[Wallace T.]

Ironically, much of western North Carolina was pro-Union during the Civil War, as was the case in Eastern Tennessee. Slavery never took much of a hold here, and the mountain people saw no point in fighting for the low country plantation owners. They were mostly self-sufficient and had little need for cheaper English and French imports vs. the more costly Yankee manufactured products. However, what the Confederacy couldn't suppress, nor New Deal/Great Society bribery, the influx of rich liberals has: the independence of the mountain people.

[CatHerd]

East Tennessee was mixed and there really was “brother against brother” in some areas, especially in the far northeastern part. Union County sort of seceded from Tennessee and was pro-Union. Like western NC, slavery was never much of a thing, even in the river valleys. Up in the hills and mountains, lots of people had never even met a black person up close and personal, even into the 1990s. Even in the late 1980s, there were “sundown towns” in the northeast, which I found quite shocking at the time.

I was sad to see the changes in Asheville and Black Mountain. It had always had a seasonal population of wealthy folks in summer who wintered in Florida (previously the Carolina coast). Then came in influx of libs from California and New York. Totally changed the character of those once easy-going, peaceful and quiet towns.