Mandel Sherman

I have the 1973 edition. It is a reprint from 1933. This is co-authored by Mandel Sherman and Thomas R. Henry.

The book is about a study done on mountain people from the valleys of the Appalachian region of the Blue Ridge mountains in Virginia who came there over 2 centuries ago (review done in 2020, book written 1933). They came from Scotch-Irish, English stock.

We follow people from 4 hollows and a small town at the foot of the mountain, some who ended up being displaced people from the Shenandoah National Park. The names of the hollows and town are:

1} Colvin Hollow (ie Corbin Hollow),
lived close to Pollocks Resort, Skyland
2} Needles Hollow
3} Oakton Hollow
4} Rigby Hollow
&
5} Briarsville, small farm and sawmill town

Colvin Hollow is the least developed culture, Briarsville is the most developed. Colvin Hollow is the highest up the mountain, the Hollows step down, until you get to Briarsville.

Many people of these hollows are interbred, such as Colvin and Needles Hollows and their behaviors show as much. Colvin Hollow residents have no ambition, the children don't know how to play. It is located less than 100 miles from the National Capital. The closest hard topped road is almost 8 miles away. The closest you can get an automobile is within 3 miles of it. Every cabin has a corn and cabbage patch, about two acres. No one owns any property, nor do they pay taxes. All are squatters. One family has a horse, another has a pig, other than that, there are no owned animals or other crops. No crop rotation occurs. The inhabitants all wear rags. Some of the men have shoes. Their cabins are filthy. It's every man or person for themselves. No friendships. The women's jobs are to have babies. Some women having as many as 20 children, though not all have lived. There is no structured school, religion or community government, not much contact with the outside world. They don't know what a president is. There is a wealthy resort nearby, where the women and children panhandle or beg for coins. They have no understanding of the value of money. They are much happier with two pennies than they are with one quarter. Everyone chews tobacco. Grandma, grandpa, mom and dad, all the way down to the three year old child. They don't know the names of birds or flowers.

Needles Hollow is not quite as backwards as Colvin Hollow. A few men are literate, farms are five acres each with an occasional farmer having 30 acres. There is a combined church/school where occasional religious meetings are held. Most families owns a pig or chickens. No local government or social organization. The cabins are located nearer to each other with a general kinship and some friendships.

Oakton Hollow is at the end of a mountain road, which experienced drivers can get to. There are two main crops, corn and apples. They cut and dry apples to send them and baskets of fresh apples to the lower lying towns, for sale. There is regular church and school activities. Most families own pigs, chickens, cows and horses. Nearly every home has a mail-order catalog and a lot of buying is done by mail. There is a post office and general store (in one building).

At Rigby Hollow, the people are cleaner and better dressed, than in the other three hollows. The farms are better tended and cultivated. There is money, school is in session about seven months a year. About 75% can read and write. The food is more varied and tastier.

Briarsville is a small farm and sawmill town. A blacktopped road runs through the middle of it, that connects to several other towns and eventually cities. Church and school are regularly held and well attended. People are much cleaner and strive to better themselves. Newspapers are received every day. They have a regular work schedule and everyone knows how to play games and have friends.

These people are like a social science experiment that one does to see how a person develops if it is not held or loved as a baby. The book is interesting, yes the higher up the mountains that you go, people are more lacking in social graces, but I don't feel it was purposely written to make the people of the Colvin and Needles communities to look bad, but just as an observation of what was going on there at the time.

The basis of this book is based on a project called: the Washington Child Research Center, Washington D. C. The team included: 2 psychologists and their assistants, a nutritionist, a psychiatrist and sociologists. They studied these people for two years.… (més)