A Liberal
Dose
July 6, 2023
Troy D.
Smith
“Dispossessing
the Poor, Part 5- Breaking Appalachia”
So far in this series of columns I’ve asserted several
points. By 1800 many people believed that anyone who existed outside the
prevailing economic system, by being self-sufficient, was “backward” and needed
civilizing. This included small, independent farmers, backwoodsmen, and Native
Americans. Second, they believed that a good “shock” (increased poverty and
hunger for white workers, literal dispossession for Native Americans) could
help jolt them into their proper role in a modern, civilized country.
Those attitudes changed, very briefly, during the
Market Revolution (roughly 1820s-1840s)…. Which is odd, because the Market
Revolution was the process by which the Industrial and Transportation
Revolutions converged to create an economy that was more interdependent (and
“modern”) than ever. However, part of that process was Manifest Destiny -the
idea it was God’s ordained plan for Americans to take over all the territory in
the West, and stretch from Atlantic to Pacific (bringing enlightenment and
“civilization” to Native Tribes along the way). In this narrative, pioneers
going west were romanticized despite their initial disconnection from the
economy. This included the “hardy frontiersmen” of Appalachia. Daniel Boone and
Davy Crockett became enormously popular during this period, even more so after
their deaths,
But that only went so far. By the LATE 1800s, when
most of that western land had been opened up -that is, taken from Mexico and
indigenous nations -national attitudes about the initial western pioneers, and
especially of people in Southern Appalachia, began to change. Like the Indians,
they were viewed as obstacles to progress who needed to either get with the
program or move out of the way. Moreover, big cities -specifically, the working
classes there -were beginning to be viewed as “urban frontiers,” held in a
similar low regard.
Toward the end of Reconstruction, the railroads were
extended into Central and Southern Appalachia. Pre-Civil War, railroads in the
South were geared toward places where cotton was produced. Now, though, in the
1870s, local business leaders were making deals with northern investors -first
to bring in railways, then to open up coal mines. The lumber business exploded
in the region, too, with timber companies frequently clearing off areas that
would be used for mining. Now, there had been industry in Appalachia for the
whole 19th century, from ironworks to saltpeter mines (a necessary component of
gunpowder). By far, though, the vast majority of Appalachians lived on farms.
Usually not big, commercial farms -mostly small family farms, where farmers
produced enough for their families to live on and maybe a little bit extra for
trade to get the (very small) luxuries they could afford. Some of those farmers
were willing to sell out to coal and timber companies, but many were not. They
were content with the lives and the mountains they loved.
All of a sudden, while Davy Crockett had been a
national hero, his grandchildren’s generation in Appalachia was nationally
reviled, made fun of, and held up as an example of a people “stuck” in the
first three “levels of society” but not able to make it to the fourth, modern
civilization. They were “backward,” impediments to progress, holding up the
country’s journey to the future. They were violent, dangerous, immoral, feuding
hillbillies who didn’t understand how to use the land or what was best for
them. Which was all used as evidence that the federal government should work
together with business interests to civilize them. Things like the Panic of
1893 led to many Appalachians losing their farms, or having no choice but to
sell them to the new industries. By the early 1900s, many of those former
independent farmers were working in the mines or the sawmills, for low wages
and in dangerous conditions. There were few other options. When the mines left,
it was shirt factories; when they left it was service jobs at chain stores. The
low wages and poor working conditions persist, as deeply embedded as the
stereotypes.
--Troy D.
Smith, a White County native, is a novelist and a history professor at
Tennessee Tech. His words do not necessarily represent TTU.
You can find all previous entries in this weekly column HERE
A list of other historical essays that have appeared on this blog can be found HERE
Author's website: www.troyduanesmith.com
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