A Tree Accurst: Bobby McMillon and Stories of Frankie Silver [Paperback]

Daniel W. Patterson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 8, 1999

On 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.

Editorial Reviews

Review

A Nota Bene selection of The Chronicle of Higher Education

By intertwining historical event and present day account, Patterson reminds us that our understanding of history is always mediated by the sources through which we receive our knowledge of it and that, conversely, the scripts we accept as historical truth influence our own self-awareness. (North Carolina History Review)

Patterson does a tremendous job in presenting a thorough and insightful look at the complex relationship between historical fact and the oral tradition. (Southern Cultures)

A Tree Accurst is a fascinating book--one that reveals much about oral history, the transmission of folklore, and the social history of Appalachia in the nineteenth century. (Altina Waller, University of Connecticut)

This stunning work is a carefully researched and ethically solid examination of the ways in which regional folklore functions in the cultural construction of history, law, and gender. (Barre Toelken, Utah State University)

From the Inside Flap

In the 1830s, young Frankie Silver was tried and hung for killing her husband with an axe and burning the body in their home in the N.C. mountains. Now, 170 years later, the story still has a grip on the community and in the wider world, where it has been kept alive by a ballad, local legends, fiction, drama, and news accounts. Using the Silver case, this book examines the interplay between folklore and history. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press (December 8, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807825646
• ISBN-13: 978-0807825648
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 9.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,422,516 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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