The Early Settlers of Appalachia - Part II of II

Isolation and Outside Influences

In Appalachia, the isolation of living among the mountains made communication difficult, although the region was never completely cut off from contact with the outside world. Trade with nearby valley communities and seasonal work east to the lowlands, the delivery of letters and periodicals and visits to the hollow communities by peddlers and politicians kept mountain residents informed of issues and events through the awakening new country.

These outside influences brought new ideas, new technologies, and new items of material interest into the mountains and these new things were melded into the prevailing culture. However, outside influences during the pre-industrial period transpired on the settlers own terms and had minor influence on the quality and bearing of mountain life.

The relative seclusion of mountain neighborhoods from the changes that were sweeping life in urban America provided a sense of security and continuity which sustained a regional culture based upon strong relationships to land and family.

Each community occupied a separate cove, hollow or valley and was separated from its neighbors by mountains or ridges. Land ownership patterns usually terminated at the ridge top, reinforcing the community's identity and independence.

This dispersion of settlement and land ownership patterns which evolved in the mountains during the nineteenth century served to minimize the establishment of larger organized communities and formal social institutions. Politics and religion were the two major opportunities for mountain residents to engage in organized community life, but these institutions were themselves organized along kinship lines. Local political factions divided according to kin groups, and local churches developed as communions of extended family units and each of these institutions reflected the importance of personal relationships and local autonomy in their operation and structure.

Communities and Status

The absence of highly structured communities and formal social institutions contributed to the evolution of a comparatively open and democratic social order in the mountains. It was not until the latter part of the nineteenth century did significant economic differences begin to create conscious class distinctions among mountain residents.

In the rural areas of Appalachia the lack of overt class consciousness was reflected in fervent democratic attitudes. Status, rather than class distinctions, was the most significant social division in traditional mountain society. These status distinctions were functions, not of economics-wealth, land ownership, or access to natural resources-but of the value system of the community itself. In these remote mountain communities, where economic differences were minimal, the measure of social prestige and privilege was based on personality characteristics or age, and family group.

The rural social order was divided not into upper, middle, and lower classes, but the respectable and non-respectable and each local community determined its own criteria for respectability. This status system, of course, tended to break down in the villages and county seat towns where class distinctions were more noticeable. Most social events, such as barn-raisings and other gatherings where a large crowd might be present were commonly attended by all who wished to come, regardless of social or moral status. Thus, their communal ways served to inhibit the growth of a rigid social hierarchy.

A robust constitution in the midst of a rugged environment, where the struggle for existence was so difficult, fostered within these mountain folks determination, an intense spirit of freedom and independence.