Alabama history texts published for grade school, high school, and introductory college classes are by nature outlines of important events. They focus on the choices and actions of political and military leaders, explorers, inventors, activists for various causes, etc. In these texts, historians discuss the impacts these leaders had upon the rest of the citizens, but, necessarily, in a very general way. Another approach to historical writing, sometimes called “history from the bottom up,” narrows the focus to common citizens and draws information from hand-written journals, autobiographies and local histories written by those who bore the brunt of decisions made from above.
This talk centers around a manuscript written by an unlikely author, Fiddling Tom Freeman (1884-1952), who lived in area called Bug Tussle in the Appalachian foothills of Cullman County, Alabama. A lifetime fiddler who thrived on publicity, he also spent 20 years making wildcat whiskey during the Prohibition era. After two and a half years in Kilby Prison for that crime, he returned to Bug Tussle a reformed man, eager to convince others to quit the whiskey trade.
Writing in a lined school notebook, Freeman told of 14 murders that took place in his community, most related to the manufacturing or consumption of whiskey. He could not stick to that subject, however, and wrote about the “war within a war” in his community where many families refused to support the Confederacy, detailed his family’s life as homesteaders, gave an inside look at Kilby Prison and the new electric chair, told how he played fiddle tunes to get FDR elected president, and much more.
Freeman's writings, published in Cauthen’s book, The Ballad of Fiddling Tom Freeman: Music, Moonshine and Murder in Bug Tussle Alabama, led Cauthen into corners of Alabama history she had never been before. She will share these in her presentation, which includes photos and recordings of his fiddling and unique introductions to the tunes he played.
