Pre Modern Appalachia Essay It’s hard to think about living in pre modern times, with all the technology we have today. I have heard stories from my grandmother about when she was a young lady in Hazard. That was while coal mining was the big thing though. So for all my research I had to turn to other sources. When I think of pre modern I think of old television shows such as “Little House on the Para ire”. Simple times before industrialization made its appearance. In this essay, I am going to describe and compare the ways of pre modern Appalachia to nowadays.
I am going to include topics such as: economic activities, transportation, housing and standards of living, women’s and family life, church, communities and social gatherings, and traditional pre modern values The Industrial Revolution paved the way for mass production of goods. According to reserve became well known. What about before all this need for coal? How did people survive and live? Everyculture. com describes early life in Appalachia as small scattered farming communities. This kind of farming known as subsistence farming was used by Appalachian people to provide for themselves, not to make money.
According to Wikipedia, early Appalachians planted and grew for themselves and neighbors keeping traditional crops from the settlers like sweet potatoes, corn, squash, and tobacco. They let cows and hogs roam until it was milking or slaughtering time. If you had extra you could trade at the store for whatever you needed like flour or coffee. Houses in these early times were not like what we are blessed with today. Wikipedia says a house in those times were basically a one room cabin, equipped with a fireplace for cooking meals and heating. Bathrooms were outhouses, there was no such thing as indoor plumbing.
The standards of living were poverty. People living in the mountains had little money. As I said before you could trade at the store you walked to or if you had a neighbor with a house or buggy you could catch a ride with them if you were lucky. Families grew big in these days. Themoonlitroad. com averages ten to twelve children, a mother and father all living under one roof. Shoes were only for the winter if they could be afforded. In the early twentieth century social workers began informing families about personal hygiene and taught homemaking skills to women. Men were taught to read and write.
Midwives traveled Appalachia helping deliver babies. Most children were born at home then with no doctor or medicine available. That’s just scary to me! I wouldn’t have made it in those days. I had a cesarean birth. So I and my little girl probably would have been one of those statistics concerning fetal death. Moonlitroad. com also tells a little about women’s life. Women took care of all the housework and the children. They were in charge of cooking for the family. They used berries to dye clothes. They also sewed their family’s clothes along with making quilts, knitting mittens, scarfs, toboggans, and socks.
Family life nowadays is more of a nuclear family. , thus meaning mother, father, and children living in one house. The family’s needs and wants are put before the outside community. However Kin family values were popular in pre modern Appalachia. 1str. org describes kin family social values as family and community over self needs. The home also includes grandparents or other family members living in one household. Forms of transportation were limited in rural Appalachia. Water was the main source of transportation back then, according to Wikipedia.
It also determined where big cities popped up and where ports for goods and people traveled to. That’s the reason Frankfort is the capital of Kentucky. I knew that from Kentucky history classes. However, in the mountains there are no steamboats. The main form of transportation for mountain folk was by foot. You walked to where ever you needed to go. If you owned a horse you could ride to town or hitch up a wagon to your horse if you had one. Roads were dirt paths. The first road in Appalachia was Highway 80 commonly known as the Lincoln Highway, says Wikipedia.
That was after 1880 during the Good Roads Movement. Before that, during the 1860’s trains came to parts of Appalachia. People traveled on them in those days. Today trains just haul coal and other goods like logs. Almost every family owns a car today and most roads are two lanes or more. With the exception of when you go back in a holler, most likely it’s going to be a one lane gravel road. There are quite a few of these one lane roads in Owsley County. I lived there for seven years and moved this spring. I actually lived in a holler down a one lane gravel road and it was a county road.
One thing about driving those roads is the old houses you see that no one’s lived in for years and are grown over and abandoned. My now ex whose 31 said his family lived without an indoor plumbing bathroom until the late 90’s when his family moved to town. They had an outhouse for a bathroom and if you wanted to take a bath, they had a large metal wash tub filled up with warm water heated up on an electric stove. Everything was modern except they didn’t have an indoor plumbing bathroom. That always amazed me because we are the same age. I grew up in Mt.
Sterling and Powell County. I didn’t realize how different things could be a few counties over. I will now move on to examine community and social life. In per modern days any small event could be turned into a community gathering. I recall in Verna Mae Sloan’s book, What My Heart Wants to Tell, how all the neighbors came over for her father’s house raising. They all helped build a log cabin after he had gotten married. Not many people build houses today. However after you buy a house family and friends usually come over to see your new place. The tradition has been modernized.
Wikipedia lists some other gatherings like corn shucking and log rollings. When these gatherings sound strange I try to remember this was their only form of entertainment. Church dances were also very popular. Music was played, nothing romantic, just some music to move your feet too. Social status can be earned in two ways. More research from Wikipedia conveys you can gain your social status thought you achievements in life. Perhaps you went to school and become a lawyer or a nurse. This form of social status is known as Achieved Status. The other way is inheriting it.
Perhaps your family owns a business and it’s been around for years. When it’s your time you’ll inherit the business. This type of social status is known as Ascribed Status. Most Appalachian people fall into the ascribed status in pre modern times. Where family is big, you do what your family has done for generations. If your family owned land, you were going to help on the farm until one day it was yours. There are the exceptions, getting married off or pursuing another job if you were fortunate enough. Many people today pass still their land on to their children.
Preachers and church goers held a certain status. Status becomes a form of respect. Such as respect for elders or widows. People in the community or neighbors would travel to check in on them. My mother does this today, along with the help of a few of her sisters for my grandmother. Another means of ascribed status would be the wealthy; they would always be wealthy and most times be important figures in the community. Nowadays achieved status is becoming more popular. The economy of our country contributes to this trend. They type of jobs available require a college education.
Therefore more young people are attending college to better themselves. Some young people are actually the first in their families to attend college. The main religion in Appalachia in pre modern times was Christianity according to Wikipedia. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries traditions like creek baptisms and feet washing still exist. Among Christianity, Baptist churches were among the largest denomination. This still holds true today with many different denominations like Pentecostal and Church of God and Catholic religion being preached in the area.
There are other traditions that hold true today from the pre modern era. They are ways of life and culture related traditions. Jobs like coal mining and logging are still around. Farming and tobacco crops are still bis as tobacco is still Kentucky’s main cash crop. Culture related traditions like making moonshine still exist. YouTube has several documentaries on the subject. “The Last One” found on the docChannel on YouTube, focuses on a man called “Popcorn”. He shows camera crews how to make moonshine and his stil hidden in the woods.
Other culture related traditions such as the peoples’ dialect carry on. The language descended upon us from Irish and English heritage as told by Wylene Dial in WVCulture. org. Bluegrass music carries on today, with its roots lying back in the 1600’s from Ireland, England, Scotland and even Africa. This comes from the website bluegrass-museum. org. In an interview with Jimmy Martin found on YouTube from the documentary, “Pioneers of Bluegrass Music”, Jimmy gives a little insight to how deep the love for bluegrass music runs in Appalachia.
He told a story of how he was a young boy and his dad was dead, so he had to work for his neighbor, after he got finished working in the field at his family’s home, to save up enough money to buy himself a guitar. I believe he said he might have got paid fifty cents a day. In closing, I have learned that people in Appalachia have endured various types of struggles tied to this rugged land. Some are still ever present like communities being cut off from larger more prosperous cities. We now have the modern conveniences of life.
The ways of pre modern days involving culture and economical situations still carry on today with some variations. The major difference between the times seems to lie in family and women’s life. Women have gained the right to vote and have taken on more roles outside of the home. Husbands and wives don’t always stay married until one dies, they get divorced. Modern conveniences have made our everyday lives easier. If not for the hard working pre modern Appalachians we wouldn’t be here to enjoy them today. Appalachia has come a long way and still has plenty more room to grow.
