Journal Entry 9

Many individuals left the Appalachian region for jobs. This was the main reason that I could see. Without jobs, then people don’t get paid, when people don’t get paid, families don’t eat. I think that this differed in social classes through the look at locations they moved to. The lower class individuals went to cities in the north, and the wealthier people went to cities all throughout the south. Winston-Salem, and Charlotte were popular destinations for Appalachians to move to and settle down. Many different races moved out of the area. Mostly white Scot-Irish moved out of the area, followed by African Americans. Differences among the races were caused by the jobs they had. African Americans had different jobs then the Scot-Irish. Their reason for moving differed on the economy of that particular job market. These people moved to areas that were inhabited but needed a boost. Under reconstruction these cities needed a boost in population and market. Although people did move, they did have somewhat of a transition period. There was a period time where one person would leave, an influential person, and then tons of people would follow. This transition period slowly deteriorated the regions they moved from. The poverty levels in the regions they moved from reached an all time low. They did however begin to come back to the region later on down the road. However, this period took many years. I think they wanted a new start, something different from what they were used to.