Reprint of the 2d, augm. ed., 1969, published by Shenandoah Pub. House, Strasburg, Va.

Bordered by the Blue Ridge and the Allegheny Mountains, the Shenandoah Valley forms a natural corridor to the western parts of Virginia, Tennessee, and North Carolina. Early American settlers followed the valley as one of the first routes westward. In Shenandoah Valley Folklife, Scott Hamilton Suter documents the many peoples who have left their marks on the folkways of the region--Native Americans, Germans, Swiss, Scots- Irish, and African Americans. His research reveals how the first settlers there built homes, how they worshiped, and how they passed on legends and musical traditions that continue to play a role in the community today. Throughout the book, Suter argues that the valley's past plays a definitive role in its present. He finds family traditions still thriving in crafts like white oak basketmaking, as well as in cooking and architecture. To illuminate the change and continuity in religious life, he focuses on Old Order Mennonites, the Church of the Brethren, and Baptists in the region. Using both historical sources and his own field work, Suter shows how folklife remains a powerful, resonant force in the Shenandoah, and how new immigrants are adapting and adding their own traditions to long-standing customs. Scott Hamilton Suter is curator of the Shenandoah Valley Folk Art & Heritage Center in Dayton, Virginia. He was a Senior Fulbright Scholar and University Fellow at The George Washington University and wrote "Tradition and Fashion: Cabinetmaking in the Upper Shenandoah Valley, 1850-1900" and has had articles in the "Folklore Historian" and the "Virginia Explorer."

Has the significance of the Shenandoah Valley during the Civil War been overestimated? An extensive array of primary sources--including Philip Sheridan's official report--point to this revisionist conclusion.

The abolitionist John Brown still roams the West Virginia panhandle--and beyond. In Lexington, a statue sheds real tears, mourning Virginians killed in battle. Decades of abuse at a sanatorium unleashed malevolent entities in Staunton. Spirits of Native Americans, Civil War soldiers and children frequent natural springs in Frederick County and caves near Strasburg. Ghosts stay free of charge at the nation's oldest inn in Middletown, and at the Natural Bridge Hotel, phantom children play in the halls. Visitors from beyond the grave enjoy live performances at several theaters in the region, while spectral soldiers gather for combat in the battlefields scattered throughout the area. Join Denver Michaels as he delves into folklore, eyewitness accounts and urban legends to bring you the best ghost stories from the Shenandoah Valley.

Shenandoah County, in the years prior to the Civil War, was a prosperous place. Nestled within the Shenandoah Valley, it was a haven for agricultural commerce fueled by slave labor. Integral railways and transportation routes passed through Shenandoah County, feeding its impressive agricultural output throughout the Virginia. With the outbreak of Civil War, all of that would change. Four major battles took place in and around Shenandoah County New Market, Toms Brook, Fishers Hill, and Cedar Creek. Although the proceedings of these historic battles have been well-documented, the effect the combat had on residents of Shenandoah County has receded into the background. Now, author Hal Shape brings the lives of county residents to fore, recounting how their spirits were tested during this dark hour of American history.

During the 1930s in the United States, the Works Progress Administration developed the Federal Writers’ Project to support writers and artists while making a national effort to document the country’s shared history and culture. The American Guide series consists of individual guides to each of the states. Little-known authors—many of whom would later become celebrated literary figures—were commissioned to write these important books. John Steinbeck, Saul Bellow, Zora Neale Hurston, and Ralph Ellison are among the more than 6,000 writers, editors, historians, and researchers who documented this celebration of local histories. Photographs, drawings, driving tours, detailed descriptions of towns, and rich cultural details exhibit each state’s unique flavor. The WPA Guide to Virgina documents the vital role the Old Dominion played in the history of the first 150 years of the United States and before. It is packed with historical information, particularly from the Colonial and Revolutionary years, and supplemented with photos of historic buildings and sites. Also worth note are the artistic photographs of the state’s ordinary people and its natural beauty, including the Shenandoah and Chesapeake Bay regions.

A history of this national park written in conjunction with its 50th anniversary.

Far too many towns and cities across the United States continue to deny the history of the interstate trade of enslaved men, women, and children, and are resistant to recognizing sites associated with enslavement. The Shenandoah Valley of Virginia is one of these regions, and its historical texts and public history sites perpetuate the racist belief that enslaved individuals were not a factor in the establishment and history of this region because the census numbers in the antebellum era were ‘low’. In the case of the valley, myriad discourses have created a false story of the non-presence of African Americans that, as it became increasingly replicated, became more and more thought of as the truth. This book refocuses the study of enslavement and African-American history on the narratives of two individuals who were enslaved in the valley region, Bethany Veney and the distinctively named John Quincy Adams, to help build upon the nascent scholarship of valley enslavement and emancipation. By privileging the narratives, it asserts that enslaved individuals were astute, self-conscious historians who knew that they were forging a literary style, but also amending the historical record that had kept them absent. The book advocates the unearthing of a more complete and equitable American past, but also pushes for an interrogation of how and why false mythological pasts have been constructed and examines the legacies these myths have left behind.