Do people in Maryland consider themselves North, Southern, or in Between? (Baltimore: subdivision, suburban)

[ptsum]

Originally Posted by foxclone78

I am born and raised in Maryland for 29 years, i served my 4 years in the Marines and one thing that i have always identified my self with is the north. Also many people in the military consider people from Maryland northerners aswell. But being a very diverse state it could differ where you are at ie: Eastern Shore etc. Consider this fact that most "Northerners" (to me thats states North of Maryland Geographically) would not know, Western Maryland averages more annual snowfall then pretty much all states that are North of Maryland, except for the Lake shore areas of New York and the highlands of New Hampshire and Vermont, and Main. Also West Virginia "The Mountain State" receives even more snowfall than Western Maryland, and they are really considered Southern out there. These days its more a state of mind thing. If you are from Maryland you typically do not listen to Crunk, or whatever the "Southern Rap Versions" are called we have club music here which is distinct to the region of the Baltimore Area. If you are from Bmore, you would consider your self a Northerner. Plus what is the Mason Dixon Line anyway, its a fake line once used for surveying purposes, Remember Maryland protected DC during the civil war.

little history lesson here, Maryland did not protect Washington, DC during the Civil War, Maryland was under martial law, the city of Baltimore was under martial law and the mayor and all of its council members were arrested and held at Fort McHenry for the duration of the Civil War, when Lincoln was heading for Washington to assume the presidency he had to travel through Baltimore is training was supposed to stop in Baltimore along that route to Washington but he slipped through in the dark of night so that nobody knew he was coming, when Union troops from Massachusetts came through Baltimore on their way to Washington, DC they were attacked by the citizens of Baltimore and martial law was imposed. The western part of Maryland was both northern and southern in their sympathies, depending on which army was there at the time. I was born in Riverdale,Maryland and consider myself a Southern, and anybody who is a true native Marylander would consider themselves a Southern, for had not Abraham Lincoln put Maryland under martial law more than likely it would have succeeded from the Union and joined the Confederacy

[ptsum]

I also was born and raised in Maryland and had lived in it for over 60 years, was schooled in Maryland, served in the U.S. Navy and in the US Army and have honorable discharges from both services and now live in Ohio and I'm considered a southern here in Ohio even though this part of Ohio is below the Mason Dixon.

[StuyTownRefugee]

Originally Posted by BPP1999

I think whether or not people consider themselves northern or southern also depends on how they want others to perceive them. Some people find the stereotype "southern" to be an insult (slow moving, less educated, more rural) and many college-educated people in MD may not want to be associated with such a description. It seems that so many people anymore think and want others to think that they live in a fast-moving area where the average person is mean. These are northern stereotypes. Not as many people want to say "I live in slow-moving, more southern area".

As if the Northern areas don't have slow moving places? LOL You can't get any slower than parts of PA or VT (and much of Upstate NY), NH anything actually away from the "corridor" seems slow to me, even Pittsburgh.

I think it's all about urban/rural in MD, the state's focus is very DC/Balto/Cecil County to Del/NJ. The bulk of the population due to MD's very split geography is nestled in the BosWash corridor, but there are Southern fringes, Clinton, Oxon Hill, Waldorf, all were regarded as Southern MD.

It seems MD is like VA as being checkerboard about how people feel they are. MD has fewer places than VA that Id with Southern. But VA also has places that are not sterotypically Southern as well and some places completely throw it off. Richmond or counties here and there in surface traveling can definitely have a Southern feel a West Va feel or whatever. But again often it depends on where one is and what the locals did in setting up their towns or counties. Local history, culture.

A lot of Southern people from further South have always been attracted to VA to settle in and during Reconstruction its surviving industries provided jobs for many down and out Southern migrant workers as did Balto, even NY. Lots of people I know in Balto have family still in WVA. Migration always reinforced both states split stances. Many were drawn to VA for a more Southerly orientation, and to MD due to its generally more NE sway. But to many Southerners, they call Va "Yankee". It's all folly.

Va has a strong local independent set up, check this out:
Under Virginia law, all municipalities incorporated as cities are independent of any county. As of 2006, 39 of the 42 independent cities in the United States are in Virginia. Virginia does not have any political subdivisions, such as villages or townships, for areas of counties that are not within the boundaries of incorporated towns. There are hundreds of other unincorporated communities in Virginia, sometimes informally called towns.Virginia is divided into independent cities and counties function, which in the same manner; according to the US Census Bureau independent cities are considered county-equivalent.

People often ID largely with their localities. MD does too, but is more homogeneous overall. Some cities in VA have little to no Southern feel.


I live in NYC. There's a lot of air traffic between here and Va Beach area. Driving thru VA from DC to Hampton Rds it's slow thru some spots, but not like years ago. When you get near there by surface the pace jumps back up to NE corridor. By air I get off the plane, there is little recognizable pace change from NY and once on the expressways and in and around businesses it's as if I never left New York.

People are frantic, hectic, running around, traffic snarls, busy busy busy crazy busy, everywhere, and it's fast. No change from NY, hard to remember one is "in the South", it feels much more Southern in Richmond in terms of slower pace but not the Va Bch area/NE NC. It's as if I'm still in a NY borrough or near the city. Virginia is more of a Southern state but still it has areas that are like other parts of the US and and the people have little identity with the South.

By reading many of the boards about DC, MD, Va or general US it's as if that area is not brought up with NoVA as being somewhat apart, because others don't know where to place it in N/S discourse, or perhaps because it's definitely not fitting any Southern stereotype, another anomaly like Atlanta, if we're talking pace anyway. VB/HR Seems connected today more and more with Raleigh/Durham via its border with NE North Carolina. There's a lot of momentum coming up from further South these days especially on the coast.

Bottom line though when I'm there I don't feel in many ways I've even left NY when in Va Bch/Hampton Rds. That's another urban and coastal difference.

[StuyTownRefugee]

Here are some interesting contemporary facts about 2 other VA metro areas.

Because Richmond is home to both a U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and a Federal Reserve bank, as well as offices for international firms such as Hunton & Williams, LLP, McGuireWoods LLP, Reed Smith LLP, Troutman Sanders LLP, CapitalOne, Philip Morris USA, and numerous other banks and brokerages, Richmond has been cited as having evidence of being a Global city.[14]

There are Nine Fortune 500 companies and thirteen Fortune 1000 companies (most of which are within the city itself.) Only five metro areas in the country have more Fortune 500 companies than the Richmond area.

Virginia Beach is the most populous city in the commonwealth, with Norfolk and Chesapeake second and third, respectively. Norfolk forms the urban core of this metropolitan area, which is home to over 1.7 million people and the world's largest naval base.


The Hampton Roads area has the largest concentration of military bases and facilities of any metropolitan area in the world.


Hampton Roads area, in particular, has a large Filipino population. Northern Virginia has the largest Vietnamese population on the East Coast, with slightly more than 99,000 Vietnamese migrants

Am I in the South when I'm there? Sure doesn't seem that way, and less and less in Richmond too, corporate and high tech. But when I'm in HR I feel I could just as well be in Brooklyn or Queens culturally. But not really that either it's laid out more like LA and high tech industries have given much of the area a Silicon Valley feel or like the Dulles and I-270s corridors. Little Neck, Great Neck, VB even sounds like Long Island to me.

[babyqs4]

Originally Posted by JaBradshaw

Northerners consider us Southerners.
Southerners consider us Northerners.

Yes I have to agree. My b/f is in New Jersey and he says that I am sooo southern but Im in Maryland, lol.

I listen to my SC cousins and my family in Ga and Im like oh hell no. I dont sound like them, lol.

I am a northern lady.

[TheWereRabbit]

Originally Posted by sundaze

Well .. having lived here for 36 years I would have to say "mid-Atlantic" describes it best. Baltimore is a quirky city -- no place is quite like it. The DC suburbs are much like suburbia anywhere -- not so different from the suburbs of Atlanta or Boston. I think these days everyplace in the US is becoming more like everywhere else.

Okay, this post was a long way back and I'm sure people have taken the conversation a million different ways since then but DC suburbs are NOT AT ALL like suburbs of Boston. I have lived my whole life outside Boston and I have friends basically every suburb in Montgomery County and all the suburbs outside DC are just huge 6-lane roads with named subdevelopments off of them. The aren't town centers just strip malls. The suburbs of Boston aren't like that, they are individual towns and the neighborhoods have more than one entrance and were made before 1995

[spoonman3]

Originally Posted by TheWereRabbit

Okay, this post was a long way back and I'm sure people have taken the conversation a million different ways since then but DC suburbs are NOT AT ALL like suburbs of Boston. I have lived my whole life outside Boston and I have friends basically every suburb in Montgomery County and all the suburbs outside DC are just huge 6-lane roads with named subdevelopments off of them. The aren't town centers just strip malls. The suburbs of Boston aren't like that, they are individual towns and the neighborhoods have more than one entrance and were made before 1995

I agree bro.

North Jersey, New York, Massechusetts all have town squares and a European feel.

Maryland IS the south, I lived there for a lot of my life, lived in the northeast for a year and the people in Maryland are more southern then people in the northeast.

Maryland is also very RACIST. If you are not white or black I would not suggest moving there. I'm north Indian and people would say all kind of trash to me. I think I got one racial comment every week there, and I'm not exaggerating. The people in the northeast who are mainly of Irish and Italian Catholic background were much more welcoming of north Indians from my experience.

[PropertyMan]

Maryland has a growing and increasingly transient state. As that becomes more true the state seems more "Northern". In the areas that are most dynamic, Maryland can seem completely cosmopolitan. Some people classify everything rural as "Southern" in which case some parts of Vermont and New Hampshire can seem rather "Southern".

The only way that really matters to me is economically and in that regard Maryland is in transition, shifting from more "Southern" to more "Northern" in terms of wages, property values, and cost of living.

[spoonman3]

Originally Posted by PropertyMan

Maryland has a growing and increasingly transient state. As that becomes more true the state seems more "Northern". In the areas that are most dynamic, Maryland can seem completely cosmopolitan. Some people classify everything rural as "Southern" in which case some parts of Vermont and New Hampshire can seem rather "Southern".

The only way that really matters to me is economically and in that regard Maryland is in transition, shifting from more "Southern" to more "Northern" in terms of wages, property values, and cost of living.

How is "transient", "northern".

That makes no sense. Most people who live in New England, New York and north Jersey stay there until they get old. As do most people who live in the South.

"Northern" and "Southern" is completely cultural from what I've seen, otherwise there wouldn't be terms like "Dixie", "The Old South", "The Bible Belt" or "Yankee". There are aspects of Northern culture that have been in place since America was founded as with Southern culture.

Go to the suburbs in the places I mentioned above, and compare them to suburbs in Maryland and the rest of South, there is completely different culture and even architecture. Again "Southern" is a whole way of thinking and acting.

Maryland is southern no doubt.

[PropertyMan]

Originally Posted by spoonman3

How is "transient", "northern".

That makes no sense. Most people who live in New England, New York and north Jersey stay there until they get old. As do most people who live in the South.

"Northern" and "Southern" is completely cultural from what I've seen, otherwise there wouldn't be terms like "Dixie", "The Old South", "The Bible Belt" or "Yankee". There are aspects of Northern culture that have been in place since America was founded as with Southern culture.

Go to the suburbs in the places I mentioned above, and compare them to suburbs in Maryland and the rest of South, there is completely different culture and even architecture. Again "Southern" is a whole way of thinking and acting.

Maryland is southern no doubt.

I don't disagree, but the term "Southern" can have more than one meaning.

There is culturally southern, economically southern, politically southern, geographically southern, impressionistically southern, and demographically southern.

Personally, I view Maryland like any middle child. It is caught between and has to play with both sides. I made the transitional comment because it seems to me politically, economically, and socially shifting more toward similarities with northern states. It is not exactly a hard-core red state anymore.