans of scotts irish decent who have no college degree. To understand me again this is in the words of j. D. Vance you must understand that i am a scotts irish hill billy at heart. Hes used it as a statement of his own identity. Jim webb, in a section of born fighting dedicated to the fem na of white guilt after the vietnam war, bemoaned the fact that whites, many of them that had fought in the vietnam war should be held as accountable for its execution for northeastern elites who have designed it. All wasps, webb wrote, were considered to be the same in this environment as if they had landed together on the same ship and the smart ones had gone to boston while the dumbest had made their way to West Virginia. So, essentially, whats happening here is theyre claiming these are areas of scotts irish migration. What theyre doing is claiming a whiteness apart h. What people in the 19th century when claiming scotts irish man identity, saying, look, were just as white as these others. In our time. In the 21th century to say, yes i may be white, but im not like those northeasterns. Im not like these elites on the coast. How did claiming scotts irish identity evolve from an attempt to break into definition of whiteness in the 19th century to statement of regional and ethnic difference in an attempt to establish a whiteness apart in the 21th century. It is clear that this transformation occurred because of the culture wars of the late 20th century. Somewhat argued as a rejection of the language of White Privilege by segment of the white population who saw their Economic Standing decrease dramatically as a result of globalization and the industrialization. But thats pretty so lets turn to a more positive, perhaps, the most positive image that im doing to cause it today of appalachian culture in the region. I would like to end todays lecture by briefly illustrating, and i mean briefly, a third pair paradigm in which we might interpret the culture of appalachian thats one champion by allen lomax it is introduction into the episode on appalachian that he produced in the early 1990s. He explained the culture of the mountains between a number of different cultures who came together to form something distinctly american. Lets give you a background. Father, john lomax is the first director of the folk the folk life library and the library of congress. He, as a young boy, he was taken to various prisons to report his father john had discovered the influential performer in the during the depression. But, so allen lomax was in this culture of collecting. And he thought very in very sophisticated ways about American Culture and regional cultures. Towards the end of his life. He went with a tv crew throughout much of america recording regional cultures and stori stories. The fourth of the specials is called the appalachian journey. So according to lomax apart from being a european refuge, like had imagined. As a dynamic place, Truly American region, a culture that over the course of millennia had produced almost a uniquely American Culture had worked its way into the mountain psyche. Which became instrumental to appalachian culture in the 19th century. He, of course, focused attention on the english scotts irish, which we examined earlier. But finally, he looked at africanamerican contributions to appalachian culture. And he focused on one aspect that is undeniably african nature, thats what we most associate today with ap latch ch chan. Its the most banjo and lomax points out an instrument brought in to many districts with the railroads and tale of the 19th century. Ive been arguing with myself whether i was going to demonstrate that dominates in appalachian or not. I will leave it to you, what do you think . Yes. Yes. Pretty enthusiastic. Well, on that pace then. All right. So this is im preten tious. Were all familiar with the blue style playing. Allen lomax noted the way they played down picking motion, very similar to the way west african players on instruments largely seen to be the predecessor of the american banjo, the way im about to play is similar to that. Ill have to show you what i mean. Very briefly. Here we go. He noted that this drone string was peculiar fifth string is something that you find on many african instruments denotes sort of rhythmic quality to the way its played. So in his estimation, appalachian culture is unique because it is that synchronized it betrays that multi ethnic and multi culture inheritance of the truly rich appalachian culture. So this is a model of one that places to the contributions made by all of the peoples of the mountains. Weve explored over the course of the semester, of the arrival of black miners in the in the 1890s and 1910s through the 1920s to the development of the canal salt works and the enslaved africanamericans that were used in that production. Mountain culture, i would argue, is now a stand in for rural culture in america. And rural culture is racialized in much public. The songs and regional folk styles and traditions have been adapted to suit the needs of american looking for roots and authenticity as means of escaping of what they viewed of modern american society. In many ways, many of us who turned to bands like people like that are acts in the spirit. It has opposed to the hiphop world is largely seen as an urban phenomena. This artificial dichotomy which perhaps find its root in the pass story yal fantasies is historically inaccurate. Walker, and leading figure in the movement has bemoaned the fact that the africanamericans have lost their connection to the American Country side. And with it, a sense of their connection to american history. The racial construction as White American country side has led many whites to confuse rural and national identities. The rural in many peoples estimation is american and white. The city, to the same people, is largely an immigrant world and black. The power of sharps creation and the celtic south model, we live in an era of Demographic Society among many White Americans, financial insecurities following the recession and fears about immigration have given rise to movements on the right and the left. These concerns have also led many to retreat in nostalgic interpretations of the past. As a solve to soothe minds troubled by more immediate pressures. For some, history and traditions are exclusive. And the american past is primary the domain of White Americans. But the image of dynamic region presents us with another way of imagining appalachian and its place in american society. And sorry, the american story. The reality of social and culture formation in the region is far more complex than the anglo central model first constructed and emulated by subsequent scholars. It is this model more than any other, which inclusive and enjoy the richness of all of our inheritance and, again, these this black string bands that came in that emerged in the wake of the black banjo conference in designed as a way to reconnect africanamericans to their world. I think ill end with that. Thank you all and good buy. American history tv and prime time continues with the panel on the legacy of president Woodrow Wilson and the organization of american historians annual meeting. Sunday on q and a. In the way we actually allow resources to be used in our economy today. Within a couple of years the regulators at the commission are renewing licenses but very carefully noting that propaganda stations will not be allowed and in fact early on, 1929 in that period, you had left wing station, the fact if i can use that political term owned by the wcfo of chicago, labor union, and socialist and near new york city. They wanted, for political purposes, free speech, they wanted to espouse their opinion, they were propaganda and when they were renewed they were told to b expressing their opinions. Sunday night, at 8 00 eastern. On cspan. Many of whom who were resis tant. How are yall doing, excellent. What i want yall to do i