What is "The South?"

[OCGuy81]

South = states with Waffle House

[US 89]

South = states with Waffle House

Colorado then? Ok.

[US 41]

How to determine the true south and Midwest.

1A) Divide the country into East and West.

1B) If you have a field and didn't mow it for 5 years what would you come back to? If the answer is a wooded area then it is eastern and may qualify as Southern or Midwestern. If the answer is a grassland, then your area is Western.

2A) Was your state a Confederate state? If you answer yes, then your state is southern. If the answer is no then your state is not truly southern.

2B) If you answered no to 2A, was your state one of the original 13 colonies? If the answer is no, then you are part of the Midwest. Exceptions obviously are Vermont and Maine. If you live in WV then the answer to this question is yes as WV was part of VA at the time.

The South: VA, NC, SC, TN, GA, FL, AL, MS, AR, LA, eastern third of TX.

The Midwest: OH, MI, IN, KY, MO, IL, WI, MN, IA, and the eastern parts of ND, SD, NE, KS, and northeastern OK.

[bluecountry]

I agree that not all of Texas is the South. San Antonio has a distinct southwestern vibe; it's not El Paso, but it's very different than the Deep South.

I like the idea of defining the south as two or three "rings" with the inner ring being the true deep south (LA/MS/AL/GA/SC and probably TN), a second ring for parts of eastern MO/OK/TX plus KY, southern IL/IN/OH and possibly NC/VA, and a third ring for southern FL, Baltimore/DC, and central OK/TX, including Dallas.

Baltimore and DC are in no iteration of the South.

They are the mid-Atlantic

Then there's the question of the Delmarva Peninsula, at least the part that doesn't include most of New Castle County.  (In fact, it's becoming common for people to define Delmarva as not including NCCo, but including Cecil County, Maryland to the west).  To me, Delaware as a whole is culturally Southern but not everyone wants to admit that.  (Starting with the fact that instead of boroughs and townships we have these things called "hundreds", that Maryland apparently used to have too.)

Hundreds were common in the southern colonies prior to 1776. Virginia and North Carolina had them, although I don't think they were formally defined as any sort of subcounty unit.

They are the south, but distinctly 'Tidewater' which is different culturally in many ways from the deep south.

What about Kentucky?

It's like an in between, as it's northern end touches the Great Lakes States of IL, IN, and OH but borders TN on its south end.

Kentucky = upland/inland South as Tennessee and part Appalachia

WV = Appalachia

During a road trip in Maryland several years ago, I made it a point to drive to Scotland, Md., childhood home of Tubby Smith. I knew that Smith grew up as one of a bunch of children on a farm, I was always a huge fan of Tubby Smith, and I wanted to see his home area. That region definitely gave off Southern vibes. And it's not all that far from DC.

Indeed.  Folks in St. Mary's County and much of Charles County in Maryland do still identify with the South.

Tidewater south.


East of Houston/Piney = South
Hou = Gulf

[Dough4872]

To me, the South is everything from Virginia and West Virginia southwest to Texas and Oklahoma.

[ethanhopkin14]

I agree that not all of Texas is the South. San Antonio has a distinct southwestern vibe; it's not El Paso, but it's very different than the Deep South.

I like the idea of defining the south as two or three "rings" with the inner ring being the true deep south (LA/MS/AL/GA/SC and probably TN), a second ring for parts of eastern MO/OK/TX plus KY, southern IL/IN/OH and possibly NC/VA, and a third ring for southern FL, Baltimore/DC, and central OK/TX, including Dallas.

Baltimore and DC are in no iteration of the South.

They are the mid-Atlantic

Then there's the question of the Delmarva Peninsula, at least the part that doesn't include most of New Castle County.  (In fact, it's becoming common for people to define Delmarva as not including NCCo, but including Cecil County, Maryland to the west).  To me, Delaware as a whole is culturally Southern but not everyone wants to admit that.  (Starting with the fact that instead of boroughs and townships we have these things called "hundreds", that Maryland apparently used to have too.)

Hundreds were common in the southern colonies prior to 1776. Virginia and North Carolina had them, although I don’t think they were formally defined as any sort of subcounty unit.

They are the south, but distinctly 'Tidewater' which is different culturally in many ways from the deep south.

What about Kentucky?

It’s like an in between, as it’s northern end touches the Great Lakes States of IL, IN, and OH but borders TN on its south end.

Kentucky = upland/inland South as Tennessee and part Appalachia

WV = Appalachia

During a road trip in Maryland several years ago, I made it a point to drive to Scotland, Md., childhood home of Tubby Smith. I knew that Smith grew up as one of a bunch of children on a farm, I was always a huge fan of Tubby Smith, and I wanted to see his home area. That region definitely gave off Southern vibes. And it's not all that far from DC.

Indeed.  Folks in St. Mary's County and much of Charles County in Maryland do still identify with the South.

Tidewater south.


East of Houston/Piney = South
Hou = Gulf

What about the Gulf Coast South?  I tend to not consider that southern (or at least the "Deep South" as some people think because they think the further south you go the deeper the south, when in reality the "Deep South" or Bible Belt is along the I-20 corridor, not the I-10 corridor) but more beach like and tends to lean more like liberal conservative.

That is definitely a popular concept in the mountains - a lot of West Virginians identify as 'Appalachian' rather than Southern, despite many people from the outside considering West Virginia to be a part of the South. Due to its geographic position, it has influences of Midwestern, Mid-Atlantic, Rust Belt, and Southern, and some people find it hard to classify based on that, but if there is one category it does fit into, it's Appalachian. Not many other areas have a history of things like fighting wars over coal.

What I find funny about this is West Virgnia broke away from Virgina to stay in the union to oppose slavery, so I never consider it south for that specific reason.