Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture

The hillbilly stereotype typically portrays white residents of the Appalachian region as uneducated, culturally backward, and impoverished. Such perceptions emerged during industrialization and urbanization in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, which highlighted the contrast between the country’s burgeoning middle-class cities and the isolated, rural communities in Appalachia.

It is believed that “hillbilly” first appeared in print as a derogatory term in a 19th-century article by New York Journal correspondent Julian Hawthorne. In the article, which published on April 23, 1900, Hawthorne used the term to describe the people living in the Appalachian Mountains: “a Hill-Billie is a free and untrammelled white citizen of Alabama, who lives in the hills, has no means to speak of, dresses as he can, talks as he pleases, drinks whiskey when he gets it, and fires off his revolver as the fancy takes him” (Hillbilly Music: Source & Symbol. UNC Libraries, 2002.) Midcentury television shows the Beverly Hillbillies and The Andy Griffith Show portrayed comical, simple-minded characters who were uncultured but basically good-natured. In the 1970s, the stereotype took a darker turn with films like Deliverance (1972) and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974), which portrayed white Appalachians as incestuous, antisocial, and violent.