Appalachia is a region lying in Eastern North America. The significance of this region’s geographical boundaries do not exist only because of the legally defined limits; rather it is the region’s historical, cultural and environmental conditions of the Appalachian region (The Alliance for Appalachia). The history of the region is quite unique. The region is known for the predominant coal mining activities that take place there but before the coal miners and current inhabitants took over the area, it was home to the Cherokee. They traveled north and east from the land known today as North and South Carolina and Georgia. The Cherokee had settled in the southern Appalachian. Their colonizers were the Spanish, who provide their history to the world (ARC.gov.).
The natives in the region were driven out of their lands, and many were killed by the white settlers invading the area. The new arrivals in the region preferred to settle in the eastern part of the country and did not climb higher up the mountains (The Alliance for Appalachia). This is one reason why the earliest settlers of the Appalachians were slaves who has run away from their abodes, servants, and maids, outcasts, artists and adventurers of that place. When the expansion in the west began to increase, and people came in throngs to inhabit the area, the eastern area also became more populated (The Alliance for Appalachia).
The industrial revolution became the main cause for the rise in population in the area. The demand for coal is increased, and the immigrants coming into the country went from their boats right into Central Appalachia in the 1880s in search of work (ARC.gov.). However coal mining became the main source of revenue, and the coal industry was booming. But when mechanized methods of coal mining took the place of the manual, many people began losing their jobs and found it difficult to make ends meet. Therefore, a trend of outward migration began in the Appalachian region because families had to migrate to find jobs and start living a better life.
The geographical location of the Appalachia is very important in ascertaining the culture and lives of the people. This can be said of any culture of the world where the geography of the area determines the livelihood and lifestyle of the inhabitants. The people of the Appalachia are influenced by the mountainous terrain they live in. Mainly the entire region is divided into three broad areas named as the northern, central and southern Appalachia. There are mountains in the north named the Shickshocks, the Notre Dame areas lying in Quebec, Long Range Mountains on the island of Newfoundland, the isolated hill of bedrock, Mount Katahdin in Maine, Mountains of New Hampshire and the Green Mountains of Vermont. These Mountains form the Berkshire Hills of east New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts (Dykeman).
The states of Kentucky, Maryland, West Virginia, Tennessee and areas of North Alabama, Georgia, and the Carolinas fall in the Appalachian region. There is also the Great Appalachian Valley, which forms the lowlands that extend south and west from the Hudson Valley. A number of valleys form a part in this region. Not only is the valley a great source of settlement and traveling but it is also one of the most fertile areas in the Eastern United States (Dykeman).
As described above, the specialty of the Appalachians is the richness of coal in the region with resources and elements like natural gas, petroleum, and iron-rich areas. Resorts and recreational facilities also make a major part of the place with the Shenandoah and the Great Smoky Mountains national parks forming a major tourist attraction.
Linking the cultural and geographical significance of the place, the people are widely influenced by both. The people are mostly referred to as mountaineers and the main skills that these people harbor are land mining, skills and talent and coal mining activities which have formed a culture amongst them and is a major part of their lifestyle (Namb). The people are made of their land, and they belong to it. They are dependent upon the wood and lumber for sustenance and building. The people are mostly proud of their lumber that they use for building their cabins and to sell as well. The greenery and the gardens are mostly what make them proud of their land and the water they have coming from the mountains is the freshest and coolest.
The people of the Appalachia first gathered the attention of the country when the Civil War was in progress. Their agriculture and farming was disrupted by the invaders in their land where the guerilla warfare became the main reason why many of the inhabitants were forced to leave their homes in the mountains and had to struggle for food and shelter in the country (ARC.gov.). President Lincoln then acknowledged their plight and promised them that after the War these people would have a better life in the mountains that had been forgotten and lost. However after the war, President Lincoln was assassinated, and the Appalachians were forgotten and not paid attention to (Namb).
The descent of these people is usually a mixed background, and they form a unique and separate culture. They are a mixed ethnic and racial community, formed of the Native Americans, the English, the Scotch and the English. They are also the third descendants of the German and the Polish immigrants in the country, and they are uniformly spread all across the region. However it is true that these people are isolated from the rest of the country and
other people from the rest of the country do not interfere much in their lives. Thus, they have become accustomed to a distinguished culture amongst themselves (Harlan).
The fact is, these people are very close to nature. Even if they are born with the minimum of resources and capital, what they cherish the most is their land and the mountains they are living amongst. They are independent even though they might not be the richest people in the lot. Living close to Nature, these people have a firm belief in God and carry faith in them (ARC.gov.). They are friendly and helpful, and as they have grown out of helping one another and living in the most extreme of conditions, these people are keen to take care of other people’s needs and interests. They also have a strong sense of right and wrong and believe they know what to do as right and good for them and their people. However, the Appalachian are mistrustful of strangers and outsiders which is why they are resistant to change and modernity (ARC.gov.).
The basic form of the Appalachian culture is the vivacity and dynamism of arts and crafts and the traditional music of the Appalachia. The region has its cultural and traditional foods and customs and the people also share a common language amongst themselves (Harlan). The foods they commonly eat as a part of their culture are potatoes, greens, bread with cornbread and biscuits as a norm. This culture is mostly preserved by the churches and the family structure present in the region still today. The constant attempt by the people from other regions of the country to change the ways of the Appalachia is the proof that the Appalachians stick to their customs and traditions and do not wish to alter their ways (Harlan). Their strength and determination in this cause is the main reason why these people exist even today as a strongly knitted community.
Today, these people are mostly persistent in their former cultural methods of sustenance which is agriculture and hunting and do not have any kind of corporate or industrial way of earning (Tucker).
Their main feature in shaping their cultural dominance is the independence these people exercise and the way they have a consistent mutual help system that they provide to one another in the region (Namb). The Appalachians survive on a sense of equality where they believe their fellow brethren are equal to them, and this distinguishes them from the sense of inequality and upper-class mentality that exists in the modern societies.
As far as their cultural grouping is concerned, the Appalachians are distinctly divided into four types. This diversity is based on the form of descent. There is one group of these people which is directly descending from the original pioneers who settled the earliest in the region when the western movement initiated (ARC.gov.). These are the people who are businessmen, landowners or belong to the political classes. These people are independent, self-reliant and hard working, thus forming strong familial ties (ARC.gov.).
The other group of the Appalachians is the hard working and resilient group of the coal miners, woodcutters, and loggers or the factory workers. In this respect, the average worker does not have many skills and is not educated well (Tucker). He might also belong to a large family with little or meager earning and wealth. They also have fewer choices in choosing their occupations. For instance, while West Virginia is largely supported by coal mining and is the biggest financer of the State, the coal field, and coal miners are suffering from poverty and live in a depressed state of life (Namb).
The third class of the people consists of the professional group of Appalachia. These are the people who have had to move to Appalachia because of their professions as bankers, teachers, ministers, lawyers, accountants and these are the very people who are the very group of people that are not accepted and welcomed by the Appalachians (Namb).
Lastly, there is the fourth group of the Appalachians which are the returning Appalachians. These are the ones who spent their lives growing up in the mountains, but then they moved to the other parts of the country for employment and then return back to Appalachia (Namb). Many of them, however, find it difficult to adjust to the way of life in Appalachia when they had left the region as adolescents and return as adults (Harlan).
There are not many opportunities in the region as far as entrepreneurship is concerned. This is mainly because of the geography of the region which makes it difficult to begin a new business venture. There are also negative attitudes related to success and trying new things, and the entrepreneurs would have to suffer on the part of the quality of the workforce. There is also little known to the generation of capital in the region . Hence people are hesitant on beginning new ventures (Harlan).
There are several notable features of the Appalachian culture still existent in families and people today. Group games, oral recitation of stories, homemade ornaments, herbal remedies prepared in the home, flat foot dancing, making tools and baskets, making quilts and playing the traditional music of the region with the banjo, dulcimer and fiddle (Tucker). Urban influences have definitely shaped the way of these cultural traditions, and some people have started to move to the modern life with a positive approach. Their language is also a cultural amalgamation; Scottish English mixed with an Elizabethan English style that tells tales of the migration patterns of the region (Harlan).
In conclusion, the Appalachians are a unique group of people that live in the eastern North United States. They live isolated in the cultural and geographical limits of their past and do not mix in with the modern times. Initially dependent on coal mining, these people have fixed cultural beliefs that make them independent, resilient and free from the shackles of the modern world.
Works Cited
ARC.gov. The Appalachia Region. 2016. Web. 28 April 2016.
http://www.arc.gov/appalachian_region/mapofappalachia.asp
Dykeman, Wilma. Appalachian Mountains, Physical Features. Britannica. 2016. Web. 28 April,
2016.
http://www.britannica.com/place/Appalachian-Mountains
Harlan, Becky. A fresh look at Appalachia- 50 years after the war on poverty. 2015. Web. 28
April 2016. National geographic.
http://proof.nationalgeographic.com/2015/02/06/a-fresh-look-at-appalachia-50-years-after-the-war-on-poverty/
Namb. Appalachian culture. Appalachian regional ministry. 2016. Web. 28 April 2016.
http://www.namb.net/arm/appalachian-culture/
Tucker, Abigail. Capturing Appalachia’s Mountain People. Smithsonian. 2010. Web. 28 April,
2016. http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/capturing-appalachias-mountain-people-7194840/?no-ist
The Alliance for Appalachia. What is Appalachia? 2016. Web. 28 April 2016.
http://theallianceforappalachia.org/background/what-is-appalachia/
