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Author: John Foster West
Publisher:
Published: 1993
Total Pages: 164
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKTom Dula's trial unveiled a sordid story of sexual immorality, resentment, jealousy and bitterness, and he was convicted and hanged before a huge crowd in Statesville, an event that drew national attention. The story lived on, in time becoming entwined with myth and legend, because it inspired a ballad that was sung throughout the mountains.
Author: John Edward Fletcher
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
Published: 2012-11-06
Total Pages: 199
ISBN-13: 1625844999
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe crime that shocked post-Civil War America and inspired the folk song that became The Kingston Trio’s hit, “Tom Dooley.” At the conclusion of the Civil War, Wilkes County, North Carolina, was the site of the nation’s first nationally publicized crime of passion. In the wake of a tumultuous love affair and a mysterious chain of events, Tom Dooley was tried, convicted and hanged for the murder of Laura Foster. This notorious crime became an inspiration for musicians, writers and storytellers ever since, creating a mystery of mythic proportions. Through newspaper articles, trial documents and public records, Dr. John E. Fletcher brings this dramatic case to life, providing the long-awaited factual account of the legendary murder. Join the investigation into one of the country’s most enduring thrillers. “Fletcher has spent a great deal of time researching almost all of the characters involved with the Foster homicide and has gone further than any researcher I know in establishing the relationships—blood, marriage and social—between the major actors in the tragedy.”—Statesville Record & Landmark
Author:
Publisher:
Published: 1960
Total Pages: 420
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAuthor: Robert V. Wells
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Published: 2009
Total Pages: 274
ISBN-13: 0252076508
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAn engaging survey of what folk songs tell us about the American past
Author: Jan Kronsell
Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand
Published: 2020-02-24
Total Pages: 417
ISBN-13: 8743014674
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe murder of Laura Foster in 1866 has been the source of many legends and both in fiction and non-fiction it has inspired many authors. The murder, which in the end led to the conviction and execution of Thomas C. Dula, also inspired the famous song, The Ballad of Tom Dooley. In this book I go through the surviving records from the time and tell the story based on these facts, before I try to give my own explanation of what actually happened in Western North Carolina in the difficult times following the American Civil War.
Author: Daniel W. Patterson
Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press
Published: 2003-06-19
Total Pages: 238
ISBN-13: 0807860913
DOWNLOAD EBOOKOn a wintry night in 1831, a man named Charlie Silver was murdered with an axe and his body burned in a cabin in the mountains of North Carolina. His young wife, Frankie Silver, was tried and hanged for the crime. In later years people claimed that a tree growing near the ruins of the old cabin was cursed--that anyone who climbed into it would be unable to get out. Daniel Patterson uses this "accurst" tree as a metaphor for the grip the story of the murder has had on the imaginations of the local community, the wider world, and the noted Appalachian traditional singer and storyteller Bobby McMillon. For nearly 170 years, the memory of Frankie Silver has been kept alive by a ballad and local legends and by the news accounts, fiction, plays, and other works they inspired. Weaving Bobby McMillon's personal story--how and why he became a taleteller and what this story means to him--into an investigation of the Silver murder, Patterson explores the genesis and uses of folklore and the interplay between folklore, social and personal history, law, and narrative as people and communities try to understand human character and fate. Bobby McMillon is a furniture and hospital worker in Lenoir, North Carolina, with deep roots in Appalachia and a lifelong passion for learning and performing traditional songs and tales. He has received a North Carolina Folk Heritage Award from the state's Arts Council and also the North Carolina Folklore Society's Brown-Hudson Folklore Award.
Author: Conrad Eugene Ostwalt
Publisher: Popular Press
Published: 1998
Total Pages: 224
ISBN-13: 9780879727604
DOWNLOAD EBOOKLove Valley is a small town in rural North Carolina. Its genesis in 1954 marked the fulfillment of a dream for founder Andy Barker. Barker cultivated two visions as a young man--he wanted to build a Christian community, and he wanted to be a cowboy. The result of his vision is Barker's utopian experiment. The town boasts a saloon, general store, hitching posts, and rodeos. Yet, above all of this stands a little church--the heart of what Barker conceived as his Christian utopia. This unique combination has led to more than forty years of philanthropic ventures, controversial events such as the Love Valley Rock Festival, stories and legends, and political ambition. Love Valley: An American Utopia captures the history of this town in narrative form while arguing that Love Valley's founders were motivated by utopian goals.
Author: Sharyn McCrumb
Publisher: Macmillan
Published: 2011-09-13
Total Pages: 320
ISBN-13: 1429990481
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe Ballad of Tom Dooley is a literary triumph—what began as a fictional re-telling of the historical account of one of the most famous mountain ballads of all time became an astonishing revelation of the real culprit responsible for the murder of Laura Foster Hang down your head, Tom Dooley...The folk song, made famous by the Kingston Trio, recounts a tragedy in the North Carolina mountains after the Civil War. Laura Foster, a simple country girl, was murdered and her lover Tom Dula was hanged for the crime. The sensational elements in the case attracted national attention: a man and his beautiful, married lover accused of murdering the other-woman; the former governor of North Carolina spearheading the defense; and a noble gesture from the prisoner on the eve of his execution, saving the woman he really loved. With the help of historians, lawyers, and researchers, Sharyn McCrumb visited the actual sites, studied the legal evidence, and uncovered a missing piece of the story that will shock those who think they already know what happened—and may also bring belated justice to an innocent man. What seemed at first to be a sordid tale of adultery and betrayal was transformed by the new discoveries into an Appalachian Wuthering Heights. Tom Dula and Ann Melton had a profound romance spoiled by the machinations of their servant, Pauline Foster. Bringing to life the star-crossed lovers of this mountain tragedy, Sharyn McCrumb gifts understanding and compassion to her compelling tales of Appalachia, and solidifies her status as one of today's great Southern writers.
Author: Paul Slade
Publisher: Soundcheck Books
Published: 2015-11-01
Total Pages: 151
ISBN-13: 099294807X
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe Gory Stories Behind The Murder Ballads Cheerfully vulgar, revelling in gore, and always with an eye on the main chance, murder ballads are tabloid newspapers set to music, carrying word of the latest ‘orrible murders to an insatiable public. Victims are bludgeoned, stabbed or shot in every verse and killers often hanged, but the songs themselves never die. Instead, they mutate – morphing to suit local place names as they criss cross the Atlantic and continue to fascinate each generation’s biggest musical stars. Paul Slade traces this fascinating genre’s history through eight of its greatest songs. Stagger Lee’s “biographers” alone include Duke Ellington, James Brown, Bob Dylan, Dr John, The Clash and Nick Cave. No two tell his story in quite the same way. Covering eight classic murder ballads, including “Knoxville Girl”, “Tom Dooley” and “Frankie & Johnny”, Slade investigates the real-life murder which inspired each song and traces its musical development down the decades. Billy Bragg, The Bad Seeds’ Mick Harvey, Laura Cantrell, Rennie Sparks of The Handsome Family and a host of other leading musicians add their own insights.
Author: Norman Cohen
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Published: 2008-09-30
Total Pages: 774
ISBN-13: 0313088101
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis state-by-state collection of folksongs describes the history, society, culture, and events characteristic of all fifty states. Unlike all other state folksong collections, this one does not focus on songs collected in the particular states, but rather on songs concerning the life and times of the people of that state. The topics range from the major historical events, such as the Boston Tea Party, the attack on Fort Sumter, and the California Gold Rush, to regionally important events such as disasters and murders, labor problems, occupational songs, ethnic conflicts. Some of the songs will be widely recognized, such as Casey Jones, Marching Through Georgia, or Sweet Betsy from Pike. Others, less familiar, have not been reprinted since their original publication, but deserve to be studied because of what they tell about the people of these United States, their loves, labors, and losses, and their responses to events. The collection is organized by regions, starting with New England and ending with the states bordering the Pacific Ocean, and by states within each region. For each state there are from four to fifteen songs presented, with an average of 10 songs per state. For each song, a full text is reprented, followed by discussion of the song in its historical context. References to available recordings and other versions are given. Folksongs, such as those discussed here, are an important tool for historians and cultural historians because they sample experiences of the past at a different level from that of contemporary newspaper accounts and academic histories. These songs, in a sense, are history writ small. Includes: Away Down East, The Old Granite State, Connecticut, The Virginian Maid's Lament, Carry Me Back to Old Virginny, I'm Going Back to North Carolina, Shut up in Cold Creek Mine, Ain't God Good to Iowa?, Dakota Land, Dear Prairie Home, Cheyenne Boys, I'm off for California, and others.
