This passage helps answer “What is Appalachia?” because it shows that Appalachia is more than just a geographic region in the mountains. Duncan describes a region that was heavily shaped by coal mining, outside businesses, and unequal control of wealth and political power. To me, this shows how Appalachia’s history of natural-resource extraction helped shape the economic struggles and social structure of many communities in the region.
6 Matching Annotations
- Last 7 days
-
Local file Local file
-
- Sep 2026
-
Local file Local file
-
it penetrated mountain passes, pouring through Cumber-land and Big Stone gaps into Tennessee and Kentucky, andsweeping around the foothills of the Blue Ridge into Alabama.Having passed the Appalachian barrier, it spread over theprairies of the Mississippi basin until it broke against the Rockies.But this on-rushing tide left quiet pools in the mountains of Vir-ginia, North Carolina, Kentucky, and Tennessee. There thefrontier has survived in practical isolation until this very day
Vincent describes Appalachia as a mountainous and isolated region where an older frontier way of life continued longer than it did in other parts of the country. His description shows how early writers viewed Appalachia as separated from modern American society, which also helped create stereotypes about Appalachian people.
-
-
libraryguides.berea.edu libraryguides.berea.edu
-
a region that runs generally along either sideof the Appalachian Mountain chain in the eastern United States. The federal governmentdefines the region as stretching from southern New York state all the way down tonortheastern Mississippi. More than 400 counties comprise Appalachia (and several newones occasionally are added), as well as about 25 million people.
This shows that Appalachia is more than just one state or a small mountain area. It is a large region made up of many different communities and people. Berry also makes me think that Appalachia is not only a geographic place, but an identity that has been shaped by how outsiders have described the region over time.
-
-
docdrop.org docdrop.org
-
Appalachian residents had always used the land for survival, and their knowledge of and intimacy with the land were based upon their use of it. Although some mountain residents may have developed a spiritual relationship to the land and an appreciation INTRODUCTION for the natural environment, their connection with the place was more often linked to family and community ties rather than recognition of the relationship between their way of life and the landscape around them.
The land meant more to the people than the assets they had on it. They were connected, one with the land. As if they were the first settlers and felt that had a deeper connection than one could normally have with materialistic things.
-
-
docdrop.org docdrop.org
-
hile farm produc- tion had been the major (and usually the sole) source of income in 1880, by 1930 most mountain farms had become part-time units of production, and the major source of income had shifted to nonagricul- tural employment—mining, logging, textiles, and other forms of public work. 1°
Appalachia is a region that changed from being mostly centered around farming to relying more on jobs like mining, logging, textiles, and other forms of industrial work. This passage shows that Appalachia is not just a rural farming region, but a place that was shaped heavily by economic and industrial change.
-
- Aug 2026
-
libraryguides.berea.edu libraryguides.berea.edu
-
Powerful people, such as President Frost and others, delineated a portion of the country that was said to be different from the area outside it. It was almost as if a section of the country’s map was outlined with a bold black pen and “identified,” “named,” “created,” “constructed,” or even “invented.” Appalachia wasn’t the first region so created; remember that all 50 states—indeed all land areas around the world—have been so created.
I feel the way he interprets created and discovered in this section is a different way of thinking. I have always looked at most things as discovered, but I caught myself wondering, "Who discovered this, and why was it named this?" But as he said, powerful people did, so that answers a lot of questions I had growing up.
-