If you’re a Southerner, either by birth or in spirit, let it be known. If you care to be more specific in how you come to be blessed with that distinction, please do.
Just how liberal are you with the definition of Southerner? Does the state have to be part of the Confederacy? Do “border states” count? Is it just a geography thing or is there more to it?
I was born at Fort Bragg NC three days before Pearl Harbor to Alabama parents. I lived in Alabama until I was about to turn 18 when I moved to Tennessee and have been here ever since.
Some of my kin have moved as far away as Alaska, but I think we all consider ourselves Southerners. Quite a few in-laws are not Southerners, but that’s how it goes.
I have trouble accepting Maryland, Kentucky, West Virginia, Missouri, and any state west of Texas as “southern” even if New Mexico, Arizona, and Southern California fit the geographical bill. And it’s hard for me to think of Florida as southern, unless we’re talking rural Florida, mostly because of the Northern transplants and retirees.
And those people who were born and grew up elsewhere and then moved to the South for economical reasons are not Southerners.
I grew up in Maryland and never considered myself to be a southerner. I’ve been in Florida since 1983 (excluding 3 years we lived in Virginia) but I still don’t think of myself as a southerner. My family didn’t come to this country until long after the Civil War was over, so I’ve never understood those who are still “fighting” although it seems to be largely a southern phenomenon.
Nor do I understand how being an American isn’t quite enough for some people. My sister dated a guy who was a southerner-wanna-be. He even affected an accent - poorly. Each to his own, I suppose.
I’m not going to argue if somebody thinks they’re a Southerner. I have opinions (see below) but it’s largely geographic. It gets tricky around Northern Virginia, I think.
MD - No
KY - Yes
WV - Yes
MO - No
W of TX - No
FL - Panhandle and Jacksonville. South of Orlando definitely not.
Family came to VA in early 1700s. We’ve been here ever since (within about 30 miles of where they first settled). To my knowledge, none of my ancestors ever lived north of Washington, DC.
And we don’t really want WVA back, thanks for asking though.
Southerner, born and bred. I was born in Natchez, a stone’s throw away from the Mississippi river. My mama was raised in Glenallen, MS, down on the Delta, and my father is from Port Gibson.
I’ve lived in Arkansas, Lousiana, the Carolinas, Georgia, and Mexico at times, but Mississippi is and always will be home.
Until recently I had no idea that Oklahoma and Maryland considered themselves Southern. They were never in my mental map of the South. The former Confederacy is, including Texas, although they try to pretend they aren’t. The Floridian panhandle is, but not the southern portion – it’s inhabited by Cuban immigrants and Yankee snowbirds.
I consider The South (as opposed to the southeastern United States, which is a geographical term) to be comprised of states that share a common history and cultural quirks. Of course we’re all Americans and I’m proud to be an American – but I’m a Southerner also, and have been shaped by that as well.
verbenabeast, I had an uncle (by marriage) from Verbena, and I’m familiar with that part of the world. Lived in Clanton a little while, Prattville, Montgomery, Birmingham (for a summer), and have family in Decatur, Opelika, Mobile, and other world famous places like Meridian, Dallas, Sarasota (a transplant from AL and TN, so still Southern), Virginia Beach, Outer Banks, and several places in the FL panhandle.
Well, d_redguy and I live in North Carolina. Durham, to be specific. I guess that makes me technically a southerner. I have to admit to actually being a “carpet-bagging, damn Yankee,” though. I was born in Ohio, grew up just outside of Pittsburgh, PA and spent my first adult years in Buffalo, NY. I think that’s as Yankee as I can get, without ending up Canadian.
I like it here, but I still have a hard time thinking of it as “home.”
From the “southern” part of Florida, which of course is in the northern half of the state–more specifically, Panama City. Most of my life has been spent in the Panhandle.
I’ve always regarded my origins as Southern (in addition, my father is from Pensacola, and my mother is from southern Virginia). But my lack of a distinctively Southern accent has always confused people, both in and out of the South. Even when I was a child (I lived in PC until I was 20 years old), people would frequently ask me where I was from.
I agree that most of Florida from Orlando on down is not really Southern.
I was born in Atlanta, GA and lived my entire life (thus far) in the eastern suburbs. I can go to a church cemetary 5 miles from here and count back about 7 generations on my father’s side. My mother’s family has been in this immediate area for at least 150 years. All of my siblings, as well as all of my parents’ and grandparents’ siblings live (or died) within 30 miles of my house. We don’t move much. Having this much family close by is both a blessing and a curse. I wouldn’t have it any other way.
I have traveled enough in my work to know that I am where I’m supposed to be. There are a great many wonderful places in this world and several I would love to visit often, but this is home.
I’m not one who still fights the Civil War (or as we prefer “The War of Northern Agression”) and I don’t have any hard and fast rules about who can and can’t be a Southerner. To me, it’s a state of mind.
I consider myself a Southerner, although my parents are certainly Yanks. I grew up in New Orleans, and we moved to rural Florida when I was about twelve.
I lived in Pasco county, FL, near to Tampa, and I beg to differ on the boundaries of Floridian Southernacity - in my neck of woods, almost nobody lived on a paved road, most of the guys at high school carried around a coke can with the top cut off - to spit dip into, and we had a school-sponsored club for Civil War Re-enactors. Alligators could be heard making that burping noise at night in the darkness behind my best friend’s trailer when I slept over. And in the morning, we’d make grits. We were pretty dang Southern.
I would say you want to get down to the Everglades before Florida is no longer Southern. And the Orlando metropolitan area doesn’t count, obviously. Miami - well, it’s practically it’s own state, as are the Keys. Not Southern.
Maryland, where I live now is most definately NOT Southern. I’m surprised when the locals even want to argue the point - everything here is very northern, to my mind; from the architecture to the roads to the attitude. Otherwise, My take is: Southern - KY, WV; Not Southern - MO, West of TX, most of VA.
Someday I hope to return to New Orleans. In the mean time, I will continue to get looked at funny for always giving people directions around Baltimore using St Charles Street. D’oh.
Dad’s family is from GA and NC back to the late 1600’s - Mom, however, is a foreigner, being from Oklahoma/Kansas/California. You can imagine the crap she had to put with from South Georgia peanut farmers.
I consider the South as:
South Carolina
Mississippi
Florida - but nothing south of Jacksonville
Alabama
Georgia
Louisiana
Texas
Virginia
North Carolina
Tennessee
Kentucky
If you are born here and move away, you are still a Southerner. If you were born somewhere else and move here, even while still an infant, you are not a Southerner.
Southern Pride runs strongly in my family, but doesn’t mean that we are flag waving, bigoted, gun toting rednecks.
There were never discussions about the war when I was growing up, the grandparents weren’t still fighting it, and we don’t really discuss it at home, but, and I have seen all three of my kids do this - say something against the South and they will fight you tooth and nail. Say something against America and they will most likely agree with you.
Alabama, born and bred! I’ve lived here all my life, in a few places, but none further than thirty miles from the place I grew up.
Believe it or not, though, I’ve been to New York and should I ever actually have the money to retire (or run away!) that’s where I want to go. I have never loved a place as much as I do my own state, as much as I loved New York City.
Most of both sides of my family migrated here from that state, so maybe I’m just longing for something in my past life.
I’m from rural Northwestern Louisiana. I am most certainly southern even though I live in Massachusetts now. Living in the north still doesn’t sit right with me although I am stuck here for a while because of my wife (she is from here).
My family is 100% southern. My last name comes from my grandfather N-generations back that settled at the first colony at Jamestown in Virginia. From there, my family migrated from Virginia, to North Carolina, then Georgia, then Alabama, then Mississippi, and finally to Louisiana about 140 years ago.
I love the south and would kill to move back. I agree with the consensus on what the Southern states are.
I agree that if you’re a Southerner by birth and leave, you’re still a Southerner. Also, that if you were born elsewhere and came to the South to live, you’ll never be a Southerner.
To me, “The South” is Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, (northern) Florida, Tennessee, the Carolinas, and probably southern Virginia.
In spite of all that, I don’t personally have any feelings of “Southern Heritage,” whatever that is. Most of the people on my father’s side came to the US after the Civil War, so they “had no dog in that fight.” My mother’s lineage is a bit more murky, although there’s some indication that one of my ancestors on that side was a freed slave. Unfortunately, that was a number of generations ago, and that blood has been diluted to the point that I was not able to receive a really nice, um. . . benefit. However, for that same reason, I can refer to myself as an African-American, because I would fall into the 1/32 rule.
I was born in Arkansas and lived there until I was 20 when I joined the Air Force. My first year in the AF was spent in Texas and Mississippe and the last three years in Germany. I have lived in Texas for the last 40+ years so I guess I would be considered a Southerner. (Even though Lyllyan didn’t include Arkansas in her list).
I agree with Doctor Jackson that being a Southerner is more a state of mind than a geographical location.
