Essay: Spencer Linn
ESSAY: SPENCER LINN APPALACHIA SERVICE PROJECT For my service scholar project, I worked alongside the Appalachian Service Project in a group to help rebuild the house of homeowners over the course of a summer week in rural Appalachia. This trip was my third time serving alongside this group, and I likewise knew that not all of the negative stereotypes of Appalachia were indeed factual. Usually, Appalachia’s public image is portrayed as poverty-ridden, lacking infrastructure, rural, racist, and devoid of hope. However, through interactions with local Appalachian homeowners during the Appalachia Service Project over the years, I first hand experienced joy, hope, and tenacity stemming from this region that directly contrasted the negative perception that was commonly placed on the region. Although I was fortunate enough to experience the Appalachian region’s positive aspects and potential for greatness, this does not deny the reality that the region is in desperate need of critical repair. Primarily at a first glance, the region’s poverty rates, education, and general well-being are all in strikingly worse conditions than the rest of the United States. When encountering, first-hand, all of these conditions, I was instantly shocked and led to wonder what events led to this area’s fate. Was the region of Appalachia always in this condition, and if not, how did it become this way? Also what steps could we take to improve the Appalachian region’s overall condition? I believed that by uncovering more of Appalachia’s core issues and addressing them, I could promote positive change towards the region. Throughout this project, I was also able to directly utilize knowledge from both AP Economics and AP Government. In fact, during research, it was easier to tie together knowledge that I found using general economic ideas and principles from AP Economics. As I began my research, I immediately delved into the conflicting history of the region in an attempt to find the ultimate root of the issues that plagued the Appalachian region. Many people don’t realize that the Appalachian region ranges from Mississippi to New York and consists of nearly 250,000 square miles. Nearly twenty-five million people inhabit this region with 42% of residents living rurally compared to the nationwide average rural population of only 20% (Appalachia Then vs. Now). Yet it was not always like this. In the early 1900s, the Appalachian region was seen as a land of boundless opportunity to businessmen and common people intending to make a simple living for their families. Why was the Appalachian region seen as so profitable though? It primarily boils down to coal. The availability of coal in the Appalachian region was enticing as many mines began to almost instantaneously pop up, all holding hopes of financial gain. With a sudden surplus in demand for labor, many Americans traveled into the region and settled down, greatly boosting the economic progress of the region. By 1940, nearly 140,000 people or one-third of West Virginia’s workforce consisted of miners in these same coal mines (Quartz). However, this honeymoon period buckled under its weight as the coal operation continually expanded. To maximize profits, large coal mining companies went beyond simply buying out mines, but they began buying the land around mines and entire towns. Monopolies began to dominate the region and soon coal mining became one of
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