Appalachian History

A new telling of the tale of Tom Dooley

Excerpt from Sharyn McCrumb’s “The Ballad of Tom Dooley,” which tells the true story behind the celebrated folk song.

Children at school in 1925 would have used an inkwell similar to the one shown here, from the collection of the Cherokee County [GA] Archives.

After a horse race, a close quarters fight broke out during which Champ Ferguson killed a county constable. That day he took his first life.

The largest earthquake to originate in Virginia in historic times occurred on May 31, 1897. The epicenter was in Giles County.

After World War II, when factories such as General Motors were heavily recruiting, 7 million migrated north on the Hillbilly Highway.