38 pages • 1 hour read
Dennis CovingtonSalvation on Sand Mountain: Snake Handling and Redemption in Southern Appalachia
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1995A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 8-9Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 8 Summary: “Salvation on Sand Mountain”
Glenn Summerford’s cousins, Billy and Jimmy, start a new church on Sand Mountain, the Old Rock House Holiness Church, where Charles McGlocklin chooses not to worship, asking Covington to be careful if he ends up handling any rattlesnakes at their services. After some time away, Covington finds the congregation again, after moving into this new space south of Section, Alabama, near Macedonia. The church was built in 1916, before even the oldest parishioners had seen anyone take up serpents, and had fallen on hard times before the members of the congregation restored it. Covington and Jim Neel drive up to the church six months after its purchase, having been invited by Carl to the first annual homecoming, where he would be preaching alongside many other handlers. Covington recognizes many of the handlers, including Punkin Brown and many faces from The Church of Jesus with Signs Following.
Desperate for Covington to hold a snake, Carl tries to catch his eye during the service, but Covington does not feel ready, choosing instead to stand at the back of the church and observe. However, the mood in the church that night becomes very vibrant and the longer Covington witnesses it, the more he feels drawn to become a part of it. Covington returns to the center of the handlers and takes a big rattler from Carl’s hand. While he lifts it, Covington reports that he does not feel afraid and that the snake becomes an extension of himself, during which everything else fades away. He comes back into consciousness, shouting, but the rattlesnake is no longer a part of him, so he gives it back to Carl. He chooses to accept a canebrake from Billy Summerford but returns it immediately, feeling no positive effect and remembering what Charles had warned him about taking snakes without consideration. After the services, Covington finds Carl loading rattlesnakes into his truck; Carl hugs him and tells him he is proud of him.
Chapter 9 Summary: “War Stories”
Word spreads amongst the handlers that Covington has become one of them. Carl encourages Covington to testify, and he finds himself doing so frequently. He drives to Kentucky in order to convince Gracie McAllister to sign a release allowing video footage from Jolo to be aired on National Geographic Explorer. Gracie has been a part of the snake-handling community for more than 30 years and had been married to a preacher but was unable to keep his church going after his death. Now she attends many churches and handles fire in addition to serpents.
Covington enjoys listening to the stories of these people and calls them their “war stories” (183). Covington contends that fighting spirits can often be more harrowing than even snake handling, sharing several stories of demonic possession. One night, Vicki confesses that she has sensed a change in Covington. She maintains he doesn’t seem to believe in what the snake handlers are doing anymore, but he does not agree with her. Despite the erratic nature of the snakes, he knows that people like Carl are trying to keep people safe. It is important for handlers to always remember that snakes can become accustomed to humans but can never be tamed.
Chapters 8-9 Analysis
When Covington finally handles a snake, it is in the very church that Charles cautions him against and refuses to step foot in himself. Seemingly in accordance with his friend’s wishes, Covington spends the majority of the service avoiding Carl’s eye and standing apart from the snake handlers. The feeling in the room is chaotic and loud, but Covington describes this as a kind of “spiritual jazz” (167) within which one may immerse oneself and become attuned to it. Perhaps for this reason, it is thought that it is better to take up the Holy Ghost for the first time as a young person, while one is more fluid and susceptible to change. Covington admits that the longer the sermon goes on and the more chaotic it becomes, the more he feels drawn to it. He says the handlers knew before he even did that he would be taking up snakes that night.
Chapter 9 begins with a quote by Charles McGlocklin, which states that every spiritual door leads to another and each time you go through one you get stronger in “the Spirit” and the more spiritual knowledge you gain. Covington’s new status as a snake handler and as someone who had participated in foot washing spread throughout the summer and gave him access to testify frequently. He believed that while some of the younger set of handlers were still wary of him, the older ones had accepted him into the church. He was not hiding his status as a journalist, nor was he apologizing for having fallen under the spell of the church and its rituals. In this, his situation placed him in a unique position, both among reporters and churchgoers alike. He would continue to carry an aura of duality regarding his own trustworthiness in both communities.
Similar to this treatment of his own body and its duality, Covington refers to a kind of story common to the snake-handlingcommunity, which he refers to as the “war” story. As a former war correspondent and journalist, Covington finds familiar territory by comparing coal mining towns with battlefields. He says these “[war stories are] most easily found on the borders where cultures clash, in this instance where the Appalachian hill people have run smack up against contemporary America” (183). War stories are undoubtedly political, but Covington proves they can also be surprisingly personal and private.
