I. “Something Hidden; Go and Find
It”
Kephart argues that little has been written
of the Southern mountaineer -- that the
rest of America knows almost nothing of
a people set apart “from all other
folks by dialect, by customs, by character,
by self-conscious isolation” (p. 16),
who because of the terrain of the land still
live in the eighteenth century.
II. “The Back of Beyond”
He borrows from Ireland the title to describe
the “upper settlement of Hazel Creek,”
where he lived, surrounded by “the
forest primeval” -- the mail service,
the lack of goods in the stores, the use
of barter, the absence of trades or professions,
the worn-out soil and primitive farming
methods with corn the staple crop, the gathering
of medicinal herbs, the livestock with emphasis
on the razorback hog.
III. “The Great Smoky Mountains”
He describes the mountains and the flora
of the region; speaks of botanists who early
identified the plant life -- Asa Gray, William
Bartram, Andre Michaux -- and later the
Ferrisses; tells of the Canadian hiker unprepared
for the wilderness; reports on animal life
and the scarcity of game animals, the climate,
rocks and minerals.
IV. “A Bear Hunt in the Smokies”
He tells of the bear hunters’ camping
in a cabin on the North Carolina - Tennessee
line; lets his companions come alive through
dialogue (Little John Cable, Hunchback Bill
Cope, Granville Calhoun, “Doc”
Jones, and Matt Hyde); recounts their discussion
of hunting dogs and dreams and speaks of
their drinking and singing; praises the
stamina of the men; shares their anger over
the use of bear-traps; names the most famous
bear hunters of the region (Uncle Jimmy
Crawford, Quill Rose, Black Bill Walker)
and the legendary bear, “Old Reelfoot”;
and hearing a logging train, postulates
that everything he sees will disappear --
“tree and plant, beast and fish .
. . . [t]he simple-hearted native men and
women . . . .” (p. 104).
V. “Moonshine Land”
He begins with a story of coming upon a
cabin, where his introduction of himself
is interrupted by piercing yells from the
mistress of the house and his realization
that it is a signal and she is on picket.
He describes the incident to an acquaintance,
hoping to find out what might happen if
he should stumble upon a still. He is told
he would be expected to perform “some
triflin’ work about the still . .
. jest so’s ‘t they could prove
that you took a hand in it . . . .”
(p. 118). The rest of the chapter is the
mountaineers’ defense of moonshining,
ending with Kephart’s promise that
in his writing he will give a fair report
on what he has learned of moonshining.
VI. “Ways That Are Dark”
He continues the discussion of what the
mountaineers call “blockading,”
not “moonshining.” He describes
the process of making corn liquor. It ends
with the story of Jack Coburn’s getting
rid of a still which a tenant had installed
on his property.
VII. “A Leaf from the Past”
He attempts to bring historical perspective
to the mountaineer’s objection to
the federal tax on whiskey. He affirms that
Britishers “have always been ardent
haters of excise laws” (p. 145). In
the towns they used bribery of the agents
in order not to pay the tax; in the sparsely
settled mountainous regions of Ireland,
it was the gun. He traces the Scotch to
Ireland (the Scotch-Irish), thence to western
Pennsylvania and on to the southern Appalachians
and reports on their opposition to the whiskey
tax imposed by Congress in 1791, which led
to the Whiskey Insurrection of 1794. He
continues a sketch history of the taxes
levied on whiskey up to the late 1800s.
VIII. “`Blockaders’ and `The
Revenue’”
According to Kephart, in a report for 1876-77,
the new Commissioner of Internal Revenue
brought attention to the production of illegal
whiskey in the southern Appalachian, and
in 1877 the federal government began fighting
moonshiners in dead earnest and in their
methods created bitter resentment among
the mountain people. He repeats stories
told of and by Hersh Harkens, United States
Collector at Asheville, of raids on stills
and gun battles. In rebuttal to the Commissioner’s
report, Kephart denies the contention that
mountain people are naturally hostile to
the government, arguing their loyalty to
the Union, including the period of the Civil
War, and giving the reason for their moonshining
as not political but purely economic. He
discusses the effects of Prohibition on
the moonshining business.
IX. “The Snake-Stick Man”
He tells the story of “Mr. Quick,”
who gained Kephart’s friendship through
his knowledge and wide range of interests
and the approval of the people with the
snake-stick he carved. It is revealed that
he is an agent of the Indian Bureau assigned
to capture those who are making or selling
whiskey on the Reservation only after he
has a number of men arrested whom he has
identified by means of a ruse. His theory
is, “man-hunting is the finest sport
in the world,” and he invites Kephart
to go along with him on a man-hunt into
Tennessee.
X. “A Raid in the Sugarlands”
Kephart gives a description of their journey
from Bryson City through Collins Gap in
the Smokies and then on foot into the Sugarlands
of Tennessee. They are looking for a moonshiner
and his two sons and are accompanied by
an Indian guide. At house after house, they
get no information and no invitation to
stop. At one place they get “a cold
bite” and spend the night at a house
besieged by fleas. Kephart wrenches his
knee. The fugitives are not found. But Kephart
does find a man who has read “that
book” (Our Southern Highlanders).
XI. “The Killing of Hol Rose”
Kephart tells of Rose, a deputy prohibition
enforcement officer, who was considered
high-handed and over-zealous. When he started
to arrest Babe Burnett, Babe killed him
and escaped but later turned himself in.
Before the trial, in a Romeo-Juliet romance,
Ima Rose (Hol’s daughter) elopes with
Verlin Burnett (Babe’s son). Convicted
of second-degree murder, Babe appealed and
was acquitted. Now he is to stand trail
in the Federal court. Kephart’s judgment
is that Rose was killed in attempting to
make an illegal arrest and that officers
of the law must be respecters of the law.
XII. “The Outlander and the Native”
In describing the mountain people, Kephart
insists that their wars are fought among
themselves, not against outsiders. They
consider personal property inviolate and
hospitality “a sacred duty”
(p. 267). But outsiders should copy the
custom of the region, calling out “Hello”
rather than going to the door and removing
cartridges from a gun before advancing to
the porch (p. 268). He considers the only
danger would be from a man crazy with liquor
(p. 269). He admits there is difficulty
in finding a decent place for bed and board,
but he also notes that travelers unknowingly
impose on the natives, who share food from
their meager supplies. He reported the native
to be curious, sly, suspicious, secretive.
XIII. “The People of the Hills”
Continuing his description, he notes that
the highlanders are lean (“a fat mountaineer
is a curiosity”) and tall with grave,
deliberate, shambling bearing (pp. 286-87).
They are not indolent but shiftless. They
seem immune to cold and wet. They are not
a healthy people, and there is a high percentage
with defects. They look at death with a
good deal of stoicism. The women are “pretty
in youth,” but hard work, early marriage,
frequent childbirth, and lack of medical
attention soon ages them (pp. 288-89). Kephart
himself served as “doctor to the settlement”
(p. 298) on Hazel Creek. His own diagnosis
is that “their love of pure air and
pure water” saves them from the gross
unsanitary conditions in which they live
(p. 304). He also discusses too-jumping,
dew pizen, and milk-sick.
XIV. “The Land of Do Without”
He bemoans the exchange of homespun jeans
and linsey for shoddy clothes now purchased
and the unkempt appearance of the people.
Houses are hewn log cabins, indifferently
chinked, usually one large room with a lean-to
for the kitchen and a loft for storage and
sleeping. Pegs and a bunk or two serve as
closet and linen cabinet. There will usually
be a family photograph on the wall, an almanac,
and a kerosene lamp. There is no room for
privacy, and deep poverty is the rule. He
speaks of dirt floors and few containers
or utensils for cooking or serving meals;
of times when there would be no salt or
meat; of “borrowing fire” for
the lack of a match. But they are an abstemious
people and scorn any hint of charity nor
do they take kindly to any suggestion that
they are inferior to others.
XV. “Home Folks and Neighbor People”
Kephart sees in the mountain people a patriarchal
society in which the wife (“the woman”)
is a drudge and field hand. There is no
sense of chivalry, yet the women do not
complain. They tend to marry early and have
large families. They are indulgent parents,
especially to their sons. Funeral services
are simple, with the sermon preached long
after, sometimes for all in the community
who have died in the period since the last
funeral address. Weddings are held at the
home of the bride. They enjoy music and
dancing except where the church has prohibited
it. Holidays observed are Christmas and
New Year’s. Church is a social function,
and camp meetings especially so. The clergy
is hostile to book-learning, but religion
seems to have any real effect on the parishioners.
XVI. “The Mountain Dialect”
He reports on the anger of a neighbor over
John Fox’s use of mountain dialect
in his stories. Kephart describes the mountaineers’
habit of elision, of inserting sounds, and
of substituting one sound for another. He
adds that they never drop the h or substitute
another sound for it. He says that little
of the language is borrowed from the Scotch-Irish
except the distinct sounding of the r. Refuting
that the vocabulary of the mountaineers
is limited, he contends they have a remarkable
range of expression. He discusses the use
of one part of speech for another, the abundance
of pleonasms, and the taste for double and
triple negatives, and the presence of Elizabethan,
Chaucerian, and pre-Chaucerian terms.
XVII. “The Law of the Wilderness”
According to Kephart, the highlander is
willing to forgo “all that society
can offer” in exchange for being “free,
unbeholden, lord of himself and his surroundings.”
(p. 381). He is non-social, immune to the
spirit of co-operation. The 4,000,000 people
in the eight states who share the designation
of “Appalachian mountaineers”
have no sense of kinship or shared heritage.
But they are deeply attached to family and
place. Though they rarely demonstrate affection,
it is deeply felt, and they will go to almost
any length to protect a family member, even
if he is a criminal. Thus, “clan loyalty
interferes with the administration of justice”
(p. 390). They put little trust in the courts.
Murders are common, and the murderer usually
receives a light sentence or goes free.
The rationale is that if society (the state)
cannot protect a man or his rights, then
he is justified in taking the law into his
own hands.
XVIII. “The Blood Feud”
He draws an analogy between the blood feud
of Corsica and those in Appalachia. He gives
as reasons for feuds disputes over card
games, or property, or politics or the love
of women. They spread because of clan loyalty
or the opportunity to pay someone back for
old wrongs. “The mountaineer has a
long memory” (pp. 414-15). It is common
for men to be armed. They often fight dirty,
but usually avoid harming property or women.
Mountain women are also combative, cheering
the men on and carrying food to those in
hiding. Kephart makes the comment, “It
took but a few decades to civilize Scotland”
(p. 426), as if the same can be done for
Southern Appalachia if the United States
government will just make the effort.
XIX. “Who Are the Mountaineers”
He says they are not related to the poor
whites of the South, descendants of convicts
and indentured servants. The first Appalachian
frontiersmen were the Swiss and Palatine
Germans, followed by the Scotch-Irish, who
first settled largely in western Pennsylvania
and then moved southward in the eighteenth
century and into the mountains after the
Revolutionary War. Eventually the population
became too great for the land to support
adequately, but many stayed because (1)
they did not know of the opportunities to
the west; (2) they were attached to home
and kindred; (3) they lacked the ambition;
(4) they lacked money to emigrate. In the
Civil War they showed their loyalty to the
Union and were repaid by an excise tax that
turned them into outlaws. But Kephart sees
the region on the verge of an economic revolution
which will change everything.
XX. “When the Sleeper Wakes”
Appalachia is rural. The people are homogeneous
(WASPS). But communication has recently
reached the area, a development opposed
by the conservative element. Some welcome
it; others sell their property and lose
their independence. Kephart feels that the
commercial interests care nothing for the
mountain people. He himself damns them with
faint praise: “. . . among the most
trifling and unmoral natives of this region,
among the illiterate and hide-bound, there
still is much to excite admiration and good
hope. . . . Let us remember, Sir and Madam,
that we ourselves are descended from white
barbarians” (pp. 465-66). His answer
is schools – not regular schools but
“vocational schools that will turn
out good farmers, good mechanics, good housewives”
(p. 469).
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