Culture of the Southern United States

Southern American English is a group of

It has been said that Southerners are most easily distinguished from other Americans by their speech, both in terms of accent and idiom. However, there is no single "Southern Accent." Rather, Southern American English is a collection of dialects of the English spoken throughout the South. Southern American English can be divided into different sub-dialects, with speech differing between, for example, that of Appalachian region and the coastal "low country" around Charleston, South Carolina. Folklorists in the 1920s and later argued that because of the region's isolation, Appalachian language patterns more closely mirrored Elizabethan English than other accents in the United States.^[42]

While traces of African linguistic features remain in AAVE, there are a few distinctively African dialect groups in the South, the Gullah the most famous among them.

There continues to be debate about what constitutes the basic elements of Southern culture.[43] This debate is influenced partly because the South is such a large region. As a result, there are a number of cultural variations among states in the region.

Among the variations found in Southern culture are:

• The
  Chesapeake colonies of Virginia and Maryland, and later South Carolina. This was the first area that developed plantations for cash crops of tobacco, rice and indigo. Later, cotton, and hemp became important cash crops, as well. Planters would import large numbers of Africans as slave labor. The coastal areas of the Old South were dominated by wealthy planters, who controlled local government.^{[citation needed}
  ]
• The
  English ancestry. Because settlers were chiefly yeoman farmers, many upland areas did not support the Confederate cause during the American Civil War (see Andrew Johnson). The Upland South also had many areas that continued to support the Republican Party while the remainder of the white South supported Democrats during the Solid South era.^{[citation needed}
  ]
• Areas having experienced a large influx of newcomers typically have been less likely to hold onto a distinctly Southern identity and cultural influences. Today, partly because of continuing population migration patterns between urban areas in the North and South, historically "Southern" larger urban areas, such as Atlanta, Austin, Charlotte, Dallas, Houston, Raleigh-Durham, Jacksonville, Orlando, and San Antonio have assimilated modern metropolitan identities distinct from their historic "Southern" heritage. However, while these metropolitan areas have had their original southern culture somewhat diluted, they nonetheless have largely preserved their distinct "Southern" identity.^[44]

Southern Alabama north of Mobile was settled predominately by large plantation owners and slaves moved west from their original settlements on the coasts of South Carolina and Georgia. These settlers originally had slave plantations in Barbados and sought to expand their plantation based economy. This region is mainly known for its large African American population and historic cultivation of wheat, cotton, and rice. It is the epitome of what is considered the Deep South. Today, this region is the poorest in the state and one of the poorest regions in the country. It still remains mostly rural and has seen minimal development.

Unlike the rest of southern Alabama, which was settled by British plantation owners, Mobile and the Gulf Coast was settled by Spanish and French settlers much earlier than the rest of the state. Mobile likely has more in common with New Orleans than it does with the rest of the state.^[45] Today, Mobile still retains some of its French traditions, such as having a large Catholic presence and annual celebrations of Mardi Gras, which first began in the United States in the city.^[46]

Northern Alabama was settled by Northern English and Scots Irish settlers who came to the United States. These Appalachian settlers^{[clarification needed]} were mostly small farmers—who did not own any slaves and had little voting power due to the rich planters in the South, who controlled the government. Today this region is still mostly rural, but is developing urban areas, such as cities like Birmingham and Huntsville attracting outsiders for work.^[47]

With its northern border at the boundary of the

While varying degrees of southern cultural influence can be found in Kentucky inside the Cincinnati area and Louisville, smaller cities such as Owensboro, Lexington, Bowling Green, Hopkinsville and Paducah, together with most of the state's rural areas, have continued to be more distinctly Southern in character. Outside of those two specific areas, southern culture, dialect, mannerisms, etc. are prominent in Kentucky. Southern cuisine is also quite common across the state. Western Kentucky is famous for a regional style of southern barbecue, and other forms of southern food such as catfish, country ham, and green beans.^[56] Today most of the state, outside of Northern Kentucky, shares a cultural identity with Tennessee and the rest of the Upland South in ancestry, dialect, and various other aspects of culture.^{[40][57][58][59]}

In most contexts, especially culturally, the state is grouped as part of the south.^{[39][60][61][62][63]}

The Charlotte and Raleigh–Durham areas have attracted many new residents due to economic growth. This includes the banking/finance industries in Charlotte, along with the universities and high-tech industries in Raleigh-Durham. Wilmington has also become a center of Midwestern and Northern migration for its temperate coastal climate and growing business community. Meanwhile, Asheville and its surrounding area has tended to attract more progressively minded transplants, due to its longstanding reputation as a center of liberal thought and open-minded attitudes, and retirees settle here due to its scenic mountain setting.^{[citation needed]}

In addition to an influx of Northerners, the job markets in North Carolina's three largest metropolitan regions—Charlotte, Raleigh-Durham, and the Greensboro–Winston-Salem–High Point Piedmont Triad—have also attracted large and growing Latino and Asian American immigration and migration. A report released by the Brookings Institution in May 2006 entitled Diversity Spreads Out, noted that the Charlotte metro area ranked second nationally with a 49.8% growth rate in its Hispanic population between 2000 and 2004. The Raleigh-Durham metro area followed in third place with a 46.7% rate of growth.^[64]

Settlement of the Oklahoma Territory began as a direct result of the Civil War. Southerners escaping Reconstruction, largely populated the southern and eastern regions of the state. The term "Little Dixie" was first used in reference to southeastern Oklahoma during the 20th century. Italian laborers began arriving in eastern Oklahoma in the 1870s.^[65]

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In the 1980 United States census, the largest ancestry group reported in Texas was English, with 3,083,323 Texans who identify as being of English ancestry forming roughly 27% of the population at the time.^[66] Their ancestry primarily goes back to the original thirteen colonies and for this reason many of them today simply claim "American" ancestry. Because of its size and unique history, particularly having once been Mexican territory, and later a nation in its own right (i.e. the Republic of Texas), Texas' modern-day relationship to the rest of the South is often a subject of debate and discussion. It has been described as "a Southern state, certainly, yet not completely in or of the South." The size and cultural distinctiveness of Texas prohibit easy categorization of the entire state into any recognized region. Geographic, economic and cultural diversity among regions of the state preclude treating Texas as a region in its own right. Notable extremes range from East Texas, which is often considered an extension of the Deep South, to Far West Texas, which is generally acknowledged to be part of the interior Southwest.

The upper

The larger cities of Texas, such as Austin, Dallas, and Houston—with their burgeoning knowledge-based economies—have attracted migrants from other regions of the United States, particularly the Midwest and West Coast. Combined with the influence of increasing numbers from an African American New Great Migration,^[67] and also from Latin America and Asia, the historic "Southern culture" has been transformed.

However—partly due to its membership in the Confederacy and history as part of the Solid South—and the fact much of the state lies within the Bible Belt—it is usually considered more of a Southern than Western state. Also, linguistic maps of Texas place most of it within the spheres of upper, mid- and Gulf- Southern dialects, helping to further identify the state as being Southern (use of Southern colloquialisms such as y'all and ain't are still very much widespread in Texas).

Based on a study from the late 1990s, 82% of Virginians believe they live in the South and most identify more with the South than with any other region.

Modern Virginia has seen an ongoing tendency for Northeasterners who move to the state to identifying separately from the rest of the South politically and culturally.[74] However, they choose to remain in Virginia for better economic opportunities than those available further North, as well as the low tax rates.^[75]

West Virginia was formed during the American Civil War in 1863 from 50 western counties of Virginia and is currently composed of 55 counties. Many of the counties in the new state had supported Virginia and the Confederacy during the war but were included for territorial reasons, which resulted in a "Redeemer" government in 1876.^[76][77]

Many legacies of its Virginia heritage remain, such as county and local place names. The state constitution is based on the antebellum constitution of Virginia. As recently as 2007 an 1849 Virginia statute was used in a county prosecution.

It is the 7th most Protestant state and the 7th most religious state in the United States.[81]^[82] Out migration has been a steady phenomenon, beginning after the Civil War when ex-Confederates moved into southern Ohio to escape the political sanctions in their new home state.^[83] In the 20th century out migration increased as West Virginians moved north for jobs in industry.^[84]

West Virginia has a high rate of family owned farms and the state produces large numbers of poultry, corn, apples and peaches.^[85] Tobacco production peaked in 1909 at 14,400,000 pounds, and was the second most valuable crop as recently as 1983 but is no longer a popular commodity.^[86]

Many southern dishes are common in the state; biscuits and sausage gravy, chicken and dumplings, sweet tea, cornbread and beans and condiments such as cole slaw and chow chow accompany barbecued meats. The southern diet has been blamed for health problems such as obesity and diabetes and smoking is among the highest rates in the United States.^[87] Southern Appalachian dialect can be heard in much of the state though mostly south of Clarksburg.^[88]

Country music is one of the most popular genres in the state,

Portions of Maryland, specifically Southern Maryland and the Eastern Shore of Maryland remain largely culturally Southern, driven by agriculture and commercial fishing. Most of the land is rural and there are but a few large population centers. Many local restaurants in these two areas still serve sweet tea and dishes including or composed entirely of greens, in addition to menus heavy with fried food. Many dialectic studies show that St. Mary's County in Southern Maryland and Dorchester County, Somerset County, Wicomico County, and Worcester County in the Eastern Shore have southern accents.

Western Maryland is considered Appalachian, and is largely rural. The region is very similar to the neighboring West Virginia, Virginia, and Pennsylvania.

In a manner similar to Maryland, Delaware exhibits characteristics of both the Northeast and South. Unlike other surrounding states which are either north or south of the Mason–Dixon line, Delaware is uniquely situated east of the line (as the line takes a vertical turn along the state's western border). Generally, the rural Southern (or "Slower Lower") regions of Delaware below the

In the antebellum years, many settlers from Upper South states, such as Virginia and Kentucky, migrated to the counties of central and western Missouri along the Missouri River, where they could cultivate tobacco and hemp. Because these southerners brought their culture and slaveholding practices with them, Missouri was admitted to the Union as a slaveholding state. During the mid-20th century, this area became known as Little Dixie. Before the Civil War, six of the counties included in this area had populations in which more than 25% were enslaved African Americans, the highest concentrations in the state outside the cotton plantations in the Mississippi Delta.^[95] Antebellum houses typical of the South, still stand in some of Little Dixie. All the crops grown there today are corn, soybeans and wheat, for which the area was better suited than for Southern crops like cotton or tobacco. Rural southern Missouri in the Ozark Plateau and the bootheel, are definitively southern in culture.^{[citation needed]}

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Many areas of New Mexico, Arizona, and California were predominantly settled by European American southerners as they moved west in the 19th and early 20th centuries. For instance, pro-Confederate governments were established in what is now Arizona and New Mexico during the Civil War and, at one point, southern California was on the cusp of breaking away from northern California and joining the Confederacy.

In the aftermath of the Civil War, several freedmen's towns were founded by emancipated African Americans from the south.^[96]

Southerners migrated to industrial cities in the

More than 6.5 million African Americans left the segregated South for the industrial cities of the Midwest and West Coast during the Great Migration, beginning in World War I and extending to 1970. Many migrants from Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas moved to California during and after World War II because of jobs in the defense industry. As a result, many African Americans, as well as European Americans, have "Northern" and "Southern" branches of their families. Significant parts of African-American culture, such as music, literary forms and cuisine, have been rooted in the South, but have changed with urban northern and western influences as well.

As an important feature of Southern culture, the cuisine of the South is often described as one of its most distinctive traits. Popular sayings include "Food is Love" and "If it ain't fried it ain't cooked".^[

dishes, all types of seafood, along with Carolina, Virginia (which shares strong similarities with North Carolina) and Memphis styles of barbecue.

Traditional African American Southern food is often called

chicken fried steak

.

Drinks

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Iced tea is commonly associated with the South. Specifically, sweet tea, or brewed iced tea sweetened with granulated sugar, has traditionally been served in the South. In fact, most southern restaurants serve sweet tea in addition to "unsweet tea", whereas most restaurants in other regions serve only (unsweetened) iced tea.^{[citation needed]}

Many of the most popular American

Genericized trademark

).

Official support for

dry counties

that do not allow for alcohol sales in retail outlets. However, many dry counties still allow for "private clubs" often with low daily fees to serve alcohol on the premises.

sazerac cocktails and absinthe

.

The

Upper South, specifically Kentucky, is known for its production of bourbon whiskey, which is a popular base for cocktails. As of 2005, Kentucky was credited with producing 95% of the world's bourbon,^[98] which has been referred to as America's only native spirit. The mint julep is traditionally depicted as a popular beverage among more affluent Southerners. Many other bourbons are produced in Kentucky including Evan Williams, Wild Turkey, and Bulleit. Southern Comfort is a flavored distilled spirit modeled after bourbon and made in Louisiana

.

Another form of spirit produced in the South is

Tennessee Whiskey, with Jack Daniel's, made in Lynchburg, Tennessee being the number one selling whiskey in the world. George Dickel is produced in nearby Tullahoma, Tennessee

.

Education

Main article: History of education in the Southern United States

Literature

Main article: Southern United States literature

Born in the Boonslick region of Missouri to parents who had recently emigrated from Tennessee, Mark Twain is often placed within the pantheon of great Southern writers. Many of his works demonstrate his extensive knowledge of the Mississippi River and the South; also included in his works as a frequent theme were the injustice of slavery and the culture of Protestant public morality.

One of the best known southern writers of the 20th century is

As I Lay Dying

The Southern Renaissance (also known as Southern Renascence)

The Southern Renaissance was the first mainstream movement within Southern literature to address the criticisms of Southern cultural and intellectual life that had emerged both from within the Southern literary tradition and from outsiders, most notably the satirist H. L. Mencken. In the 1920s Mencken led the attack on the genteel tradition in American literature, ridiculing the provincialism of American intellectual life. In his 1920 essay "The Sahara of the Bozart" (a pun on a Southern pronunciation of 'beaux-arts') he singled out the South as the most provincial and intellectually barren region of the US, claiming that since the Civil War, intellectual and cultural life there had gone into terminal decline.^[100] This created a storm of protest from within conservative circles in the South. However, many emerging Southern writers who were already highly critical of contemporary life in the South were emboldened by Mencken's essay. On the other hand, Mencken's subsequent bitter attacks on aspects of Southern culture that they valued amazed and horrified them. In response to the attacks of Mencken and his imitators, Southern writers were provoked to a reassertion of Southern uniqueness and a deeper exploration of the theme of Southern identity.^[101]

Other well-known Southern writers include Erskine Caldwell, Edgar Allan Poe, Joel Chandler Harris, Sidney Lanier, Cleanth Brooks, Pat Conroy, Harper Lee, Zora Neale Hurston, Eudora Welty, Ralph Ellison, Thomas Wolfe, William Styron, Flannery O'Connor, Carson McCullers, James Dickey, Willie Morris, Tom Wolfe, Truman Capote, Walker Percy, Charles Portis, Barry Hannah, Alice Walker, Cormac McCarthy, Anne Rice, Shelby Foote, John Grisham, Charlaine Harris, James Agee, Hunter S. Thompson, Wendell Berry, Bobbie Ann Mason, Harry Crews, and the authors known as the Southern Agrarians.

Possibly the most famous Southern novel of the 20th century is Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell, published in 1937. Another famous Southern novel, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, won the Pulitzer Prize after it was published in 1960.

The musical heritage of the South was developed by both whites and blacks, both influencing each other directly and indirectly.

The South's musical history actually starts before the Civil War, with the songs of the African slaves and traditional folk music.

Stax Records, Hi Records, and Goldwax Records released deep soul singles and albums.^[102] In the 1960s, Stax Records emerged as a leading competitor of Motown Records, laying the groundwork for later stylistic innovations in the process. In general, country music is based on the folk music of white Southerners, and blues and rhythm and blues is based on African American southern forms. However, whites and blacks alike have contributed to each of these genres, and there is a considerable overlap between the traditional music of blacks and whites in the South, especially in gospel music forms. A stylish variant of country music (predominantly produced in Nashville) has been a consistent, widespread fixture of American pop since the 1950s, while insurgent forms (i.e. bluegrass) have traditionally appealed to more discerning sub-cultural and rural audiences. Blues dominated the African American music charts from the advent of modern recording until the mid-1950s, when it was supplanted by the less guttural and forlorn sounds of rock and R&B. Nevertheless, unadulterated blues (along with early rock and roll) is still the subject of reverential adoration throughout much of Europe and cult popularity in isolated pockets of the United States.

Zydeco,

Rock n' roll largely began in the South in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Early rock n' roll musicians from the South include Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Holly, Little Richard, Fats Domino, Bo Diddley, Elvis Presley, Ray Charles, James Brown, Otis Redding, and Carl Perkins, among many others. Hank Williams, Charlie Feathers, and Johnny Cash, while generally regarded as "country" singers, also had a significant role in the development of rock music, giving rise to the "crossover" genre of rockabilly. Many who got their start in the regional show business in the South eventually banked on mainstream national and international success as well: Elvis Presley and Dolly Parton are two such examples of artists that have transcended genres.

The South has continued to produce rock music in later decades. In the 1970s, a wave of Southern rock and blues rock groups, led by The Allman Brothers Band, Lynyrd Skynyrd, ZZ Top, and 38 Special, became popular. Macon, Georgia-based Capricorn Records helped to spearhead the Southern rock movement, and was the original home to many of the genre's most famous groups. At the other end of the spectrum, along with the aforementioned Brown and Stax, New Orleans' Allen Toussaint and The Meters helped to define the funk subgenre of rhythm and blues in the 1970s.

Since the late 1980s, the spread of

Main article: Sports in the United States

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While the South has National Football League (NFL) franchises in Dallas, Houston, Miami, Atlanta, New Orleans, Tampa, Jacksonville, Charlotte, and Nashville, the region is noted for the intensity with which people follow college football teams, especially those in the Southeastern Conference (SEC), Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), and Big 12 Conference (Big 12). In states such as Texas and Oklahoma, high school football, particularly in smaller communities, is a dominating activity.^{[citation needed]}

Normally associated with cold climates, five National Hockey League (NHL) franchises are based in the south: the Dallas Stars, Tampa Bay Lightning, Florida Panthers, Nashville Predators, and Carolina Hurricanes (six if the Washington Capitals are counted as Southern).

The South is also the birthplace of

Atlanta was the host of the 1996 Summer Olympics.

Many critically acclaimed movies have been set in the cultural background of the South. A partial list of these films follows – for a more complete listing of Southern cinema, see list of films set in the Southern United States.

Following the boom of television in the 1950s, many network television shows were set in the South and/or became very popular with Southerners. They included:

• The Real McCoys (1957–1963)
• The Andy Griffith Show (1960–1968)
• The Beverly Hillbillies (1962–1971)
• Petticoat Junction (1963–1970)
• Flipper (1964–1967)
• Green Acres (1965–1971)
• Hee Haw (1969–1992)

By 1971, sponsors had shifted for this formula and CBS consequently cancelled all of its Southern shows, as part of the rural purge.^[111] (Only Hee Haw survived, in syndication.)

In 1976,

• Carter Country (1977–1979)
• Dallas (1978–1991)
• The Dukes of Hazzard (1979–1985)
• Mama's Family (1983–1990)
• The Golden Girls (1985–1992)
• Matlock (1986–1995)
• Designing Women (1986–1993)
• In the Heat of the Night (1988–1995)

In addition, network television shows set in the South since 1990 include:

• Evening Shade (1990–1994)
• Walker, Texas Ranger (1993–2001)
• Beavis and Butt-head
  (1993–1997)
• Reba (2001–2007)
• King of the Hill (1997–2009)
• One Tree Hill (2003–2012)
• American Dad! (2005–present)
• Friday Night Lights (2006–2011)
• The Riches (2007–2008)
• True Blood (2007–2014)
• The Cleveland Show (2009–2013)
• Eastbound and Down
  (2009–2013)
• Justified (2010–2015)
• The Walking Dead (2010–present)
• Hart of Dixie (2011–2015)
• Dallas (2012–2014)
• Nashville (2012–2018)
• True Detective (2014–present)^[113]
• Bless the Harts (2019–2021)
• Outer Banks (2020–present)
• Young Sheldon (2017–2024)

Critics point out that some of these shows and films, stereotype Southerners as "hapless hicks"^[114] or "a universally simple and often silly group of inhabitants",^[111] especially in contrast to the far more complex literary portrayals, and argue that they do not fairly represent Southerners' culture.

Since the early 19th century, Southerners have been the subject of

During the early periods of the South, travelers often emphasized the backward, uneducated, uncouth, dirty or unhygienic, impoverished, and violent aspects of Southern life. A favorite theme especially regarding Appalachia and the Ozarks, portrayed "hicks" isolated from modern culture as shiftless male hunters, violently feuding clans like the Hatfields and McCoys, degraded women smoking corncob pipes, religious snake handlers, and compulsive banjo players.^[119]

The national stereotype of the South in 1917 can be glimpsed in a study of tobacco usage in the late 19th century written by a Northern historian who paid close attention to class and gender:^[120]

The chewing of tobacco was well-nigh universal. This habit had been widespread among the agricultural population of America both North and South before the war. Soldiers had found the quid a solace in the field and continued to revolve it in their mouths upon returning to their homes. Out of doors where his life was principally led the chewer spat upon his lands without offense to other men, and his homes and public buildings were supplied with spittoons. Brown and yellow parabolas were projected to right and left toward these receivers, but very often without the careful aim which made for cleanly living. Even the pews of fashionable churches were likely to contain these familiar conveniences. The large numbers of Southern men, and these were of the better class (officers in the Confederate army and planters, worth $20,000 or more, and barred from general amnesty) who presented themselves for the pardon of President Johnson, while they sat awaiting his pleasure in the ante-room at the White House, covered its floor with pools and rivulets of their spittle. An observant traveller in the South in 1865 said that in his belief seven-tenths of all persons above the age of twelve years, both male and female, used tobacco in some form. Women could be seen at the doors of their cabins in their bare feet, in their dirty one-piece cotton garments, their chairs tipped back, smoking pipes made of corn cobs into which were fitted reed stems or goose quills. Boys of eight or nine years of age and half-grown girls smoked. Women and girls "dipped" in their houses, on their porches, in the public parlors of hotels and in the streets.

The Progressive Era (1896–1917) brought attention to the problems the South faced. An influential scholarly study was Horace Kephart's Our Southern Highlanders (1913), which portrayed an isolated and culturally inert people.^[121] The bleak image inspired northern philanthropy, such as the Rockefeller foundations, to intervene using modern public health techniques and to promote better schooling.^[122]

Since the 1930s, however, Hollywood has used stereotypes of the South to contrast virtues of simple rural life, with the corruption that can be found in the city.^[115][123]

Comic strips dealt with northern urban experiences until 1934, when