Episode 1 - Guest List

I am proud to announce the following guests for the first episode of the radio show:

Week 1 - Tuesday, August 2, 2011 at 6-7am PT (9-10am Eastern time):
THEME: Arts, crafts, festivals & heritage
GUESTS:
9:02am - Jack Goins www.jgoins.com Melungeon Researcher, Rogersville TN – The VA/TN Melungeons
9:18am - Lindy Turner www.vacationaqt.com The Appalachian Quilt Trail, TN/VA – a back roads barn-hopping tour
9:33am – Nancy Garrettson www.abingdonartsdepot.org The Arts Depot, Abingdon VA – artisans, year-round studios
9:48am - Debby Loggans www.roundthemountain.org ‘Round the Mountain, Abingdon VA – artisans and crafts

Blackwater VA: Melungeons & Fiber-to-the-Home

Blackwater, Virginia is a small Appalachian community near the Clinch River and the border of Virginia and Tennessee. With funding from the USDA Community Connect program and the Virginia Tobacco Commission, Blackwater now has fiber-to-the-home broadband Internet service and free Internet access at the Blackwater Computer & Internet Center.

Here is some interesting (although probably debatable) information about Blackwater's cultural heritage. In certain circles, Blackwater is known for its Melungeon ancestors.

An article reprinted in 1948 talks about “black-water Springs.” The area is known today as Blackwater. There have been many references by various Melungeon researchers over the years to this article. I have copied a portion of the article below and have listed the website where Joanne Pezzullo has posted the article with a helpful introduction.

“It was reprinted from the Knoxville Register September 6, 1848 quoting from the Louisville Examiner. (We are sorry to have lost the name of the southern paper from which this is taken.)

We give to-day another amusing and characteristic sketch from a letter of our intelligent and sprightly correspondent, sojourning at present in one of the seldom-visited nooks hid away in our mountains.

You must know that within ten miles of this owl's nest, there is a watering-place, known hereabouts as 'black-water Springs.' It is situated in a narrow gorge, scarcely half a mile wide, between Powell's Mountain and the Copper Ridge, and is, as you may suppose, almost inaccessible. A hundred men could defend the pass against even a Xerxian army. Now this gorge and the tops and sides of the adjoining mountains are inhabited by a singular species of the human animal called MELUNGENS.

The legend of their history, which they carefully preserve, is this. A great many years ago, these mountains were settled by a society of Portuguese Adventurers, men and women--who came from the long-shore parts of Virginia, that they might be freed from the restraints and drawbacks imposed on them by any form of government. These people made themselves friendly with the Indians and freed, as they were from every kind of social government, they uprooted all conventional forms of society and lived in a delightful Utopia of their own creation, trampling on the marriage relation, despising all forms of religion, and subsisting upon corn (the only possible product of the soil) and wild game of the woods.

These intermixed with the Indians, and subsequently their descendants (after the advances of the whites into this part of the state) with the negros and the whites, thus forming the present race of Melungens.

They are tall, straight, well- formed people, of a dark copper color, with Circassian features, but wooly heads and other similar appendages of our negro. They are privileged voters in the state in which they live and thus, you will perceive, are accredited citizens of the commonwealth. They are brave, but quarrelsome; and are hospitable and generous to strangers. They have no preachers among them and are almost without any knowledge of a Supreme Being. They are married by the established forms, but husband and wife separate at pleasure, without meeting any reproach or disgrace from their friends. They are remarkably unchaste, and want of chastity on the part of females is no bar to their marrying. They have but little association with their neighbors, carefully preserving their race, or class, or whatever you may call it: and are in every respect, save they are under the state government, a separate and distinct people. Now this is no traveller's story.

They are really what I tell you, without abating or setting down in aught in malice. They are behind their neighbors in the arts. They use oxen instead of horses in their agricultural attempts, and their implements of husbandry are chiefly made by themselves of wood. They are, without exception, poor and ignorant, but apparently happy.”

http://www.historical-melungeons.com/littels.html

Introducing Jack Goins, Guest

Guests for Episode 1 will include Melungeon researcher Jack Goins.

In his writings, Melungeon researcher Jack Goins has explained that because there were so many theories and ideas about the history of the Melungeons, he decided to try and find out the answers. He sought answers first, straight from the source. He discussed family history with the descendants of people whose parents or great grandparents or ancestors were considered Melungeon. He met with people who lived, or formerly lived in Kyles Ford, Blackwater, Newman Ridge, and Sneedville areas along the Virginia and Tennessee border. His has published two books. His research projects include multiple DNA projects and the Hawkins County archive project. His website explains that tracking down these old pioneer families from the Clinch to their migration starting points and walking on the land where they walked has been a fantastic journey. So come with Jack to the creeks, rivers, courthouses, towns and farms, and learn about the Melungeons, Newman Ridge and the Clinch River Valley.

Jack Goins lives in Rogersville, TN. His website is located at www.jgoins.com. He has published two books: “MELUNGEONS, Footprints from the Past” and “Melungeons and Other Pioneer Families.” His research projects include the Melungeon, Goins and Minor DNA projects.

August 2, 2011 at 9AM EST - Episode # 1

Episode #1

Date: August 2, 2011 – 9:00AM EST

Episode Title: Arts, crafts, festivals & heritage

Episode Description:

Sustainable development community models often begin with community arts, crafts, culture, music and heritage celebrations. These festivals can help to nurture a shared sense of place, build pride in heritage, and expand civic engagement. Current ecommerce offers instant access to global markets for artisans, crafters, and musicians. Could future kcommerce offer better global markets for historians, bloggers, and poets? What if the emerging Appalachian knowledge economy could create community knowledge centers as valued community assets? Like festivals, could that also encourage a shared sense of place and pride in heritage? Join the dialogue and tour through Appalachia. We will begin in Blackwater, Virginia with fiber to the home, the Melungeons, and the dulcimer. We will travel the back roads on a barn hopping tour. We will visit down home festivals and even an artisan gateway. Come, get a taste of authentic Appalachia and imagine the emerging Appalachian knowledge economy.

joke copper wire

I don't know who sent this to me, or even who wrote it. It was one of those jokes which got passed around through a bunch of forwarded emails. I received it awhile back, but it tickled me to such an extent, that I saved it in a word doc. I am rather proud to be an Appalachian, and so, I hope my fellow Appalachians don't see this joke as too disparaging...

After having dug to a depth of 10 feet last year, New York scientists found traces of copper wire dating back 100 years and came to the conclusion that their ancestors already had a telephone network more than 100 years ago. Not to be outdone by the New Yorkers, in the weeks that followed, a California archaeologist dug to a depth of 20 feet, and shortly after, a story in the LA Times read: "California archaeologists, after finding 200 year old copper wire, have concluded that their ancestors already had an advanced high-tech communications network a hundred years earlier than the New Yorkers." One week later, the Virginia Mountaineer newspaper in Grundy, VA reported the following: "After digging as deep as 30 feet in his pasture on Backbone Ridge near Haysi, VA, a self-taught archaeologist reported that he found absolutely nothing. Bubba has therefore concluded that 300 years ago, that part of Virginia had already gone wireless." Hillbillies are such a proud bunch.

on the trail of the Appalachian Knowledge Economy

I took this photo this evening as I was coming back over the mountain between Blackwater and Jonesville. Blackwater is a very small rural community in Lee County, Virginia , nestled in a big beautiful valley, deep in the heart of the Appalachian Mountains. Today, with a USDA grant and some regional Virginia Tobacco Commission funds, rural agrarian Blackwater has fiber-to-the-home, and an emerging online cemetery directory to boot.

Show Description

“The Appalachian Knowledge Economy” introduces successful models for furthering civic engagement, rural broadband deployment, and sustainable community development. The dialogue also explores national and global policies regarding rural broadband deployment and the emerging knowledge economy. Topics include the progression of civilization advancement through the intersection of the knowledge economy, national IT policies, World Bank policy, value theory, and an innovative system. The dialogue further explores an evolving “sense of place” as citizens better engage not only in their local community, but also as participants in the global knowledge economy trade. Could rural Appalachians be leading the way?! Guests include sustainable community development and knowledge economy leaders, key axiology and value theory experts, prominent university catalysts, rural broadband deployment sparkplugs, and government representatives who have all helped define the path and walk it.