I think these three maps will help put a little perspective on this issue. While I enjoy personal anecdotes they have no real definitive persuasion. The maps are as follows:
1. The TELSUR map from the Univ. of PA. This covers the entire U.S., they take actual speech samples and analyze them according to common speech patterns. As you see, they place the Southern dialect in West Virginia from the southwest corner up through Clarksburg and the eastern panhandle. This does not mean that someone from Martinsburg is supposed to sound like someone from Plains, GA, or New Orleans. It only means that they share many common speech habits.
2. The 2000 U.S. Census Ancestry Map. Sorry for the blurred copy, but I believe I posted the entire map early in the thread, this small section is just for contrast. You can see that West Virginia defines itself in common with Virginia and Kentucky, distinct from Ohio and PA. They identify themselves as "American" in ancestry, but that is usually read as "Southern", and not just by me. There was a thread on the General City Data page on exactly this topic just a few months ago.
3. A map of the Confederate counties of West Virginia. It should actually include a few more, since some counties switched sides once West Virginia was invaded by Ohio, I particularly refer to Cabell and Wayne counties.
4. This is not a map, but a survey. The Southern Focus Poll, conducted by the Univ. of North Carolina, found that approximately half (45%) of West Virginians identified themselves as Southern. Kentucky and Virginia were much higher, but I attribute the lower percentage to the state educational system which has for 100 years conducted a systematic disinformation program on the State's history. West Virginians have been taught that they are sympathetic to the North, though in their secret hearts they know this is not true. I will quote a passage from McGregor's "Disruption of Virginia"---"On almost the last day of the constitutional convention of November, 1861, according to the manuscript, a motion was made that the records of the convention be printed. One of the delegates opposed this motion for the reason that the discussion had revealed so plainly the opposition of the people of West Virginia both to the North and to the new state that the publication of the debates might interfere with the admission of the state."
GHO, your experience is not uncommon. I would suggest if you want to have a little fun with your friends, they next time you ask that question and they laugh, hand them paper and pen and ask them specifically to write out WHY they are laughing. I bet they shut up fast. And the few who do write anything I am certain will write total nonsense.
Appalachiangirl: Regarding your comment that you saw few Confederate flags in central WV, that may be true, but I would like to mention a memorable quote from a Marietta OH newspaper which, in describing the guerrilla war in West Virginia, called central WV "the heart of Africa". The people in these counties were considered so savage that Gen. Crook organized a burn and pillage expedition through Braxton county and Sutton. I corresponded with a lady who does extensive historical research on mostly Unionist northern WV, and she told me that she ran into people in Calhoun county who to this day curse the name of Gen. Benjamin Kelley, who referred to most West Virginians as "savages". The ironic outcome of this was that both Generals Kelley and Crook were humiliated by West Virginia Confederates when they were kidnapped way behind Union lines by Hardy County's McNeil Rangers.
David K: Slavery was indeed of little importance in West Virginia's separation from Virginia. People forget, if they ever knew, that many if not most of the Wheeling government were slave owners. One legislator, Mr. Lewis, said that he voted against Secession because he believed it would be the end of slavery (he was right). Another, Mr. Burdett, said that he was "as good a pro-slavery man as any in the state." You could hardly find a more Confederate county in the state than Calhoun, yet they only had 9 slaves in the entire county.
I think West Virginia is mostly a Southern state with a heavy Northern influence. I also think that most West Virginians do not really know where they or the State came from, thanks to the duplicitous nature of the history as taught in the schools. I do not think it an exaggeration when I say that West Virginia history as taught is similar to Soviet methodology.
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04-11-2008, 12:53 AM
. Anyway, I definitely agree with you, WV is clearly a Southern State overall. I hate to see the Northern influences from Ohio and Pittsburgh "bleed through" the Ohio River and Mason-Dixon Line into WV. For example, on our cable system, we have a sports channel called FSN Pittsburgh. Right here in Hurricane, 250 miles south of Pittsburgh, we have to rely on it for regional sports. Where's the justice in that?
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