My previous post conveyed as much as I have been able to discover about the “little house behind the big house” setting of the Whisnant family’s life on Asheville’s South…
Read moreGlimpses into the Daily Lives of the Whisnants
Working Class Family Behind the Big House: Asbury, Ella, and Their Children: 1907-1918
Living Large and Small: Class and Difference on an In-town Estate This post examines the place where Asbury and Ella lived with their family for fifteen years after 1907, and seeks to employ the…
Read moreOur Mountain Home: Asbury’s Encounter with a Changing Asheville, 1900-1907
A rapidly growing and changing Asheville, 1900-1907: Victor Talking Machines, a street railway workers’ union, black and Jewish professionals and entrepreneurs, bars and tourist hotels, and moving pictures at the Gayety Theater.
Read moreRetrospective I: A Primer on the Sad Truths of Slavery in Asheville, Buncombe County and Western North Carolina
Contents1 The Consensus Myth: “No Slaves or Slaveholders in the Mountains”2 Non-White People Were Already There Before There Was a (White) There There3 Slaves Came to Buncombe County Early, and…
Read moreHow’s That Again?: Some New Angles on Asheville and Western North Carolina History
Perennial Problems with “Land of the Sky” History Since it first appeared in 1875, the “Land of the Sky” descriptor for Asheville has been perennially present, enticing and marketable.…
Read moreMid-Course Correction: Ella Goes to (Mid-Course) Asheville, 1907
A previous post explored Ella Austin’s and Asbury Whisnant’s lives during the post-Civil War years–before they both took jobs at the State Hospital at Morganton around 1894. Another focused on the…
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