"Sergeant York is the Berea Kind"

"Sergeant York is the Berea Kind" Shannon H. Wilson "My baby boy is First Lieutenant of Artillery!" William G. Frost to Seth Low Pierrepont, Nov. 24, 1917 "As one mentions education, one dare not omit the sorrowful, glorious education incident to the war." William J. Hutchins, Inaugural Address, Oct. 22, 1920 In his study of four American colleges, W. Bruce Leslie suggests that schools of the period between the Civil War and World War I were "at the intersection of powerful social forces" that challenged institutional traditions and at the same time advanced their ambitions. Certainly powerful social forces had changed Berea College from an institution dedicated to interracial education to a school focused on the education of mountain youth. From 1866 to 1920, images of mountaineers and their "peculiar" ways had evolved from those of "hardy and loyal men" who had defended the Union during the Civil War to views of mountain people as "our contemporary ancestors," the isolated, undeveloped populations that were nevertheless a "fountain of national vigor and patriotism." National icons such as Daniel Boone and Abraham Lincoln were represented as dramatic mountaineer ideals of independence and freedom, ideals that Americans were called upon to defend in the Great War. In its appeal to donors, Berea College affirmed the genuine "American-ness" of mountain people at the very moment of the United States' entry into World War I. Mountain simplicity, patriotism, and freedom-loving independence reached a remarkable convergence in the exploits of Sergeant Alvin York, dubbed by the College as "the Berea kind." York was described as a "typical mountain man," and "the doer of the greatest personal exploit of the war." York represented the British origins of mountain people who lived amidst "colonial survivals." For Berea College, York represented the highest and best qualities of these patriotic mountaineers, some of whom would give their lives in World War I. It was Berea's mission to bring the mountaineer into the modern age amidst the changes wrought by this most modern of wars. As Berea College continued to promote Appalachia as a "fount" of patriotism, the United States was itself undergoing dramatic change. Advances in transportation, technology and urban growth were what Merion and Susie Harries have termed "testaments to modernity." Yet these milestones of progress were accompanied by significant social problems: discrimination against women and African-Americans; poverty; labor unrest, among many others, causing progressives to make attempts to control the changes pervading American life and create a cleaner, fairer society. Troubled responses to immigration, political and social ferment added to the numerous strains that divided American society. President Woodrow Wilson was perhaps understandably troubled as he contemplated the prospects of involvement in "the European war." Having just won a tightly contested election in 1916, and facing significant opposition even within his own Democratic party, Wilson's tenacious campaign for peace was finally scuttled by Germany's campaign of unrestricted submarine warfare, launched in February 1917. Within a month, German "outrages" against American merchant shipping could no longer be ignored, and Wilson, persuaded that the war was now a contest between "Democracy and Absolutism," acted in favor of war between the United States and Imperial Germany. On the evening of April 2, 1917, the former Princeton University president addressed Congress asking for a declaration of war. In his message, Woodrow Wilson declared that "the wrongs against which we now array ourselves are no common wrongs; they cut to the very roots ofhuman life." Acknowledging that "many months of fiery trial and sacrifice" lay ahead, Wilson continued, It is a fearful thing to lead this great peaceful people into war, into the most terrible and disastrous of all wars, civilization itself seeming to be in the balance. But the right is more precious than peace ... To such a task we can dedicate our lives and our fortunes . . . with the pride of those who know that the day has come when America is privileged to spend her blood and her might for the principles that gave her birth and happiness . . . Wilson's address not only set the tone for national mobilization, but articulated ideas that motivated millions of Americans to enlist in a "concert of free peoples...