On this excerpt from “Starting Once more,” Nikki Giovanni provides an ode to the nice individuals who name Appalachia house.
I’ll increase my eyes to the mountains; from the place will my assist come? My assist comes from the Lord. —Psalms 121:1–2
I feel that this a part of the psalm is the correct introduction to Appalachia as a result of the entire Appalachians, the entire individuals, got here right here for consolation. However let’s simply take it again just a little bit. The rabbits, the groundhogs, the wolves earlier than we killed them off, all discovered consolation in Appalachia. The bushes, the bushes discovered consolation in Appalachia. The Indigenous individuals lived right here first with Appalachia.
The following group that got here have been the those that the English kicked out. And the Irish kicked [them] out, as a result of they didn’t need to, for lack of a greater phrase, be bothered with them. And people settlers started to destroy the bushes and the bushes as a result of they wished to make issues. The Black People got here, principally as individuals working from slavery. And as they ran from slavery, they discovered that they’d buddies in Appalachia, that Appalachia might provide consolation to those that wanted a option to be secure.
Through the time of the Underground Railroad, we’ve been advised that Appalachian ladies made quilts so you may observe a quilted map from Georgia to Maine towards freedom. There can be a quilt laid exterior of a cabin, which relayed a message. We consider escaping from slavery as a nighttime run, however you couldn’t see a quilt at evening. So fleeing slavery was additionally positively a daytime exercise, and it typically meant communication between the whites who had been kicked out of Europe and the Blacks working towards freedom.
They, too, understood what it was prefer to not have a house. After they hung lanterns at evening to mild the best way for the enslaved, the individuals who chased the enslavers might see the lanterns too. They reached out to work with them, to maneuver in the course of the day. So we have to take a look at the daytime working of the enslaved—there’s a narrative there—of the white ladies lynched for his or her compassion, of individuals working collectively for consolation and residential.
We additionally know—and it’s extremely essential—that with out Appalachia talking up, because it have been, for America, the end result of the Civil Battle would have been totally different. West Virginia determined it might not stay part of Virginia and stated that we’ll not ship our sons to die in order that the Shenandoah can have slaves.
When West Virginia—with its Kanawha River—pulled away from Virginia, it blocked the Confederacy’s entry to the Ohio River and saved the Union. In the event that they hadn’t completed that, it might have been a distinct conflict. So the USA owes being united partly to Appalachians. They stood up for that which was proper and have continued to take action.
Elements of Appalachian historical past will trigger some to be embarrassed and ashamed. However we additionally know that Appalachians, whether or not they have been Black or white or Indigenous, have welcomed guests from different nations, have welcomed different people who find themselves escaping not slavery however the violence of different nations, and Appalachia has supplied them a house.
These are an awesome individuals. And the tales shared amongst individuals in Appalachia are these of people that have discovered consolation in Appalachia and who’ve introduced their sense of what’s proper to Appalachia—whether or not it’s what’s proper for the individuals, what’s proper for the bushes and animals, or what’s proper for the water. How can we take heed to what nature has given us?
We should study to take heed to the teachings of Appalachia, to the voices, which is to say the guts, of the nice individuals who have chosen Appalachia as our house.
This excerpt, tailored from Starting Once more: Tales of Motion and Migration in Appalachia edited by Katrina M. Powell (Voice of Witness and Haymarket Books, 2024), seems by permission of the writer. Starting Once more brings collectively oral histories of refugees, migrants, and generations-long residents that discover complicated journeys of resettlement and belonging. Free lesson plans are out there.
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Nikki Giovanni
is a poet who was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, and grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio. Since 1987, she has been on the college of Virginia Tech, the place she is a College Distinguished Professor Emerita. |
