The South Of The American South

What is unique about the southern culture? The southern culture is unlike any other, it possesses a very diverse group with many different, ethnic communities, and religions. While still binding them all together with one common thread, their heritage. Even with all the differences, southerners embrace each other, reaching across the lines of color, religion, or social standing. Going the extra mile to help someone in need, even if they aren’t family, or a close friend.

     Even in farm production the northern states overshadowed the rural South, for most of the North’s population was still rooted in the soil. The Confederacy produced enough foodstuffs to meet minimal needs, but the disruption of transport caused shortages in many places. The North, meanwhile, produced a surplus of wheat for export at a time when drought and crop failures in Europe created a critical demand. King Wheat supplanted King Cotton as the nation’s main export, becoming the chief means of acquiring foreign money and bills of exchange to pay for imports from abroad.

The farmers in the Chesapeake region began to plant tobacco everywhere they could since the land was perfect for it. In fact, since there was such a demand for it, tobacco began “[d]ominating the [Chesapeake] region after 1622[. T]obacco remained the staple of the Chesapeake colonies and its phenomenal rise is one of the most remarkable aspects of our colonial history.” The Chesapeake colonies played a significant role in the ‘Triangle Trade’ otherwise known as the relationship between the trades in Africa, America, and Europe. Chesapeake supplied tobacco to England. England would then sell that tobacco and supply finished goods to the colonies. England brought slaves from Africa to work on Chesapeake plantations using rum imported from New England. As more slaves were brought to America the colonies would produce more tobacco ready to be exported to England. “Import of tobacco into England increased from 60,000 pounds in 1622 to 500,000 in 1628 and to 1,500,000 pounds in 1639.” Agriculture dominated every part of life in the Chesapeake region, from family life to religion to the economy. In contrast, since agriculture played since a miniscule role in New England the average family life and role of religion and the economy of New England varied greatly from that in

labor” (Foner, 393). Cotton not only became the most profitable crop for the Southern farmers,

At the end of the Civil War, America faced the difficult task of uniting not only two separated territories of the United States, but also two races long separated by racism and culture. Devastated and embittered by the damage of the war, the South had a long way to go in order to achieve true equality between the former slave owners and former slaves. The majority of the South remained set in racist behavior, finding post-Civil War legal loopholes to diminish African American rights (Tindall & Shi, 2010, pp. 757-758). Southerners continued to marginalize Blacks in their behavior toward ex-slaves and the later African American generation,

The South fought the American Civil War as a movement to separate themselves from the Union and establish its own national citizenship. As a result of their resounding loss, Southerners chose to focus their energies on maintaining their individual ethnic group which sets them apart from the rest of the nation. According to John Shelton Reed, author of The Enduring South, “The three functional characteristics of an ethnic group are that: It serves psychologically as a source of group identification; it provides a pattern network of groups; and it refracts the national cultural patterns of behavior and values through the prism of its own cultural heritage.” Reed allows his readers to grasp the intensity in which Southerners met, and still meet today, all three of the functional characteristics of an ethnic group. Throughout his book, Reed purposes to enlighten the reader that Southern-ness is attained by three different measures: birth, achievement, or unwilling thrust (such as the African Americans who were brought to America under duress). The Enduring South exposes the element of Southern identity as pride in its heritage, culture, customs, and ideals.

Growing up in a small town in Texas, from the time I was born, I have been instilled with the values of southern hospitality, independence,

In the antebellum south, the Large Plantation – agricultural way of life dominated the whole society. Only 25% of white southerners owned slaves and most did not live in mansions but in dark, cramped, two-room cabins. Cotton was the crucial cash crop of the South, but it was not the only crop grown there. Corn, sugar, rice, and tobacco were also grown – but Cotton was king, and the most labor intensive of all these crops. Not only was the South reliant on cotton, but the northern factories relied on the raw material as well as England. The South was the world’s largest producer and from 1815 to 1860 it represented over ½ the U.S. exports.

The principles in the early South almost never changed until the Civil war, and ideals from the creation of colonies became law, never to be changed. In this way, the South walled itself from those who tried to settle there only to find themselves turned away from society and shunned. Such people would be mixed children, those who were not Christian, and Africans. Tolerance found in the north soon dwindled moving down to the south, a devoutly Christian region until around the mid 1700’s. Lack of communication and commerce with other nations as previously mentioned left the south at a weak point, finding themselves turning others away, while being alone in themselves. A key reason for the intense sense of culture in the modern South is this isolation found early in the history of these colonies, where a sense of pride for these Southern values becomes all-encompassing. A bold similarity between the two regions stands out, a core set of values, whether for the North and South. The Northern colonies had a focus on the sciences, and advancement of civilization, while the South wanted nothing more than to live on their precious land, and focus on the plantation life they had come to develop, not eager to branch out into any other

In Virginia their economy was based on tobacco sales. It was so valuable because it couldn’t be grown in England. English tobacco imports from America in 1620 to 1775 went up in weight from 0.1 to 102.0 million pounds. Overall Virginia’s profit came mainly from tobacco exports. Along with the increase of tobacco, the number of slaves, in Virginia especially, also went up in this time period. This was because the colonists used slaves to farm the tobacco; the more tobacco the more slaves they “needed”. Virginia had resources besides tobacco, too; they were pigs and corn. The other Southern colonies, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, had many other natural resources that made them a perfect spot for founding a colony, as well. These resources were helpful for getting the colonies started, as well as providing a steady profit from trading and selling. North Carolina had Naval stores, corn, rice, pigs, and tobacco. In South Carolina, just like the North, had Naval stores, corn, rice, and pigs; South Carolina had something else, indigo. This was also a valuable resource, as it could only be found in certain places. Georgia had indigo too; as well as pigs and rice. Virginia had a strong economy because of their tobacco production. The other southern colonies also had an abundance of other valuable resources. All on the coast, exporting their goods was an easy way to strong

With the economic system, the south had a very hard time producing their main source “cotton and tobacco”. “Cotton became commercially significant in the 1790’s after the invention of a new cotton gin by Eli Whitney. (PG 314)” Let

In Charleston, South Carolina during June of 2015, nine African-American church goers were murdered by a Caucasian young man, in what is now being called the Charleston Church Shooting. This murder has put new heat under an ongoing controversy over the Confederate flag, its symbolism, and brought debate over the flag to the forefront nationwide. In South Carolina, the House debate over removal of the flag from a Confederate monument at the Capitol Building picked up importance when pictures of the killer, posing with a Confederate flag, surfaced on the internet. The debate grew further in popularity nationwide, when Bree Newsom decided to scale the flag pole at the monument and remove the Confederate flag herself. Between the photos on the

On June 17, 2015, nine people were killed while at a prayer meeting at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church of Charleston, South Carolina, one of America’s oldest black churches. Dylann Roof, a 21-year-old white man, opened fire over the congregation after attending the service for approximately an hour. The victims include Rev. Clementa Pinckney, South Carolina’s state senator, and his sister, in addition to five other women and two men. The shooting is considered by most to have been a racially fueled hate crime, as its perpetrator has a history of racism over social media. Immediately before pulling the trigger, Roof was overheard saying, “I have to do it. You rape our women, and you are taking over our country. And you have to

The South continues to grow and expand and there are many reasons why. For many years the South has been agricultural, but this has changed. Now the South is becoming industrialized. So it is understandable that people would go there now since they could either have an urban or a rural life. Plus, the climate is warmer, it covers a lot of land, and it has coastal area. This provides the South with many options of occupations. The South has many advantages for Americans and despite its stereotypes, many people are happy to call it their home.

Slavery in the middle of the 1800's was abolished except for the rebellion states in the south. In 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation was issued which made slavery illegal in the states that had rebelled and allowed black slaves to serve in the army and get other jobs, or continue to work on the plantations, as employees making money. The nightmare of slavery was over but a new one was to begin. One that was worse for it was prevalent but was secret and silent. One that exists today. One that does not shrink but rather grows. Racism was and is still upon us.