mentions. those are quotes that are valuable. >> what a bizarre decision by president opinion and ye kenyone him down there. >> and on the left side there are breakdowns, much like you would find on any other shopping website, where you can say i want to find a particular person's name, a particular senate committee, or a tag for a policy vote. on the left-sided is very valuable for nearly down. >> search,, click and play on the c-span video library and on c-span.org. >> on lectures in history, abolition state university professor bruce stewart teaches a class about the national perception of the appalachia late 1800s.d in the

he describes how a journalist known as local color writers helped create the mix of appalachia as a violent place l. he describes how a through their coverage of the so-called moonshine wars of the 1870's. during this time, federal agents attempted to collect a federal liquor tax from distillers, many of whom hard resistant in the region. the class is just over an hour. prof. stewart: good afternoon, class. what i want y'all to do is go back in time. go back to the beginning of the semester, second day or second class. remember i showed you a clip of "deliverance," and i asked you guys to tell me what the stereotypes of those movies were? these mounted residents were uneducated. in one case, they have these genetic deficiencies. they live in poverty and are primitive and uncivilized. and there was one kind of positive image about mount

people that was described in "deliverance" in that they were good musicians. they are going to be created and popularized to a national audience at the turn of the 20th century. we are looking at 1870 to 1920 and that is the period historians no as of the discovery of appalachia. that region is not yet been as a distinct part of the united states or seen as unique. that is going to change at the beginning of the 1870's when we enter into what historians call the discovery of appalachia. the reason why you are going to

see the discovery of appalachia is going to be due to local color writing. it is going to become popular at the beginning of the 1870's. local colorists were writers and journalists who went into appalachia and were going to write about appalachia. they were not interested in the landscape. they were focused on the people. as they are going to be writing about the mountain people. these local color writers, their stories are going to be published in middle-class the journals that were popular at

this time. some of the most prominent are "harper's weekly," and "appleton's journal." these are going to be read by middle-class people and most of these middle-class people live in the north and in cities. we are talking about a middle-class people who live in new york city and philadelphia. that is going to be the readership. that is who is consuming these local color stories about appalachia. what they do when they begin to talk about these mountain people is they are going to stress the securely energies -- peach yulia -- strange ways of appalachia. they're going to stress the dialect and the customs of these

mountaineers are different. in the end, these local color writers are going to create two images of the mountaineers. we are talking about the 1870's, 1880's and 1890's here. one of the images is more benign. that image is that they are going to begin to describe these mountaineers as being our contemporary ancestors. even the name implies that these people are not so bad. with this image, our contemporary ancestors, due to geographical isolation and the mountains serving as a barrier preventing civilization from coming into the region.

these people are going to be blocked off from civilization. in many ways, due to geographical isolation they are going to continue to live like our contemporary ancestors. like our great-grandfathers lived in the 1700's. even though they are protruding these people as being different, they do argue that they are a noble race of people. that they had the unique qualities of that will allow them to become civilized. that is the first image. this more benign image. this more positive image of these mountaineers that these local color writers would create. the second image is of the myth of violent appalachia. if you watch the rest of

"deliverance" you will see the stereotype that mountaineers are predisposed to committing violence. that they have no law and order. they are our contemporary ancestors, but they are savage. you can see this image, the second image, is a more negative image. it turns out that both of those images continue to this day and they lived side-by-side with one another. i'm going to touch a little on that first image. that more positive image. but i want to spend most of my time talking about the construction of the violent mountaineer.

my argument is, as we get into the late 1870's you have what is known as the moonshine wars that are going to interrupt -- are going to erupt. i will talk about those moonshine wars in a few minutes. it is the local color accounts of the moonshine wars that play a big role in constructing that image of all mountain people being savage and violent. before these local color writers come on the scene, remember it is the mid 1873-1874 they get the emergence of these local color writers. it was right after the civil war. these writers known as scenic

entrepreneurs were interested in appalachia. they are not interested in writing about mountain people. they want to write about the scenery of appalachia. these journalists and novelist will come into the region in the early 1870's as they are going to focus on the mountains, the huge trees, the waterfalls in this area. a good example of these scenic entrepreneurs is an author by the name of christian read. she is going to write "the land of the sky" in 1865. she is more focused on describing the landscape as

opposed to describing the mountain people themselves. the story is based on a trip she took to western north carolina in 1874-1875. she will visit nashville. in 1874-1875. she is going to talk about these afford victorian northerners who go into western north carolina she is going to talk about these and she describes what they experience. when they begin to adventure outside of asheville into the forest of appalachia. i want to give you an excerpt from this series of articles

known as "the land of the sky." and she is describing when they leave asheville and begin to venture into the wilderness of western north carolina. "they were leaving civilization altogether behind, walking deeper and deeper into the heart of primeval nature. the mountains rise on each side and great pines grow. dark shape ferns, flowers, and mosses abound and countless streams come leaping and foam sprayed." why is this important? it turns out that these scenic entrepreneur's writing is going to appeal to northerners who are reading journals like "harpers weekly," so why would this appeal to the northern readers? it talks about a landscape that combines of the sublime and the beautiful. for 19th-century middle-class

readers, when they read about these landscapes, what they are interested in is the combination of the sublime and beautiful making a picturesque description of the landscape. more importantly, these readings served as an escape from urban life. as we get into the 1870's, that is when you begin to see the rise of urbanization in the united states. that urbanization is going to

take place in the northeast. during this period of time, new york and philadelphia are going to grow immensely. they are going to emerge as cities. the cities are a very hectic place. they are very different than if you live in the countryside. i am a middle-class person living in philadelphia and they can escape from the urban lives and the hustle and bustle of modern society by reading these articles. these articles are also going to be appealing to a northern industrialists. as these writers describe the landscape, they are going to talk about these huge trees that are 150 feet tall. they will talk about these tall

outcroppings that they see and a lot of a northern industrialists will read the stories and say, there are some big trees in this area and maybe i should go down and cut them down and make some money. really what these scenic entrepreneur writings do is introduce these northern industrialists to the natural resources and raw materials that are available in appalachia. this is going to set the stage for industrialization in appalachia. as we get into the mid-1870's, this is when you see the rise of local color writers. those local color writers are going to replace of these scenic entrepreneurs. local color writers are more

focused on, not the landscape, they are focused on the mountain people themselves. what they are going to stress is the chiller air t's -- strangeness of mountain culture. the first local color writer is a man by the name of will la wless harney. he is going to publish an article called strange land and peculiar people. "the natives of this region are characterized by marked peculiarities." he talks about the elongation of the bones, the contour of the

facial angle -- and the harsh features were exemplified in the noble features of the late president lincoln. so, a couple of important things. he is first saying that these people are somehow different. in this case, even physically different from other americans. but he also compares them to abraham lincoln. here he is comparing them to a hearty frontiersman. he is saying these people are different, but they are just like honest abe in the end. they are a noble race of people who is going to be able to

achieve civilization. after harney's article you're going to have a series of local color writings that are going to stretch the first image, the more positive image of the mountaineer. living just like our pioneer grandfathers did in the 1700s. another good example and this will be the last one i will use to talk about this more positive image. another local color writer, rebecca harding davis, and let me give you an excerpt from her article. "they were not covered with forks, nice, dishes or bed or any other impediments of

civilization. they slept on the floor. this is important. "impediments of civilization," and she is saying these people are not civilized. civilization. but they were good-natured, were honest, gentlefolk despite their dirty condition. in other words, they are good people. their ease with living in these conditions. money appears to be one of the unknown luxuries of civilization and it is startling to see how life resorts to its most primitive conditions without. people. hopefully you remember from our previous lecture that these people are connected to the larger market economy, that they are engaged in a cash market.

so this does not necessarily represent the truth of what is going on. it is more the perception of what is going on. so why wouldn't this first image, this more positive image of the mountaineer, why is it going to be appealing to these middle-class in northern readers? these are the individuals that are consuming those local color articles in the journals. first, it serves as a creation of the other. these middle-class northerners view themselves as being civilized and cosmopolitan. they need to reaffirm their identity as being urbane. to do that, they need to find another group of people who they define or perceive as being

different from them. in this case, it is going to be those mountain residents. the mountain residents who is not civilized, urbane, or cosmopolitan. in many way, this is reaffirming to these middle-class northerners that they are civilized. it also fulfills this longing for a simpler past. that these urban, middle-class northerners are compelled to want. in new york, you see rapid population growth and the rise of these tenement buildings where you see poverty and squalor. life in the town is very hectic. what the urban middle-class

northerners want to be reminded of is a more simpler time. a time in which our grandfathers lived when they weren't encumbered with the burden of civilization. when they were happy and not yet engaged in a cash economy. and when they were kind of innocent. again, this is the role that that first image place in fulfilling this longing for a simpler past with these northern middle-class folk. as we get into the late-1870, the image of the mountaineer is going to change. it is going to go from one of these mountaineers being our contemporary ancestors and being good and noble to one that is a lot more negative. one that specifies that these

mountaineers are inherently violent. they are predisposed to committing violence. they have no regard for law and order. in other words, these people are uncivilized. but they do not have traits that are going to allow them to become civilized. to give you a good example of this transition between these images. lisa jones, she is going to write a piece in 1879 called "the backwoods of the north carolina." and let me give you a couple of excerpts. this is a good contrast to which we were previously reading on

these other slides. first she will describe these mountaineers as being the lower class composed of poor, white trash. see the difference? they are no longer like good old honest abe. they are poor, white trash. let me give you another quote from "the backwoods of carolina." even the most decent parts of life were dispensed with. culture was replaced by a state of ignorance. so these the generous anglo-saxons --this is important, the degenerate anglo-saxons. she is arguing that these people are uncivilized. they are savage and in fact they are even more savage than who? native americans. the question now is why you see the rise of the second image?

the more negative image of the mountaineers? the image that says these mountaineers are inherently predisposed to committing violence. that they are never going to become civilized or part of america? what i am going to argue is moonshine played a big role in this. late 1870's, you will see the rise of what is known as the moonshine wars. moonshine wars is a label the local color writer's are going to give it. 1877, the federal government decided to crack down on illicit distilling. they are people who distill alcohol and do not pay a federal liquor tax. in 1877, the federal government decided to crack down on men shiners by sending in more

federal agents -- crackdown on these moonshiners by sending in federal agents. this is going to end in gunfight between these moonshiners and the federal agents. these moonshine wars occur right between these moonshiners and around the time you see the emergence of local color writing. naturally, these local color writer's are going to talk about moonshiners. they're going to increasingly talking -- as are going to increasingly talk about moonshine wars. they want to sell magazines to a readership more interested in the stories of moonshiners being ambushed and etc., etc. the rest of the lecture involves the role that moonshine and to

the moonshine wars play into the negative image of these mountaineers. first, i want to set the stage as a historical context. i want to point out before we get to 1877 when those moonshine wars break out. as soon as europeans migrate into appalachia, many are going to distill alcohol. during the antebellum period there was no such thing as a moonshiners. why from day one are these mountain people in the 1700s and 1800s, why are they going to distill alcohol?

first of all, there are practical reasons behind it. it is easier to transport alcohol. say you are growing corn. instead of transporting that corn market, oftentimes they found it was much easier to convert that corn into liquid. into whiskey and then send that product to market. to give you an example, during the antebellum period, a mule could carry the equivalent of

four bushels of corn. but, is that appalachian residents -- if that appalachian residents converted that corn into alcohol, he could carry a total of 24 bushels. it is easier to carry that corn is it is converted into liquor or whiskey. it is also more profitable to distill alcohol, as opposed to just selling your corn among the market. during most of the antebellum period, a bushel of corn and a gallon of whiskey pretty much sold for the same amount. it ranged between $36 and $56. let's say that the price of a bushel of corn and the price for a gallon of whiskey is $50 each.

let's say that you are a former and have 20 bushels of corn and you sell that corn on the market, you'll make up -- you will end up making $10. what if you have that 20 bushels of corn and he decide to convert that into whiskey? at of two bushels of corn, you could make five gallons of liquor. you have that two bushels of corn and converted into alcohol and put it in the market, you end up making $25. $10 selling that bushel of corn, $25 if you distill that same amount of corn into liquor. so these farmers in the antebellum period realized it is easy to transport and you can make a lot of money. there is also not a stigma attached to people who make

alcohol as of this time. i'm talking about before the civil war. i'm talking about 1810, 1830's, 1820's. alcohol played an important role in mountain culture. for americans everywhere, alcohol played an important role in their practices. let me give you a couple of examples. typically what would happen, and this is true not only of appalachia but other parts of the united states, a lot of rule folk -- rural folk did not have a lot of forms of leisure. oftentimes they would combine leisure with work. a good example of that would be

barn raisings. say a farmer wants to build a barn and he invites all the members of the surrounding community to help him build that barn. this is performing a work function, but it is also a social function. people from around the region have the opportunity to come together and as they are building that barn they are going to talk and gossip. they're going to talk politics. oftentimes during these barnraisings you would have whisky. alcohol also plays a role in political culture. you have the popular process called treeting.

say you are a voter and you had to go and vote. as you are walking to the courthouse, the candidate he was running for office will spot you and shake your hand. and they will hand you a little alcohol to convince you to vote for them. alcohol also part of political culture during this period of time. the point of all this is a there is no stigma attached to the consumption of appalachia --alcohol. even churches do not have a problem with the moderate use of alcohol. they are not demanding prohibition after this time. if there is not a stigma attached to alcohol or its consumption, then that means

there is no stigma attached to mountain distillers or others there is no stigma attached to who make it. in the 1870's, -- in the middle of the civil war, the government will issue a federal liquor tax. it is bit to raise money for the war that was going on at that time. in 1865, a lot of these mountain farmers are going to return home. they're going to start doing

what they were doing beforehand. it makes sense to make alcohol, so i will just continue to convert my corn into liquor like i was doing before the war. now comes the problem that they realize they have to pay that federal liquor tax. some of these mountain farmers are going to pay that tax. but some of these mountain farmers are also going to refuse to pay that tax. when they refuse to pay that tax, they are going to be known as moonshiners. the question, first of all, is why to the bureau of internal revenue?

that is the agency created to enforce the federal liquor tax. the name will be changed in 1953 to the irs. why would these mountaineers, after the american civil war, why would they resist the bureau of internal revenue? what i'm going to give you are some more plausible answers to this question. the local colorists will come up with a different conclusion. these are the reasons that i think are more plausible. first, i argued that it hurts of their profit margin. if you pay tax, you're not going to make as much money. these farmers are also going to argue that they have a natural right. they have a natural right to sell out the whole and a -- to sell alcohol and they have a right to make a living free from government oversight. their argument is they have a

natural right to just like their fathers and grandfathers to make a living free of government interference. there is a nation of natural rights. why should i pay tax when i use this to support my family? it turns out, after the american civil war, this issue of liquor taxation is entwined in the politics of reconstruction. reconstruction is the period of time after the civil war. 1865-1877. it is when the north is trying to incorporate those confederate states back into the union. if you remember our lecture from monday, when we were talking

about the civil war in appalachia, one of the things i hope i demonstrated was at that appalachia was not this monolithic unionist region. you had many mountaineers that were confederates who support the confederate cause. it turns out a lot of these farmers who go back to distilling alcohol who think they have a natural right to support themselves without intervention and they view the

bureau of internal revenue as a tool of yankee centralization. they viewed the revenue tax as a tool used by the federal government to impose dominance over their communities. another reason behind this is that they are also going to gain the support of the democratic party at this time. the party that we know today, the republican party, the democratic party, they are different from what they were in the 1860's. at this time that we are talking about during reconstruction, the democratic party is the party of the former confederacy. the white confederates after the civil war are not going to embrace the republican party. they're going to embrace the democratic party.

and they viewed the internal revenue tax as a tool of yankee centralization. a tool to impose dominance over communities. the politicians are going to urge the moonshiners to resist of the law. this is why i believe many of the individuals in appalachia ultimately decide to not pay the liquor tax and become moonshiners. as we get into 1877, you're going to see the individual becoming president that year is rutherford b. hayes.

he realizes that moonshining is widespread and costing the government millions of dollars a year. he decides to crack down on moonshining in parts of appalachia and other parts of the united states of america. by 1878, more federal agents are going to come into appalachia to arrest moonshiners. gunfights and bloodshed are going to take place. these local color writers are going to begin to home in on this conflict between these moonshiners. they are going to popularize this conflict as of the

moonshine wars. does it not have a nice feel? you are trying to get people to buy papers and moonshine wars is something that is attractive and appealing. a couple of things i want to stress before i get into what the local color writers had to say about the moonshiners and the moonshine wars. the local color writers do overemphasize the level of virus -- level of violence. most moonshiners would rather flee than fight. flee and live another day. there are around six revenue

agents who are killed per year. you would want the zero killed, but six is not a large number. definitely not the numbers of these local color writers are emphasizing in that their writing. everyone knows about the wild west. during the so-called wild west you had about 20 deputy marshals killed per year. when you compare the moonshine wars to the so-called wild west, the wild west is a lot more violent. these local color writers are going to overemphasize, exaggerate the level of violence the moonshiners committed against these revenuers. local color writers are going to dictate all mountaineers as moonshiners.

when northern readers are going to read the stories, they are going to equate mountaineers with moonshiners. also understand that moon shining occurs everywhere in the united states at this time. appalachia to the state is synonymous with moonshining. but people don't realize it is not confined to appalachia. so the moonshine wars are going to do two things. one is crate the myth of violent appalachia. the second thing the moonshine

wars are going to do, and i should say local color accounts of these moonshine wars are going to do is inspire the urban victorians to intervene on the half of the uneducated mountaineers. this is going to lead to what is known as the uplift movement. i'm going to save this discussion for monday. i'm going to and with the creation of business of violent appalachia.

the first article i discovered that begins to talk about moonshine culture in the 1850's. throughout the early 1870's, when reporters talked about moonshine they talked about illicit distilling. these local color writers are going to say moonshiners. it has a better sound to it, guys who go into the forest at night and are sneaking around, updating the federal liquor tax. in 1877, in "harpers weekly," titled "the moonshine man, a look into his home and hideaways."

this is the first article i have seen that wonders why the moonshiners do what they do. this article describes the experiences the article writer had when he was traveling with the revenue services in the state of eastern kentucky. in the end, they capture some moonshiners and take the moonshiners back to louisville, kentucky and there they would stand trial for not abiding by the federal liquor tax. this article creates two things about moonshiners, and by extension mountain residents that later local color writers

are going to take up on to explain why you have moonshining in appalachia. one of those things is moonshining is a product of geographical isolation. that those mountains have served as a physical barrier preventing civilization and the market economy from coming into appalachia and so the mountaineers continue to live like primitive, contemporary ancestors. but what geographic isolation also does is encourage these individuals to distill alcohol as a way to make money. along those same lines, the

local color writers view moonshining as something that is primitive, something that modern americans that do not do. the second thing it is going to emphasize is that these moonshiners are uncivilized and savage. remember, when these local color writers are talking about these moonshiners they are implying that all mountaineers are moonshiners. middle-class northerners automatically assume that moonshiners are like all mountain people, uncivilized and savage. let me give you an excerpt. what the author of the "moonshine man," he describes the agents have captured the moonshiner and they are taking him back to louisville.

here is the description of what happens when they enter into civilization. "the moonshiner in a large city is as mild looking a man as you have ever seen. the startling effect produced by sudden entry into a city after long life in rural regions. he would seem meek and mild mannered in the extreme." in other words, these individuals have never seen holdings or railroads before. they freak out in urban environments and don't know how to act in a civilized world.

these moonshiners are not only unwilling to embrace civilization, it will be impossible for them to ultimately become civilized. you are going to have several articles on moonshiners that are published by local color writers in 1878 and they emphasize the same thing as "the moonshine man." but i found another article called "law and moonshine," and it is talking about moonshiners in western north carolina. the author goes into why these individuals decide to moonshine. he is going to stress the same thing as "the moonshine man," and says that they are more

likely to commit violent, but this article has a new theme and that is genetics. that mountaineers, for whatever reason, that genetically they are predisposed to committing violence. there's something ingrained in their dna that has of them not wanting to abide by law. there is something ingrained in their dna that makes them want to commit violence to preserve their way of life. let me give you a couple of

quotes from "law and moonshine." according to the author, the illicit the distiller of the moonshine was "naturally wild and grotesque," and there is something genetically different with them that makes them predisposed to committing this violence. the author continues, it is impossible to convince of the big boned, semi-barbarian people, that the revenue official who comes is not an emissary of a heretical and unjust government for whom the sly bullet is too good and welcome." as we get into the 1880's, most

of these local color writing that are posted in papers, they mention moonshiners somehow or another. moonshiners become a central character in all of these writings. this is when the middle class people begin to associate moo nshining with appalachia. these local color stories, local color writing are also going to stress those themes that i talked about. moonshine is a product of geographical isolation. these moonshiners and by extension of these mountain whites are predisposed to violence and savage.

as we get into the mid-1880's, you see the moonshiners serving as a symbol of what is wrong with appalachia. these local color writers are going to say, the reason why appalachian people live in isolation is because they are violent and produce moonshine. as we get into the 1880's, outsiders try to improve mountain society. it was a way to make mountain society improve. to make it better and civilized. to make it modern was to get rid of those moonshiners and the factors that made them decide to break the law.

how do you do that? what these local color writers are going to say is, we need to bring education into the mountains. more importantly, according to these local color writers, what these mountaineers need to have to become civilized is economic modernization. we need industries to come into appalachia to provide jobs to these people. to connect them to the larger market economy. if we are able to do that, these people are going to stop breaking the law. they're going to stop being moonshiners. a good example of this is donald banes, a journalist and a local color writer people write an

article called "among the moonshiners." and he talks about the moonshiners and more importantly he talks about how these moonshiners become a prime example of how outsiders can improve mountain society. how economic modernization can of lifted these mountaineers by bringing in jobs and modernizing appalachia. here's a quote from "among the moonshiners." "in a few more years, when the march of progress comes through these woods and dells, the moonshiners' occupation will be gone." he is referring to economic modernization. we need to bring in coal companies and timber companies.

"when the march of progress comes through these woods and dales, we will find farmers cultivating the soil that the stills have brought to waste. there shall be cultivation and plenty happiness and well, education, intelligence. so why are local color writers ultimately creating this image of the violent mountaineer? why create this myth of violent appalachia?

first of all, it is going to provide an excuse to industrialized the region. if you have been listening, you are picking up on this a little bit. the 1880's is when you begin to see the rise of industrialization in appalachia. it is the 1880's and 1890's when you begin to see capitalists coming in and buying the land and starting timber and coal operatives. as these industries are coming into the region, they are saying they are coming in to make money, but the main reason they are coming in is to what? give them jobs that they need so they no longer break the law. so they no longer are moonshiners. it provides an excuse to

industrialized the region. it allows these northerners to project their own fears about the future on a people perceived as different. the mountaineers or in this case the moonshiners, those violent people. remember, in the 1870's and 1880's, this is when the united states becomes urbanized. this is the period of time the united states becomes industrialized. with industry comes a disorder. with the rise of organization, what happens is there are too many people coming into the cities and it will be hard for municipal governments to construct housing for the individual. a lot of people were going homeless and living in these tenements.

you will see the gap between rich and poor beginning to widen.