TENNESSEE: A GUIDE TO THE STATE
Cross Section of a Threefold State
Tennessee is an agricultural State, and the culture of its people has grown out of their struggle with the earth. This is true despite the rapid growth of industry, for even the urban areas are dominated by the traditions of farm life. With few exceptions, the cities largely retain the flavor of country towns.
East, Middle, and West Tennessee, the three geographical divisions, in like separate States. Although the people are alike in heritage and in general attitude, there are striking sectional differences fostered by the lay of the land. West Tennesseans may differ as much from East Tennesseans in manners and customs as the people of the Appalachian Mountain regions differ from those of the Mississippi Delta.
Between the North Carolina line and the Cumberland Plateau is East Tennessee, an upland region whose high mountains, thickly wooded foothills, broken knob country, and narrow valleys have made it, until recent years, the most shut-in section of the State. Here are the hazy ramparts of the Great Smokies, the gaunt ridges of the Unakas and the Clinch Mountains; and in the Tennessee Valley is Norris Dam, one of the chief units of the Tennessee Valley Authority's vast project. This region is the home of the mountain folk, "our contemporary forefathers," descendants of the pioneers of British, Huguenot, and Pennsylvania German stock, who built their log cabins deep among the ridges. Often the butt of absurd and distorted jokes and stories, these rugged people, isolated in their mountains, are content to live precisely as did the first white settlers. Some of them resented the TVA resettlement program and the bringing in of outlanders with newfangled ideas--even though it promised to give unheard-of advantages to their children and to save land made almost worthless by erosion.
Throughout East Tennessee the cabins of old frontier days, with their little porthole-like windows and dog-trots (open runways), still stand, bearing the scars of Indian tomahawks and bullets. Tucked away in the hills, too, are ancient water mills with slow, moss-covered wheels, to which mountain boys still come on muleback with a turn of corn to be ground into meal. Even in their simple pleasures these mountain folk cling to the past. Quilting and husking parties, fiddling, singing, and dancing are among the popular pastimes.
In politics, as in most things, the East Tennessean shows his independence, for here in an otherwise normally Democratic State is a strong Republican district that regularly chooses Republican representatives in both State and Federal elections. To the East Tennessean, West Tennessee is almost as far away and unknown as Missouri. He looks upon this western section as a swamp and resents the weight of the powerful Shelby County political machine in State-wide elections. What West Tennessee is for, he's "agin." The TVA is a recent exception.
Knoxville, seat of the State University, is the western gateway to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the Cherokee National Forest, former hunting ground of the Cherokee. Surrounding Chattanooga are famous battlefields: Lookout Mountain, Missionary Ridge, Walden's Ridge, Orchard Knob, and Chickamauga. These two industrial cities have attracted much northern capital, and their populations are a blend of mountain blood and "furriner," or Yankee.
Middle Tennessee, hemmed in by the looping Tennessee River, is a gently rolling bluegrass country, fertile, well watered, and famous for its fine livestock-blooded horses and mules--and its dark-fired tobacco. The heart of the State, it is rich in tradition and history, and its inhabitants hold to the customs of the Old South. Hardly a day passes that some mention of the War between the States and of a pioneer incident is not made by a city or county paper. The great Indian mounds of the Harpeth and Cumberland Rivers are links with a more distant past.
Most of the towns are old, and in them and along the highways of the countrysides are ante-bellum homes, some in decay. Descendants of the State's founders proudly cling to their traditions. Nashville, capital of the State, was in 1780 the scene of the drafting and signing of the Cumberland Compact, whereby 256 pioneers set up an independent government. Near by are the Hermitage, home of Andrew Jackson, and the town of Smyrna, birthplace of Sam Davis, youthful hero of the War between the States. Sixty miles south of Nashville is Pulaski, where the original Ku Klux Klan was formed in 1865.
It is for its cultural pre-eminence that Middle Tennessee is perhaps best known. With few exceptions, such as the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and Southwestern at Memphis, the State's leading educational institutions are in this division; here are Vanderbilt University, George Peabody College for Teachers, the University of the South, Ward-Belmont School, and the three Negro institutions-Fisk University, Meharry Medical College, and Tennessee Agricultural and Industrial State Teachers College.
Between the Tennessee River and the Mississippi is West Tennessee, which was the land of the Chickasaw and the "last frontier" of the State. With its rugged hills, rich valleys, and deep black bottoms, this section leads agriculturally. Most of the farms are now small, and berries and vegetables have become important rivals of cotton and corn. At intervals the bottoms are at the mercy of flood waters. In this section a good deal of the free-and-easy spirit of the frontier remains, and white and Negro accept good luck and bad philosophically. Because cotton has always dominated its economy, West Tennessee has the largest Negro population. In two counties (Haywood and Fayette), Negroes outnumber the whites.
There is a newness about most of the towns. With the exception of Bolivar, Brownsville, Somerville, La Grange, Troy, Moscow, and a few others, they have virtually been rebuilt within the last twenty-five years. Memphis, on the Mississippi near the Arkansas boundary line, is the metropolis of the division. It has the atmosphere of the cosmopolitan West, and its annual Cotton Carnival draws visitors from everywhere. In the center of the region is Jackson, made famous in song and story as the home of Casey Jones.
The long history of Tennessee has left its landmarks here. On the steep bluffs of the Mississippi, in the walled city of Cisco on the south fork of the Forked Deer River, and along the Tennessee River near Pittsburgh Landing are the remains of the earthworks raised by the Mound Builders. In the northwestern corner is Reelfoot Lake, formed by the New Madrid earthquake of 1811-1812 in the southeastern section, Shiloh battlefield recalls the tragic war years, and the TVA'S Pickwick Landing Dam represents present-day development.
Throughout Tennessee, particularly in the great rural counties-some of them older than the State itself-traditional allegiance counts heavily. County traditions, too, are so strong that the individual, however far he migrates, continues to feel loyal to his native county and usually identifies himself with his section. Ask a Tennessean where he lives, and he does not say, "I'm from Dyersburg," but rather, "I'm from Dyer County in West Tennessee."
Back of this tradition is a strong sense of family, kin, and clan. Blood relationship may often mean more than wealth or ability. Family connections, even the wider and vaguer ties, may influence county and local politics and business affairs. When Jim Tuttle announces for county office, all his kinfolk start electioneering for him. "These Tuttles are thick as blackbirds in a wheat field." Let Cousin Jim get into trouble and the Tuttle army rallies to his aid.
The Tennessean as a voter is, for the most part, independent in local politics; it is hard to dictate to him his selection of a candidate for public office. But in regular elections the rural sections are seldom able to overcome the strength of the well-organized urban districts. In the past few years machine politics has tended to penetrate each county, and frequently the rural folk "line up" with their city cousins when they feel that they will be benefited by the policies of the group.
Tennesseans, lives are unhurried. Though they may complain about weather, poor crops, bad business and politics, beneath all is a certain feeling of security. The farmer will leave his plowing, the attorney his lawsuit, the business man his accounts, for a moment's or an hour's conversation with stranger or friend. With his good-tempered easiness of manners, the Tennessean has a democratic feeling of equality. His mind, unlike his bed, does not have to be made up each morning, for his judgment and dignity proceed from himself. Whether of farm, mountain, or city, he is like the Tennessee farmer who, after hearing Martin Van Buren speak, stepped up, shook the President's hand, and invited him "to come out and r'ar around with the boys.
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TENNESSEE: A GUIDE TO THE STATE