Is Kentucky the south or the midwest? (Louisville, Glasgow: buy, areas)

[Capt. Dan]

Originally Posted by Irishtom29

Yeah, if I have anything to do with it. Fellas like me are making this state more midwestern every day.

Note that the so-called "Scotch-Irish" have a great deal of German in them, going back to the 1700s. English too.

Appalachia- tobacco-bourbon whiskey-fried chicken. sounds southern to me.

[r0dpe2c]

Kentucky has never and never will be in the Midwest. The WHOLE state of Kentucky is southern (that means you N. Kentucky), not just a portion of it. (Also the whole state of West Virginia is southern)

The weather has nothing to do with being southern because if the temperature in Georgia became the same as Ohio's this would not make Georgia a northern state (culturally or geographically)

Just because the northern half of the state may have cultural Midwest INFLUENCES, does not mean that Kentucky becomes a Midwestern state. You can go to other threads and the same question will be asked if Cincinnati or Southern Ohio is really southern. OF COURSE NOT! Cincinnati is a Midwest city that borders (guess what) the South.

I think it is a bad argument to make that if you look at a map, Kentucky is not in the South. Well if you look at a map, Indiana is east, but ask a New Yorker if Indiana is an Eastern state and the answer would be an emphatic ...HECK NO.

Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina ... Ky in this group makes sense

Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesotta, Kentucky ... KY in this group does not make sense

And just because Kentucky did not want to break away from the Union (although there were plenty of southern sympathizers) only means that a southern state did not want to break from the Union.

[timelesschild]

Originally Posted by InLondon

Hmmm, I really don't think I've seen a Mimosa tree around here. Guess it's a Western KY thing?

Nope, there are plenty of mimosa trees in Lexington. I had one in my back yard. They're lovely trees.

[timelesschild]

Originally Posted by jcm1986

Are we South or Midwest?

It doesn't matter, really; we're soundly rejected by both.

Been to Georgia, Alabama, or Louisiana? They call us a "yankee" state.

Been to Illinois, Michigan, or Pennsylvania? We're the "Heart of Dixie" and all the stereotypical jokes and associations that come with it.

Very true. And in Missouri, they ask, "is Kentucky a state, or a sort of a region? ... And where is it, anyway? ... I can tell you're from the south by the way you talk..."

[timelesschild]

Originally Posted by censusdata

The difference btw the Midwest, South, Northeast, and West is ETHNICITY. Until you understand that you will never understand the differences between those regions.

Midwest- heavily German with Scandinavians in Northernmost areas
South- most people are descended from the British Isles
Northeast- heavily Itallian, with large numbers of Irish in many area
West- a mixture of Itallian, German, British Isles, Hispanics, and Asians

Louisville and the 3 counties across from Cincinnati are heavily German. The rest of Kentucky is mostly of British Isles descent

Great post, great points. All very true.

[missymomof3]

Originally Posted by timelesschild

Nope, there are plenty of mimosa trees in Lexington. I had one in my back yard. They're lovely trees.

There are mimosa trees all over the place here. As a matter of fact they are considered "weedy" here.

[missymomof3]

Originally Posted by timelesschild

Very true. And in Missouri, they ask, "is Kentucky a state, or a sort of a region? ... And where is it, anyway? ... I can tell you're from the south by the way you talk..."

My sister went to College of the Ozarks in Mo and was teased(in fun only, not meanness) because of the way she talks and being from Kentucky.

[missymomof3]

Originally Posted by missymomof3

Where is your map that shows where are the Germans are? My part of town isn't heavily German if I remember right.

Census? Do you have your map honey? Also, didn't the Germans come much later than the other settlers here? My family arrived in this state in the late 1700's (I don't remember exactly when) but the Germans came in the mid 1800's?


"The large majority of these German immigrants arrived in the U. S. between 1848 and 1860, and came mainly from the western and southwestern areas of Germany."


This is also interesting: Kentucky, being a Slave State, attracted fewer Germans than if it had been a Free State, and its German-born population approximately 27,000 persons in 1860. One of the main reasons for German settlement in Kentucky was the development of manufacturing interests along its Ohio River border, principally in Louisville, Covington and Newport, and to certain settlements of agriculturalist Germans in counties along the northern border of the state. The relatively small number of slaves in counties along Kentucky’s northern border was another reason Germans moved into this part of the Bluegrass State. While slaves accounted for about 20 percent of Kentucky’s total population of 1,150,000 in 1860, they aggregated less than 8 percent of Louisville’s population and less than 2 percent of Covington’s and Newport’s. It is noteworthy that approximately 50 percent of Kentucky’s native-Germans lived in Louisville, and the cities of Covington and Newport (combined) contained almost 20 percent of the Bluegrass State’s German population.



I don't see how people coming in that late would effect an entire culture.

[dixiegirl7]

Originally Posted by censusdata

The difference btw the Midwest, South, Northeast, and West is ETHNICITY. Until you understand that you will never understand the differences between those regions.

Midwest- heavily German with Scandinavians in Northernmost areas
South- most people are descended from the British Isles
Northeast- heavily Itallian, with large numbers of Irish in many area
West- a mixture of Itallian, German, British Isles, Hispanics, and Asians

Louisville and the 3 counties across from Cincinnati are heavily German. The rest of Kentucky is mostly of British Isles descent

I don't think this is accurate. South Central Kentucky has a lot of Scotch/Irish descendents.

[Irishtom29]

Originally Posted by dixiegirl7

I don't think this is accurate. South Central Kentucky has a lot of Scotch/Irish descendents.

?!?