Maryland, My Maryland - State Heritage? (Baltimore: transplants, construction, live)

[ReluctantGardenStater]

If any Marylanders out there follow some of the topics discussed in the General U.S. forum, particularly those pertaining to which state belongs to which region, you know that one of the topics discussed ad nauseum is whether Maryland is a Northern or Southern state. Maryland and Delaware are grouped into the South by the U.S. Census Bureau, but I have always considered it Northern, most people in the North consider it Northern, most people in the South consider it Northern, and I have always believed most Marylanders considered themselves Northern. So what is the point of this post?

I don't know how many of you are familiar with the state anthem, but the original "Maryland, My Maryland" is a beautiful and prideful song. I'm not sure how well known it is amongst modern Marylanders. But I was wondering if the song is generally known or played in the Maryland of today? I'm interested in learning a bit about the level of Southern influence, if any, exists in Maryland, and whether the anthem and the state's history in general during the war era are still controversial to this day?


YouTube - Maryland, My Maryland

[firefightermom]

My husband was born and bred in Montgomery county, MD, and considers himself a southerner. I think more people identify it as a mid-atlantic state. When he lived in Texas though, people did think Maryland was the north, and called him a Yankee...but to the people of the deep south, it is far north of them, even though MD is south of the Mason Dixon line.

I think it depends on where you go in Maryland--anywhere near DC is so inundated with transients that it's not like the rest of the state.

[KeyserSoze]

If you don't think Maryland is Southern or has any Southern influence in the past or in the present, then read up some more on its history and travel around the state.

[KeyserSoze]

And the state song has been proposed to be changed many times because it was written by a native Marylander who was sympathetic to the Confederacy.

[ReluctantGardenStater]

Originally Posted by firefightermom

My husband was born and bred in Montgomery county, MD, and considers himself a southerner. I think more people identify it as a mid-atlantic state. When he lived in Texas though, people did think Maryland was the north, and called him a Yankee...but to the people of the deep south, it is far north of them, even though MD is south of the Mason Dixon line.

I think it depends on where you go in Maryland--anywhere near DC is so inundated with transients that it's not like the rest of the state.

I'm sure anyone in Mississippi, Georgia, etc. would laugh at the prospect of Maryland being Southern, but from what you are telling me, some of Maryland's native sons don't find it so funny.

[ReluctantGardenStater]

Originally Posted by KeyserSoze

If you don't think Maryland is Southern or has any Southern influence in the past or in the present, then read up some more on its history and travel around the state.

What are some examples? From what I have seen of Maryland thus far, it feels more like Pennsylvania/the Northeast than it does like Virginia (with the exception of northern Virginia) and the South.

[KeyserSoze]

Cuisine of Maryland? Dialects of Maryland? Weather of Maryland? Legacy of Prominent Families of Maryland who originally settled in the Tidewater regions? Legacy of the first Africans & other indentured servants being brought to the Chesapeake region? Legacy of Estates & Tobacco Plantations in Maryland? Legacy of the Tobacco Cash Crop and how it helped develop Maryland into what it would later become? Legacy of Slavery in Maryland? Legacy of Civil War & Reconstruction in Maryland? Legacy of Black Codes which would later develop into Jim Crow in Maryland? Legacy of Racial Violence amongst Balcks in Maryland? Legacy of Black Exodus in Maryland? Legacy of Discrimination amongst Jews & other "Ethnic" Europeans in Maryland? Legacy of the Chesapeake Bay? Legacy of the Civil Rights Movement and how it affected Maryland? Legacy of Politics in Maryland? Legacy of Baltimore, DC, Western Maryland, Eastern Shore or Southern Maryland?

[JDCATONSVILLE]

Maryland was definitly a southern state and logistically it still resides below the Mason Dixon line. The first blood shed of the Civil War took place in downtown Baltimore when Confederate sympathizers clashed w/ Mass. militia en rout to Washington. And it was a teacher in Louisiana who was from Maryland that wrote "Maryland, My Maryland" for the southern cause and in respect for a friend that died in the riots. Maryland remained a neutral state by force due to the fact if Maryland had seceded from the union then Washington D.C. would have been isolated from the rest of the northern states and the out come of the war probably would have been very different. That was well understood and that is why some of the key political leaders in Maryland at that time were imprisoned due to where their alliance fell. Now adays Maryland is full of so many transplants that it's hard to judge where traditionally it stood by simply talking to it's residents. But I think that if you speak with peolpe that have generations of Marylanders in their tree you would start to find out that Maryland was and still is southern at heart and that it dosen't sit below the Mason Dixon line by accident.

[firefightermom]

Originally Posted by ReluctantGardenStater

I'm sure anyone in Mississippi, Georgia, etc. would laugh at the prospect of Maryland being Southern, but from what you are telling me, some of Maryland's native sons don't find it so funny.

As a native Marylander, my husband doesn't like being called a Yankee at all. But only people from the deep south have called him one.

MD was also placed under martial law during the Civil War, if I remember my history correctly.

[westsideboy]

Gardenstater, there are multiple archived threads that discuss this topic in excruitiating detail. Check them out, they give both sides of the argument.