Appalachian People, Culture, and History - ROBERT SEPEHR

While the Appalachian Mountains stretch from parts of Canada to Alabama the cultural regions of Appalachia Typically refers only to the central and southern portions ranging from the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia Southwesterly to the Great Smoky Mountains and is called home by approximately 25 million people Since its recognition as a distinctive region in the late 19th century Appalachia has been a source of enduring myths and distortions regarding the isolation temperament and behavior of its inhabitants early 20th century writers often engaged in yellow journalism or fake news focused on sensationalistic aspects of the region's culture such as moonshining and clam feuding and Often portrayed the region's inhabitants as uneducated violent and other derogatory stereotypes Well, they certainly can dance and this is called clogging by the way, but where did the Appalachian people come from And how did their culture come about? It was in the 1730's that the ancestors of today's Appalachian began streaming into the mountains to Escape hard times they came from Germany, England and Wales But the group that would become most prominent in the mountains Started their journey off the rugged coast of Northern, Ireland They were a grim Stern people strong and simple Swayed by gusts of stormy passion the love of freedom rooted in their hearts core They were of all men best fitted to conquer the wilderness and hold it against all comers Teddy Roosevelt a Bit of Irish history accounts for the Exodus a Hundred years earlier King James of England had grown tired of battling rebellious Scots and the lowlands the King thought he could use the Scots as a hedge against the bothersome Irish So he offered them free farmsteads in Ulster in the north of Ireland what better thing to do than To get some of the borderland Scots who were always giving you trouble to go over and whoop up on the Irish So they took advantage of it moved to Ulster got forms and he became known as Scotch Irish For 100 years the Scotch merged with the Irish they mixed their words They mixed their phrases they mixed their Horse-racing love they took in many ways the best qualities of both people After a century in Ulster the Scotch Irish were suffering religious persecution rising rents and bad harvests Tens of thousands moved on to a second migration to the new world This hybrid culture took root in the southern mountain wilderness of Appalachia The scots-irish were very quick to be among the first settlers who actually Made their permanent own In the mountains those mountains that had the funny smoky look in the morning When we were got up to the top of the mountain and set down very weary We saw very high mountains lying to the north and south as far as we could discern It was a pleasing though dreadful sight to see mountains and hills as if piled one upon the other Robert phalam 1671 Once they'd made their permanent own in the mountains They by no means were the only ones that settled in there, but they were the most colorful most influential you had the other mix of the Germans who came here and the Germans are known for their orderliness and you know their rules for everything in building really staunch barns out of material that will last The scotch-irish on the other hand tended to be more Footloose and fancy-free and the scots-irish also were more Hot-tempered than the Germans and so when the Indians attacked you wanted scotch-irish there because they were terrific Fighters, but when the Indians weren't there the Germans were just as happy not to have the scotch-irish around It was said at the time that whereas the English when they got to America Will do a church the Germans would build a barn but the scotch-irish Would build a whiskey still whiskey making was only one of the skills that the frontier migrants brought from the old world With traditional crafts like quilting pottery and metalwork. They furnished their homes and cook their meals as they always had But the tradition closest to their hearts was music Music was especially Important it gave him comfort. It was something that they could do themselves They could see they could play their fiddles and have a dance and invite the neighbors over The most important instrument the scotch-irish brought with them was the fiddle small portable and plaintive the Old fiddle teams were greatly beloved and passed along through the generations The same rugged mountains that held in nurtured music and culture also marked the western boundary of colonial America These settlers who had come from the borderlands of England were living again on the edge of two worlds But the rich land beyond the hills was bound to call to the adventurous pioneer There was a time when going way out west been doing out to catch up the dark and bloody ground as the Indians called In 1769 a backcountry explorer forged his way across the Alleghenies After traveling dark wilderness trails for five weeks he and his men came upon a most remarkable sight. I Had gained the summit of a commanding Ridge looking round with astonishing delight beheld the ample plains the beauteous tracks below Daniel Boone Boon could see that the territory was right for farming and Six years later. He established a settlement in Kentucky He was flatly defying British orders to stay east of the Alleghenies and avoid the French who held lands to the west Throughout the 18th century English French settlers and Indians were mired in combat in Appalachia It was said a man could live from boyhood to old age and never know a time of peace The culminating battle began when the colonies declared their independence in 1776 The American Revolution was hard-fought in the mountains by all the friends and foes of the colonial cause We have to remember that the revolution was a civil war There were people on both sides By and large the people who are on the side of the crown or who were neutral are indifferent in Appalachia did not take up arms one of the assumptions of the British army that invaded the south in the 1780s was that if they reached the back country that the loyalists there would rise up and that didn't happen Most of the Mountaineers especially the scotch-irish were fiercely committed to throwing over British rule They were among the first to sign up when George Washington sent out the call for troops The scotch-irish had declared that these colonies are and of right ought to be free and independent and it was from these that came that outburst of rugged and determined people that made the Declaration of 1776 possible Colonel aka McClure newspaper editor The most famous backcountry fighters were the over mountain men of Tennessee Who defeated the stalwart Colonel Ferguson at the Battle of Kings Mountain in South Carolina? Ferguson had threatened to cross the Appalachians and exterminate the people if they didn't support the king In his proclamation. He called the Mountaineers white barbarians To the colonel surprise the barbarians charged his forces Seeking cover behind rocks and chasing the soldiers up the mountain tree by tree They killed nearly two hundred British troops including Colonel Ferguson Well, they won they won because they adopted the Indian salad warfare as they had before And they won because the loyalist In the backwoods didn't rise up in support of the British Army The surprise victory snuffed out British hopes for taking the south and was a critical turning point in making America the land of the free George Washington said if he ever had to make a last stand He would want to stand with the Overmountain boys who knew how to shoot and fight The revolution was a turning point for Appalachian the region headed into a period of significant growth and change Thousands of soldiers were rewarded with free homesteads bringing a flood of new settlers to the mountains and The proud Mountaineer would scene find himself doing battle with the very government. He had just helped bring to power The Scotsman had always known how to make liquor from barley and rye They quickly learned to use Indian crops instead wheat and corn berries and potatoes Just about anything that grew Selling whiskey was good business much more profitable than selling any of the bulky raw crops But George Washington's government was buried in debt and one of the ways they tried to pay it off was with the tax on whiskey the settlers of the Western country were so opposed to this tax because it was very reminiscent of the taxes that were imposed on the colonists under the rule of King George England and people that were on the frontier of the rugged Individualists s-- are the veterans of the American Revolution that fought to establish this country? They were very jealous of their property and their rights. They valued freedom they did not want to be told what to do by it by anyone a String of violent protests broke out from New York to Georgia It became known as the whiskey rebellion and it raged from 1791 to 1794 the New tax was not to be tolerated It was a tax that was required to be paid in cash in cash was scarce on the frontier Whiskey was a commodity that was used as money ministers were known to even accept payment for their Sunday services with whiskey it would be not uncommon when a Federal tax collector would come here that they would tar and feather one violent outbreak in the Western Carolina region they actually took the Excise tax collector and ground his nose off at a grinding wheel This was a fight. The settlers could not win Washington took 13,000 troops into western Pennsylvania under his personal command It was an army as big as the one that had fought the revolution The rebellious moonshiners were crushed Rules and regulations were bound to be imposed on these people who wanted to believe they could just be left alone The Appalachian Mountain ear could grow or make everything he needed to survive he had learned to rely on himself and Did not want Outsiders dictating how he was to think or behave in Politics or in religion for a few generations Worship was held inside the family or in the most humble Mountain Chapel The religion most had carried with them was Calvinistic tough dark and demanding the old intellectual Calvinism started giving way to this new thought that God is all loving God would like to save us all all we have to do is repent and ask for forgiveness and we can be saved That's the doctrine of free will that we have it upon ourselves to decide whether or not to be saved Well, this is more optimistic people could get happy with religion By the 1740s this more hopeful vision was spreading like burning tinder through the mountains there began a long series of Evangelic o or Enthusiastic religious revivals known as the Great Awakenings that would last more than 80 years Ministers of every stripe swarmed into Appalachia bound to bring the unchurched into the fold Most of these people had never before seen a minister or heard the Lord's Prayer service or sermon in their days After service, they went to revelry drinking singing Dancing and whoring and most of the company were drunk before I quitted the spot Charles would Mason Minister 1768 Presbyterians did not have enough educated ministers to reach the far-flung population The Baptists and Methodists were more successful because they commissioned farmer preachers and sent them off into the mountains They were called the circuit riders They spoke a common language with the people. They were trying to convert and inspired them to gather together for worship By 1800 the revival had found its most powerful outlet Settlers left the hills by the thousands on foot on horseback in the family wagon They traveled long days to the great camp meetings under the mountain sky My name is Robert supper today's clog-dancing Is by Paul shel nut. Please leave a comment, please share and don't forget to subscribe until next time

Channel: Robert Sepehr

Views: 1,751,922

Rating: 4.8779368 out of 5

Keywords: clog dance, clogging, buck dancing, Atlantean Gardens, Robert Sepehr, Appalachian, Appalachia, Tennessee, History, American, America, hillbilly

Id: KdN1-_oW00k

Length: 19min 47sec (1187 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 15 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/rootbeer_cigarettes]

I'm not sure how historically accurate this video is.

[u/dkyguy1995]

Nice video, youtube comments are a little rough

[u/hyper_goner]

I want to move back so badly. Had to move to a big city but my heart will always be in those hills and valleys, no matter where I end up.

[u/Oddminzer]

Going thru the rest of that guys content kinda throws doubts onto the accuracy of a lot of this information, and also makes me suspicious of his intent.

[u/imsaneinthebrain]

Lived in Appalachia as an outsider, can attest.

[u/flaviageminia]

I remember watching this on PBS awhile back. I'm living in the Midwest but I grew up in Appalachia and the music and shots of the blue ridge had me missing it hard for a minute.

[u/sloanfull]

It’s Scottish not Scotch.

[u/ARDE0]

This was nice. I'm always trying to learn a little more about my homeland and what life may have looked like for my ancestors and this was another liter kernel of insight to my ancestry thank you for posting!

[u/Cryzgnik]

Why didn't you post another work by this Youtuber?

Like "Divination, Synchronicity and Gypsy Fortune Telling"?

"Moors, Shriners, Phoenecians and Freemasonry"?

"Elemental Magic, Magnetism, and Astral Light"?