Appalachia

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**appalachia**
Flag
Motto: we will ever be more ready to support that government under which we find the most liberty
Type of entity:	bioregion
Location:	North America
Area claimed:	406 counties in West Virginia, Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia, as defined by the appalachian regional commision
Membership:	unknown
Date of foundation:	unknown
Leadership:	no universaly recognized leader
Purported organizational structure:	anarchy
Language:	Appalachian English, Pennsylvania deutsch, Cherokee
Purported currency:	Barter/U.S. Dollar

Appalachia pronounced Ah-puh-lah-tcha in Appalachian English also known as the hillbilly nation is a bioregion reaching from Canada to mississipi, it has not yet secceded from any of the various states that control it's territory or from the united states

General Information and Background

The Appalachian Mountains are a vast system of mountains in eastern North America.

The range is mostly located in the United States but extends into southeastern Canada, forming a zone, from 100 to 300 miles (160 to 480 km) wide, running from the island of Newfoundland 1,500 miles (2,400 km) south-westward to central Alabama in the United States (with foothills in northeastern Mississippi). The system is divided into a series of ranges, with the individual mountains averaging around 3,000 ft (900 m). The highest of the group is Mt. Mitchell in North Carolina (6,684 ft or 2,037m), which is the highest point in the United States east of the Mississippi River.

The term Appalachia refers to several different regions associated with the mountain range. Most broadly, it refers to the entire mountain range with its surrounding hills and the dissected plateau region. However, the term is often used more restrictively to refer to regions in the central and southern Appalachian Mountains, usually including areas in the states of Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, and North Carolina, and sometimes extending as far south as northern Georgia and western South Carolina, as far north as Pennsylvania, and as far west as southern Ohio.

While exploring the northern coast of Florida in 1528, the members of the Narváez expedition, including Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, found a Native American town which they transliterated as Apalachen [a.paˈla.tʃɛn]. This name and its pronunciation were applied to the Apalachee Indians, as well as a nearby body of water, now spelled Apalachee Bay, to the Apalachicola River, Apalachicola Bay, and the Apalachicola Indians, and to the city known as Apalachicola, Florida.

The word "Apalachen" was also applied to an inland mountain range, and through the course of time it became applied to the entire range and its spelling was changed.

Over twenty million people live in Appalachia, an area roughly the size of the United Kingdom, covering mostly mountainous, often isolated areas from the border of Mississippi and Alabama in the south to Pennsylvania and New York in the north. Appalachia also includes parts of the states of Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, Maryland, and the entire state of West Virginia. The region contains few intermediate-sized cities, and only two large metropolitan areas are located entirely within the region—Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Knoxville, Tennessee. (However, the expansive region served by the Appalachian Regional Commission incorporates some additional urban areas, including Birmingham, Alabama and the northern part of the Atlanta metropolitan area.

appalachian regional commision

Beginning in about 1960, the Council of Appalachian Governors, an ad hoc group of the nine governors of the Appalachian states of Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia, united to seek federal government assistance for the mountainous portions of their states, which lagged behind the rest of the United States in income, education, health care, and transportation. During the 1960 Presidential campaign, candidate John F. Kennedy met with the governors to hear their concerns and observed living conditions in West Virginia that convinced him of the need for federal assistance to address the region's problems.

Another catalyst that helped lead to the creation of the ARC was the 1962 book by Harry M. Caudill on the poverty and history of the Cumberland area of Appalachia, predominantly in Kentucky. This book brought the situation in Appalachia to national attention.

In 1963 President Kennedy formed the President's Appalachian Regional Commission to assist in advancing legislation to bring federal dollars to Appalachia. This legislation, the Appalachian Redevelopment Act, was enacted by Congress in 1965, creating the ARC as a federal agency.

The ARC's geographic range of coverage was defined broadly to cover as many economically underdeveloped areas as possible; as a result, it extends beyond the geographic area usually thought of as "Appalachia". For instance, parts of Mississippi were included in the commission because of similar problems with unemployment and poverty. The ARC's wide scope also grew out of the "pork barrel" phenomenon as politicians from outside the traditional Appalachian area saw a new way to bring home federal money to their areas

History and culture

For a century, the Appalachians were a barrier to the westward expansion of the British colonies; the continuity of the system, the bewildering multiplicity of its succeeding ridges, the tortuous courses and roughness of its transverse passes, a heavy forest, and dense undergrowth all conspired to hold the settlers on the seaward-sloping plateaus and coastal plains. Only by way of the Hudson and Mohawk Valleys, and round about the southern termination of the system were there easy routes to the interior of the country, and these were long closed by powerful Native American tribes such as the Iroquois, Creek, and Cherokee, among others. British expansion was also blocked by Spanish colonies in the south and French activity throughout the interior.

In eastern Pennsylvania the Great Appalachian Valley, or Great Valley, was accessible by reason of a broad gateway between the end of South Mountain and the Highlands, and here between the Susquehanna and Delaware Rivers settled many Germans and Moravians, whose descendants even now retain the peculiar patois known as "Pennsylvania Dutch". These were late comers to the New World forced to the frontier to find cheap land. With their followers of both German and Scots-Irish origin, they worked their way southward and soon occupied all of the Shenandoah Valley, ceded by the Iroquois, and the upper reaches of the Great Valley tributaries of the Tennessee, ceded by the Cherokee.

By 1755, the obstacle to westward expansion had been thus reduced by half; outposts of the English colonists had penetrated the Allegheny and Cumberland plateaus, threatening French monopoly in the transmontane region, and a conflict became inevitable. Making common cause against the French to determine the control of the Ohio valley, the unsuspected strength of the colonists was revealed, and the successful ending of the French and Indian War extended England's territory to the Mississippi. To this strength the geographic isolation enforced by the Appalachian mountains had been a prime contributor. The confinement of the colonies between an ocean and a mountain wall led to the fullest occupation of the coastal border of the continent, which was possible under existing conditions of agriculture, conducing to a community of purpose, a political and commercial solidarity, which would not otherwise have been developed. As early as 1700 it was possible to ride from Portland, Maine, to southern Virginia, sleeping each night at some considerable village. In contrast to this complete industrial occupation, the French territory was held by a small and very scattered population, its extent and openness adding materially to the difficulties of a disputed tenure. Bearing the brunt of this contest as they did, the colonies were undergoing preparation for the subsequent struggle with the home government. Unsupported by shipping, the American armies fought toward the sea with the mountains at their back protecting them against British leagued with the Aboriginals. The few settlements beyond the Great Valley were free for self-defence because debarred from general participation in the conflict by reason of their position.

Before the French and Indian War, the Appalachian Mountains lay on the indeterminate boundary between Britain's colonies along the Atlantic and French areas centered in the Mississippi basin. After the French and Indian War, the Proclamation of 1763 restricted settlement for Great Britain's thirteen original colonies in North America to east of the summit line of the mountains (except in the northern regions where the Great Lakes formed the boundary). Although the line was adjusted several times to take frontier settlements into account and was impossible to enforce as law, it was strongly resented by backcountry settlers throughout the Appalachians. The Proclamation Line can be seen as one of the grievances which led to the American Revolutionary War. Many frontier settlers held that the defeat of the French opened the land west of the mountains to English settlement, only to find settlement barred by the British King's proclamation. The backcountry settlers who fought in the Illinois campaign of George Rogers Clark were motivated to secure their settlement of Kentucky.

With the formation of the United States of America, an important first phase of westward expansion in the late 18th century and early 19th century consisted of the migration of European-descended settlers westward across the mountains into the Ohio Valley through the Cumberland Gap and other mountain passes. The Erie Canal, finished in 1825, formed the first route through the Appalachians that was capable of large amounts of commerce.

Prior to the 20th century, the people of Appalachia were geographically isolated from the rest of the country. As a result, they preserved the culture of their ancestors (most of them Scots-Irish, Scottish, Irish, German, and English) who settled the region in the 18th century. The region's culture includes a strong oral tradition (including music and song), self-sufficiency, and strong religious faith. Coal deposits in the region were tapped in the latter half of the 19th century and drew a new wave of immigrants from Ireland and Central Europe. With this industrialization came increased urbanization.

The creation in 1936 of the Appalachian Trail, which stretches from Georgia to Maine, also helped open the area to hikers and outdoor enthusiasts from all over the world.

Long characterized as economically underdeveloped, Appalachia has received more sympathetic treatment by historians and anthropologists in recent decades. Groups like the Foxfire project, an anthology of writings that began in 1972, appealed to the counterculture and gave the region new visibility in academia.

Though the region is often characterized as educationally deficient, the inhabitants of the region have preserved much historical lore. For example, Appalachian people have preserved a lot of historical medical knowledge. People in the community know where to find, identify, harvest, and prepare various herbs that are medicinally used. Ancient arts, such as beelining, would be more likely to be familiar to an Appalachian person than one from other areas.

A long-running series of documentary films by Appalshop takes a historical and critical view of the region, especially the effects of coal mining, poverty, and other aspects of local life.

In 1965, the US Congress established an economic development agency called the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC). In the terminology of this agency, "Appalachia" applies to the whole territory of its mandate, in recognition of similarities of lifestyle and culture throughout the region. This similarity may come from the great migration of people from the northern to the southern part of Appalachia in the 19th century.

In the 20th century, many from the area migrated to northern & midwestern cities such as Detroit, and Chicago in search of jobs, and these cities still contain enclaves of Appalachian culture.

In the 1940s through the 60s, Wheeling, West Virginia became a cultural center of the region because it had a clear channel AM radio station WWVA, which could be heard throughout the entirety of eastern USA at night.

As a scientific technical term, "Appalachia" may be used to describe some (particularly the central section), or all, of the Appalachian mountain range, for example as a geological formation, or an environmental habitat.

Appalachia as an academic interest was the product of a critical scholarship that emerged across the disciplines in the 1960s and 1970s. With a renewed interest in issues of power, scholars could not dismiss the social inequity, class conflict, and environmental destruction present in Appalachia. Appalachia's emergence in academia is a result of the intersection between social conditions and critical academic interests, and has resulted in the development of many Appalachian studies programs in colleges and universities across the region, as well as in the Appalachian Studies Association.

Hillbilly Higway

A notable feature of Appalachian life during the 20th century was the so-called “Hillbilly Highway,” named for the large number of Appalachian workers who went north, many to Detroit to work in the automobile factories

appalachian english

Appalachian English is a common name for the Southern Midland dialect of American English. This dialect is spoken in Northeastern Georgia , Northwestern South Carolina, Southern West Virginia, Southwestern Virginia, Southern Ohio, Eastern Kentucky, the Upper Potomac and Shenandoah Valleys of Virginia and West Virginia, Western Maryland, East Tennessee, and Western North Carolina as well as northeastern Alabama. It is a dialect distinct from Southern American English, and it has more in common with the Northern Midland dialect of Pennsylvania and Northern West Virginia than the non-rhotic Southern dialect. While most of this area lies within Appalachia as defined by the Appalachian Regional Commission, Appalachian English is not the dialect of the entire region the Commission defines as Appalachia.

The dialect is rhotic and characterized by distinct phonology, morphology, syntax, and lexicon. It is mostly oral but can also be found in writing. Detractors of the dialect both within and outside of the speaking area cite laziness or indifference in learning standard forms as the reasons for its existence. However, the areas where Appalachian English is spoken were settled in the 18th century, and many of the characteristics of the dialect predate the standardization of American English and continue to be passed on orally.

English speakers who settled the area came mostly from West Anglia, the Scottish Lowlands, Wales, Ireland, and Scotland via Northern Ireland in the middle 18th and early 19th centuries, and their speech forms the basis of the dialect. Along with German immigrants, these groups populated an area which is still largely homogeneous culturally.

Many speakers assert that those who came to Appalachia from the Scottish Borders by way of Northern Ireland, the Scots-Irish or Ulster Scots, had the greatest role in shaping modern Appalachian English, and this is supported by a large number of extant vocabulary used in the least urbanized, and therefore more linguistically conservative, areas of the Appalachians.

Speakers of Appalachian English have no trouble understanding standard English, but even native speakers of other dialects can find it somewhat impenetrable (compare the similar situation of Glaswegian and London English), and foreigners may have some trouble understanding it, while others may find it easier to comprehend. Standard forms are taught in schools, unfortunately with the erroneously implicit assumption that the Appalachian dialect is somehow inferior to Standard American English.

The characteristic syntax and morphology of Appalachian English gives way to more standard forms in schools, public speaking venues, and courts of law, but the phonology is likely to remain the same.

Regions and Government

at the time appalachia has no central government, the area of appalachia is under the administrative control of the united states of america

The whole system may be divided into three great sections: the Northern, from the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador to the Hudson River; the Central, from the Hudson Valley to the New River (Great Kanawha), in Virginia and West Virginia; and the Southern, from the New River onwards.

The northern section includes the Long Range Mountains and Annieopsquotch Mountains on the island of Newfoundland, Shickshock Mountains and Notre Dame Range in Quebec and New Brunswick, scattered elevations and small ranges elsewhere in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, the Longfellow Mountains in Maine, the White Mountains in New Hampshire, the Green Mountains in Vermont, and The Berkshires in Massachusetts. The central section comprises, besides various minor groups, the Valley Ridges between the Allegheny Front of the Allegheny Plateau and the Great Appalachian Valley, the New York - New Jersey Highlands, the Taconic Mountains in New York, and a large portion of the Blue Ridge. The southern section consists of the prolongation of the Blue Ridge, the Unaka Range, and the Valley Ridges adjoining the Cumberland Plateau, with some lesser ranges.

The Adirondack Mountains in New York are sometimes considered part of the Appalachian chain but, geologically speaking, are a southern extension of the Laurentian Mountains of Canada.

In addition to the true folded mountains, known as the ridge and valley province, the area of dissected plateau to the north and west of the mountains is usually grouped with the Appalachians. This includes the Catskill Mountains of southeastern New York, the Poconos in Pennsylvania, and the Allegheny Plateau of southwestern New York, western Pennsylvania, eastern Ohio and northern West Virginia. This same plateau is known as the Cumberland Plateau in southern West Virginia, eastern Kentucky, western Virginia, and eastern Tennessee.

The dissected plateau area, while not actually made up of geological mountains, is popularly called "mountains", especially in eastern Kentucky and West Virginia, and while the ridges are not high, the terrain is extremely rugged. In Ohio and New York, some of the plateau has been glaciated, which has rounded off the sharp ridges, and filled the valleys to some extent. The glaciated regions are usually referred to as hill country rather than mountains.

The Appalachian region is generally considered the geographical dividing line between the eastern seaboard of the United States and the Midwest region of the country. The Eastern Continental Divide follows the Appalachian Mountains from Pennsylvania to Georgia.

physiographic provinces

Facts

Population: unknown, estimated at approx 20,000,000

Major Cities: charleston wv, wheeling wv, asheville nc, knoxville tn, pittsburg pa,

Religions: baptist, pentecostal, misc prodestant and nonreligious

Location: appalachian mountains of north america

National flower: wild red rose

National tree: cucumber tree

National bird: gamecock

National food: soupbeans and cornbread

National stone: sandrock

Legitimacy

appalachia is a large and very distinct bioregion with a distinctive highly concentrated but diverse culture. members of appalachian culture self identify as hillbilly or appalachian american. appalachia is made a separate region by virtue of it's geography and culture. a large number of rebellions, wars, and independance movements have take place within the region since it's settlement by europeans and possibly also before. 88.7 fm WMMT also known as appalshop is largely responsible for the creation and promotion of the concept of the hillbilly nation which roughly corresponds with the area of appalachia

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