The History of Appalachia

Theories of the origin of this White Appalachian stock have generated much debate. Harry Caudill declared that southern planters sought cheap labor from England's debtors' prisons. Some of these debtors or indentured servants ran away to the rolling Piedmont, and thence to the dark foothills on the fringes of the Blue Ridge. These latter were joined by more who came when their bonds had expired. And here we have the people. . .who were the first to earn for themselves the title of Southern mountaineers.

This probably reflects only a tiny fraction (if any) of the truth (Caudill didn't provide evidence to back up his claim). But regardless of who the first of Appalachia's settlers were, or why they came, there is no doubt of their original diversity. According to the 1850 census, Lawrence County, Ohio, was home to eleven persons born in Canada, 358 born in England, three in France, 732 from Germany, 182 from Ireland, and 30 from Scotland.

Mike Maloney of Cincinnati's Urban Appalachian Council lists Appalachian national origin groups as follows: Ulster-Scots, Tidewater English, German, Irish, Scottish, Dutch, Welsh, French Huguenot, Native American, African, and Central & Southern Europeans.

In Appalachia's Path to Dependency Paul Salstrom points out that in 1840 Appalachia was America's most independent section, but that by 1940 it was the most dependent. Why this shift from independence to dependence occurred is a question often asked in reference to Appalachia.