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Florida actually looks pretty accurate to me. I’d 100% remove Pasco County from the South, and probably Brevard and Volusia. Otherwise though, they pretty well nailed it.
I think we pay too much attention to imaginary boundaries.
The first capital of Spanish Texas (Before Mexican Texas) was actually in Louisiana halfway between Alexandria and Shreveport in an area near Natchitoches, Louisiana. The Spanish later pulled back their capital to San Antonio. The Spanish saw the Red River as the boundary of Spanish Texas.
PA is 100% a northern state, its just that's the most rural-feeling part of the state with those three counties shaded. The same with the counties where Morgantown and Wheeling, WV are as well as Western Maryland, feeling more Rust Belt than southern. Meanwhile, I'd throw in Calvert and St. Mary counties in Maryland to the South, as well as Spotsylvania County, VA. I'd also throw in those southern two tiers of IL counties (Little Egypt), from roughly Carbondale-Marion-Harrisburg on down. I'd also extend more of TX westward to a couple counties shy of I-35. I'd remove Brevard and Polk Counties in FL from the South; Polk is sprawling quickly from both Tampa and Orlando's spheres that include a lot of northern transplants and retirees, the later is nicely developed where folks from Orlando head to the beach; meanwhile, Volusia feels like the cutoff of where the South begins (it has a NASCAR track and a Buc-cee's.)
Then you got Sussex County, DE as southern, which is true away from the beaches, but the populated coastal strip is full of NY/NJ/PA as well as DMV retirees/second homes, so it doesn't feel particularly southern there.
Last time I was in Polk County, to my surprise, I actually noticed a lot of southern accents. I wouldn’t argue against it being in the South, but it will probably be leaving soon.
Focusing on the South for this thread, what do you think of this map? Are there any changes you would make? The author of the book (published in 1981) divided the U.S. into separate "nations" and picked Atlanta as the capital of Dixie. However, should areas such as Dallas or southern Indiana be included or not?
Not sure what the criteria is but is it religion or race? Why for instance, is northern Virginia or much of Florida not part of the South?
I mean why can anyone, including Southerners move to the Northeast, Midwest or West and it is still the same but God forbid if Yankees, Italians, Jews, Hispanics, Irish, East Asians etc,. move to the South, its not Southern anymore?
Do you know the history of Florida and its development?
Most of the State was barely populated after the Civil War and it was mostly Northerner industrialists like Henry Flagler & Henry Plant who built the Railroads and infrastructure that facilitated the growth in the State. This attracted people from the North to move and settle in Florida.
Southerners never really settled most of Florida except for parts of the Panhandle & the northern part of the peninsula. The Northerners built & established the rest of the State hence why Florida isn't culturally Southern.
Florida geographically is in the South but Culturally it's not.
Dallas and Houston are Southern. Include most of Oklahoma as well.Even Washington, DC is to a great degree.
If you think Houston and Dallas are anything like Alabama, you haven't spent considerable time in Texas.
The only part of Texas that I can even call "Dixie" is the northeast part bordering other Dixie states.
It wasn't a slam dunk that they belonged with the southeast states during the start of the Civil War. The sitting Texas Governor, Sam Houston, was so Anti-Dixie that he REFUSED to join the Confederacy and had to be removed from office.
Also, Texas never relied as heavily on slave labor as did the rest of "Dixie" and Galveston definitely wasn't the the prolific slave ports/posts of New Orleans and near Washington D.C.
Texas is just Texas...with elements of many regions including it's own as a once independent nation, The Republic of Texas.
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