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The
Case for Appalachian Studies
page 3
With the coming of the Civil War
and then the Compromise of 1876 (in which Northern railroad
men and bankers agreed to invest heavily in the South in
return for electing Rutherford Hayes president), a new
chapter began in mountain history. The Civil War's effect
upon the South was pronounced. Most of its native
manufacturing industry and agricultural economy was
destroyed. The railroads lay in ruins. The
industrial base of the South, limited as it had been, was
devastated. The mountain areas, isolated and with a
more independent economy, did not suffer as badly as did the
more populous areas, but the results of the war and the
Compromise were to have a major impact there too.
The first incursions into the mountains were tenuous ones.
Railroads were built into the major river valleys and along
the mountain ranges to larger market centers or to sources
of coal and timber. Along the foothills, where
waterfalls marked the Piedmont plain, textile mills were
established to take advantage of cheap water power. By
1890, the industrialization of the area was well underway.
But this process was a gradual one.
Geography, local politics and a lack of knowledge about the
interior slowed the advance of most businessmen. In
fact, in the early 1900's, where Horace Kephart, in Boston,
was trying to find the remotest spot in America, he chose
western North Carolina because he could find little in
writing or detail on maps about that particular area.
When Kephart came South, he found the timber and coal
companies had already begun major operations. In fact,
from 1890 to 1930, the timber companies managed to strip
away the greatest hardwood forest on the American continent.
By the late 1930's, only isolated stands of virgin timber on
the most remote slopes of the southern highlands had escaped
the saws of the timberman. In the mountain coalfields,
mining was already a major operation, marked by harsh
living conditions and bloody strikes.
Even so, in all these areas, the local residents clung to
values and life styles which made them more and more unique
as the majority of Americans moved into the so-called
"midstream" of western society. But the
varying forms of economic development also had diverse
effects on particular areas.
For example, in the highlands of western North Carolina,
people managed to keep their traditional family holdings
while also taking jobs in the mills and factories built
along the larger waterways. In this area, as is true
in most of the region where people still live and work on
farms, the traditional mountain culture is clearly
visible. The people have ancestral roots and their
stories, parables, and music are keyed to a long and stable
relationship to the land around them. Family ties and
neighborhood attachments may date back through several
generations. The pace of life is still based upon a
time cycle of seasons or years. The eight-hour day is
still a minor factor (but an increasingly important one) in
the development of their values and lifestyle.
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