Southwest Virginia History

Southwest Virginia History 

Day One:

Welcome
Course outline
Rules and expectations
Get to know you
Project outline
Key Terms
Fast Facts
Getting started on my project
Primary Source: Saltville Style Gorget Fast Facts
Digging Deeper
Homework

Day Two:
Homework Review
Primary Source: The Killing Of Chief Benge And The Recapture of White Captives
Early Appalachians Video
Fast Facts 
Tobias Smyth Cabin and Early Frontier Cabins
Frontier Life
Frontier Forts
The Overmountain Men and The Battle Of King's Mountain
Day Two Assessment 
Homework

Day Three:
Primary Source: Brother Against Brother Photographs
Fast Facts
Digging Deeper
The Legend Of Champ Ferguson 
Emory & Henry Goes To War

Day Four: 
Primary Source:  
Tennessee Ernie Ford "16 Tons" 
Fast Facts 
Digging Deeper  
Rail Roads Come To Southwest Virginia 
Appalachian Stereotypes 
Homework

Videos
Early Appalachians
The Battle Of King's Mountain 
The Civil War In Southwest Virginia 
Champ Ferguson 
The Bristol Sessions
The Clinchfield Railroad

Day Two- Fast Facts

Fast Facts- Write These In Your Notes 

Settlers lived hard lives on the frontier. Most of what they needed to survive had to be brought with them as they traveled, made by hand on the frontier or traded for.

Indian attacks were prevalent and added to the struggle of the settlers

Frontier houses were simple and often dangerous leaving settlers to adapt how their homes were built.  

The Overmountain Men of Washington County, Virginia helped turn the tide at the Battle of Kings Mountain and defeat the British flank during the Revolutionary War

Review From Yesterday 

Pre-Clovis people hunted the animals attracted to the salt marshes in Saltville Valley 

Spanish explore Southwest Virginia looking for the Three Gs: Gold, God, Glory 

Dr. Thomas Walker surveys Southwest Virginia to map out the border between Virginia and North Carolina. He also surveys tracts of land to be sold to settlers east of present day Roanoke. 


Settlers move into the frontier of Southwest Virginia in search of cheap land. With them comes the spread of Methodism to the new lands.

History-recording, and analyzing of the past through primary and secondary sources
Primary Source- written at the time of the event
Secondary Source- written as a summary of primary sources 

Pre-history-Information that pre-dates the written word gleaned from archaeological study

Structure- What people are doing. How do they make a living

Infrastructure- Who has power in the community.

Superstructure- What people believe

Primary Source: The Killing of Chief Benge and The Recapture Of White Captives

Life on the frontier was hard. Added to this danger was the near constant threat of Indian attacks. One of the most feared Indians in Southwest Virginia was Chief Robert Benge. Born around 1760 in the Cherokee village of Togue, possibly on the Little Ta ni si river, Bob Benge - also called Captain Benge and The Bench - was the son of a Scottish trader John Benge and a full blood Cherokee named Wurtah. On April 6, 1794 Benge, and his band of frontier marauders entered the quiet little settlement fifteen miles west of the present town of Abingdon and attacked the home of Peter Livingston. At the time Peter and his brother Henry were out on the farm and the women folk, children and a few slaves were in or near the house. Benge and his raiders captured Elizabeth Livingston and the party fled as far as the foot of Stone's Mountain in Lee County. There they were ambushed by a band led by Lieutenant Vincent Hobbs and Benge was killed. The following is Elizabeth Livingston recounting of the ambush.

The Killing of Chief Benge

April 9. After traveling about five miles, which was over Powell's Mountain and near the foot of Stone Mountain, a party of 13 men, under command of Lieutenant Vincent Hobbs, of the militia of Lee County, met the enemy in front, attacked and killed Benge the first fire. I was at that time some distance off in the rear. The Indian who was my guard at first halted on hearing the firing. He, then, ordered me to run, which I performed slowly. He, then, attempted to strike me in the head with the tomahawk, which I defended as well as I could with my arm. By this time two of our people came in view, which encouraged me to struggle all I could. The Indian at this instant pushed me backward; and I fell over a log, at the same time aiming a violent blow at my head, which in part spent its force on me and laid me out for dead. The first thing I afterward remembered was my good friends around me giving me all the assistance in their power for my relief. They told me I was senseless for about an hour.

1) Why do you think Indians in Southwest Virginia would have resented and attacked the settlers?
2) What do you think the settlers could have done to prevented attacks or at least made them less likely?

For More Information About Chief Benge
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~vaschs2/chief_benge.htm

http://donchesnut.com/genealogy/pages/bobbenge.htm