The nearly two dozen posts I have published so far have focused on the Whisnant family, the first of whom entered the North Carolina Piedmont in the 1750s. My Whisnant grandparents,…
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
The Consensus Myth: “No Slaves or Slaveholders in the Mountains” John Preston Arthur’s popular 1914 history put the matter of slaves and slaveholders in the mountains succinctly and unambiguously::…
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 moreAsbury’s Asheville: 1900-1907
For Starters: Some Guesses as to Why Asbury Chose Asheville Although the romantic designation as the Land of the Sky was bestowed upon Asheville in Christian Reid’s 1875 novel, this…
Read moreThe Land of the Sky at the End of the Line: Asbury and Ella
My grandparents Asbury Whisnant (1872-1955) and Sarah Ella Austin (1869-1942) both grew up down the mountain, and came to the Land of the Sky as adults–he to find a job…
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