Southern United States
The United States Census Bureau draws a line that separates the South from the rest of the nation. This boundary includes sixteen states and the District of Columbia, encompassing over 114 million people as of 2010. That figure represents thirty-seven percent of all U.S. residents at the time. The region stretches from the Atlantic Ocean to the Western United States, bordered by the Midwestern and Northeastern regions to its north. It touches the Gulf of Mexico and Mexico to the south. Historically, definitions relied on the Mason-Dixon line, the Ohio River, and the 36°30′ parallel. Modern scholars argue these lines do not capture cultural realities. Maryland, Delaware, Washington D.C., and Northern Virginia often align more with the Northeast in politics and economy. Yet the Census Bureau still lists them as part of the South. Some geographers propose thirteen states for a cultural definition, excluding Texas and Missouri. Others include those two states in their regional office. The debate continues because the South does not match any single geographic or political map perfectly.
Human occupation in the southern United States began around 9500 BC with groups now called Paleo-Indians. These hunter-gatherers roamed in bands and hunted megafauna. Later cultures like the Archaic period lasted until 1000 BC, followed by the Woodland period ending around AD 1000. The Mississippian culture flourished from approximately 800 AD to 1500 AD across what is now the Southeastern United States. This complex society built mounds and maintained elaborate trading routes connecting river valleys to the Great Lakes. Explorers such as Pánfilo de Narváez in 1528 and Hernando de Soto in 1540 encountered this declining civilization. Descendants of these mound-builders include Alabama, Apalachee, Caddo, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, Guale, Hitchiti, Houma, and Seminole peoples who still reside in the region. Other groups like the Catawba and Powhatan had ancestral links less clear but were present before European incursion. The arrival of settlers caused massive population decline due to disease and violent conflict. Europeans unknowingly spread diseases for which natives had no immunity.
English settlers arrived in the 17th century, settling chiefly along the eastern coast and pushing inland to the Appalachian Mountains by the 18th century. Most early immigrants were indentured servants working off their passage. Wealthier men received land grants known as headrights. The Spanish settled Florida in the 16th century, reaching a peak in the late 17th century with a small population uninterested in agriculture. King Charles II granted the Charter of Carolina in 1663 to eight lords proprietor. This land included parts of present-day North Carolina, Tennessee, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida. Immigration began in 1607 and continued until the Revolution in 1775. Southern rich owned large plantations that dominated export agriculture using slave labor. Tobacco was the first cash crop of Virginia, exhausting soil quickly and requiring new fields. In the mid-to-late-18th century, Ulster Scots and Anglo-Scottish border region people immigrated to Appalachia and the Piedmont. They formed the largest group of non-English immigrants from the British Isles before the American Revolution. By 1980 census data, 34% of Southerners reported English ancestry. Except in Louisiana where French is predominant, English remained the largest European ancestry in every state.
Seven cotton states declared secession and formed the Confederate States of America before Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated in 1861. Jefferson Davis ordered troops to open fire on Fort Sumter in April 1861, starting the war. Four more states joined the Confederacy, moving its capital to Richmond, Virginia. The South became the primary battleground with all but two major battles taking place on Southern soil. Union forces controlled the Tennessee River, Cumberland River, and New Orleans by 1862. Robert E. Lee led the Confederate Army against attacks on the capital of Richmond. Lee tried to move north but was repulsed at Sharpsburg in 1862 and Gettysburg in 1863. The Confederacy collapsed when Atlanta fell and William T. Sherman marched through Georgia in late 1864. Lee surrendered his army in April 1865. Military losses included 95,000 soldiers killed in action and 165,000 who died of disease. Eight percent of all white males aged 13 to 43 died in the war. Reconstruction governments established military districts and governors until new state governments formed. Congress passed the 13th Amendment outlawing slavery, the 14th granting citizenship, and the 15th extending voting rights to African American males. White Southerners created black codes initially, which were nullified by federal law. Secret vigilante organizations like the Ku Klux Klan arose quickly after the war ended in the 1860s.
White Democrats regained power in most state legislatures by 1876 and began passing laws to strip African Americans and poor whites from voter rolls. Ten former Confederate states plus Oklahoma passed disenfranchising constitutions or amendments between 1890 and 1908. These introduced poll taxes, residency requirements, and literacy tests hard for minorities to meet. Most African Americans, Mexican Americans, and tens of thousands of poor whites lost the vote for decades. Grandfather clauses temporarily exempted white illiterates from literacy tests. Democrat-controlled legislatures passed Jim Crow laws to segregate public facilities including transportation. Despite litigation, Supreme Court decisions overturning provisions were followed by new state laws with new devices to restrict voting. Most blacks in the former Confederacy and Oklahoma could not vote until 1965 after passage of the Voting Rights Act. Between 1880 and 1910, about 141,000 blacks left the South, totaling a loss of 537,000. The Great Migration from 1910 to 1940 saw more than 6.5 million African Americans leave for Northern and Western cities. Five million more left between 1940 and 1970. White Democrats created state constitutions hostile to industry and business development from the 1890s onward.
World War II marked dramatic economic change as new industries and military bases developed by the federal government. Sixty percent of Army training camps and nearly half new airfields were built in the warm weather of the South. Forty percent of spending on new military installations went to the region. Over $4 billion went into military facilities and another $5 billion into defense plants. Major shipyards were built in Virginia, Charleston, South Carolina, and along the Gulf Coast. Huge warplane plants opened in Dallas-Fort Worth and Georgia. Oak Ridge, Tennessee hosted the most secret operation using unlimited locally generated electricity to prepare uranium for the atom bomb. Per capita income jumped 140% from 1940 to 1945 compared to 100% elsewhere. Southern income rose from 59% to 65%. Since 1970, the proportion of African American population living in the South stabilized and began slightly increasing. Farming shifted from cotton and tobacco to include cattle, rice, soybeans, corn, and other foods. Industrial growth accelerated into the 1980s and 1990s. Several large urban areas in Texas, Georgia, and Florida grew to over four million people. Rapid expansion occurred in autos, telecommunications, textiles, technology, banking, and aviation.
The American South is known for its distinctive dialect and accent rooted in English settlement patterns. Large groups moved from West Midlands, southwest England, and southeast England like Sussex, Shropshire, and the West Country to Tidewater and eastern Deep South in the 17th and early 18th centuries. Northern English, Scots lowlanders, and Ulster-Scots settled Appalachia and Upland South mid-to-late 18th century. Black or African American descendants compose the second-largest racial minority accounting for 12.1% of total population per 2000 census. Their contributions heavily influenced religion, food, art, music including spiritual, blues, jazz, R&B, soul, country, zydeco, bluegrass, and rock and roll. The Southern planter class originated from early modern English landed gentry who were aristocratic landowners without titled nobility. Gentry wealth enabled education, comfort, leisure, and common interests in spending it. Leisure distinguished gentry from businessmen gaining wealth through work. The concept of Southern chivalry originated from the gentry rank of Gentleman acting as a chivalric ideal of white planter class supposedly descended from knights and Cavaliers. In 1765 London philanthropist Dr. John Fothergill remarked on cultural differences suggesting Southerners marked by idleness and extravagance.
Common questions
Which states are included in the Southern United States according to the Census Bureau?
The United States Census Bureau includes sixteen states and the District of Columbia within the Southern region. This boundary encompasses over 114 million people as of 2010, representing thirty-seven percent of all U.S. residents at that time.
When did human occupation begin in the southern United States?
Human occupation in the southern United States began around 9500 BC with groups now called Paleo-Indians. These hunter-gatherers roamed in bands and hunted megafauna before later cultures like the Archaic period lasted until 1000 BC.
Who led the Confederate Army during the American Civil War?
Robert E. Lee led the Confederate Army against attacks on the capital of Richmond during the war. The Confederacy collapsed when Atlanta fell and William T. Sherman marched through Georgia in late 1864 before Lee surrendered his army in April 1865.
What caused the Great Migration from the South between 1910 and 1970?
White Democrats created state constitutions hostile to industry and business development from the 1890s onward while disenfranchising laws stripped African Americans and poor whites from voter rolls. Between 1910 and 1940 more than 6.5 million African Americans left for Northern and Western cities, and five million more left between 1940 and 1970.
How did World War II change the economy of the southern United States?
World War II marked dramatic economic change as new industries and military bases developed by the federal government with sixty percent of Army training camps built in the region. Per capita income jumped 140% from 1940 to 1945 compared to 100% elsewhere while Southern income rose from 59% to 65%.