Someone stumbled on my blog and emailed me this
One note: there is some debate as to whether South Carolina is “the deep south”, “the old south”, or both. More info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_South
As a native Georgian and former Charlestonian, I have always understood that the Deep South referred to the post-cotton-gin regions of the south — where there are vast, seemingly endless plantations fields (Alabama, Mississippi, Louisianna, and Arkansas).
A good book on the subtle differences between “deep” and “new” and how they’ve affected modern life in the South’s major cities is “New Men, New Cities, New South”.
I thought it was interesting. As someone ‘from off’ (as they say around here), ‘Deep South’ was the only term I had encountered, and from what I had gathered, referred to mostly the southeastern US (why not the rest of the southern US, I could never figure out). I always thought it was just a geographical term, but Wikipedia‘s Deep South and Old South entries would imply a historical and cultural distinction between the two terms.
Maybe some of you local readers can help educate a foreigner 🙂
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As someone who does an extensive amount of research I would caution against Wikipedia. It contains more errors than any online resource I have yet come across.
I have never heard SC described as the Deep South. The deep South is Alabama and her neighbors. SC is southeastern.
Old South !
Duke: Yeah, having had a Net presence for well over 15 years, I’m quite accustomed to taking the information I find online with several grains of salt. Wikipedia just happened to be a convenient reference when I was writing up this post.
Perhaps I should modify that tag line in my blog title…