Appalachian History

I heared my brother-in-law tell a tale about his, about a man a-drivin' mules and horses to South Carolina. He come to a place and called to stay all night, and this, he got to stay all night there. And in the, in the night when he went to bed, why, they was a man under the bed with his throat cut, and they come upstairs to kill this man, and he, they knocked him in the head, and they said he wasn't a-bleedin'.

He had took the man out from under the bed and crawled under the bed hisself, and so next morning he come downstairs, and they had tied silk cords around a jack's legs till he couldn't walk, and it surprised them kindly when he come walking down the stairs. So he went on to another place and told them.

They axed him how he could, how he ever got away from there, axed him where he stayed all night, axed him how he ever got away from there. Never had been a man [that] went there and stayed all night, but what he never was heared tell of no more, and he told them how it was. And they went back then to, they went there then and arrested all of them and took them out of there, but I don't know what they done with them. That's all of that.

Jack Johnson
Tuckaleechee Cove, TN
b. 1877

source: www.cas.sc.edu/engl/dictionary/transcripts/johnson_jack.html


Tuckaleechee+Cove+TN Appalachian+tales appalachia appalachian+history appalachian+mountains+history

Early one day long ago from time out of memory the people of a Cherokee town awoke and faced east to say their morning prayers to the Creator in heaven (Ca-lun-la-ti). In the distance could be heard the cry of an owl, a sign of death and bad luck. The eastern sky began turning many colors, and it looked as if a storm was about to take place. Indians from other villages joined them and there was a feeling of sadness.

Soon, the Little People (Yun-wi T-suns-di -- dwarfs or fairies with long black hair) who lived deep in the forest appeared to the Cherokee; they were only two feet tall and often brought messages to the people. They spoke first to the tribal elders and then to everyone who had assembled in the town.

They told a story of both greatness and sadness. Many years ago, a new star (no-t-lu-si) had appeared in the eastern sky beyond the big salt water. A special boy-child had been born to a tribe chosen by the creator. He had grown into a man of wisdom and had taught his people the ways of the Creator and the straight white path of peace.

He was a man of kindness and brought strong medicine (nu-wa-ti) to his people. Although he taught purity and harmony with the creator, he had many enemies who would not hear his message of peace. They would not believe that his medicine made sick people well. Thus, on this day, they would torture and kill this wise man, and he would walk towards the nightland (death).

As the sky grew dark, the Indians sang a death song to honor this beloved man of peace whom they called the Son of the Creator. All of the animal nations of the forests soon came and stood by them. Because of their sorrow, the Cherokee began to cry. Their tears soon covered the ground. When their weeping had ended, they looked down and saw that their tears had been changed into small stone crosses.

For the Indians, the cross design had always represented the cardinal points or the four directions. Now it had a new religious meaning. The Creator (E-do-da) had heard their prayers and songs and had given them a gift. The Cherokee kept these stone crosses and always honored them.

The Chiltoskey family of Cherokee, NC has preserved this Cherokee legend of the stone crosses.

source: www.patcovahistory.org/fairystone.htm


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"We were out playing one Sunday evening and it was cold as blue blazes. It was blowing a little blue snow I believe. And Daddy, he had always been strict about things, and he didn’t want us out that evening. It was just too cold for any of ust to be out there but we went on anyway. He couldn’t get us in the house, without just whipping us and making us stay in the house.

"Daddy had an old face mask. We called it an old dough face and it had a beard, you know. It had eyebrows, and old hair on the chin. Daddy put that thing on and he put an old black coat on and and old black hat. And we knew Daddy had this now all the time but when it happened we didn’t. It scared the daylights out of us.

"He had a store building and were out behind that old store building playing. There was a little bank out there kind of where we could dig holes back in and we were just working away. One of the kids looked up and saw him, and man, there wasn’t a thing left between there and the house. Even though we knew all the time Daddy had that thing.

"After awhile Daddy came in the house and wondered what was wrong. We told him the booger man got after us and he says, 'Now see there, I told you if you got out and built roads and cards and did things like that on Sunday that’s what’d happen to you. The booger man would get you.'"

Ruth Cabe
The Foxfire Book of Appalachian Toys & Games
by Linda Garland Page, Hilton Smith
(UNC Press, 1993)


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ONE TIME away back years ago there was a boy named Jack. He and his folks lived off in the mountains somewhere and they were awful poor, just didn't have a thing. Jack had two brothers, Will and Tom, and they are in some of the Jack Tales, but this one I'm fixin' to tell you now, there's mostly just Jack in it.

Jack was awful lazy sometimes, just wouldn't do ary lick of work. His mother and his daddy kept tryin' to get him to help, but they couldn't do a thing with him when he took a lazy spell.

Well, Jack decided one time he'd pull out from there and try his luck in some other section of the country. So his mother fixed him up a little snack of dinner, and he put on his old raggedy coat and lit out. …

--from Jack in the Giants' Newground!

Remember “Jack and the Beanstalk”? There’s more where that came from! Jack Tales are part of a cycle of folk stories that revolve around a central character named ---wait for it!--- Jack. The tales originated in Europe, with American Jack Tales being most closely related to those of the British Isles. Richard Chase first demonstrated the existence of the Jack Tale cycle in America, when he published ‘The Jack Tales’ in 1943. Chase compiled his collection of stories from oral interviews taken from members of the Council Harmon family of Beech Mountain, North Carolina, and also from three families in Wise County, Virginia.

Jack is a kind of trickster-hero, one who is successful through his cleverness. Certainly he is not the admirable prince of fairy tales, but rather a quick witted and not always too scrupulous farm boy. In these tales as told in Appalachia Jack is an ordinary poor boy who achieves success in only one of two ways: either by his wits, or by sheer luck --- and the latter predominates. Quite a contradiction to the “American fairy tale” mythos that honesty and hard work are the means to success!

“In April 1939, while I was recording folklore for the Library of Congress, I was fortunate enough to get a number of these Jack Tales from Sam Harmon in Tennessee," says Herbert Halpert, who wrote the appendix to ‘The Jack Tales.’ “Just the previous month I had been collecting folksongs in Wise County, Virginia, and nearby Letcher County, Kentucky, and never thought to ask for tales.”

“About a year later, Mr. Chase worked in the same area and with some of the same informants from whom I had recorded songs – and got tales from them. Mr. Chase deserves considerable credit for tracing the folktales in one family tradition. The discovery of the interrelationship of the Ward-Harmon-Gentry families is a fine achievement.”


Sources: http://www.ibiblio.org/bawdy/folklore/giants.html
http://tinyurl.com/38af68
http://tinyurl.com/2ley75

Related post: "Indian tales told by firelight"
"Now I've got my Tailypo!"


Jack+Tales Richard+Chase appalachia Appalachian+tales appalachian+language appalachian+history appalachian+culture history+of+appalachia

"Here are some of the Indian tales I have heard. I don't remember the names of any of the whites or Indians involved in these stories. The old folks used to tell us children these tales while we sat before the fireplace at night.

"In Indian times, the whites would put pickets out about the camp or fort to keep the Indians from slipping upon them. At one place, several of the pickets had disappeared. The officers placed a man on duty on night, with orders to shoot anything he saw moving. Pretty soon he noticed an old sow rooting in the leaves under the trees and it came closer and closer. He hated to shoot an old sow that would later make good meat. But he had his orders to shoot, which he did. At the crack of his rifle, the saw r'ared upon its hind feet and feel over backwards. It proved to be an Indian in an old sow's skin, and this was the way the Indians had been slipping up and killing and carrying away the other pickets.

"Another Indian story was often told to us by the older folks. The Indians took a woman captive and took her into Kentucky. After a few days, they let her go and get firewood in the evenings. Each day she went further and further. Finally, she ran into the woods and tried to get back to her old home. At night, she hid in a hollow log. The Indians followed her with a dog. The dog got ahead of the Indians and went into the log after her, but she choked it to death. Spiders wove a web over the open end of the log. The Indians came and saw the spider web. They were so mad they struck the log with their tomahawks and went away. She got out next morning and found her way back to the settlements. She had little to eat in her travels. At one place, the path forked and while she was debating which way to go, a little bird fluttered in front of her and darted up stream. She was still undecided which way to go. The bird came back and fluttered away in the same direction. She followed the bird and got home safely."

Interview with Nannie Sykes Kerr Dotson
on Oct. 11, 1951 at Millard, VA
(born 1882 in what is now Clinchco, Dickenson County, VA)
http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/ky/pike/misc/sykesetc.txt

Related posts: "The Jack Tales. Not just beanstalks."
"Now I've got my Tailypo!"


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