I’ve said it before… the South does not equal the Confederacy.
In fact, Southerness in general is not a reflection of the Confederacy. Southerness existed before the Confederacy… Southerness was and is the culture. Modern Confederateness, on the other hand, is a culture unto itself and is not to be confused as dominant over Southerness, but incorporating qualities that can be found in Southerness. Confederateness is, therefore, a subdivision/subculture of Southerness.
True, there are four years during which the South was part of the Confederacy, but that alone does not define who we were or who we are.
I enjoy my cornbread, my sweet tea, my attachment to the land of my people, my heritage of being Southern… and I feel it is no less than that which would be encountered in a Southern Unionist, a leave-aloner, a Confederate, or a slave. What they believed, what they dreamed, what they felt, what they endured, etc., etc.,… it varied… but, like it or not, they were ALL Southern.
Then why is it that some insist that the South be portrayed so monolithic? In fact, why is it that some feel it necessary to warp history, and toss the blanket across the entire South, proclaiming a single Southern heritage… a solid South, unwavering in sentiment… devoted to the ideals of a Southern Confederacy? Are we to be led to believe that there was a “Confederate collective”? It’s as if the modern Confederate machine is a Confederate Borg with a message that “assimilation”, no matter what history had to say about the individuals of the South, is inevitable.
Perhaps resistance is futile… lest you be labeled a revisionist by the original revisionists.
Cenantua's Blog 
Dick Stanley
September 21, 2010
This is obviously true. But there will always be some who will insist that it isn’t. “There’s always that 10 percent,” as they used to say in the Army, who don’t get the message. Who think they are representative of the whole, when they are a distinct minority.
And that’s certainly true of the Sons and Daughters heritage groups, whose membership has been in decline for many years. Maybe that’s why they fight so hard to insist that they represent everyone. The solid South was never solid, but fractured and split along class and racial lines. Elsewise, the Confeds might have won the war instead of losing it.
Craig Swain
September 21, 2010
“I enjoy my cornbread, my sweet tea, ”
My pecan pie, my RC cola, my fried catfish and hush puppies, my okra…
Stupid question, do they BBQ in the Valley? If so is it a Carolina-style, Memphis-style, KC-style, or Texas-style?
Gasp! There are apparently culinary divides within the solid south too!
Robert Moore
September 21, 2010
Co-coler with Hoover’s, moon pies… but… eeewwww, okra. That veggie with the slimy innards?
As for me, my Southern has always been “seasoned” with German-Swiss influence. Oh, but wait, that doesn’t fit with the Celt and Anglo-Saxon stuff that some want to define Southern culture with. OK… guess Stonewall’s Valley doesn’t fit code.
You got it right on the Valley & BBQ… wherever the style, it likely originated elsewhere.
Robert Moore
September 21, 2010
That should read “goobers” not “Hoover’s”… damn Droid isn’t even Southern. 🙂
Craig Swain
September 21, 2010
Fried okra is not slimy.
Potatoes – fried, mashed, baked, or au grautin?
Robert Moore
September 21, 2010
Depends on what the taters accompany, but generally fried with some Vidalia or mashed… but none of them tater flake mash taters, yuck.
Robert Moore
September 21, 2010
The innards is so! 🙂
Robert Moore
September 21, 2010
Cornbread made with sugar or not?
Robert Moore
September 21, 2010
… and what do you bake your cornbread in?
Craig Swain
September 21, 2010
Cornbread with no sugar. I prefer “fingers” myself. Probably because it was the “field working lunch” from my younger days. Although I like a good Johnnie cake. But please pass on the sugar.
Mike Simons
September 27, 2010
Cornbread in a bacon greased well seasoned Cast Iron Skilett. When you add sugar your making a Yankee Johnny Cake.
I love fried Okra but not boiled.
As for BBQ it varies in the Delta some times county to county much less state to state.
Tea There shall be only Sweet unless you have a medical issue that prevents you from drinking it.
How about Grits??? I love them with Grape Jelly.
Being Southern to me is more about Manners, Food and such.
The South was regional before the war and still is today. Folks in GA talk funny to us Arkies.
Texas where I have lived to almost 20 years thinks BBQ is Beef. You can hardly find real good pork BBQ in DFW area.
Richard
September 29, 2010
You aint Southern until you’ve had a collard sandwich.
Robert Moore
September 29, 2010
Hmmm, as with okra, I’m no collard man either. My border state heritage may be trumping a few of those Southern tendencies from time to time: -)
Robert Moore
September 29, 2010
How ’bout “cress”? Hear of it before?
Richard
September 30, 2010
“cress” I have never heard that term before but looking it up on wiki it looks like “greens”. I am no fan of collards myself. My father and mother-in-law still eat them. Sometimes the local churches will sell them to raise money. My arteries narrow just looking at the thing. My mother grew up in Maine and she has influenced me some. I like milk and sugar on my oatmeal, my wifes people use only butter.