The Appalachian mountains runs from New York all the way down to Mississippi. How come people are always talking about the Hill Billies in the southern part of Appalachia but not the north like Pennsylvania. Are they different?
Posted by pooteenn@reddit | AskAnAmerican | View on Reddit | 61 comments
adfi_tgab@reddit
Pennsyltucky is a thing
SaintsFanPA@reddit
This. There is Pittsburgh and Philly. In between is Alabama.
Pete_Iredale@reddit
Seriosuly, I've never seen so many anti-abortion signs and god billboards in my life.
p0ultrygeist1@reddit
PA is one of the easiest states to buy firearms at auction as an out-of-stater too. Pay cash and it’s yours scott free on the day
Northman86@reddit
Yes they are in fact different. Appalachia was largely settled by Scots Irish from Georgia to West Virginia, while Pensylvania was largely settled(initially) by Quakers and Germans, also the Appalachians in Pennsylvania are a lot less prominant in terms of hilliness, so they are very diffrerent culturally.
CrashZ07@reddit
Northern Appalachia is more industrialized than Southern Appalachia so it typically doesn’t have a negative stereotype attached to it. You can still find hillbillies in PA and NY though.
sean8877@reddit
Yeah I lived in upstate NY for years, lots "northern rednecks" there
No-Clerk-5600@reddit
1) In Pennsylvania, the mountains are called the Alleghenies.
2) Western PA most definitely has hillbillies.
shelwood46@reddit
Not just the Alleghenies, I am in NEPA, the Poconos/Blue Mountains, 10 miles from the NJ border, and the Appalachian trail is 12 miles from my house (on the other side of the Delaware River, in NJ).
shnanogans@reddit
I was listening to a podcast and they were talking about the term “swamp yankee” which has to be the most brutal sounding slur for white people I’ve ever heard. It’s specifically about rural New England WASPS
ColossusOfChoads@reddit
My guess would be that once you get into NY and New England, there's less of that Scots-Irish "let's dump them on the frontier as a buffer between us and the Indians" history.
Coodog15@reddit
Also for the recorder the Appalachian run all the way to Scotland. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Pangean_Mountains
manchotendormi@reddit
I lovingly refer to my husband as “my redneck yankee.” He grew up on a farm in rural New England. Some of his relatives are also the most openly and despicably sexist and racist people I have ever met, despite being from the South myself.
cleon42@reddit
Appalachia is Appalachia, and Central PA is just as "redneck" as North Carolina.
MrLongWalk@reddit
It's largely just stereotyping
haveanairforceday@reddit
I guess it depends on what you picture when you say hillbilly. Arizona has plenty of country people of all sorts. We've got real deal cowboys sleeping in the dirt with their cattle, hunters going out for a week at a time, mountain-man style people living in alpine forests, off-road enthusiasts, long distance hikers, farmers, and most every variety of rough blue collar type you can think of with the exception of oil workers. But we don't really have communities like I picture in Appalachia/smoky mountains with distinct dialects and folk stories, music, and traditions. That's what I think of as "hill billy" when someone isn't just using it as an insult.
ucbiker@reddit
Yeah hillbilly is a pejorative specifically for Appalachian people. There’s definitely “mountain people” in the other ranges but they’re not, strictly speaking, “hillbillies.”
Fancy-Primary-2070@reddit
Gangsters were a certain type of criminal. Italian immigrants from Sicily had organized crime they brought with them here. There was organized crime in those cities that didn't touch most of the country. They settled in NY and spread to NJ.
There were different laws, cultures at play. Scotch Irish come with a distrust of authority and lower education that those in the New England Appalachian areas.
MrLongWalk@reddit
Are you aware that there are gangsters other than the Italian mob in NYC and NJ?
Fancy-Primary-2070@reddit
Sure. But pretending that the Italian mob wasn't a huge problem in those towns 1920-1940s is rewriting history. Italians ran NY. And I grew up Italian mob adjacent. My best friend's mother was a made man's moll. And that was in the 1970s.. But I'm aware of how politicians curried favor and every neighborhood had their own political/crime bosses. Nobody had a mob as organized, structured, and intertwined with both the church and the gov.
traumatransfixes@reddit
Everyone I ever met who claimed to be Italian American said this. And I’ve never really left ohio. It’s kind of embarrassing.
Because we all know it’s a stereotype! And it’s offensive! There is no mafia, and you’re the last person I’d want to see perpetuating it!
It’s also sort of making up a lot about people. Like Scots Irish is a Thing in America only, and it’s not even remotely factually accurate. We also don’t say, “Scotch Irish.”
Fancy-Primary-2070@reddit
LOL. Do you really think there's was no mob? You are foolish. Silly.
XXXX was made from NYC and bought my best friends mom a Italian restaurant and then bought her a house and a bar in our college town. I got to live in her house- it was 500K and that was over 30 years ago. He even furnished it. We were college kids drinking out of 50 dollar Waterford crystal glasses. When we were 15 we got stopped by cops driving his Caddy around. He didn't care. He didn't worry about cops because we were in an Italian run town and wasn't worried. He let us stay at the beach for a week when we were 15- rented us a place and then gave us about 3000 dollars to spend. We had a purse with just a wad of cash and nothing else. We didn't even have a license. When he came and had to make calls every one had to leave the house. We weren't even allowed in the yard.
I don't even now if they exist like they did 30-40 years ago but wikipedia says they do: "In the 21st century, the Mafia has continued to be involved in a broad spectrum of illegal activities. These include murder, extortion, corruption of public officials, gambling, infiltration of legitimate businesses, labor racketeering, loan sharking, tax fraud schemes and stock manipulation schemes."
I only knew about bookies and drugs. My boss/friend was supposedly a "kingpin" according to the papers and I got dragged into it because I did the payroll. I wrote a bunch of checks to guys with long Italian names he claimed were "outside sales". It was just money laundering though a legit business though and he always kept me out of it. He would say "you can't know more". He lost his license after getting caught going over 100 twice in the same day. The next week he had me trade in his red Mercedes for a blue one because he thought the color was too flashy. I got to be his "chauffeur". I got to go to dark secret restaurants in NYC that only had old Italian men that I dont think spoke English.
But there was a big trial and he went to the federal pen for over 10 years.
Ha. I forgot about those days now that I'm a old lady just likes to make care packages for my kids at college.
Last I knew my friend owned a parking garage and lived on Newbury Street in Boston.
"I'm the last person" What the fuck does that mean?
It’s also sort of making up a lot about people. Like Scots Irish is a Thing in America only, and it’s not even remotely factually accurate. We also don’t say, “Scotch Irish.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotch-Irish_Americans
traumatransfixes@reddit
Bro, this is mostly a sopranos quote. Frankly, I’m embarrassed and ashamed.
Also, I don’t have the time or interest to talk about the house of Stewart and various German nobles running Scotland with Irish names who came to Appalachia and claim to be Irish.
Maybe another time.
Fancy-Primary-2070@reddit
Well now I've doxxed myself and have to make another burner account.
No-Clerk-5600@reddit
Not from Steubenville, Youngstown, or Cleveland, I take it.
traumatransfixes@reddit
Well, it depends.
MrLongWalk@reddit
I think you missed my point, almost entirely.
Fancy-Primary-2070@reddit
Then put a finer point on it?
MrLongWalk@reddit
just as Italian mobsters in NYC and NJ are THE stereotypical example of mobs in media, Southern Appalachian are THE stereotypical example of hillbillies
neither are the totality of the species, there are hillbillies outside southern appalachia and gangsters outside NYC and NJ, but both are the stereotypical go-to
capisce?
Fancy-Primary-2070@reddit
And I guess you didn't get my point. It's a stereotype for a reason.
The people that moved there lived there for generations because there were mining jobs. It's a unique situation and few places that are similar. Ask people from that region if other regions qualify. There's literally people from Southern App who put have put Appalachian as their race.
MrLongWalk@reddit
and I'm trying to explain to OP that just because its a stereotype for a reason doesn't mean there's a reality outside the stereotype
ImLittleNana@reddit
Well, we’ve only had Italian monsters in New Orleans since the late 19th century, so not that long /s
haveanairforceday@reddit
Las Vegas, Los Angeles and the cartels that still operate throughout the southwest, Florida and Texas would like a word. Organized crime and mafias certainly aren't and weren't just in NY and NJ. Honestly, Chicago's gangsters were more famous than NYs
Fancy-Primary-2070@reddit
I dont know. I dont keep track of them
But wikipedia -- Although the Mafia used to be nationwide, today most of its activities are confined to the Northeast and Chicago.
Where the Chicago Mafia bigger then the five families? I don't think so, but Al Capone certainly put Chicago mob in the news and on people's lips.
haveanairforceday@reddit
Check out some of the history of the Mafia in the origins of Las Vegas. It's pretty interesting
revengeappendage@reddit
Man, it’s finally my time to shine as a pennsyltuckian. And I’m late to the party lol
Eudaimonics@reddit
In NY, the Appalachians were extremely wealthy and well educated.
This is where IBM got it start and where Corning Inc (the guys that invented the glass in your cell phone) is still located.
Definitely have fallen on tough times, but there’s still a lot of old wealth.
Warm-Entertainer-279@reddit
Everybody knows that New York and Pennsylvania have hill billies. The areas in Pennsylvania in between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh are known as "The Alabama of the northeast" or "Pennsyltucky". Upstate New York is also called the Alabama of the northeast occasionally.
ratteb@reddit
Consider- When these areas where settled as you get further North living in the mountains could be tough. Much smaller population. Fun Fact - parts of the UK are from the same chain.
Watts_RS@reddit
Born and raised in the south (panhandle of Florida, aka the redneck riviera) and the most "stereotypical southern" people I've ever met in my life were in upstate new york.
Kestrel_Iolani@reddit
The Alps range from Monaco, through France, Switzerland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Germany, Austria, and Slovenia, but most folks think of them as bring uniquely Swiss. Does that answer your question?
Tommy_Wisseau_burner@reddit
Obviously you never seen the stereotype map of New Jersey lol
Zardozin@reddit
Because Appalachia in Pennsylvania is wall to wall cabins for steelworkers.
Hatweed@reddit
They do. We call it Pennsyltucky.
CupBeEmpty@reddit
The Appalachians go from Maine to Georgia.
We have hill billies up here in Maine but we just call them Mainers.
TillPsychological351@reddit
The Appalachians actually run through New England and into the Maritime provinces of Canada. St. Pierre and Miquelon are part of the same geologic formation, so the answer.to the trivia question "What countries do the Appalachians run through?" is "USA, Canada and France".
Yankee_chef_nen@reddit
The Appalachian Mountains run a little further north than New York. The northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail is at Mount Katahdin in Maine.
danhm@reddit
We call them things like "swamp yankees" here in New England
Designer_Head_3761@reddit
Hillbillies? We prefer Appalachian Americans
Curmudgy@reddit
Appalachia is a cultural region that’s not identical with the Appalachian Mountains. I’m not sure which got its name first.
The northern part of the Appalachian Mountains has several sub-ranges with their own cultural identities, so they’re talked about more at that level, but being smaller and with less concerning impact on their residents, they don’t get as much national attention.
NArcadia11@reddit
There’s definitely hillbillies in the Appalachian part of PA. That’s why we call it pennsyltucky
TheBimpo@reddit
Because stereotyping against the south goes back a long time.
MyFace_UrAss_LetsGo@reddit
It’s hilarious the amount of ridiculous and ignorant comments I’ve received for simply telling people I’m from Mississippi when traveling.
Fancy-Primary-2070@reddit
The stereotype was from Southern elite- hillbillies, rednecks, and "white trash" are Southern terms.
Yankees, hillbillies and rednecks were backwards.
dystopiadattopia@reddit
Oh, they're hillbillies.
Ghost_Pulaski1910@reddit
Ramp Hollow, by Steve Stoll, is a great account of Appalachia and how and why the hillbillie stereotype was created to demonize people to steal their (mainly) mineral rights.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33931717-ramp-hollow
Fancy-Primary-2070@reddit
They run through Massachusetts, NH and Maine, too.
Some states had mandatory, free public schooling.
MaeClementine@reddit
The Appalachian hillbillies definitely exist in Pennsylvania
QuercusSambucus@reddit
I've heard people say that Pennsylvania consists of Pittsburgh, Philly, and then Alabama in between. They absolutely talk about rural PA the same way.
wormbreath@reddit
They call it pennsyltucky for a reason
Crayshack@reddit
They're still Hillbillies in PA. There's also Hillbillies in the Ozarks in Missouri.