and Tennessee, Georgia and ArkanSa,S. New Orleans is the first home ofjazz, and even rock and roll, an lnvention Of the mid-twentieth century, counts sev- eral Southern musical geniuses ln itS lnner circle Of patron saints. lt iS no exaggeration t0 say that the birthplace ()fAmerican music iS here the states Of the southeastern corner Of the country.. The workplace, in this interpretation, is everywhere to be found, 仕 om church sanctuaries t0 highway honky-tonks. Per- formers and listeners alike understand the nature Ofthis creative activity, and they approach it with respect. They are familiar with the instruments. They know the words and the There is a n100d of celebration, of expectancy. Finally, the lights are dimmed, a quiet descends, and the music begms. As the evening progresses, those present—the workers and the watchers— lose all sense oftime; each alone and all together, they are transported to other rooms, other places ofthe heart and soul. Standing outside this marvelous phenomenon, we watch With pleasure and wonder, seeing the faces and hearing the sounds. And ifwe are very observant, we notice the hands: aged and seasoned, knowing, glfted, commanding the tools they hold with dignity and grace. These are the hands ofhard-working Southern people, prese1Ning and extending thelife of their land. Opposite page: CO ″ 0 れん昭豆れ召 ar D 厩ん 0 れ , A 襯仏 52

there is at once a subtle distinguishing quality that can be heard 斤 om one loca- tion tO another—and at the same time a general style and substance that marks the speakers as Southerners. Eventually, inevitably, the powerful currents Of contemporary culture may erase the most salient features Of region- alism ⅲ this diverse land—but if and when that happens, the South and its people may be the last t0 give up their claims tO distinction. Who are the Southerners? Whoever is self-consciously, self-confidently, self- evidently so; whoever claims the title and affirms the description; whoever bears the signs. With a feeling ofcomfort and a sense ofbelongmg, the people ofthe South return tlme and time agam tO their chO- sen land and to the familiar places ofli and work that ⅱⅡ their dreams and stir their memories. In ceremonial circles, they gather andjoin hands with those who never left, the sons and daughters whose stewardship ofthe land, ofthe homeplace, and ofthe workplace has been continuous. With all their human diversity and variety, they are nonetheless one, united by history and myth and the overpowermg presence Oftheir place earth. One and all, once and always, they are the Southerners. Opposite page: んわ〃 4 ハ / 勧の〃仏 72

ln the South, the sights and sounds that trigger recollection and the sensa- tions Of smell and taste and touch that stir the memory are deeply rooted in the land and in nature. A sunrise in the Smokies, a sunset on the Gulf, a full moon over the Atlantic—these are dramatic images that never lose their power t0 inspire. The hushed whisper of the wind in the pines, the symphony of birdsong at daybreak, the soothing rush and tinkle ofa cold mountain stream—these are sounds that no Southern nature lover ever tlres ()f hearing. The heady fragrance of orange blossoms, thejuicy sweetness of a ripe peach, the gentle softness of beach sand sifting through the fingers—these are sensuous pleasures that no amount Of repetition can dull. Out of the hard red clay of the hill country, the sandy loam of the coastal lowlands, and the rich black alluvial soil of the deltas, generations of Southern- ers have harvested abundant quantities 0f seasonal produce—spring asparagus and strawberries and bibb lettuce, sum- mer sweet corn and field peas and tomatoes, fall apples and peanuts and pecans, winter citrus and turnip greens and collards. For beauty and fragrance, there is a perpetual showcase of blos- soms that seem almost synonymous with the South: dogwoods and azaleas, camellias and magnolias, wisteria and crepe myrtle, and rhododendron and mountain laurel. The anclent sentinels are gone from the forests, but younger stands of hardwoods and evergr ℃ ens have rlsen in their place, dense enough in S01 蝨 e bosky precincts tO blOt out the summer sun. The diverse plenitude Of hickory and ash and oak, maple and poplar and gum, locust and beech, and countless others fllls the autumn woods with fiery blazes of color. NO one can decipher the mystical rhythms of the calendar; like ocean cur- rents, the seasons move according tO their own unseen clock, bringing with them flood and drought, fire and ice, hurricanes, tornadoes, and heat waves. Against such power there is no defense, only grudging compliance. Southern stewards of the land know the futility Of resistance; they can only wait on the weather, bending with its winds or bow- ing tO its soaking rains and scorching sunshine—understanding all the while that only time can balance the ever- turning wheel Of deliverance. And the land remains, always the land. lnstitutions rise and fall, people come and go, the weather constantly changes, but the land holds on. lt is the literal and figurative ground of South- ern life, the bedrock of Southern being. Some unthinking tenants may assault it with blight and pollution—contaminate its soils, burn its forests, stain its healing waters with refuse, fill the air above it with noxlous poisons—but the land survives. lt was here before the ancestors of Tecumseh and Sequoyah arrived, and from every indication, it will be present still when the human parade has run ltS course. 、リ A 切 C の 0 防乢 厖〃市れ g 矼 Deals Ga. カ , Opposite page: C ん 初 C の祝わ乢 G 川れ砌ん M 襯〃氿 This page : ん 0 〃市 0 れ , 1

Acknow1edgements My debt is 甼℃ at indeed to the many people and institutions whO have assisted me in the planning and pro- duction of this book. No successful project that covers this much territory over such a long periOd Of time can be the product of a solitary effort. I am very much obliged to B0b and Lee Anderson for their thoughts on the structure of the book and in helping to select the author. I am also grateful to Oliver and Lisa Houck for their enthusi- astic help in planning my coverage 0f their region and for giving me shelter when needed. I am deeply indebted to Dick Durrance Ⅱ and Steve Uzzell III for their tireless editorial assistance and strong personal support. I was also very fortunate tO have the assistance ofMark Schifrin, who gave so much ofhimself when it was needed most. My deep gratitude goes to the Citizens and Southern Banks, a financial institution with roots fnmly planted in Southern soil and with an abiding appreciation ofthe South and the people who live and work there. Their initialinterest led tO a gener- ous gmantwhich makes this b00k possible. I was pleased and honored to work closely with the C&S staff in several states. A very special thank you goes tO John Haynie,Jr., and to Enoch Prow, as well as tO 、 lr. Bennett Brown who is chairman of C&S for their trust in my ViS1()Il and their 、 Of encourage- ment along the way. 128 A special word of thanks goes to the National Geogmaphic Society and to Bill Garrett, editor, for their permission tO use some Of the images I produced on earlier assignments for them south Of the Mason-Dixon line. Along the way I was supported by many people who gave graciously 0f their time energy, and knowledge. I would like to give a very special thanks to Orissa Arend andJohn Schenken, Ben Chapman, Ron Comedy, Dana Contratto,John Crawford and Kathy Sakas, Ralph and Nonnie Daniel, Kim Davidson Jacques DePuy, Scott and Beth Glass, Critt Graham, Greg and Bubbles Guirard, Panos Kammenos, Rob Kennedy, Sue Lyons and Mark Lyons,Jorge Mom, Dick andJoy ℃ e Murlless and the wonder- ful staffat Wilderness Southeast, David Pemson and Chris Pemson, Wallace Sfi ℃ et, CharIes C. WiIkes, Patricia Young of the Delta Queen Steamship Company, and the many Others. 、 ly tWO assistants during the pro- duction phases were Peter Ⅵ第 andJ0hn MuIIin. As the miles and days went by, they supported me with their good ideas, strong backs, and high energy Without the support and friendship 0fPeter and John, I could never have hoped to cover SO much in SO little time. When all the photos were made and it came time tO design the bOOk, I relied entirely on the extraordinary good taste and fine design 0fBob Cargill and Art Riser ofCargill and Associates, lnc. in Atlanta. Bob, Art, and their talented staff, especially Pam Ei レ en, performed the delicate task of designing the book with consummate skill, remarkable patience, and old-fashioned gracious- ness. I shall long be in their debt. A very special debt must be acknowl- edged to my office manager and col- lea 鵐 Shelley Yerman, who kept the fort going in my long absences and did a yeoman'sJ0b on all the necessary typ- ing and collecting 0f the b00k parts. My hat is also off toJean Andrews ofGraphic Arts Center Publishing Company for her outstanding editing and organizational efforts. Her superior command of the English language as well as her long suffering patience made her efforts critical tO the book's success. Doug Pfeiffer, my editor at Graphic Arts Center Publishing Company, has proven to be an excellent b00k producer. His suggestions were always right on the mark. lt was a pleasure tO get tO know and tO work withJohn Egerton, the sensitive and insightful writer 0f the literary side of the book. He responded to the pres- sures and tight deadlines with special grace and silent determination during a difficult time ofhis ⅱ . I am honored to share these pages with him. Last, but perhaps most important, I say a special thanks t0 my wife, Prisca, my son, Will, and my daughter, Prisca. As the days became weeks and then months, it has been their special sense of togetherness and purpose that has unified us all. They were often with me on the road, and when not physically so, their love and spirit sustained me. ー召襯 We 翩Ⅳ

lntroduction land that bonds the Southern people. They are as one in their commumon with their earth, as inseparably tied tO it as tO their families and tO their history. More than any ()ther region Of America, the South is... itself. I was born in Georgia. I grew up in North CaroIina, hiked through the Blue Ridge Mountains, played on the Outer Banks, and swam the C001 , SIOW streams of the Piedmont. Later I moved to Charleston and dropped my son into his legacy 0f Southern heritage. When I began work on this book many months ago, I thought I knew the South. Yet the more I traveled, visiting Southerners in their special part Of America, the 1 月 ore I realized I was wrong. I didn't know the South at all. Unknown tO 1 れ e., there were new experl- ences waiting every day in a cotton field, on a riverboat, or in some newly diSCOV- ered corner of a small 01d town. There isn'tjust one South—there are many, each quite different 斤 om all others, and each With itS own remarkable character. lndeed, it is the diversity of the people whO share such a strong Southern iden- tity that has left its deep impression on me. A Tangier lsland oysterman and an Atlanta stockbroker, an Arkansas rice farmer and a Florida livestock owner, a Kentucky coal miner and an Alabama shipyard worker—all have lifestyles so distinct and separate 仕 0n1 one another that they could well be living in differ- ent countries. Yet, everywhere I went, I sensed a C01 れ 1 on bond, a kinship With one another, a C01 1 れ itl ent tO being Southern. The richness of the Southern land- scape is stunning. From the Dry Tortuga islands only sixty miles 0 仕 Havana to the peak 0fMount Mitchell, the highest point east Of the Mississippi River, the land offers an unending variety Of sea islands, pristine estuaries, coastal dunes, sparkling rivers, soft rolling hills, high mountains, and endless forests. lt is the Yet, even as I write, the South is in mo ⅱ on. Although the Southern country- side remains quiet, Southern cities are fonvard-looking, bustling, modern. The new Southerners from New York and Michigan mingle with the old. Couples formerly 0fVermont and NewJersey have resettled throughout the Southern states, bringing new perspectives and new enthusiasm. Businesses from Belgium andJapan fill Southern valleys and introduce new ways ofdoing things ・ Today, the South is a dynamic reglon poised carefully between the richness Of its past and the unknown excitement of the future. Page 1 : , 艤訪 0 れの九 ()pposite page (above): Nezv 0 ea , / 川朝の乢 M 厖仏切 C の 0 〃 na. Pages 2 / 3 : 襯 / の 雇矼 Sinking 0 ん Opposite page (below): V のれ厖 Page 4 / 5 : 石面 / カ 00 な , 7 々偽化ん De 召市ム / の滬 , C れ伽 w ん初 C 0 〃れ仏 So 襯ん C の祝わ Page 6 : 乃 7 法 04 This page: Oz 矼のん〃襯 , M 鰓刀 0 〃〃わ / 0 0 襯を ハ Page 7 : 0 沢んな D 襯のホ Ferry, ハの

、、 ln the North they telljokes',' said Robert Penn War1 ℃ n, who has gone from his non-urban Kentucky and Ten- nessee roots tO world fame as a poet and novelist, 、 'but in the South, at least in the South Of that pre-television time, they told tales—elaborate, winding, wan- dering creations that might never wear out, stories full ofhuman perception and subtlety, told with a richness of lan- guage and expressionl' lt was, said War- ren, 。 a regional difference'.' Talk in the porch age, he concluded, was "a South- ern gift that springs fi 、 om the pores of the society.. lt is easy tO trace the extension Of that gift ofwords from thelevel ofcasual conversatlon mt() ()ther dimensl()ns Of Southern Ⅲ 6. Out ofall proportion to their numbers, people who were raised in this region have gained prommence as novelists, poets, teachers, preachers, journalists, historians, lawyers,judges, politicians—and all ofthose professions require the same sort oflistening and talking skills that long evenings on the porch provided. Expression—verbal, written, and musical—is a Southern hallmark. If it is correct tO generalize about taciturn New Englanders or Western men offew words, itis equally ℃ ct to speak ofganulous Southerners. Fired with imagination, inspired by their own rhetoric and that of others, they are forever talking and singing, preaching and praying, crying and laughing. A gmadual flattening of regional accents has been taking place across the United States ( ) 、℃ r the past quarter- century or so. Television is probably the mam contributing factor, valuing as it does the sort Of neutral, standard, unac- cented speaking style that is easily understood in a11 regions Of the country.. Against this trend, Southern voices have shown flashes Of persistence. There are dozens Of distinctive subregional accents within the South; some Of them, particularly in rural areas, seem hardly to have changed at all over the ) ℃ ars. ln the Mississippi Delta, in the Cajun coun- try of Louisiana, in the Ozarks and the Appalachians, in the South Carolina Low Country, and along Virginia's East- ern Shore, the lyricalcadence of local speech reverberates with language that echoes a distant past. ln these rich voices of black and white Southerners,

Tampa Bay on the west coast ofFlorida and led a small company ofsoldiers on a four-year exploration Ofthe vast interior wilderness ofNorth America S southeast- ern region. Surely they were awed to speechlessness by the wild beauty of it all. The parade quickened. One May morning ⅲ 1607 , Captain Christopher Newport landed with a handful of sea- weary Englishmen on a marshy penin- sula of theJames River and established there a beachhead ofthe Virginia Colony. StilIIater, in 1682 , the French explorer René Robert Cavelier, Sieur dela Salle, descended the Mississippi River to the GuIfofMexico by canoe. lmagme the wonders they beheld. These were the adventurers, the pathfmders, the intrepid astronauts, and the moonwalkers Of their time; they were sojourners in a land ofdeep mystery, pil- grims to the South before there was a South. What they saw in the territory bordered on the north by the Ohio River and on the west by the watershed of the Mississippi was a half-million square miles Of enormous geogmaphical diversity and stunning primeval beauty.. From the beginning and all along, it has lingered in the memory as a singular land, a place apart. For more than three centuries after Ponce de Le6n'sjourney to FIorida, the South lacked a clear identity. To the first European explorers, it was thought of simply as a part of America, an undiffer- entiated mass Of wilderness territory ripe for colonial exploitation. Later, tO the coastal settlers, it was the West—the land beyond—and it retained that des- ignation until Texas and California and the "true West" became part Of the United States in the middle of the nine- teenth century. Throughout that time, as These are Southern people on the land, with the elements, in nature— looking, listening, feeling the pulse, searching for the signs. They have been here for centuries, for longer than the span of recorded memory. ln every state, every season, and every C1rcum- stance, Southerners have always been close to the land. lmagine how this Eden must have looked to Tecumseh's and Sequoyah's ancestors, those aboriginal hunters, fish- ers, and farmers whose eyes first saw the glory of it thousands of ) ℃ ars ago. Or imagine how it looked toJuan Ponce de Le6n, sailing northward in the ink-blue waters of the Atlantic in 1513 and seeing Off the port side a narrow strip of white sand and a dense thicket of lowland 甼℃ enery that turned out to be not another West lndies island but the east coast Of Florida. The scouts went back with spellbind- ing tales Of excitement, and Others soon came tO see for themselves: Hernando de So い for example. ln 1539 , he landed in 0 This page: Central 〃祠れ〃厖 . ()pposite page (above): Snail な“ななん行砒 4 M ゆ . Opposite page (below): 召 0 の 0 勧 azv ム / の雇 Georgva.

The Land lt is daybreak in the South. Knee-deep ⅲ the rushing waters of a crystalline mountain brook, a trout f1Sh- erman in the Arkansas Ozarks casts for his breakfast. Thundering over a dirt track in the lush Kentucky Bluegmass, a thoroughbred COlt responds tO itS rider's commands in a race against the Wind. LOSt in thought, a lone visitor tO Roanoke lsland on the North Carolina coast ponders the English attempt t0 establish a colony there in 1587. With a squadron of seagulls in its wake, a Gulf Coast shrimp boat chugs out of Apalachicola Bay in the Florida Panhandle, bound for a day of fishing. At the edge of a cotton field in south Alabama, a farmer rubs rich black dirt between his callused fmgers and su ハ℃ ys his dew-drenched crop. Over a flickering campfire ⅲ the east Tennessee hills, an early-rising COOk savors the mingled fragrances of boiling COffee, 、 VOOd smoke, and springtime. Pages 12 / 13 : C 〃れ翹 DO 襯 4 7 み襯お 4 zv 〃ん G 比 S 襯 0 んれわパ わ 0 伽イ . Opposite page: S ん ena れれ R の九 V ' われ厖 This page: 召イわハ 7 〃 , T 0 れ , G どの 4.

The Workplace 召 00 , No ん C 0 Nf 勧 Co 襯襯り page: イれ襯例 , C 0 瓰 Opposite 襯 0 れ , Pa 襯〃 co 沢んグ No ん Pages 46 / 47 : E ん engaged a large majority ofthe people. agriculture and related occupations they used t0 be, back in the days when query are much 1 蝨 ore varied now than What do they do? The answers to the last are your people? Where are they 仕 om ? ingly familiar: What is your name? Who tions a native puts tO a stranger are tell- rural areas and small towns. The ques- people most clearly, especially in the that describes and defines Southern genealogy and the geography—it is work After name and address—the society on the land. it took—and still takes—to make a these old hands that reveal the labor appearance, a modern character, it iS Now, as the South takes on a different South, explored it, farmed it, built it. They are the hands that found the hug, as expressive as an honest face. as a clenched fist, as SOft as a consoling working people. They can be as solid These are the hands of hard- like chapters ofan autobiography. on display to be read like an open book, creases oflengthening üme—all are there bat with tools and machines, the folds and long experience, 山 e 」 agged scars 0f com- and strength The nimble adroitness 0f dirt beneath the nails, they bespeak power thick, whether neatly mamcured or with Whether long and sinewy or short and shades ofebony and pecan and peach. work gloves. They range in color through but also supple, like good leather sun, they show themselves to be tough ered by wind and water, by earth and Their hands tell the story. Weath- What Southerners do today is very much the same as what Americans else- where do. The work is as much cerebral as it IS manual, as much on paper, C01 - puter screens, or television monitors as it is outdoors on the land, SO the hands no longer tell the story as they once did. But in the long evolution 0fSouthern labor 仕 om the prehistoric fishing, hunt- ing, and farming skills 0f the lndians to the futuristic marvel of high tech- nology that now iS becoming a routine fixture in the workplace, there always has been a certain style or quality or character, a certain attitude, that seems to typify the way people in the regl()n go about their business. ltmight be an over- statement tO say there is such a thing as a distinct and definable Southern work ethic, but there are certainly habits and practices that working people in this cor- ner ofthe country have followed for a very long time. From the beginning, the work itself was arduous, back-breaking, and inter- minable. Clearing the land and farming it, building the towns and cities, raising the children, feeding and caring for the 49

people—all required unremitting labor. For two and a half centuries, much Of it was slave labor, a fact that influenced the work habits of both black and white Southerners throughout that time and for well over a century after slavery was abolished. During and after slavery, though, people 0fb0th races were con- stantly up against a far more physically demanding labor requirement than they are today, and the sort of leisure time that most people now enjoy rou- tinely was unheard of then for all but a privileged w. And beyond the work, there was the weather: in some parts bitterly cold in winter, always a veritable furnace Of suf- focating heat and humidity in the dog days Of summer.. Southerners became acclimated tO the extremes, learned tO live with them and work in them, or they left, there being no other choice open tO them. Sometimes puzzled out- siders have watched Southerners at work—deliberate, methodical, unhurried—and incorrectly concluded that they were lazy and unproductive; on the contrary, the experience Of gen- erations has taught them the most sensi- ble and efficient way to perform hard work in hOt weather.. Living SO close tO the very heartbeat of nature, feeling its breath upon the skin, inhaling its earthy perfumes, hear- ing its myriad cries and whispers, South- erners earlier times learned above all tO respect the natural order, even when they could neither predict it nor com- prehend it. The pathfinders and those who followed them came to understand the wisdom Of Obse ハ ring the n100n , the tides, the currents, the rainfall, and the S1gns Of seasonal evolution. Directly or indirectly, almost all of them worked somewhere in the fOOd chain. NOW, removed though they are from such close association with the life Of the land, most native Southerners neverthe- less have an appreciation for it, and it keeps many 0f them attached, however tenuously, tO traditional feelings about work and leisure. Animals are another reminder Of the mystical call of nature. Some of the farm livestock, the beasts of burden— mules, horses, and oxen—once were SO essential as tO be considered part Of the work force. The rest contributed in varl- ous ways—eggs 仕 om the chickens, milk and cheese and butter 仕 0n1 the cows, wool from the sheep, lard fi 、 om the hogs, This page: れ S 〃屮Ⅷ , Opposite page: S カ 00 なか〃 / 代な 襯襯 , S 力の加〃わⅢ g , 襯ん C 矼 0 〃 . 50