After spending some time surfing the Internet Machine, I have not come up with any new, significant details about the Bill Sparkman case. I thought it might be helpful to post a little background history about the area. Ive read a lot of chatter about "Hill-billies hating the government" and I was quite astonished to find out why folks thought that was so. I'd like to clear up some misconceptions. I'll present some history and background that is factual, and why I don't think that has a bearing on this case. The latter is speculation on my part, and I could be wrong.
Scotch-Irish immigrants make up the majority of Appalachian Settlers. The Scotch Irish began as low-land and Borderland Scots who were "persuaded" by the English to colonize Ulster Plantations in the 1600s. The English were trying to dominate both the Scots and the Irish. Somehow they thought if they could remove the lowland/borderland Scots and inflict them on the Irish, it would help solve the problems of subduing these two groups of people. What happened was both the Scots and the Irish, singularly and together, rebelled and England had a big bloody mess on her hands for many years. Immigration to America opened up in the early 1700's. Also, Ireland had a famine around 1740 which drove many people to the New World. The Scots-Irish, now a more or less cohesive group settled in the Colonies, mostly Pennsylvania, Delaware and North Carolina. Land was already becoming scarce. As the Revolutionary War loomed, many Scots-Irish were delighted to take up arms against their old Enemy, the British.
(A side note here: a great deal of Appalachian culture-language, music, manners, customs, are Celtic/Gaelic in origin. There is heavy low country Scots/Ulster Irish influences with some German, particularly in West Virginia/Pennsylvania area. For a long time, the Scots-Irish HATED the English, which is one reason why Appalachian-Americans get ticked off by the "whole Pockets of Pure Elizabethan Culture" Its sort of like saying Israel has pockets of pure Arabic culture.
When the Daniel Boone National Forest was being developed-around the 1970's, the Department of the Interior wanted to name it "Cumberland Forest" because of the Cumberland Mountains. However, the Cumberland Mountains were named (by some one not of this region) after the (English)Duke of Cumberland who slaughtered hundreds (some say thousands) of Scots in the Battle of Culloden in 1746- yeah, 250 years earlier. A HUGE protest went up, and the Forest was named after Daniel Boone instead.)Yes, memories are long and grudges are held in this region.
The brand spanking new United States of America very quickly went broke and could not pay its soldiers This sparked Shay's Rebellion which gives us the lovely "Tree of liberty being watered with the blood....." phrase thats being tossed about now. So the Congress said, "HEY, tell you what, theres this great land on the other side of the mountains that we will give you in return for your service. Yes, its a pain to get over there, and yeah there are some Indians that might be ticked off, because legality its their land, but tell you what we'll do. We'll pay someone to hack out a road, and we'll even pay a bounty on Indian scalps, so if you have to kill somebody, you'll be re-reimbursed."
They left out the part where most of the good farm land was already owned by absentee owners.
Some people received these land grants and were able to hang on to them. My family had one for over two-hundred years. But many people endured the hard journey, hacked out a farm in the wilderness,and defended themselves from hostile Indians, who were not only cheesed by the settlers, but constantly inflamed by the British which eventually led to the War of 1812. Then, they were booted off their land by these absentee landlords who even though they had never set foot in the region, but they held the deeds to the property. This happened even to Daniel Boone himself, who left Kentucky in disgust; broke, and having to start all over again in Missouri. Kicked out of his own forest, actually,
Here's a big strike against the Government from the get-go. The Civil War brought its on horrors. That would require another diary, maybe two. I want to make three points about that.
One-In Appalachia- which mostly supported the Union, (which is why we now have West Virginia), the War provided an opportunity of the scum of the earth to come out and wreak havoc. They confiscated crops and livestock (which never made it to either Army), and burned things to the ground, just because. The novel "Cold Mountain" gives an excellent portrait of this. (I haven't seen the movie) Local economies were devastated. Families wiped out, Farms destroyed. Nasty stuff.
Second-The War in Appalachia was truly "brother against brother" and many of the famous family feuds came out of conflicting loyalties of the Civil War and its aftermath. Popular Culture trivializes the conflict as a kind of "You shot my pig, I'm going to shoot you." The reality was "You shot my pig- which was the only thing I had to feed my family during the winter, you burned my barn to the ground and you shot my brother. I have nothing else left, so I'm going after you."
Third- In Civil War diary and journals, many people, especially civilians, refer to the Armies not as Union-Confederate, or North-South, but as "Succesh" (secessionists) and Federals (or Feds). Federals- or Feds have come to represent the Government Northerners and outsiders. Mostly Government, but also the others. Oddly enough, during the Civil War, the Dems supported slavery and the Republicans represented Emancipation. Many of the issues of the two parties have completely flipped since the War.
Anyone could guess why folks in the mountains would be ticked over the wholesale rape of their mountains by coal/ timber barons, who, again were absentee owners and whom the Mountain people viewed as being supported by the Government- which was pretty much true, because the country needed the coal and timber the area provided. Don't even get me started on Mineral rights.
Moving into the 20th century, mountain people watched as the US took over huge sections of land to build Hydro-electric dams, (and later nuclear reactors) and National Parks, and Interstate Highways. Lots of people were displaced in the forming of the Great Smokey Mountains and later Big South Fork. People began to feel like their resources and homes were being overtaken and destroyed for the benefit of the rest of the country and they were left behind, impoverished. Then adding insult to injury, the rest of the country mocked them for their poverty and their culture. Americans think Scottish and Irish accents are charming and their stories and songs are wonderful. They mock Appalachian accents and folk-life.
Also- during World War II, the government came in, bought up a huge swath of land and formed the Oak Ridge National Labs, which of course worked on the Manhattan Project. Many people (thousands) in the area went to work there. They were pleased to get the work, and happy to make a contribution to the War Effort. They were devastated to find out that instead of making munitions to overthrow Nazi Germany, their work had gone to the wide-spread slaughter of innocent civilians in Japan. This happened before I was born- but I grew up in that area, and I heard whispered stories of k-12 workers who committed suicide when they found out what they had been working on.
Things are getting better. The ARC (Appalachian Regional Commission) was formed in the 60's and has been a tremendous help in addressing poverty/health care/education issues. People are grateful for that, but we are always on the leery watch for condescension from outsiders. Once, as a College student, I had someone ask me if I owned my own shoes. Think about that. I'm going to college, I'm getting an education, I'm trying to make a better life for myself, and my people, and this person (?) is surprised because I'm wearing shoes. I could write a whole other diary, probably three or four, on asinine things people have said to me because I'm from Appalachia. We tend to get a little touchy about these things.
About that same time,(when I was in college) for some reason the school bus drivers in my county went on strike and made the national news, I don't remember why. But I do remember Peter Jennings talking about it on the Evening News. Did the cameras focus on the brand new million dollar high school- the pride of the county? The well kept, tidy and prosperous Main street? The neat, new suburban homes? No, they sought out the most run down section of our county and thats where they did their report.
So yes, the is a long history of distrust of the Government- and its not about revenuers and all that nonsense. There is a history of violence in this region as well, I won't deny that. But with natives, the violence is personal. Most of the time, its two friends or family members get in an argument, alcohol tends to be involved, and because folks gotta have their guns, someone ends up getting shot. We don't have drive by shootings, we don't have stranger-danger, its all friends and family here. And generally as soon as the trigger is pulled, the killer is full of remorse- "Oh my God, what did I do?" Not always of course, but nine-times out of ten. And this falls into the pattern of most homicides. We don't lock our doors- cause we just don't have that kind of home-invasion. If I'm in my county or surrounding counties- I don't lock my car when I go to town- Ive never had anyone take anything. But if I visit friends in Knoxville, Louisville, Lexington, Nashville- Oh Yeah, that car gets locked.
In terms of how all this might relate to Mr. Sparkman's death: People are suspicious of the Government-sure. But they are NOT going to bring down the wrath of the Feds on our heads-We're suspicious, but we're also a little afraid of it. It is a rural rugged area- but people who want tvs, and phones and radios and so on- have tvs, phones, etc. I just don't think this is someone in the back country who shot a stranger because his grand-pappy was shot by a revenuer. I don't know what happened but I really want everyone to just back away from the Deliverance Crazy-talk. (I wish to God that movie had never been made.)
I have to skip out for a bit, take advantage of some sunshine because we've had days of rain, but will be back later to answer comments/grievances.and such-like