Is Delaware in the souuuuuth? (Dover, Newark: chapel, home, private school)

[dlmrjen2206]

I've spent my whole life in DE and it's not the South in the least. I say this because my mama is from the south and she's told me better! It's a small town feel and is a lot more "slower Moving"...especially where I grew up in the "Slower Lower" part of the state (which we do not like that North DE calls us that btw)...It's a great place but not southern.

[doctorjef]

Oh here we go again. I'd agree actually that DE isn't in the South, but there actually was a time when culturally Kent and Sussex counties were considered widely to be in the South and marketed as such. As I've pointed out before you can go to the museum in Rehoboth and see advertising materials from the beginning of the 20th Century that hyped Rehoboth Beach as the premier seaside resort of the South.

[Dusty Rhodes]

Is Delaware in the souuuuuth?


Uhhhhhh, That would be a NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[doctorjef]

Yes, but it's not in the North either. Unless you insist on simplistically dividing the whole country east of the Mississippi into North and South. Historically as a Southern Border state, DE is today best thought of as Mid-Atlantic (though over on the Texas forum there is a map that places DE within the Atlantic South or somesuch bizarre designation). Southern Living Magazine has Delaware in the South, though I'd hardly take that as authoritative.

[Joe84323]

Jef, the extreme VAST majority of Delawareans past and present have considered Delaware as part of the north, and the reasons far surpass the fact that DE had the burden of being the buffer zone between the Confederacy and the Union.

These include:

Being long the southern tier of the state of .................................................. ........................PA
Sharing the same river and bay (commerce, transport, culture,) with................................. PA and NJ
Being colonized as the HEAD of New Sweden along with.............................................. .... PA and NJ
Having the same native American heritage as..(Lenni Lenape)......................................PA, NJ and NY
The majority population being a Metropolitan division with.............................................. ...PA and NJ
Being considered a Middle Colony along with.............................................. ..............PA, NJ, and NY
Being a part of the Union along with.............................................. ........................The Union
Same side of the Mason-Dixon as .................................................. .......................The Union
Sharing Federal Reserve District with.............................................. ..........................PA and NJ
Religious and Ethnic makeup similar to .................................................. ..................The North
I could then go into Department stores, and Supermarkets, and Banks... and go on and on with our unending northern attributes, but I'd fall asleep first. Ever seen Pathmark or ACME or Wanamaker's in the south? Didn't think so.

Again, Maryland may very well be both, but Delaware has far more association with the states north of it than the states south of it and always has, going back to the Native Americans even before European civilization.

I don't want somebody's error in a Harper's Weekly map of the southern U.S. to cause people to think this state is southern, because it clearly is NOT. Northeastern maybe, Mid-Atlantic maybe, but it is entirely inappropriate to consider Delaware as southern, the south, or in the south. Even geographically, the state is clearly closer to Maine than it is Florida.

Sorry... but the 1860s is merely a blip on the timeline between 1630 and 2010. I'm sick of people bringing it up like it is still a current event.

[doctorjef]

Joe, DE isn't north of the Mason-Dixon line; it's east of that line. The Mason-Dixon line has nothing to do with DE -- it's all about MD and PA. Even though DE was originally the three lower counties of PA on the Delaware, the Penns had to give the counties their own legislature at the beginning of the 18th Century - not all that long after Wm Penn started his colony in the first place - because the culture and economy of those in the three lower counties was distinctly different from what existed in the rest of Penn's colony. Obviously we did have some Quakers in New Castle County and a few in Kent, but that was a minority influence in the three lower counties overall. DE remained part of PA in little more than name only until June 1776, when the legislative assembly for the three counties repudiated the PA executive authority.

[Joe84323]

Nobody is talking about Quakers, Jef, and you misread my comment on the Mason-Dixon. I'm just letting you know (as a transplant,) that if you run around Delaware calling it southern, people would laugh at you, because it is simply not considered southern by most Delawareans, for the reasons I listed above - regardless of somebody's Pawpaw who had a farm in Millsboro and said it was the south.

By the way, in my life, I have NEVER, not once, had a Delaware person say they were in the south. And yes, I've been to Laurel.

[doctorjef]

I've stated that I don't consider modern day DE to be part of the South and just as today historically it would seem that New Castle County never really was part of the South. But your facetious point about someone's paw-paw out near Millsboro (or wherever) is well-taken actually because said paw-paw would probably be old enough to recall when Sussex County was identified as part of the South and marketed as such. I didn't make up the early 20th Century real estate promotions of Rehoboth as a beach resort in the South (and they didn't mean merely the south of Delaware). Gee, we're having a similar debate on the Texas forum as to whether Texas is a Southern or a Southwestern state. The answers just aren't black and white, because you have different regions within states as well as demographic changes over time that lead to cultural changes.

[lovelived]

I've lived here for about 4 yrs. I moved here a few months before getting married. Some southern attitudes are still here. Most of the people my husband and I have encountered have an issue with mixed/interracial couples.

I know that most of the people here don't care about race one way or another, but the problems I've experienced have left me weary. The thought of raising MY future mixed/bi-racial children here disturbs me.


I don't blame Delaware for any of the problems we've had. The place has it charms, but with the increase of racially motivated hate groups growing in the area this not a place that my husband and I can stay. We're going to pull up what little stakes we have head for the West Coast (Colorado the first choice).

Doesn't help that crime has gone up as well. It's bad enough that there are so many close-minded people around, but the crime just takes the cake.

[Joe84323]

Originally Posted by lovelived

I've lived here for about 4 yrs. I moved here a few months before getting married. Some southern attitudes are still here. Most of the people my husband and I have encountered have an issue with mixed/interracial couples.

I know that most of the people here don't care about race one way or another, but the problems I've experienced have left me weary. The thought of raising MY future mixed/bi-racial children here disturbs me.


I don't blame Delaware for any of the problems we've had. The place has it charms, but with the increase of racially motivated hate groups growing in the area this not a place that my husband and I can stay. We're going to pull up what little stakes we have head for the West Coast (Colorado the first choice).

Doesn't help that crime has gone up as well. It's bad enough that there are so many close-minded people around, but the crime just takes the cake.

These attitudes you might think are "southern" are normal small town attitudes that you will find in ANY small town across the USA. If I made the choice to marry across race, I would take the responsibility in moving out of a small town to a suburb or city. There is a good reason you won't see a gay neighborhood in any small towns which aren't resorts - intolerance. Small town people are not used to minorities, I hate to say.

My friend (black) has a biracial daughter. Funny enough, she hasn't run into A BIT of trouble fitting into social circles, shopping, or eating at restaurants. The kid is many shades lighter than her, got accepted to a private school's kinder care, and is popular in her class with both her teacher and fellow students.

Also, Oddly enough, thousands and thousands of homosexuals flock to the southern part of the state in the summer to Rehoboth, walk hand-in-hand, kiss in public, and carry out their lives. This wouldn't happen in the south, hands down... and this is in the southernmost part of the state.

Exactly where do you live now, and exactly where do you plan to move to in Colorado?