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The South has always been more politically and socially conservative than the North. There are exceptions of course -- some of the larger cities and some of the university-dominated areas. But this divide between Northern and Southern ways about thinking of life are big and impressive and have been going on for a while.
The South is far more traditionally religious than the North, with many more regular church goers. It is mostly reflexively pro-business, anti-union, and anti-government on most big national policy issues. It is also far more connected to and favorable about the military than other parts of the country. And it became an almost all-Republican area in the years following the Civil Rights era of the 1960s, when Democrats and Northern liberal Republicans fought to pass major laws to protect and enfranchise its black citizens. Hell, there are still noticable numbers of Southerners that romanticize the Old Confederacy, fly the confederate stars and bars flag, and can't quite get over the fact that they lost the Civil war.
And I am NOT giving Northerners a pass here either. You can certainly find church-going, pro-business, bigoted Northerners. Anyone who lives here knows that. But such veiws are just not as dominant or as socially accepted north of the Mason-Dixon line.
Much has been said or written about how the U.S. is becoming homgenized and on some levels that is true. White southerners will cue up for a Woody Allen movie and New Yorkers can enjoy stock car races and shop at Wal-Mart. But the deeper cultural divides that stem from the South's history of slavery, Jim Crow, and an agrarian past are not going to fade fast.
I've always felt that a lot of the dominant traditional culture of the South was historically based in slavery, while in the North, the domniant traditional culture stemmed from waves of European immigration. (And yes, I know that white Southerners are descended from immigrants.)
Last edited by citylove101; 07-25-2013 at 08:13 AM..
I think there is a fairly generic "American" culture (after all US citizenship allows free to interstate travel and emigration), but like any franchise, there are regional brands and flavors. If The USA becomes too big to stay together, it may split up into balkanized nation states. This little montage of maps may give one a clue as to how it will be split up.
For more information, see Woodard's American Nations, Fischer's Albion's Seed, or Garreau's Nine Nations of North America. Books on specific cultural groups like the Ulster Scots/Scots Irish, Jamestown colonists, "Golden Circle" planters and Charleston, New England Puritans/Unitatarians, or Mormons might also elucidate the cultural differences.
The Civil War sides map is inaccurate. Missouri and Kentucky were border states that ultimately sided with the Union.
Southerners and Northerners may be different from one another, but not NEARLY enough that I would go so far as to call them separate nations. Southerners have more in common with Canadians before Mexicans. Whether or not Northerners share more in common with Canadians than they do Southerners is a whole 'nother matter of debate.
In the early 20th century, many southern people (many of them from farms) moved to northern cities where there were better jobs, for example in the automobile factories of Detroit, the tire (tyre) factories of Ohio, the airplane factories near Baltimore and Detroit. They often lived in apartments or city row-houses.
In the 19th and early 20th century, southern universities were very few, and were inferior, so southerners found it necessary to study at Northern medical and dental schools. A HUGE proportion of southern college professors had to attend Columbia University (New York) teachers college to get masters degrees. For example, Woodrow Wilson was raised a southerner, but became Governor of New Jersey (before he was U.S. President). This situation is very different today.
Today, things are very different. It is quite rare for white southerners to move to the Northeast. Southerners prefer staying in the south, where houses are larger and newer, taxes are lower, and it costs less to live. The South has many good universities, and high-tech industry in places such as Austin Texas, Huntsville Alabama, and Raleigh-Durham NC.
The south has many military bases, because soldiers can train outdoors better in warm climates. Southerners emphasize military service more than northerners do, and many military officers (pensioners) retire to live in the South. As the map shown above indicates, most white southerners have colonial-era (British) ancestry, and there are fewer "ethnic groups" (or ancestry from southern or eastern Europe). There are very few Roman Catholics in rural parts of the south (except Louisiana and Maryland), and many more Baptists and fundamentalist Christians. Northern city people listen to Jazz music, while southerners watch NASCAR auto races.
Last edited by slowlane3; 07-26-2013 at 02:19 PM..
The South, generally speaking, attracted fewer immigrants than the North during the 1800 and 1900s, and from a less diverse variety of places than the North. "White" Southerners were/are mostly descended from a mix of a few different English and Scottish settlement groups, as well as a large number of the people who were known as "Ulster Scots" or "Scots-Irish", along with German in certain areas (parts of North Carolina, for example) and French along the Gulf Coast. The North was always much more ethnically diverse and had more immigrants coming in, especially to the major Northern cities.
That being said, there are other important divisions within America besides "North" vs "South." At the end of the day, though, the differences and similarities together contribute to the strength of the United States as a nation.
The South, generally speaking, attracted fewer immigrants than the North during the 1800 and 1900s, and from a less diverse variety of places than the North. "White" Southerners were/are mostly descended from a mix of a few different English and Scottish settlement groups, as well as a large number of the people who were known as "Ulster Scots" or "Scots-Irish", along with German in certain areas (parts of North Carolina, for example) and French along the Gulf Coast. The North was always much more ethnically diverse and had more immigrants coming in, especially to the major Northern cities.
That being said, there are other important divisions within America besides "North" vs "South." At the end of the day, though, the differences and similarities together contribute to the strength of the United States as a nation.
"the North was always much more ethnically diverse" not so, not in the beginning at least. The "north" that is to say New England was originally settled mainly by the English Puritans. More importantly though the English Puritans were the major influence that shaped that culture.
"there are other important divisions within America besides "North" vs "South." "
Yep, now it is "red States" and "blue States" Which other than the addition of some of the mid west and plains (in a philosophical sense) to "the South" is pretty much the same as the north and South was in 1860. “The principle for which we contend is bound to reassert itself, though it may be at another time and in another form.” Jefferson Davis
Last edited by OBruadair; 07-08-2014 at 01:56 PM..
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