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Often they kept going. Many headed to Georgia and Alabama as Cherokee lands opened. I view North Carolina as mostly southern culturally food, accents, religion but it does have (or used too) more moderate leanings. I've lived in the piedmont and mountains and both seem southern in more ways than not. The city of Asheville may be an exception but it has some southerness left due to natives but they seem to be few and far between.
You are comparing apples to oranges with your comments about Lite North and Deep North. There is simply no comparison to early settlements in the NE colonies and that of the later settlement of what is referred to as "Southern states."
It's true that there's no "Deep North" that's received any academic or colloquial recognition. But that wasn't my point. My point was that people will often go to great lengths to separate themselves from other southerners ("VA is not southern like Mississippi") but you rarely see northerners do the same ("PA is not like Rhode Island!").
And are you saying that age makes a difference in whether a state is considered Deep South or not?
Quote:
Originally Posted by anifani821
THe Mason Dixon line is arbitrary, you know. There is nothing that demands a certain culture exist in that geographic distinction, lol.
There is no single definition of southern culture; there are many regional southern cultures. To say that North Carolina isn't southern - or never has been - geographically or culturally is silly.
So what is it you want to know? It sounds to me like you have already made up your mind about whether or not NC is "very Southern" (whatever that means!) and it seems you are basing that on how many black folks live here.
If you already have decided that having black folks here makes the state Southern, what is it you are trying to define?
I do not understand your comment about racism . . . ??? Racism = being Southern????
There is no single definition of southern culture; there are many regional southern cultures. To say that North Carolina isn't southern - or never has been - geographically or culturally is silly.
As a native North Carolinian, I certainly consider myself a Southerner.
The folks who settled NC in the 18th C were overwhelmingly Germans, Scots, Irish (some Swiss) and the majority of them migrated through Virginia and often had families settled in such places as NJ, MD and PA.
So where did all of the English come in? The 19th Century? (after we declared our independence from Britain)
Here are the largest ethnicities in North Carolina (excluding African Americans):
American - 1,152,926
German - 1,057,818
English - 960,867
Irish - 869,520
Scots Irish - 276,665
There's been a decline in the number of people claiming "English" ancestry since 1980 and a marked increase in the number of people claiming "American" since that time. So it's fair to assume that many of those people now claiming "American" previously idenitifed as "English."
So what is it you want to know? It sounds to me like you have already made up your mind about whether or not NC is "very Southern" (whatever that means!) and it seems you are basing that on how many black folks live here.
That wasn't even the point of the thread. I'm always amazed by how easily confused people get in these threads.
I think it's firmly established that NC is southern. My question was where in NC can you live and be completely innoculated from southern culture?
Quote:
Originally Posted by anifani821
I do not understand your comment about racism . . . ??? Racism = being Southern????
That's not what I said either. I said that there is a strong correlation between the size of a state's black population and the intensity of its racism. And states with a less intense history of racism tend to be viewed more favorably than the states where lynchings, dogs and hoses were used to intimidate blacks.
My question was where in NC can you live and be completely innoculated from southern culture?
I do not think there is anywhere in the state that is inoculated from Southern culture, not even Cary. But why would you want it that way? I enjoy the southern flavor of my adopted state.
I do not think there is anywhere in the state that is inoculated from Southern culture, not even Cary. But why would you want it that way? I enjoy the southern flavor of my adopted state.
I don't want it that way. I like southern culture. I'm just wondering where in North Carolina you can live and conclude that NC is not a southern state. Furthermore, how could one conclude that it was never a southern state?
So where did all of the English come in? The 19th Century? (after we declared our independence from Britain)
Here are the largest ethnicities in North Carolina (excluding African Americans):
American - 1,152,926
German - 1,057,818
English - 960,867
Irish - 869,520
Scots Irish - 276,665
There's been a decline in the number of people claiming "English" ancestry since 1980 and a marked increase in the number of people claiming "American" since that time. So it's fair to assume that many of those people now claiming "American" previously idenitifed as "English."
I am sorry. I do not even understand what it is you want to know. Perhaps someone else could help you. Seems you are taking contemporary statistics and trying to use them in an historical context.
I am into genealogy so have necessarily had to learn how this state was settled in doing that research. If you do your research, you will see that the majority of immigrants to this country who migrated to NC were not English. There were, however, loyalists in NC and they remained so during the Revolutionary War. It is easy enough to find that information if you are willing to dig for it.
Germans, Swiss, Irish and Scots were the majority of settlers of this state. The Lords Proprietors were English, but they were aristocracy. Settlers were basically poor folks and overall, NOT aristocracy.
I have one ancestor who was born in England, but his parents were actually Scots who had moved to England and settled only a few years b/f boarding a ship to the colonies. The rest of my ancestors were Swiss, German and Scots and arrived in the early 1700s to America.
My husband is from the midwest, and his ancestors on one side of his family were from England, and were Catholics who settled in a Catholic settlement in Maryland in the late 1600s, and then his ancestor (who was born on American soil) migrated down through Virginia, and eventually to Missouri. So yes, there were definitely English folk who moved to this country.
You need to understand WHY people migrated to "the New World." Many were trying to escape the government where they currently lived. Some had financial problems they were escaping. Some knew this was the only way they could establish a farm (homesteading) for their families as they could not afford property or would not inherit it in their home country.
The Scots and Irish who moved here basically did not have fond feelings for the English. I don't think this is difficult to understand . . .
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I'm always amazed by how easily confused people get in these threads. 
