Folklife in the South Series – serie

The first book in the Folklife in the South series and by far the broadest look at traditional Cajun culture ever assembled. It not only describes the traditions as they are but also explains how they came to be.

Horse breeding, the cultures of tobacco and bourbon, the forms of architecture, the codes of the hunt, the traditions of gambling and dueling, convivial celebrations, regional foodways--all of these are ingredients in the folklife of the Inner Bluegrass Region that is the focus of this fascinating book.

Wiregrass (Aristida stricta) refers to a genus of flora that depends on fire ecology for germination. Although its growth is widespread from the Chesapeake Bay to the western brim of Texas, only one region has acquired the word for vernacular recognition. Ranging over parts of three states, Wiregrass Country extends from north of Savannah, sweeps across rolling meadows into the southwest Georgia coastal plain, fans over into the southeastern corner of Alabama, and dips into the northwestern panhandle of Florida.This book is the first comprehensive study of the folklife of this unique region and its people. Historically underpopulated, economically poor, and predominantly white until the Reconstruction period following the Civil War, Wiregrass Country is a rare stretch of the American South whose economic and cultural development has been shaped more by yeomen farming and frontier attitudes than by King Cotton, plantations, slave-holders, and slaves.Eventually, Wiregrass Country experienced a more diverse influx or residents--tenant farmers, African Americans, and northern industrialists. In many ways, however, it has remained characteristically rural. Few malls have invaded it, and high watertowers are more prevalent than stately court houses and city halls.This study typifies the population within the tristate region as communal-minded, frugal, and hardworking. Its values gain full expression in characteristic musical and verbal arts, such as Sacred Harp singing and personal narratives about the supernatural.Although virtually neglected by historians and folklorists, the region is a trove of cultural history preserved in folktales, music, festivals, yardscapes, hunting, and fishing.

Perhaps the best way to portray that unique cultural phenomenon called “southerners” is by telling tales about how these particular people live. And who could perceive them better, heart and soul, than their preacher? James O. Chatham, a Presbyterian minister who served several congregations during four decades, witnessed to a full spectrum of southern types during his years in the pulpit. He met all kinds, and he strived to minister to each with a compassionate, pastoral hand.His book of tales about his experiences with them puts a human face on the southern portrait. In Sundays Down South: A Pastor’s Stories, he recounts experiences with people who were heroic and pathetic, wise and foolish, visionary and blind. “Two things I have taken from these [stories],” he says. “One is the insight that the most sturdy and courageous hearts often come in very plain packaging. The other is the importance of conviction, of having in your soul a motivating cause.”He preached in a variety of southern locales—a paper mill town in the mountains of western Virginia, two small communities in southwestern Mississippi, a tobacco town in Piedmont North Carolina, and a city on the edge of Kentucky’s bluegrass region. The people he encountered in his pastorates are flawed but charming, even admirable in some instances. “It is impossible,” he says, “to tell from the outside who the giants will be. You have to be attentive, to watch and listen carefully, sometimes to dig to uncover the people you really want to meet.”Religion, race, sex, family ties, economic hardship, health, and education all arise in these tales, and Chatham never condemns or accuses. Nor does he shy from an honest portrayal of reality and of the prejudice that persists in the South. With a poignant but plain style, he makes clear his love for his parishioners and his attempt to infuse their lives with the inspired dignity that has moved him through a lifetime of preaching and listening.