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The South
Stretches from northern
Virginia along the coastal
plain and Piedmont to
eastern Texas and up the
Mississippi Valley to the
Ohio River.
Regional Landscapes of the
United States and Canada
The Changing South
Prof. Anthony Grande
Includes areas called the
Old South or Deep
South but excludes the
Florida peninsula, South
Texas and usually southern
Louisiana.
©AFG 2012
The South’s Sub-regions
OVERVIEW of the South
• A subtropical climate:
– heat and humidity.
• A strong sense of regional identity:
– generally similar beliefs, customs, attitudes
throughout the region.
• A long standing relationship between people
and the land:
– rural and agricultural.
Sub-regions
include:
Atlantic Coastal Plain
Piedmont
G lf Coastal
Gulf
C
t l Plain
Pl i
Mississippi River
Flood Plain
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MISSISSIPPI
RIVER
FLOOD
PLAIN
GULF COASTAL PLAIN
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OVERVIEW
OVERVIEW
(cont’d)
• Regionalism is reinforced
from outside the region.
(cont’d)
• There’s tremendous diversity within the region:
many sub-regions each with their own version of
southern culture.
– Often it is perceived/portrayed
superficially and in caricature.
– The characteristic “South” does not include the Florida
Peninsula, southern Louisiana and South Texas.
• A sense of “southern
southern
culture” is associated
with the region:
–
–
–
–
–
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• The South has the largest concentration of
African-Americans in the U.S.
• Its an area with testy race relations based on a
Manners, charm
Hospitality
Cuisine
Architecture
Formal gardens
history of slavery and policies (both political and cultural) of
discrimination and segregation.
• Rapid changes have occurred since the 1960s.
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What’s “changing” about
The Changing South?
Vernacular Regions of the South
 Growing urbanization.
 A growing “non-Southern” population.
 New manufacturing enterprises.
 New
N
agricultural
i lt
l orientations.
i t ti
 Improved race relations.
 Federal intervention has altered the
Southern way of doing things.
 Feeling less regional and more national.
• Bible Belt. It was coined by a journalist during
the Scopes trial (1925) and implies a region whose
people espouse religious fundamentalism particularly, literal interpretation of the Bible.
• Dixie. Its origin is uncertain: could be from French
Louisiana currency (dix = 10) or from Mason-Dixon Line
(area south of the line).
>>>During the U.S. Civil War, the song Dixie became the
unofficial anthem of the Confederate States of America.
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The Fall Line
Landforms
1. The coastal plain is char-
acterized by generally flat to
rolling terrain.
2 The lower Mississippi
2.
River Valley is an ancient
delta now composed of
3. The Piedmont is the
sedimentary rock overlain with foothill region of the
fertile recent alluvial deposits. Appalachians.
This area has a very unique
landform pattern of meanders,
meander scars and oxbow lakes.
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The sharp boundary between the Piedmont and coastal
plain is called the “Fall Line.”
• The border between landform units of sharply
different elevation.
• Marked by rapids and waterfalls as rivers flow out of
the highlands onto the
lowlands.
• Historically, a prime
location for mills powered
by rapidly flowing water.
• Note the line major cities
located along the fall line.
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Mississippi Valley
Landscape
Formation of an
Oxbow Lake
A portion of the Mississippi
River boundary between the
state of Mississippi (right)
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and Arkansas and Louisiana.
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Meander
Scars
Climate
Characterized by a humid
subtropical climate.
- The winters are mild.
- No month’s average temperature is
below 32°F.
precipitation
p
the yyear-round.
- There is p
- Long growing season.
Subject to weather extremes:
The channels of meandering streams change course,
especially in times of flood.
When the old channel dries
up, a “scar” is created.
- Spring and autumn conflict between
tropical and polar air masses.
- Heavy downpours from thunderstorms; flooding results.
- Ice storms. Tornados. Hurricanes.
Note uniform climate region.
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Soils
Settlement Sequence
Soils tend to be fertile and productive.
Benefit from subtropical climate and
ample precipitation.
Thick top horizons rich in organic material
with loose texture and high nutrient content.
Percent of clayy determines use.
- Coastal Plain soils are best for forests and
pasture. They tend to be sandy.
- Piedmont soils are very old yet remain fertile.
They are subject to gully erosion.
- Mississippi Flood Plain soils are extremely
fertile and support the highest density of agriculture
in the region.
Clay content will affect the type of crop planted in a
field. High clay content = rice paddies.
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• Jamestown, VA and Roanoke Island, NC were
the sites of the earliest English settlements.
Coastal areas from Virginia to Georgia were settled by
the English. Spain controlled Florida and Gulf Coast.
• Early European settler goals were
commercial and exploitative.
• Geographical advantages were recognized
Note uniform soil region.
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Settlement Patterns
– Areas were very suitable for agriculture.
– Game was plentiful.
– Navigable rivers allowed movement away from coast
and access to interior forests and resources.
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Plantations
• Little immigration from Europe during 1800s;
very small proportion foreign-born by 1900.
• Plantations established for cash crops.
– Highly structured agricultural organization.
– Only the richer plantations had stately mansions.
– Plantations were self-sufficient units requiring people
with many skills.
– Needed much land and a very large labor force.
– Low local population led to use of slave labor, first
Indian and indentured Englishmen, then African.
– It is believed that about 12 million Africans were taken
as slaves and transported to the Americas.
– Most Southerners are still of English and Scots-Irish
ancestry.
• Areas remained strongly
g y rural until late 1900s.
• Ports/small market centers developed in 1800s.
– Collection/transshipment points for cash crops
– Little linkage with each other
– Distinctly local allegiances
– Most people very isolated
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James River
Plantations VIRGINIA
Boone’s Hall Plantation, SC
Slave quarters
http://www.shirleyplantation.com/index.html
Main entrance to manor house
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Triangle Trade Route
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Impact of Slavery
• From the beginning, slaves were integral to
organization and the social environment.
• Contributed key elements of Southern life by
incorporating African culture into daily lives
– speech patterns, religion, diet, music.
• Blacks and whites lived in close proximity to
each other.
It is believed that c.12 mil
Africans were taken as
slaves and brought to the
Americas.
Sailing ships on the Triangle Trade route
(1600s-1800s) used global winds and ocean
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currents to cross the Atlantic.
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Economic Impacts
of the Civil War
Pre-Civil War
• Before the Civil war slaves were found
in almost every county outside of the
Appalachian Highlands.
• Greatest concentrations were in the
original plantation areas and in areas
most suited to cotton production.
• Most Civil War battles were fought on
Southern soil.
– Railroads were disrupted or in disrepair.
– Equipment
q p
was confiscated or destroyed.
y
– Shipping terminals were in ruins.
• Confederate currency/bonds were worthless.
• Large portion of the labor supply formally
eliminated (emancipation of slaves).
• Large land holdings were heavily taxed
and/or subdivided.
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Post-Civil War Transition
Pockets of Poverty Today
(1865-1880s)
• White reaction to emancipation was
institutionalized segregation.
• Few opportunities for blacks until WW I (Great
Together the counties
of the South constitute
the most populated and
one of the largest
contiguous areas of
poverty in the country.
Migration to northern areas).
• Greater isolation of the South nationally.
• Persistent regional poverty:
– Destruction of economic infrastructure and
plantation economy
– Lack of factors for economic development:
• Continued dependence on agriculture.
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Agriculture’s Plight
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Other Minorities in the South
in late 1800s
• The number of farm workers in the South was
greatly reduced by the emancipation of blacks and
a white labor pool decimated by Civil War deaths.
• Few jobs outside of farming in South’s small towns
encouraged poor farmers,
farmers both blacks and whites
whites,
the make arrangements with land owners.
• Sharecropping System
– Rent and repayment of loans for share of the crop.
– Debt perpetual, sharecropper bound to land until paid.
– Reinforced by “Black Codes” restricting black movement.
• Cajuns (Southern Louisiana)
– Name derived from “Acadian,” French settlers in
Acadia (now Nova Scotia and New Brunswick)
– Left when British conquered New France (1763)
– Remain distinctive:
• French dialect
• Catholic religion
• Food
• Native Americans
– Forcible removal of Indians by 1830s
– Descendents of those who escaped removal are
• Eastern Cherokee (North Carolina)
• Choctaw (central Mississippi)
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Other Minorities in the South
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Racial Patterns in the South
• Hispanics (South Texas and South Florida)
– From Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Dominican Rep
– Remain distinctive:
• Spanish-speaking
• Catholic
C th li
• Cuisine
• Caribbean Islanders (South Florida)
– From Haiti and the West Indies
– French, English and Asian backgrounds
– Cultural conflict between Caribbean and American
Blacks
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Percent of total county population, 2010 US Census
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Southern Baptist
Message Boards
Religious Patterns
• Small, rural churches
• Baptist denomination
dominant
– Evangelists (mid-18th
century)
y)
– Resisted formal
organization
– Lack of influence from
later immigration
• Note difference in southern
Louisiana, southern Texas
and Florida peninsula.
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Development of Manufacturing
Dual Social Landscapes
early 1900s
• Segregation outlawed: common
workplaces, retail shopping, educational
institutions, etc.
• Different human landscapes still exist: one
black and one white.
• Little overlap in Mississippi, Louisiana,
eastern Texas.
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• Attractions of Piedmont South:
– High levels of underemployment
– Opportunity to modernize factories
– Lower taxes
• Cotton textile industry
–
–
–
–
–
Originally based in New England
Shifted south in late 19th century
Carolina Piedmont and northern Georgia
Drew other industries
Economic impact
• Workers paid low wages
• Low land tax rates
• Less regulations
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1930s South
Other Industrial Development
• Railroads: construction, other public
• Still heavy dependence on agriculture
improvements increased access
– Animal power (usually mules)
– Hand labor
– Sharecropping
pp g and tenant farming
g
– Little processing within the South
• Cigarette manufacturing (NC, VA)
• Timber resources:
– Furniture manufacturing (NC, VA)
– Pulp and paper
• Atlanta (GA)-Birmingham (AL)Chattanooga (TN) Triangle
– Resources and low wages for
industrial production.
• Capital deficient
• Low-wage industry, oriented to narrow
local markets
• Urban structure based on small towns
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4/3/2012
EXAM TWO
Changes in Economic Structure
• New Date for 2nd Exam.
• Monday, April 16 – the day we return
from Spring Break.
• Chapters
Ch t
4
4-11.
11
• Same format as Exam One.
• Take-home extra credit for exam 2 will be
due on April 16.
The South’s economy
has become more
national in structure
and less uniquely
regional.
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Changes in Employment Structure
Percent non-agricultural labor
force in manufacturing, 1950
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Post–World War II Agriculture
Percent non-agricultural labor
force in manufacturing, 2000
• Declined as percentage of economy
• Diversified
– Traditional crops still grown
– New crops:
p
• Soybeans
• Livestock
• Poultry
• Mechanization
• End of sharecropping
• Increase in farm size
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Pulp
Manufacturing
Automobile Assembly Plants
Trends 1950-1990
Mercedes auto-assemble plant
Vance, Alabama
Plymouth, NC
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Apparel Manufacturing
Pine Tree Plantation
Trees in reforested areas and commercial
tree farms are planted in rows and harvested
by age of growth.
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Harvesting
Cotton
Cotton Growing Areas
1860
2007
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Tobacco
Harvest
Urban Experience
•
•
•
•
Great rural-to-urban migration since WW II
Site of relocated northern industries
Site of foreign-owned U.S. factories.
Regional in-migration:
in migration: recipient of migrants from
other areas of the U.S.
• Number of cities with a population of more
than 50,000 has tripled since 1950.
• Charlotte, Memphis, Nashville and Atlanta are
major regional metropolitan areas.
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Atlanta, Georgia
Charlotte, NC
South’s largest business, financial, commercial center.
– Home to many global corporations.
– Hosted 1996 Olympic games.
– Airline hub
– Problem
P bl
off urban
b sprawl.l
•
•
•
Large metro area
Long commutes
Congested highways
One of the
fastest growing
large urban
areas in the U.S.
A major center of
banking and
finance.
A regional airline
hub.
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Nashville, TN
Nashville, aka “Music City,” is
the entertainment center of the
south and has a long history
associated with broadcasting.
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