Appalachian Hillbilly Empire: Scourge of the Americas

mojojojo

Gone Fishin'
When I first saw this title of an earlier thread Appalachian Empire: Scourge of the Americas
What popped into my head was not llamas or Native Americans, but Hillbillies.
Just for fun what would it take for the hillbilly population of the Appalachians to have there own separate state with in the Americas. Some place like something out of Deliverance:where outsiders fear to tread , and moonshining is a way of life.
 
I guess the problem is that the Appalachians are kind of in between the Eastern Seaboard and everything else. The railroads will have to go through somewhere, and also someone's gonna want to get at that coal.
And if the army's willing to scour the West for the railroad companies, they'll be willing to do it in the East for them and the coal companies, though they may've been the same entities at this time.
Still, it is a rather overlooked region, even to this day. You can pretty much do what you want so long as it's on your own property. Also, be prepared to get shot if you go on someone else's property- that's really not an exaggeration. Not that anybody would shoot you, but the minority is large enough that you're better off playing it safe and not testing the neighbors.
(Side note: a lot of people seem to get pissed off on this board when their country/region gets the short end of the stick, but for whatever reason it seems Americans don't give a damn. Do we have thicker skin? Less pride? Perhaps, oh, I dunno...a sense of proportion?)
 

NapoleonXIV

Banned
You mean West Virginia?:D:p

OK, kidding, but then again where DID the Hatfield/McCoys come from? (WVA and Kentucky, and one relative later became governor.)
 
I see it as a state with in a state, but not something the US government wants to ever admit to. Because America is a democracy the level of Appalachia as a threat is shifting every so often. For you have very hands off governers, and government, then you have those who cannot stand the "Hillbilly Empire" selling illegal alcohol, guns, and even outright bypassing the government to sell their goods without tariffs to foreign markets, thanks in no small part to the strange fleet they have moving their goods. So on the one hand no one likes the trouble they cause: shooting any who come into their land, destroying roads, and track, even "collecting" taxes from areas they consider part of their realm. However on the other hand the black and gray market the hillbilly's have is far reaching, and supply everyone from the Governor of New York to the poorest factory worker everything from opium to lace curtains.

Think of it like Zapatista army in Chiapas. They are pretty much controlling these villages, and towns, and the government wants them out. At the same time they cannot go in guns blazing for political backlash, and due to the majority of the people supporting the so-called rebels.

So they would have this army maybe a dozen or so men for each encampment, but if pushed their numbers are in the thousands. While a large army could force them into a war, the hillbilly Empire doesn't go for that. Never ones for uniformity they go to war with everything from squirrel guns to smoothbore muskets. Yet knowing the land, and more importantly how to dismantle the supplies for American forces.
 
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I think they could last as long as they do not spread out to other areas. If they stick to the hills, and act as that ever so useful scapegoat in election years, but do not actually pose a threat outside of making a train go the long way the Hillbilly Empire could last as long as they have a need.

America has always had a black market, but it was not till the 1920's that it was organized and widespread. Might be interesting to have that vice everyone hates, but must admit is a really good deal if you can find it emerge in the US early on and stay that way.

Cuase lets say such a thing works in the hills, why not the mountains in the West, the swamps in the south or the cities in the North? We may see similar "Empires" springing up of people who want to live there own way, and are willing to be American as long as such a thing is not forced upon them.
 

Xen

Banned
Just as a word of note, do not refer to those of us from Appalachia (living or past) as hillbillies. Its rather offensive, though I dont think you meant any offense by it.
 
Just as a word of note, do not refer to those of us from Appalachia (living or past) as hillbillies. Its rather offensive, though I dont think you meant any offense by it.

Bah! My father is from Nitro, West Virgina and he proudly calls himself a hillbilly. :D
 

Xen

Banned
Bah! My father is from Nitro, West Virgina and he proudly calls himself a hillbilly. :D

Of course, its like when black people use the N-word, if a white guy does it is offensive, if another black person does it, it is ignored.


Remember I am the President of the Appalachian Republic and have been for a long time, so I think I know the Constitution of the Republic slightly better than anyone else
 
Where I'm from it's kind of a farmer/miner split, with the miners well-outnumbering the farmers. Can't have a red neck if you're under ground all day after all.
 

mojojojo

Gone Fishin'
Where I'm from it's kind of a farmer/miner split, with the miners well-outnumbering the farmers. Can't have a red neck if you're under ground all day after all.
So what are they called sooty necks? My grandma had an expression "Black as a coal miner's drawers" maybe it comes from that?
 
So what are they called sooty necks? My grandma had an expression "Black as a coal miner's drawers" maybe it comes from that?

how about 'black as a coal miner's ____'
Anything but eyes (and maybe teeth) pretty much works. And this is why they use hillbilly.
 
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