guthriedm15's blog

The people of the Appalachian region have often been depicted as backwards by the media, academic community and society in general. While Appalachian people may have peculiarities about them (like any other group of people), they are not backwards and lost like the world around them tries to say. Why then do the people around them portray them as backwards?

In the past, the group has been incorrectly portrayed certain church groups in order to muster support for the mission projects that they established in the area. Appalachian people were painted as ones that were lost in time that had little contact with the outside world and that still held onto the old time traditions of England. They were of “pure Anglo-Saxon” in culture and blood; their pure heritage made them worthy of mission effort and redemption to the church groups that came to the area. They used the misguided stereotype because they believed that the people needed help.

A man named William Goodell Frost also perpetuated the myth that these people were lost in time. In fact, he wrote a piece called Our Contemporary Ancestors that embraced the stereotype that had already been in place. They were real American people in culture and heritage because of their seclusion from the rest of the country. Because of this, he saw them as an asset to the country and acknowledged the need to have them assimilated into the rest of the American culture.  In short, Frost used the stereotype to achieve a goal that seemed to be good for the Appalachian people and the rest of America.