Appalachian Religion

Introduction

Located in the eastern United States, the Appalachian region was defined in 1965 by the Appalachian Regional Commission, which was established by Congress to support the economic and social development of the region. The area covers 200,000 sq miles (512,000 sq km) and follows the spine of the Appalachian Mountains from southern New York to northern Mississippi. Appalachia comprises 410 counties in parts of 13 states that border the Appalachian Mountains: the southwestern part of New York State, much of Pennsylvania (bar the southeastern corner), West Virginia, the eastern parts of Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee, the western parts of Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina, and the northern parts of Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia. The Appalachian region stretches approximately 2,000 miles (3,200 km) from northeast to southwest and measures about 360 miles (580 km) from east to west (Whisnant, 32).

Appalachia consists of numerous mountain ranges throughout its northern, central and southern areas. The larger ranges within the region are: the Alleghenies, which are on the western side of Appalachia, and run 130 miles (209 km) from West Virginia to Maryland; the Blue Ridge Mountains, which extend 450 miles (724 km) on the eastern side from northern Georgia to Maryland; and the Cumberland Plateau, which comprises approximately 340 miles (547 km) from northeastern Alabama to southwestern Virginia.

Discussion and Analysis

Appalachian religion consists of a complex interrelationship between local, regional and national identities, modern and long-established belief systems, and contemporary and traditional values. Most people of the Appalachian region are descendants of numerous immigrant groups such as the English, Scottish, Irish, German, French, Polish and Welsh, some of whom settled there as early as the seventeenth century. Minorities include Native American tribes, such as the Cherokee, Iroquois and Shawnee, and descendants of freed or escaped African slaves. The region is marked by diverse political, social and economic strata that derive from varying periods of urbanization, development, and exposure to broader North American cultural forces.

While the people of the Appalachian highlands are, for the most part, Protestant, with the overwhelming majority being Baptist or Methodist, there exist various distinctions among the northern, central and southern areas. In most cases, Anglo-American religions have played a dominant role in Appalachian religion only since the early nineteenth century. The trend toward religious fervor occurred primarily during and following the Second Great Awakening, when revivalists toured the remote areas of the Appalachian highlands. Since the early twentieth century many religious communities have become affiliated with larger entities such as the Southern Baptist Convention. Still, there remain numerous Appalachian religious traditions, such as the Primitive Baptist, Missionary Baptist, Old Regular Baptist, Free Will Baptist, Regular Baptist, United Baptist, Pentecostal, Pentecostal Holiness, Church of God and Cumberland Presbyterian, that function at the sub-denominational level.

The Appalachian soundscape consists of a complex fabric of diverse musical influences that have contributed significantly to the cultural identities of the region. The traditional repertoire of ballads, songs, tales and folk dances that settlers first brought to the southern Appalachian region in the early eighteenth ...