Exercises — Chapter 7: The Frontier Economy

Discussion Questions

1. The Self-Sufficiency Myth

The chapter argues that the "self-sufficiency myth" is one of the most persistent and misleading narratives about Appalachian history. In your own words, explain why the myth is inaccurate. Then consider: why has this myth been so durable? What cultural or political purposes does it serve? Who benefits from imagining mountain people as completely self-sufficient?

2. Ginseng and Global Markets

A family digging ginseng in a remote hollow in western North Carolina in 1800 was, through a chain of intermediaries, participating in global trade that reached Canton, China. What does this single example tell us about the concept of "isolation" as applied to Appalachian communities? How should this example change the way we think about the frontier economy?

3. The Commons System

The open range or commons system allowed families with very little private land to maintain substantial livestock herds by grazing animals on unfenced, commonly held land. When enclosure laws eventually replaced this system, families who had depended on the commons lost access to a critical economic resource. Drawing on this example, discuss the broader tension between private property rights and common resources. Can you identify modern parallels where commonly held resources have been enclosed or privatized?

4. Women's Invisible Economy

The chapter argues that women's economic production — spinning, weaving, dairying, food preservation, herbal medicine — constituted roughly half of the frontier economy but was systematically undercounted because it did not appear in tax assessments, court records, or market transactions. What does this invisibility tell us about how economic activity is measured and valued? Are there modern parallels where significant economic production goes uncounted?

5. Whiskey as Currency

Explain why whiskey functioned as currency on the Appalachian frontier. What specific properties made it effective as a medium of exchange? How does understanding whiskey's economic role change your interpretation of the Whiskey Rebellion (which we will study in Chapter 10)?

Analytical Exercises

Exercise A: Reading a Store Ledger

Reread the country store ledger entry for James McPheeters in the Primary Sources section. Then answer:

1. What goods did McPheeters bring to the store? Categorize each as a forest product, an agricultural product, or a manufactured product.
2. What goods did he receive? Categorize each as locally produced or imported from outside the region.
3. McPheeters ended with a positive balance. What could he do with that credit?
4. What does this single transaction reveal about the relationship between the mountain economy and the wider market economy?
5. If McPheeters had been unable to find ginseng that year, how might his transaction — and his family's material life — have been different?

Exercise B: Mapping the Ginseng Trade

Trace the journey of a pound of ginseng from an Appalachian mountainside to a Chinese apothecary's shop. Create a written or visual map of the route, identifying:

1. The digger (mountain family)
2. The local merchant/storekeeper
3. The regional trading center
4. The East Coast port (Philadelphia)
5. The ocean voyage (around the Cape of Good Hope or later through other routes)
6. Canton (Guangzhou)
7. The Chinese domestic market

At each stage, identify who handled the ginseng, what value they added, and how much of the final sale price they likely captured. What does this value chain reveal about who profited most from the ginseng trade?

Exercise C: The Droving Economy

The chapter states that in peak years, an estimated 150,000–175,000 hogs passed through Asheville on the Buncombe Turnpike, bound for markets in South Carolina. Consider the following questions:

1. If an average hog weighed 150 pounds and sold for approximately three cents per pound, what was the total value of the annual drove passing through Asheville?
2. The chapter notes that many of these hogs were destined to feed enslaved workers on lowcountry plantations. What does this economic connection tell us about the relationship between the mountain economy and the slave economy?
3. Who profited from the droving trade: the small farmers who sold individual animals, the drovers who assembled and drove the herds, or the plantation owners who purchased the pork? Discuss how value was distributed along this supply chain.

Exercise D: Comparing Economic Zones

The chapter describes three overlapping economic zones: the cultivated zone (fields and gardens), the forest zone (hunting, gathering, ginseng), and the open range (livestock and the commons). Create a table comparing these three zones across the following dimensions:

Exercise E: The Extraction Pattern

The chapter introduces what will become a recurring theme in this book: the extraction of natural resources from Appalachia for the benefit of distant markets and outside capital. Identify the elements of this pattern in the frontier economy:

1. What resources were being extracted?
2. Where did the profits flow?
3. Who bore the costs (environmental depletion, labor, risk)?
4. How does the frontier-era ginseng trade compare to the later coal industry in terms of who benefited and who paid?

Primary Source Analysis

Source Analysis 1: The Traveler's Account

Reread the 1828 traveler's account of encountering a hog drove in western North Carolina. Then answer:

1. What is the traveler's tone? How does he describe the scene?
2. The traveler is clearly an outsider — he describes the scene as remarkable and noteworthy. What does his surprise reveal about his assumptions? What might have seemed perfectly ordinary about this scene to a local resident?
3. What logistical details can you extract from this brief account (drove sizes, sleeping arrangements, destination, expected travel time)?
4. How would you characterize the drovers' work based on this description? Does it match the image of "isolated subsistence farmers"?

Source Analysis 2: The Woman's Production Account

Reread the account attributed to the Greenbrier County farm woman (c. 1810). Then answer:

1. Calculate the total textile output she describes. How many yards of cloth did she produce in a year?
2. She describes her surplus cloth as intended for trade at a store. What does this tell us about her role in the market economy?
3. She specifies trading for "sugar and coffee" — both imported tropical commodities. What does this detail reveal about the consumer desires of frontier families?
4. Based on her account, would you classify her as a "subsistence" producer or a "market" producer? Or does the distinction break down?

Debate Framework

Debate Topic: Was the Appalachian Frontier Economy Fundamentally Different from Other American Frontier Economies?

Position A — Yes, fundamentally different: The extreme topography of Appalachia created economic conditions unlike any other American frontier. The narrow valleys, steep slopes, and limited transportation infrastructure made Appalachian communities more dependent on subsistence production, more reliant on the commons, and less integrated into national markets than frontier communities in the Midwest, the Great Plains, or the Pacific Northwest. Appalachian exceptionalism in economics is real, even if the pure self-sufficiency myth is an exaggeration.

Position B — No, not fundamentally different: The Appalachian frontier economy shared all the essential features of other American frontier economies: mixed subsistence and market production, dependence on a few key export commodities, chronic currency shortages addressed through barter and commodity money, gendered divisions of labor, and increasing market integration over time. The differences were of degree, not of kind. Treating Appalachia as economically "exceptional" feeds the same othering that this chapter critiques.

Each position should marshal specific evidence from the chapter and from broader knowledge of American frontier history. Consider: what is at stake in this debate? Why does it matter whether the Appalachian economy was "different"?

Creative and Reflective Exercises

Exercise F: A Day in the Economic Life

Choose one of the following roles and write a detailed first-person account of a single day's economic activity in an Appalachian community around 1800:

• A woman managing a household (garden, dairy, textile production)
• A ginseng digger heading into the forest in September
• A livestock drover managing a herd of 500 hogs on the Buncombe Turnpike
• A country storekeeper balancing accounts and managing trade
• An enslaved worker at a Kanawha Valley salt furnace

Your account should be historically grounded — use details from the chapter to make the scene concrete and specific. Pay attention to the physical demands of the work, the economic calculations involved, and the connections between this individual's labor and the wider economy.

Exercise G: Then and Now

The chapter draws a connection between the frontier economy's pattern of resource extraction and modern Appalachian economic structures. Research one modern Appalachian county and identify:

1. What are the primary exports? (What does the county produce for outside markets?)
2. What are the primary imports? (What does the county need to bring in?)
3. Where do the profits from the county's primary industries flow — do they stay in the community or leave it?
4. How do these patterns compare to the frontier-era economy described in this chapter?

Exercise H: The Missing Voices

The chapter's "Whose Story Is Missing?" section identifies two groups whose economic contributions are underrepresented in the historical record: Indigenous peoples (whose land and knowledge were appropriated) and enslaved people (whose labor powered the salt and iron industries). Choose one of these groups and, using resources from the Further Reading list, research their specific economic roles in the frontier Appalachian economy. Write a 500-word account that centers their perspective and contributions.