Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
If Augusta, Georgia or Columbia, South Carolina are Deep South, Fayetteville might as well be. Several areas of those three feel very similar to me, and you might as well toss Florence in there along with Columbus like Mutiny said above.
This is the first time I've ever heard Fayetteville doesn't feel Southern.
The accents, the demographics (aside from military personnel it's mainly Black and White), religion (Baptist and conservative evangelical denominations predominate), cuisine (the Southern staples and BBQ), weather (warm, can get hot in summer), geography (Southern coastal plain, near Sandhills), expressions ("Southernisms"), pace (slow, not hurried), development patterns (small core with lots of sprawl), political ideology (socially conservative), etc. etc. All that pretty much combines to make a pretty Southern place.
Okay..I'll give you the demographics I guess, but I don't really know how mostly blacks and whites means deep south? Fayetteville is 50% black and 43% white, so less than 7% is anything else. True that many deep south cities are majority black, like Birmingham, Jackson, New Orleans. But it's not like that's only a southern thing at all. Detroit, Gary, Baltimore, St Louis are also majority black and certainly aren't deep south. Baltimore is 64% black and 30% white, so about 6% is anything else. I don't really see how the demographics give it a deep south feel, or even really a southern feel. Black and white is most American cities.
As for religion...that is definitely a staple of the deep south, obviously. Bible Belt, huge religious population...Fayetteville doesn't fit that picture. Only 46% of Fayettevillians are religious, with only 15% being Baptist. Compare that with Birmingham...84% are religious and 42% Baptist. Jackson: 67% religious, 30% Baptist. Little Rock: 58% religious, 27% Baptist. Not a very religious area. In fact, Fayetteville and Baltimore share very similar religious trends. Roanoke, VA is MUCH more religious and conservative than Fayetteville.
Cuisine? In Fayetteville? What, the 4 Applebees? Or the Chili's? Or the hundreds of other generic chains? What southern staples can you get in Fayetteville that you can't get in Iowa or Maryland? Everywhere has BBQ restaurants my friend.
Yeah, we can get warm in the summer...just like everywhere else. Except like, Maine or Minnesota. Even we don't get as hot as Deep South cities nor as humid. I'd rather go through a summer here than in Jackson or New Orleans any day. Don't know how the geography is deep south, Nebraska has Sandhills as well (and theirs is more well known). Pace down here is extremely hurried. Ever driven here? Walked in the mall? No one is friendly and everyone wants to get somewhere faster than you. I'll give you the sprawl.
Sorry, I just don't see it as a definite deep south city. I hardly see it as a southern city. Does it have some southern aspects? Sure, I mean it is in North Carolina. But again I say...when I'm here (like right now) I don't feel like I'm in the south. I felt more southern when I was in central Arkansas. Hell, felt more southern in south Jersey when we had a tractor day when all the farmer kids brought their tractors to the school and parked em out front of the school.
Actually eastern NC is considered to be the Deep South many times, especially when you think of it as a region based on history, geography, demographics, topography, etc. and not just state lines. For instance, northern GA, AL, northwestern SC, etc. aren't really part of the Deep South although they are parts of states grouped as such.
I agree. I live in the Deep South, and northern AL or GA doesn't have the same vibe to me, especially the mountainous areas, they're more a Deep South and Appalachian blend.
Eastern NC feels and looks just like south Alabama or the Florida panhandle to me. In fact I'd say Fayettevile reminds me of Pensacola.
You can look it up. NC was one of the last Southern states to secede (Tennessee seceded last 2-3 weeks later) and is generally not regarded as Deep South. North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia, and sometimes Arkansas are generally regarded as the Upper South.
I know folks in Mississippi who consider North Carolina to be "up north" and not Southern at all.
My family has been in Eastern NC for the past 250 years or so and I'm not feeling "Deep South" in Fayetteville. Is it Southern in aspects? Sure, but not "Deep South". Growing up in Fayetteville I always wondered where the "Deep South" was and then one of my relatives married someone from Mississippi and I found out.
Topographically Fayetteville is in the coastal plain so it does share a similar look to other communities in the coastal plain regions of other states including South Carolina (Florence), Georgia (Augusta) and also, Virginia, and even New Jersey.
If you input or click on Cumberland County you can see where folks moving into Cumberland County come from and where folks moving out go. There are a lot of folks coming from all over the country, as you would expect with Ft Bragg. You'll see far more migration into Cumberland County than you do into Florence or Augusta or even Columbia although it's home to USC and Richland County has about 75000 more people than Cumberland County.
Cuisine. I can eat Indian, Thai, Colombian, Trinidadian, Puerto Rican, German, Jamaican, West African, Cuban, Japanese, just off the top of my head...is that common in the Deep South?
Demographics. The military has to be included as it is such a large part of the town. In Fayetteville, the "black" people can be Haitian, Jamaican, Nigerian, Cameroonian etc., not just black american. The "white" people can be German and other recent groups, not just white American. The Dominicans have their salons here. That's one of the reasons that I like Fayetteville. It has both an international and southern feel. As a first generation American, that makes me comfortable. Not sure how that fits the definition of deep southern.
Wondering if some have really looked around out here...or if some notice what it familiar to them.
Check out the Fayetteville International Folk Festival.
Cuisine. I can eat Indian, Thai, Colombian, Trinidadian, Puerto Rican, German, Jamaican, West African, Cuban, Japanese, just off the top of my head...is that common in the Deep South?
Yes, in the cities. I can get any of that in Mobile, including Vietnamese. This isn't 1950, the Deep South is more than grits and cotton fields.
Okay..I'll give you the demographics I guess, but I don't really know how mostly blacks and whites means deep south? Fayetteville is 50% black and 43% white, so less than 7% is anything else. True that many deep south cities are majority black, like Birmingham, Jackson, New Orleans. But it's not like that's only a southern thing at all. Detroit, Gary, Baltimore, St Louis are also majority black and certainly aren't deep south. Baltimore is 64% black and 30% white, so about 6% is anything else. I don't really see how the demographics give it a deep south feel, or even really a southern feel. Black and white is most American cities.
The Northern cities have large Black populations due to the Great Migration that occurred in the early to mid-20th century, not due to a legacy of slavery in Southern cities like Fayetteville. Furthermore their White populations include second- and third-generation descendants of European immigrants which isn't very common in the South. So yes, demographics is a big one.
Quote:
As for religion...that is definitely a staple of the deep south, obviously. Bible Belt, huge religious population...Fayetteville doesn't fit that picture. Only 46% of Fayettevillians are religious, with only 15% being Baptist. Compare that with Birmingham...84% are religious and 42% Baptist. Jackson: 67% religious, 30% Baptist. Little Rock: 58% religious, 27% Baptist. Not a very religious area. In fact, Fayetteville and Baltimore share very similar religious trends. Roanoke, VA is MUCH more religious and conservative than Fayetteville.
Where did you get those stats from? And it's not just Baptist, but conservative evangelical groups overall which include Methodist and non-denominational groups. You certainly aren't going to find a preponderance of Catholic, Lutheran, or Mormon religious adherents which is more common in the North and West.
Quote:
Cuisine? In Fayetteville? What, the 4 Applebees? Or the Chili's? Or the hundreds of other generic chains? What southern staples can you get in Fayetteville that you can't get in Iowa or Maryland? Everywhere has BBQ restaurants my friend.
Country cooking/soul food and BBQ are Southern staples; yes they can be found in other parts of the country, but they originate in large part in the South. And it's not just about restaurants, but about the types of food prepared at home. I'm pretty sure in Iowa, you're not going to find too many folks cooking friend chicken, turnip greens, mac n' cheese, sweet potato pie, and sweet tea on a Sunday afternoon. Nor will you find them cooking grits in the morning for breakfast. The places in the North where this is more typical is usually among the Black residents who retained their Southern traditions when they moved.
Quote:
Yeah, we can get warm in the summer...just like everywhere else. Except like, Maine or Minnesota. Even we don't get as hot as Deep South cities nor as humid. I'd rather go through a summer here than in Jackson or New Orleans any day. Don't know how the geography is deep south, Nebraska has Sandhills as well (and theirs is more well known). Pace down here is extremely hurried. Ever driven here? Walked in the mall? No one is friendly and everyone wants to get somewhere faster than you. I'll give you the sprawl.
Look at the overall climate data and the humidity; very Southern. As far as geography, Fayetteville is in the coastal plain region which was historically dependent on agriculture. The Carolina Sandhills region stretches from NC to the GA/AL border and includes other Deep South cities like Columbia, Augusta, and Columbus; it's nothing like the Nebraska Sandhills whatsoever which is actually a prairie region among sand dunes.
The pace in Fayetteville isn't "hurried" unless you're comparing it to Monroe or Laurinburg. It's the same relaxed pace of life that you find in the South--and can even be found in Charlotte compared to its Northern peers.
Quote:
Sorry, I just don't see it as a definite deep south city. I hardly see it as a southern city. Does it have some southern aspects? Sure, I mean it is in North Carolina. But again I say...when I'm here (like right now) I don't feel like I'm in the south. I felt more southern when I was in central Arkansas. Hell, felt more southern in south Jersey when we had a tractor day when all the farmer kids brought their tractors to the school and parked em out front of the school.
You're conflating "Southern" and "rural" and they aren't the same. There's a rural type of Southern and a more urban type of Southern.
Basically the Deep South is the Southern coastal plain region that has large Black rural populations, was historically agriculture-dependent, and had large slave populations. The coastal cities evoke more of a Deep South imagery with plantations and oak trees draped in Spanish moss, but cities close to and along the fall line tend to have fewer classical characteristics of the region. But even if you don't consider the city the Deep South, I don't see how you can't say it's not or barely Southern. Frankly that sounds a little bizarre to me.
And the overall point is that it's not about these characteristics in isolation, but about how they all combine to make Fayetteville Southern.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
