Early Appalachia and Scots-Irish

Details

Presenter

Alex Long

Date & Time

January 29, 2026 7:00 pm Eastern

Description

As America celebrates her 250th birthday, the story of those who helped defend and create this great nation are needing to be told. The first in a series about Central Appalachia, “Early Appalachia and the Scots-Irish” begins the rich and diverse history of a region often still overlooked in history and culture today. It is a story of struggle, survival, determination, and the hope of a better life; while still holding on to it’s European culture and language into the twenty-first century.

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Join us as we begin with a look at the geographic importance of Central Appalachia, and those who came to call it home.

Teaching in a rural, former coal-mining and tobacco growing region, Long is both a History/Government/Appalachian History & folklore instructor, as well as an English literature instructor in Virginia and East Tennessee; in high school, and at two local universities. For the past twelve years, he has brought both high school and university students out of their shells to share their stories and understand our local histories and culture; all to better inform those around them and around the world. Additionally, he has been a guest lecturer for Eighteenth Century British Drama and Fiction at Oxford University for three years, as well as a lecturer in Scots-Irish/Appalachian folklore at the University of Edinburgh. All these experiences combined have led him to working with the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation and the Birthplace of Country Music Museum-Bristol to help visitors, students, and educators dig deeper into the rich and diverse culture they have in Appalachia. He is furthering his research into his area, along with the rest of Virginia, to continue sharing the importance Virginia still is in the history of our nation; along with the vitality of the Appalachian region in the early history and growth of the state and nation. This is in conjunction with sharing the “true” story of Appalachia as not a region of disparity, but of history which changed the world, rich storytelling, an Indigenous and European melting pot, and the agricultural lifeblood for our early nation through the recent 21st century.

 Media Kit - Virginia American Revolution 250 Commemoration - VA250