Kentucky is a border state, as is the southern half of West Virginia, all of Virginia outside of the D.C. suburbs, and Missouri. Maryland is not a border state (excepting a couple of southern Maryland counties and the Eastern Shore). It is clearly closer in culture to, say, Philadelphia than to, say, Atlanta.
Virginia is northern only down to about Fredericksburg. Past that you’re in the South.
You’re getting way too hung up on someone else’s definitions.
Kentucky is an Appalachian state in parts, Midwestern in others, and other parts reflect more of a Deep South culture.
I would have said, “…places that are more redneck than cosmopolitan…”. Like Laurel, and other towns sitting on Route 1. Not sure that they identify with the South, though.
Your last sentence has some truth to it but the comment you responded to is not about just the BW area. The cultural influence of DC and immediately surrounding area tends to be socially progressive but get out to Bel Air, Cumberland, or Waldorf and tell me what you see.
I think Mr. Moto was referring to Maryland’s insatiable appetite for scrapple; hardly a Northern preference.
Grits and BBQ ribs are widely available, too.
Native Marylander here, and all I can say is that I usually find that people from states to the north consider Maryland part of the South, and people to the south consider Maryland a Northern state. And I mean the capitalized terms culturally, not merely geographically.
Yes. Lee thought it would rise up or a significant portion of the state would, when he crossed into it from Virginia
Yes. All the Lincoln conspirators except Powell came from Maryland.
Yes. Maryland was a Slave state by the Civil war about 13% of the State’s population was Slaves. This was down from 30 % about 100 years before when MD’s total l population of slaves was lower only than Virginia’s
Yes. Maryland only passed freeing slaves in November 1864 & if the state was truly legitimately split and there was some small chicanery with voting soldiers to pass it 50.1-49.9% well … so what says this Native Marylander
Today I am not sure what Southern Identity is - I need more of a definition is it multi-cultural Florida? Is it a Texas nearing a majority-minority? If as I suspect we are using it as code for say, Trent Lott - evangelical, white, Religious, pretty solidly Republican, “family values” friendly - then I agree that Maryland is not a Southern state culturally.
Even St. Marys County has exploded in Population due to the air base & the growth of the ex-burbs and has seen population growth in the double digits over the last half decade and a coresponding real estate boom - it is not what it was
Sure. Last time I got gas outside Ellicott City, mine was the only vehicle not sporting a confederate flag decal or a “The South Shall Rise Again” sticker. I went to school in the more liberal strip of I-95, and the was was called “The Civil War.” My friends who were zoned differently and went to a school 10 miles away learned about “The War of Northern Aggression.”
Slight hijack: that is an awesome book, by the way, which I just happen to have sitting here on my desk because I’ve been reading it sporadically for the past few weeks. My copy is pretty old, having been printed in 1981, but it’s still a fascinating read. I found it astonishing that where I live (Las Vegas area) is grouped in as part of “The Empty Quarter,” a region stretching all the way up to freakin’ Alaska in the north, past Denver in the southeast, and all the way over to the western edge of Quebec in the north. I wonder if he’s updated his ideas (or changed his mind about anything) since then.
I just noticed that you said the full book is available on the official website; time to check and see if there are any updates/changes.
IMO, and I did not live there all my life, Maryland (and for that matter Delaware, if you believe in Delaware 
) gave me the impression of a place that once WAS definitely “Border Southern” , but where during the past few decades the more urban parts therof have cosmopolitized into more of a generic “Eastern” feel – yet many other parts of it still have the “Border Southern” cultural vibe.
As a Marylander, I get to choose what I want to be. I choose to be a Southerner. My friends in the western part of the state choose to be Appalachian-American. Gene, my friend in Queen Anne is simply a waterman, without much regard to the whole north/sputh thing.
When was this, 1958? I’ve lived in Howard County since 1969, and although I might have agreed with you 30 years ago, these days IME there are more hen’s teeth than Stars and Bars around here.
Columbia, where I live, and the next town over from the Ellicott City, is one of the most liberal cities south of Massachusetts, and with 100,000 people, the second largest city in Maryland.
IMHO, CookingWithGas is more on the mark with this comment:
- I also had a conversation with an adult Ellicott City store clerk who opined that it was great that a lot of the old stores had slave quarters because when things were put to rights we’d need them again.
I went to school (granted, longer ago than that) in Columbia; my friends went to Centennial. I moved to Columbia from DC in 1970 and still have relatives and friends there. They tell me that they still sometimes get suspicion in parts of Howard County outside Columbia, but not like when I was a teen and sometimes was denied gasoline or services in places like Glenelg because I was from Columbia.
I’m not suggesting that all of Maryland is like that; I’m responding to the challenge to my earlier statement, which I stand by, that “the I-95 Baltowash corridor is still punctuated with places that are closer to Dixie than they are to Baltimore.”
It may be more an indication of where we were than where we are, but I thought the incidence of Jim Crow laws might help delineate the borders of “The South”. Maryland is on the list.
I also ran across an interesting piece on the desegregation of Maryland restaurants:
http://teachingamericanhistorymd.net/000001/000000/000032/html/t32.html
In 1960, the majority of restaurants in downtown Baltimore were still segregated and blacks were not served at all-white dining establishments.
This page has a nice map showing the geographical distribution of Jim Crow laws:
Wow. I can’t recall any incidents even remotely like this in nearly 40 years living in Howard County, possibly excluding some redneck jerks I knew when I went to Glenelg High School, 1969-1971. (I graduated from Wilde Lake in 1973.)
You’ve had your experiences, and I’ve had mine, but I’m hoping, for the good name of Howard County, that yours are the exception. What do you do to attract these jerks, anyway? 
Have darker skin than they do? Look like a dyke? I don’t think my experiences are typical, but I do think the Baltimore-Washington corridor has some areas that have a Southern identity moreso than a northern, or industrial, or midatlantic.
I am in the corner where Maryland, Delaware and Pennsylvania come together and have been most of my life.
It is well understood that as you cross the Mason-Dixon line into Cecil County you are in the deep deep South. As you drive South you’re heading North until you pass DC and then you are heading South again.
I have seen crosses burn and I’m not that old, and I would invite anyone with doubts to stop in at Buck’s Tavern in Rising Sun for a clarity session on what’s South and what’s North.
Them boys debate in style!
But it’s not Kennesaw or anything.
I’d take Garreau’s borders with a grain of salt. I’d lived all my life in northern New York and was surprised back in 1981 to see him place us in the “Foundry” - we were and are clearly part of New England culture.