Deep South

This article is about the region of the United States. For the 1937 short film, see Deep South (film). For the Futurama episode, see The Deep South (Futurama).

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.

The Deep South is a descriptive category of the cultural and geographic subregions in the American South. Historically, it is differentiated from the "Upper South" as being the states which were most dependent on plantation type agriculture during the pre-Civil War period. The Deep South was also commonly referred to as the Lower South or the Cotton States.¹²

Today, the Deep South is usually delineated as being those states and areas where things most often thought of as "Southern" exist in their most concentrated form.³

Usage

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

Most definitions include the states of Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina.⁴⁵
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, the First Coast, 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.³

Origins

Although often used in history books to refer to the seven states which originally formed the Confederacy, the term "Deep South" was not actually coined until long after the Civil War had ended. Up until that time, "Lower South" was the general designation used to refer to those states. When "Deep South" first made its appearance in print in the middle of the twentieth century, it originally applied to the states and areas of Mississippi, north Louisiana, southern parts of Alabama and Georgia, and northern Florida. This was the part of the South considered to be the "most Southern" of all.⁶

Later, the general definition expanded to include all of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina, often taking in bordering areas of East Texas and the original inclusion of North Florida. In its broadest application today, the Deep South is considered to be "an area roughly coextensive with the old cotton belt from eastern North Carolina through South Carolina west into East Texas, with extensions north and south along the Mississippi".³

Politics

From 1880 to 1960 the Deep South overwhelmingly supported the Democratic Party as a legacy of the rival Republican Party's record during Reconstruction. It was known as the "Solid South". With the Goldwater–Johnson election of 1964, a significant contingent of those voters left the national Democratic Party while still voting for Democrats at the state and local level into the 1990s. Conversely, support for Republicans among Blacks eroded in the New Deal Era, even though few Blacks could vote. The Deep South has voted Republican in presidential elections, except in the 1976 election when Georgia native Jimmy Carter received the Democratic nomination. Since the 1990s there has been a continued shift toward Republican candidates at the state and local levels. Today,^when? only Louisiana has a Democratic US Senator, and only Georgia has more than one Democratic US Representative. Georgia Republican Newt Gingrich, was elected Speaker of the House in 1995.

Presidential elections in which the region diverged noticeably from the Upper South occurred in 1928, 1948, 1964, 1968, and, to a lesser extent, in 1952, 1956 and 2008. Arkansan Mike Huckabee fared well in the Deep South in 2008 Republican primaries, losing only one state (South Carolina) while running (he had dropped out of the race before the Mississippi primary).⁷

Much of the conservative Republican strength is based on the region's high religiosity. Southern Baptists, as well as fundamentalist Biblical movements, are prevalent in the popularly termed Bible Belt. There is also a strong support for social conservatism, including demands for home schooling, prayer in public schools, and opposition to homosexuals.⁸⁹

References

^ Fryer, Darcy. "The Origins of the Lower South". Lehigh University. Retrieved 2008-12-30. ^{unreliable source?}
^ Freehling, William (1994). "The Editoral Revolution, Virginia, and the Coming of the Civil War: A Review Essay". The Regeneration of American History. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 10. ISBN 978-0-19-508808-3. Retrieved 2008-12-30.
^ ^a ^b ^c 1001 Things Everyone Should Know About the South John Reed and Dale Volberg Reed. Doubleday 1996
^ "Deep South". The Free Dictionary. Retrieved 2007-01-18.
^ "Deep South". Synonym.com. Retrieved 2007-01-18.
^ The Encyclopedia of Southern History. Edited by David C. Roller and Robert W. Twyman. Louisiana State University Press. 1979
^ Charles S. Bullock III and Mark J. Rozell, eds. The New Politics of the Old South: An Introduction to Southern Politics (2009)
^ Marvin Moore (2007). Could It Really Happen?: Sunday Laws, Economic Boycotts, Death Decrees, Religious Persecution in America .... Pacific Press Publishing. p. 125.
^ Oran P. Smith, The Rise of Baptist Republicanism (2000)

Deep South

Contents

Usage

Origins

Politics

See also

References

Further reading