These Hills are Home. Why Meemaw & Papaw want you to read this book.
“If you do not know your history, others will provide it for you, often in a version that is wrong, belittling, and misleading.” (quote by Don West in the section We Are All Appalachians)
People of Oceania are natural Navigators. We Navigate through the seas, we Navigate on land, we Navigate by air, and sometimes we Navigate spiritually and energetically throughout life. I’ve traveled to many places and curiosity has always been a part of my wandering soul, the nomad in me, the forever student, who studies every place and relishes the knowledge gained along the journey. Since moving to Eastern, Tennessee, I’ve been trying to learn as much as I can about the people, the culture, the land, & the history of Southern Appalachia.
One day, we found a graveyard on top of a hill overlooking our valley. These hills are my home now, and I want to learn about every tree, flower, creature, and burial site. After some detective work, I found out that there are four graves from the 1800’s (a man, a woman, and two babies). The woman was known to be Cherokee.
One night, my husband told me to find a book called The United States of Appalachia- How Southern Mountaineers Brought Independence, Culture, And Enlightenment to America, By Jeff Biggers. I searched our bookshelves for his unique garage sale find that was added to our book collection many, many years before we moved to Tennessee. Now, I’m going to share with you my perspective on this awesome book, and how it’s helping me understand my country neighbors better.
The Unites States of Appalachia, is about the amazing Mountaineers and their story of survival, resistance, and resilience. It tells about a diverse group of early renegades who gained independence from the crown of Britain before the Revolutionary War even started. The book takes you on a journey through the Appalachian musical history, the mountaineers and their important role as militia groups, and the Quakers and Presbyterians and their role as emancipators in the abolitionist movement. Author Jeff Biggers exposes how the Appalachian people and their natural resources were exploited after the Civil War and how the mountain folks fought hard against greedy businessmen by forming unions and striking against the owners of mills, mines, and factories, for basic human rights.
Here are some of my favorite sections in the book:
In Rank Strangers, Bigger takes us on a journey through the musical history of Appalachia. My favorite story is about Nina Simone, a child prodigy from the Carolinian mountains who started playing piano by ear at the age of 3 and played as a church pianist at the age of 6. Her small mountain town (both black & white families) raised enough money to send her to The Julliard School in New York. Although her music was never considered traditional Appalachian music, she was definitely a musician from Appalachia and her influence is legendary. One of the songs she is most well-known for is her version of The House of the Rising Sun, which was based off of an English folk song and recorded live by Simone in 1961. Biggers connects the dots between gospel, country, bluegrass, Scotch Irish folk music, blues, jazz, and African rhythm patterns and its influence on Appalachian music. You can easily find all the musical talents listed in the book and listen to the tunes as you take a deep dive into southern history and culture.
The Trail of Words was my favorite section in the book. I enjoyed learning more about Sequoyah, the inventor of the Cherokee Syllabary who was also an indigenous scientist and linguist from Southern Appalachia. The Cherokee’s passion for literacy (sparked by the Cherokee Syllabary), inspired traditional Cherokee healers, herbalists, and energy workers to record their ancient knowledge, formulas, and secrets. I love how Biggers references Sequoyah with the symbolism of being the “umbilical cord” between the Cherokee and American Colonists due to his father being Nathaniel Gist. Nathaniel considered the Cherokee “his people” and was even accused of being a spy and imprisoned. Gist was given land by an Elder named Corn Tassel (Uncle of Sequoyah) in a written treaty. This land called Long Island, is located in the Holston River, in the City of Kingsport. After many land disputes, the Mead Corporation and the City of Kingsport eventually returned the land to the Eastern Band of the Cherokee. Upholding respect to Corn Tassel’s treaty, the tribe accepted the transfer of land title in the name of Nathaniel Gist. Fast forward to the 1970’s and Biggers mentions an interesting story about a descendant of Sequoyah named Ammoneta Sequoyah who went to the Federal Court of Appeals to try and halt a development by the Tennessee Valley Authority. This development would flood the Tellico area of The Little Tennessee Valley where Ammoneta claimed to have historical gathering rights. This descendent of Sequoyah was an herbalist and fought in court to protect the land used to collect plants for sacred medicine. Sadly, the appeal failed and the Cherokee village of Chota and the birthplace of Sequoyah, was destroyed along with all the botanical wealth of the valley.
Another section I found very interesting was The Emancipators. Biggers brings to light the stories of the Quakers and the Presbyterians, their role in the Abolitionist movement and how this small courageous group, “kept the light of our nations conscience aflame”. Although slavery was entrenched in the indigenous cultures of Southern Appalachia for centuries, by the time the Quakers & Presbyterians brought their antislavery views to the region, the remote counties already had extremely low numbers of slaves. Brave individuals among the Quakers & Presbyterians challenged slave ownership, focused on education, and formed antislavery societies. They launched religious newspapers to expose the cruel treatment of slaves and even wrote articles about agriculture, world news, political figures, and poetry. Some groups among them differed on the idea of gradual vs. immediate emancipation, however, the Quakers and Presbyterians were a driving force behind much needed change. At one time Tennessee had more antislavery societies and higher membership numbers, than any other state. I wasn’t one bit surprised to find out that most Appalachian hill folk did NOT own slaves. So where did all these stories of racism and cruel treatment come from? After all, slaves were a form of wealth in the deep south and there were only certain wealthy individuals who could afford to own humans. That being said, not all slave owners were evil tyrants. Smaller plantations would treat their slaves like family members and would even give them inheritance rights to land.
“O! that you may incline your hearts to wisdom- your ears to the cries of the poor and oppressed. And may a peaceful conscience, and that happiness which you secure to others, be your portion.” (quote by Elihu Embree in the section The Emancipators)
Finally, I’m going to discuss a very heavy section called The Great American Industrial Saga. The “living death” of this era marked the region with environmental and human tragedies, while at the same time elevated the Appalachian Mountain people as martyrs, revolutionary leaders, and union luminaries. Although their labor and natural resources were exploited by greedy businessmen, these factory and mill workers pushed through their hardships and wretched working conditions with tenacity, strength, and resilience. The mountain people worked hard organizing successful unions and formed strike militias to protect themselves from the elitist gang of hired thugs whose sole purpose was to intimidate and discourage the working class from rising up and getting their voices heard. I was most enthralled by the many young Appalachian women who fought for their rights and struggled to change their inhumane working conditions. It was astonishing to hear that they had to stand up and fight just to have the right to relieve themselves. These young mountain women were so brave, and they suffered some of the bloodiest gun battles in union history. Many of these young mountain women who were mothers, daughters, and sisters, lost their lives, or were incarcerated for demanding basic human rights. Mountaineer and mill organizer Ella May Wiggins wrote this ballad and was later shot to death in the back of a pickup truck on her way to a union rally:
We leave our home in the morning,
We kiss our children goodbye,
While we slave for the bosses
Our children scream and cry.
How it grieves the heart of a mother,
You every one must know,
But we can’t buy for our children,
Our wages are too low
The murder of Wiggins made a powerful impact on young women across the country and inspired a revolt among Elizabethton, Tennessee mill workers. Battles and war brewed between the coal companies and the workers throughout the mountain south. A midwife, folk singer, and union activist named Aunt Molly Jackson aka “pistol packin’ mama” toured the country sharing her gut-wrenching songs about coal miners and the need for unions. The mountaineers influence on the success of unions is what likely prompted the New York media to retaliate and maliciously portray the Southern Appalachian People as being moonshiners, gun-toting feudist, lazy hillbillies, & white trash. The southerners have a keen ability to unite and rise against injustice under the most miserable & dangerous of circumstances with the most amazing fortitude. Mountaineers are a strong and misunderstood people, who continue to deal with corporations destroying the natural beauty of Appalachia with projects like strip mining or mountaintop removal, along with sending toxins into their precious watersheds.
I highly recommend that you read Biggers’ book and I commend him for writing such a well-documented history that would bring pride to the Southern Appalachian people. To learn more about the author see link below: