Guest blog post by Jonathan Todd Hancock, author of Convulsed States: Earthquakes, Prophecy, and the Remaking of Early America In December 1811, a volcano erupted in Asheville. An eyewitness named John Edwards reported the disturbing details to the Raleigh newspaper The Star. After an unusual earthquake, a mountain burned “with great violence,” and cooling lava had dammed up the French Broad River. The din of the collapsing crater echoed across the Appalachian Mountains, and locals cowered at a preacher’s claim that the coursing lava turned into spirits and devils at night. Readers beyond North Carolina soon read about the volcano...