The Unknown Appalachia By Camille Crawford
Amid the pines of rural Appalachia, folktales are passed down by generations dating back to colonial America. Just as the tangled mountains stretch across states, so do these ghost stories, captivating all who come across them. Like natives in the new world, those who live along the Appalachian trail are known to be eerie towards tourists, warning them to be cautious around night. Stretching over two thousand miles and reaching six thousand feet, the trail is a test of Mother Nature and its capabilities. Even so, its beauty was an ungodly force to early settlers, who were not accustomed to living among such a natural force. From isolation, settlements along the winding Appalachian road battled more than the forces of nature but also the spirits along it. The most well-known tale surrounding the million-year-old trail began during the Colonial era in late 1804 when a North Carolinian frontier encountered a witch-like entity along the banks of Red River, Tennessee. The Bell family hoped for prosperity in the new land, and with the labor of enslaved people, they cleared their land and began farming. However, the Appalachian mountains are among the oldest mountain ranges on earth, accommodating generations of different people and, with them, their history. John Bell, the father, was the most prominent victim of strange occurrences on his land and the first to experience it. The first encounter with the infamous “Bell Witch” happened in 1817 after the Bell family had thrived for over a decade. After John walked through his cornfields one night, he encountered a “dog-like” creature, and quickly grabbed his shotgun to attack it. Soon after John’s encounter with the beast, strange disturbances in the Bell home occurred through loud knocking, gnawing sounds, and chains dragging across the floor. After the family ignored the witch’s warnings, the attacks turned physical towards certain members. John and his daughter received most of the abuse, including pinching, striking, and pulling hair. The witch also began having entire conversations with certain members of the family, most of the time as threats and insults towards their father, John Bell. After three years of the Bell family’s torture, John Bell’s physical health began to decline. After spending months bedridden, Johns’s conditions eventually led to his demise in late 1820. After his death, encounters with the witch declined, and one day, they stopped altogether. The legend of the Bell Family Witch lives on today because it has influenced many books and movies and inspired hundreds of tourists to drive to the rural outskirts of Adams, Tennessee. Stories like The Bell Witch are passed down through generations, but the true origins of these folktales can become blurred. As said by Irene Yimmongkol, a staff reporter from The Science Survey, “People turn to superstitions in order to retain a sense of understanding when the situations they face are out of their control” (Yimmongkol, “The Spine-Chilling Stories of Appalachia”). As the reporter describes, the folklore surrounding the Appalachian mountains mirrors the natural fear of the unknown. The settlers who isolated themselves along the mysterious formations encountered the superstitious figures as if their psychological essence was manifesting in the otherworld. Human nature will always find solace in explaining the unexplainable, just as the Bell family deemed their evil spirit a witch.
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