Hill Folks: A History of Arkansas Ozarker’s and Their image by Brooks Blevins, a book that’s title aptly describes what this book is about. It is trying to show more of a realistic view of the people and culture of the Ozarks in Arkansas. With the majority of information seemingly coming straight out census reports. Though these reports may not have been as accurate as they could have been census reports would not have been biased by popular views of the outside world. He is trying to refute the image that Ozarker’s are all backward hill folk that do little other than wrestle pigs and make moonshine. This view of the Ozarks has been perpetuated by popular culture since Schoolcraft first made his venture to the southwest of St. Louis. …show more content…
Such as, those residents of Washington and Benton counties moved on from the cotton industry well before much of the rest of the south. These two counties were his most frequent examples the supported his thesis. These two counties were continuously the top grossing counties in the most recent of agricultural trends. It even seemed that Blevins thought these residents were almost clairvoyant in their ability to change which crops to plant before they lost profitability. Anytime Blevins would move forward in time and talk about the Ozarks new cash crop, it would always start in these northwestern counties and spread from there. These two counties even had were home to, or very close to the University of Arkansas and its very forward looking School of Agriculture. This was what made these counties outshine other counties but is also something that helped them keep up with modern practices and get out in front of the market. In the public eye at the time, and even in modern times, Universities do not correlate to backwardness, especially when the college works so closely with the surrounding community. You could see throughout the book that no matter how Hill-Billy some of the people were in that area there were always people in those counties that were just as modern as anywhere else in rural United States. When the apple business was booming in the Ozarks, these two counties were leading the country in production. Being a leader in production of any crop is not a sign of a backward community and more closely related to forward thinking regions. Though these counties are not the norm for the Ozarks, they reflect some of the regions people being progressive in their techniques and in their
The very first sentence of the chapter makes me believe that the setting is obviously in Oklahoma and a little while after the Oklahoma Land Rush of 1889. It makes me believe that because of the way that the narrator writes and him/her calling it “the red country and part of the gray country,” which is referencing the red, white, and gray sand often associated with the state. Later on in the first page, the narrator begins to describe a drought taking place. Perhaps the drought will last a long time and lead to the narrator and his/her family moving somewhere more viable. On the second page, the narrator describes “wheels” milling the ground, which leads me to believe that he/she lives
The Story of Charles Jackson Charles Jackson was part of one of the only black families in the small town of Stillwater, Oklahoma. Charles was a big fan of baseball as a kid. He grew up watching Babe Ruth and the 1936 Yankees win back to back to back to back World Series. His father used to bring him to the local baseball stadium where they would watch the Oklahoma City Badgers. There was always some sort of problem between his father and the whites, but he always told Charles that it was nothing and that he should never listen to what they say.
The author, Silas House, takes offense to the put down of his hometown. The article maintains an angry tone as he describes all of the good of his homeland and all the things reporters that “ don’t know what they’re talking about” say. I agree with Silas, that the region of eastern Kentucky does not get enough credit for the good things is possesses, like “passing fair ordinance laws to protect all people from discrimination”. Silas talks about how people have worked so hard in this community, about those who try their best to defeat the stereotypes of outside people. I know many people who have worked hard and long to make something of themselves in this area.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF ROMANCE, ARKANSAS During the fall of 1850, a six-wagon, wagon train from Kentucky came upon a little valley with a good size creek. Their leader, Ben Pruitt, thought it looked like a good place to camp for the winter, and they did. By the time spring arrived they had named their settlement Kentucky Valley and called the creek, Cliffy Creek because of the cliffs in the creek and along its sides. One of those cliffs creates a rather large waterfall just a few hundred yards from the downtown area.
The Appalachian South was used for its resources. Very few people lived there, therefore it was difficult to maintain, or as the book states, “...little to reinvest in its physical or human resources.” Also the textbook mentioned the working conditions. For example: employees viewed as cheap labor, requirements to buy from company stores, and low life expectancy rates.
A scholar by the name of Roger Cunningham creates a strong example of culture. Cunningham stated that a meaningful systematic structure that implies location to the universe. Due to interaction of systems, Appalachia is continuously restructuring. There is a predisposition to protect Appalachian culture in a secure, inflexible way. The social and cultural aspects are able to change and are not simplified to a few distinct directories (Maloney & Obermiller, 2011).
Are faith and reason compatible? This is the main question that Jeff Jordan attempts to answer in his writing, "Not in Kansas Anymore". Jeff believes that faith or religion is compatible with reason or philosophy, but he argues both sides. Some people believe that they are not compatible because philosophy tends to weaken the dogmatic mindset, attacks conventional wisdom, and takes down widespread beliefs. Jordan takes all of these arguments analyzes them and shows us why he believes they are compatible.
The state of Mississippi has went through many different changes over the years with the state of the economy system to citizens that make of this wonderful state. At one time in the state history, growth of the economy was based solely on agricultural and the sweat and tears of the African slaves. The state best producing crops were cotton, beans, corn and other crops were kept Mississippi a float. Known as the Cotton King, thanks to backs , sweat and tears of many African American forefathers.
Santana Janis was by no means an atypical young teenager. Others described her as a “bright [and] outgoing” girl who liked horseback riding. Her community’s characteristics, however, were very different from that of a typical American town. The median household income in her hometown, Manderson, South Dakota, is less than half the U.S. average, and almost four-fifths of the town’s population live below the poverty line. This dysfunction affected Santana: she lived with as many as a dozen siblings and her grandfather in a dilapidated trailer.
All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy, takes place during the late 1940s. It is a story about a young man named John Grady Cole, a sixteen year old who is the last of a generation of the West Texas ranchers in his family. John Grady Cole takes a journey across the border to Mexico, after his grandfather's death, to retain his dream of living the cowboy life that he grew up with. As the story unfolds, John Gady Cole encounters a variety of obstacles that determines if his dreams are meant to be or if his fate will overpower his desires. McCarthy incorporates a variety of literary devices, internal conflict, and tone to achieve his theme of romanticism and reality.
Depressed during the Depression In the early twentieth century, the United States experienced an economic tragedy known as the Great Depression. For several other states, the Depression period lasted throughout the 1930’s; however, in Arkansas, the Great Depression began in 1923 and lasted almost doubly as long as it did in other areas. With overproduction and over speculation occurring in Arkansas during this time, the government’s efforts to provide aid to the state of Arkansas were ineffective at best, and the severity of the Great Depression in Arkansas came to be one of the worst in the country.
The Dust Bowl affected many people in The South during the time of To Kill A Mockingbird. Farmers had no money, they were also in poverty in these times. Most farmers moved to California, but others stuck it out. The Great Plains Region was devastated by a drought in the 1930 therefore many states in The South were deeply affected.
Marcus Garvey said, “People without the knowledge of their past history, origin, and culture is like a tree without roots.” For the citizens of Otter Lake, a fictional reserve set in Drew Hayden Taylor’s Novel Motorcycles and Sweetgrass, they are disconnected from their cultural roots. Much of the older generation is suffering psychologically from the effects of residential schools, where their culture was taken from them. The younger generations in return feel no ties to their past as they were raised by people who feelings towards it were conflicted as they spent years being abused and told that their culture was wrong. As an author, one of their main roles is to convey a message.
“By 1900, Memphis was the world's largest market for cotton. “ (David Kusha). More specifically, by 1898 Memphis was the leading resource in the U.S. People came from bordering states just to buy or sell the cotton at the Memphis Cotton Exchange. People also came to see the Memphis Cotton Carnival.
Perhaps the most significant myth in American culture is that of the American frontier generated by the European encounters with the American West. The most noticeable part of the frontier myth is the mythic struggle between modern civilization and wilderness. Frontier is defined as “the meeting point between savagery and civilization”. Turner believes that the American frontier is closely related to American civilization and that frontier