It seems I am not the only one who's questioned West Virginia's regional affiliations. Storyteller Jason Headley essayed nicely on the subject. ('Essayed' in two senses!)
"State of Confusion", by Jason Headley
Is West Virginia a part of the South? It’s a question that has perplexed everyone from the esteemed geographer to the common drunk. Mostly, to be honest, the drunks. This piece, featured in the Oxford American, presents this age-old argument for all to see.
Here's a fascinating map, by researchers Samuel Arbesman, DeDe Paul, Vincent Blondel, and Dominik Dahlem, showing cell phone call connections in the United States. It suggests West Virginia is more closely tied to western Pennsylvania than to the South.
Apparently there also is a concept of an 'Upland South'. As opposed to the Deep South, of which we Northerners hear tell often. The Upland South would unite southern Appalachia (but not northern) with the Ozarks and Ouachita Mountains and the plateaus and basins between. I suspect this may be really fitting boundary to describe a distinct cultural area to which West Virginia belongs.
Here's a map of the Upland South, by Pfly, and some choice tidbits from the Wikipedia article "Upland South".
"Upland South" is usually defined based on landforms, generally referring to the southern Appalachian Mountains or Appalachia (although not the full region defined by the Appalachian Regional Commission), the Ozarks and Ouachita Mountains, and the plateaus, hills, and basins between the Appalachians and Ozarks, such as the Cumberland Plateau, the Allegheny Plateau, the Nashville Basin, and the Bluegrass Basin, among others. The southern Piedmont region is often considered part of the Upland South, while the Atlantic Coastal Plain (the Chesapeake region and Carolina's Lowcountry) is generally not.
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The Upper/Upland South is also described in the Encyclopædia Britannica as the "Yeoman South", in contrast to the "Plantation South".
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Origins
The Upland South differs from the Deep South in several significant ways; terrain, histories, economics, demographics, and patterns of settlement.
The Upland South emerged as a distinct region in the late 18th century and early 19th century. [...] Large numbers of European immigrants arrived in Philadelphia and followed the Great Wagon Road west and south into the Appalachian Highlands, via the Great Appalachian Valley. [...] Much of the culture of the Upland South originated in southeastern Pennsylvania and spread down the Shenandoah Valley.
These migration streams eventually spread through Appalachia and westward through the Appalachian Plateau region into the Ozarks and Ouachitas[. ...] The main ethnicities of these early settlers included English, Irish, Scottish, and German. The early culture of the Upland South was influenced by other European ethnicities. For example, the Swedes and Finns of New Sweden — relatively few in number but pioneering Pennsylvania before the Germans and Irish arrived — contributed techniques of forest pioneering such as the log cabin, the "zig-zag" split-rail fence, and frontier methods of shifting cultivation such as girdling trees and using slash and burn to convert forest into temporary crop and pasture land.
The pattern of settlement that had begun in the Appalachian foothills was continued and extended through the mountains and highlands to the west and across the Mississippi River into the Ozark highland region. [...] These early settlers of the Upland South tended to practice small-scale farming, stock raising, and hunting. This settlement pattern of the Upland South was markedly different from the Deep South and the Midwest.
Distinct from neighboring regions
The Deep South is generally associated historically with cotton. By 1850 the term "Cotton States" was in common use and the differences between the Deep South (lower) and Upland South (upper) recognized. A key difference was the Deep South's plantation-style cash crop agriculture (mainly cotton, rice, sugar), using African American slaves working large farms while plantation owners tended to live in towns and cities. This system of plantation farming was originally developed in the West Indies and introduced to the United States in South Carolina and Louisiana, from where it spread throughout the Deep South [...]. The sharp division between town and country, the intensive use of a few cash crops, and the high proportion of slaves, all contrasted with the Upland South. Virginia and its surrounding region stands out as different from both the Upland South and the Deep South. Its history predates the West Indian plantation model, and while tobacco was a cash crop from the start, and African slaves became widely used, Virginia did not share many of the Deep South's characteristics, such as the early proliferation of towns and cities.
As a result of the difference in the use of slaves, the boundary between the Upland South and Deep South can still be seen today on maps showing the population percentage of African-Americans. [... T]he Upland South was less involved with slavery from the start.
In addition, the Cotton Belt of the Deep South was controlled by Indians (mainly the Five Civilized Tribes of the Cherokee, Creek, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Seminole) powerful enough to keep pioneering settlers from moving into the region. The Deep South's cotton boom did not occur until after the Indians were forced west in the early 19th century. In contrast, the Upland South, Kentucky and Tennessee especially, were the scene of Indian resistance and pioneering settlement in the late 18th century. Thus the Upland South was already colonized and had established its particular settlement patterns before most of the Deep South was opened to general colonization.
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The two regions also differ physically. The upland south is dominated by deciduous hardwood forest, in contrast to the Deep South's predominately evergreen pine forests. The upland south is often much hillier than the deep south, due to the Deep south being part of the coastal plain.
Upland South today
The Upland South contains its own sub-regions. The fertile lowlands of the Nashville Basin and the Bluegrass Basin gave rise to the truly urban cities of Nashville and Lexington, which grew into banking and mercantile centers in the 19th century, home to an elite class of Upland Southerners, including bankers, lawyers, and politicians. Most of the Upland South, however, remained rural in character.
Although historically very rural, the Upland South was one of the nation's early industrial regions and continues to be today. Mining of coal, iron, copper, and other minerals has been part of the region's economy since the 18th century. [...] The importance of mining and metallurgy can be seen in the many towns with names such as Pigeon Forge and Bloomery (a bloomery being a type of smelting furnace), scattered across the Upland South.
Logging has also been an important part of the Upland South's economy. The region became the United States' primary source of timber after railroads allowed large scale industrial logging in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Today, the importance of the Upland South's forests can be seen in its many national forests[. ...]
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