Not to be overly snarky but what constitutes 'a bit more?'

I lived in the "deep south" for a number of years.. AR and MS. It was interesting.

other states are also considered within the Bible Belt. This is fun! I'm learning new stuff today!

The area roughly considered to be part of the Bible Belt.



More on the bible belt at this wiki link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bible_Belt

"South" as in bible belt, confederate states, racists.

Ergo, Deep South translates to those bigoted bible beaters who get all their (incredibly limited) information from Rush Limbaugh.

Is it just those states that were part of the Union during the Civil War? Or do states like the Dakotas, Nebraska, Wyoming and Colorado count, too?

Or is "Yankee" a term limited to the "Deep North," specifically New England? Or does New York count as well because of the whole baseball team thing?

What say you? Hard to compare the Triangle to "Yankees" if I don't know what you mean.

In Texas from San Antonio to Beaumont anyone haling from north of Lubbock is a Yankee. To those north of Lubbock everyone north of them is a Yankee, to those people Yankees live in the north east and to north easterners Yankees are from New England. In New England Yankees are from Connecticut (problem is few true Yankees live in Connecticut with all the immigrants.

And to here our cousins across the pond we are all Yanks. Well stick a feather in our hat and call it macaroni!!!!

E Pluribus Unum

and the northwest. Not those from the east coast or new england.
In fact I always heard "yankee" as an adjective. Specifically in the usage "yankee Bob Jones people"
The bulk of their students came from Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, and Indiana.

All those states to the far right, but mostly in the vertical middle.

The states in dark red compose the Deep South today. Adjoining areas of East Texas, North Florida and the Florida Panhandle are also considered part of this subregion. Historically, these seven states formed the original Confederate States of America.




Read more at the Wiki link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_South

See, I'm from "West Texas", which they now call "The Panhandle" but non-Texans assume is "North Texas", when "North Texas" is actually around the Dallas area...

But regardless, up here in West Texas, we've never really considered ourselves as part of "The South", especially not the "Deep South". Bible Belt, totally. "The South", not so much.

But yeah. As much as we would like to forget about it, Texas seceded from the union and flew the Confederate flag.

I mean, Oklahoma has a panhandle, so does Florida, but on a map those kind of look like actual panhandles. The one in Texas is a bit too thick and clunky to be a panhandle... it's more like a smokestack.

But what do I know? I'm a goddamn yankee.

Texas is also shaped like and abstract star.

West Texas is also called the "Top O' Texas". There's even an classic old lady hairstyle called the "Top O' Texas" because it resembles the shape of my state. Think Ann Landers:

a "Southern State"... too many transplanted/retired New Yawk-ahs.

When I was growing up I used to tell people, "anything north of Atlanta is Yankee to me!" I was born in Macon, most of "my people" from further south than that (Fitzgerald, Ocilla, Tifton, Moultrie, Albany, etc..).

Moved to about as far south Alabama as you can go when I was 8. Then to KY 13-22. Charleston, SC to Mobile, AL back to Chas. Outside of Cleveland, OH for two years. TO NC (Triangle area) for the next 20 something years.

Now liberal Madison, WI (WHEW!!!) for the past - um - 5 or 6 years... my biggest complaint - it's too damn cold!

But that they were trying to hide it from the Northern tourists and transplants.
We were born in Ohio, though,and other than than that year, she had always lived in the "North".

I was born in Philadelphia, but grew up in Miami. And most of people there had migrated from the north.

but it ain't "southern". . . there's a world of difference to a true "southerner".

I lived there for 5 years. Woooooooo.. Pig.. Sooie! Razorbacks!

there's the "mid-south" - those states traditionally included Ark. TN, KY, North Carolina, VA and West VA. and even Maryland.

Va and Maryland are sometimes "mid-south" but also "south Atlantic" because of the coast. Western Carolina and Eastern TN have more geographic similarity than the other parts of their states and their politics sometimes reflected this, along with eastern KY and southern W. VA. - and even northern GA, too. iow, the Appalachian Mtns. region.

Accents are, or were, greatly different between coastal and mtn regions because of geographical isolation and influences from other areas. River routes for other parts of TN and KY had more to do with movement between middle and western parts of those states - with everything eventually flowing to the Mississippi.

The midwest is generally considered to be geographically marked by the Ohio River, as the diff. between south and midwest, which was also the line b/t slave and free states earlier in American history. The Ohio River divides KY and W. VA from Ohio and IN. and ends when it empties into the Mississippi just above Western TN.

You ask good questions. As a native North Carolinian who's hidden from the rest of the state by living in the Triangle the past 25 years, I guess I'd say that "Deep South" referred to those states (I have to start somewhere) where the ratio of African American slaves to whites was highest in the mid to late 19th century. Generally, the higher the ratio, the worse the slave codes/Jim Crow codes/civil rights abuses, because whites, when in the minority, worked harder to control the African American population than when slavery was more scarce, as in NC, TN, parts of VA, KN, even FL.

Of course, slaveholding areas varied within the states--Western NC had very few, while the eastern areas had the largest plantations and black populations (witness the Wilmington 1898 massacre in which my ancestors participated).

I don't think these population ratios held up after the Great Migration in the 1920s, or after the Yankee infiltration into the South over the past 20 years, but the mentality of more intense fear among whites still holds somewhat, and I'd use that as my the guiding framework for "deep south."

concentrated. Symptoms: fundamentalism, bigotry, anti-government paranoia (selective), militarism.

It's not a reliable geographical concept any longer.

I'm in south-central PA and we've got our share of said pickups.

The term "Deep South" is defined in a variety of ways:

Most definitions include the states of Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina.[4][5]
The seven states that seceded from the United States before the firing on Fort Sumter and the start of the American Civil War, and originally formed the Confederate States of America. In order of secession they are: South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas. Due to the migration patterns of the last half-century, some areas of Florida and Texas are often no longer included under the term. However, there are certain parts of these states, such as East Texas, the Florida Panhandle, and North Central Florida that retain cultural characteristics of the Deep South.
A large part of the original "Cotton Belt", generally extending from eastern North Carolina to South Carolina and through the Gulf States as far west as East Texas, and including those parts of western Tennessee and eastern Arkansas in the Mississippi embayment.[6]


there's also a map on the page that corresponds to my personal perception of what constitutes the deep south.

Rocky Mount, originally. Know the area?

Robeson County, woo. All my people are from NC.

Produces really good BBQ and a lot of NC Politicians.

I keed

I keed.

I'm sure that parts of Eastern NC are quite nice.

I just included it as Deep South because of its rep as a Power Base for Helms.

Last time I checked, Edgecombe county, one of the poorest in state, voted for Obama. In fact most of the counties in the Northern Eastern NC voted for the President.

http://www.wral.com/news/political/page/3751270/

One has to remember, there are more then just red necks in Eastern North Carolina. There are plenty of minorities. The region isn't simply a power base for the GOP... it is also one of the main places the Dems have to do well to carry the state. If you want GOP power base, you have to look to western North Carolina.

This is making me miss home, and the good fatting food cooked by both blacks and whites.

and all parts south.

These were the states dominated by the great planter aristocrats. The rest of the south was more dominated by "Appalachian redneck" folks, many of Scots-Irish ancestry.

Yep, I'm in it. Deeper than deep. DEEEEEEEP South.

Y'all will know it when you git here.

I love a lot about Alabama (especially the 65 degree weather today), but some of the attitudes of the deep south will shock you.

To me, deep south is Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia (excluding Atlanta), South Carolina, the Florida panhandle, and I'd even put a lot of Tennessee in there. Arkansas maybe. Texas - no. Texas is its own world.

Some others would put Louisiana in there but it is like Texas in that it has its own culture. Maybe Kentucky, North Carolina and South Virginia - but that's not DEEP south.

And as often as the phrase is thrown around by everyone (me included) I don't think I have ever seen an exact definition of what region or states really define the deep south.

Here is how I do it.



Here is the election of 1948. Strom Thurmond ran as a 3rd party Dixiecrat. The states he carried are in green. In the history of our country there has been no single demographic group more hostile, cruel, terroristic and anti-American than a Southern Democrat. Please google the subject. You will not believe the stories of southern democrats and southern politics from the reconstructive era to the 1960s.



Here is the election of 1952. At this time the south was a democratic stronghold. This was because Lincoln was a republican when he saved our country with the Civil War. As a result following reconstruction, the south was entirely a democratic stronghold. In history terms it referred to as the "Solid Block." In the 1960s when a new breed of democrats (from the north) changed the democratic party and began to embrace civil rights, the south changed party affiliation. This is why today the south is the base of the republican party.




Here is the election of 1956. Again note the "Solid Block in the south. This is because the democratic party is the party of segregation. It is the party of racism. Basically this represents a nearly 100 year backlash against Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War. A backlash that wouldn't be forgiven until democrats began to help with the civil rights movement of the 1960s. Today the democrats are feeling the south's rage and we are currently involved in another 100 year backlash, this time against the Democrats for their support of civil rights. Basically which ever political party of the era is supporting equal rights for all americans, the south is violently against them. This is still very true today.






Here is the 1964 Presidential election. Barry Goldwater ran on a platform opposing civil rights. He was from Arizona. The states he carried are in blue. No need to elaborate further here.




Here is the 1968 Presidential election. George Wallace ran as a segregationist 3rd party candidate. The states he carried are shown in green/light green. The voters who supported his candidacy are the same demographic group that has given rise to the Tea Party today.



After 1968, the republicans saw an huge political opportunity. The "southern strategy" was born. And over the next 20 years the GOP took over the south. This is why today the south is republican.



Based on these maps, a clear historic pattern emerges on the terrible history of the south and what factors determine who is elected to public office from the region.

In today's terms I define the deep south as Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, South Carolina and Oklahoma. Just missing the cut are Arkansas, Tennessee, and Kentucky. North Carolina and Virginia are no longer culturally deep south states. And of course, Florida, Missouri and Texas are not a deep south states either.

Good thread topic.

The South didn't vote as a GOP block until 1994. If it takes 25 years for something to work, did it actually work?

In my opinion, the change happened when Rush Limbaugh appeared on nearly every single talk radio station in the South with little to no liberal options. This was exacerbated with the advent of Faux News and the seemingly overnight use of it as the "news" station seen on TVs in every Southern waiting area.

BTW, in most of your maps, my state Tennessee was siding with the North until 1994.

One doesn't take a Democratic stronghold and turn it into a Republican stronghold overnight. The southern strategy arguably started with Herbert Hoover, who won some southern states by drumming up anti-catholic sentiment against Al Smith. Obviously the depression happening on his watch was a major setback.

Nixon put the south in play for the Republicans. Reagan made them the majority party there. Rush Limbaugh, Faux News, and Newt Gingrich solidified their dominance at the congressional and local level as well as the presidential level. Bush and Karl Rove made it basically impossible for Democrats to compete there.

The majority of the 'Metro Atlanta Area,' a donut around the core, may not be the 'country,' but it is highly Republican, Conservative, and Racist. They turn the elections in Georgia. There are rural areas that are more Democratic than this ring of new money Libertarian-Teahadists.

is a dead give-away.

as South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida

I spent a life-time one winter up there!
Anything south of the Ohio river is redneck country.