Deep South

Regional definitions vary from source to source. The states in dark red, along with Louisiana and Florida, are usually included, while all or portions of the other striped states may or may not be considered part of the Deep South.

The Deep South is a cultural and geographic subregion of the American South, differentiated from the "Old South" as being the post colonial expansion of Southern States in the antebellum period.

Attempts to Define

There are various definitions of the term:

• South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, and Louisiana (The six founding members of the Confederate States of America)
• Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana (From the Dictionary of Cultural Literacy)
• Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi (From the National Endowment for the Humanities)

The "Deep South" is usually defined in opposition to the Old South including South Carolina, Maryland, North Carolina, Virginia, Delaware, and often Georgia and also further differentiated from the inland border states such as Kentucky, Maryland, West Virginia (after leaving Virginia), Missouri and Delaware and the peripheral southern states of Florida and Texas. The Upland South (or Upper South) is another southern region distinct from the Deep South. The estimated population of the Deep South as of 2007 is around 21,000,000.

Urban Areas in the Deep South

Urban areas in Southern states such as Atlanta, Georgia; Charlotte, Raleigh-Durham, and the Piedmont Triad, all in North Carolina; the Richmond and Hampton Roads areas in Virginia; Nashville and Memphis in Tennessee; as well as Orlando and Jacksonville, Florida, in the post-war era have also absorbed waves of migrants seeking economic opportunities and warmer climates. This migration, according to some, has diluted some distinct cultural traits of the region. On the other hand, the blending of diverse cultural traditions is integral to the South's distinct urban cultures, such as in New Orleans, Louisiana; Birmingham, Alabama; and Jackson, Mississippi.

Politics of the Deep South

For most of the 19th century and 20th century, the Deep South overwhelmingly supported the Democratic Party, viewing the rival Republican Party as a Northern organization responsible for the American Civil War, which devastated the economy of the Old South. However, since the 1964 presidential election along with the Civil Rights Movement, the Deep South has tended to vote for the Republican candidate, 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 in most political venues; another Georgian, Republican Newt Gingrich, was elected Speaker of the House in 1995.

Literature

• Adam Rothman. Slave Country: American Expansion and the Origins of the Deep South. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2005 review

See also

• Black Belt
• Dixie
• Old South
• Border States
• Solid South
• Bible Belt
• Upper South

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