On the cultural front, a great compromise was forged whereby the South
was allowed to praise and honor her war heroes as long as they conceded
that the war’s outcome was for the best and part of the higher destiny
to which the United States was called. (I've never heard this before and is erroneous.)
In the popular imagination the South is viewed as a region typified
by racism, poverty, and ignorance save a few special islands, such as
Chapel Hill and Charlotte, which lay in the archipelago of
enlightenment. There are some cracks in this edifice of Yankee bigotry,
but when political and cultural wars become heated, the edifice is
trotted out once more to remind the American people as to who wears the
white hats and who wears black. None of this, of course, conforms to the
far more complex reality from which Southern culture and identity
emerged.
Before examining the commonalities that give coherence to the South,
it is crucial to understand the important realities of ethnic and
cultural diversity that have always been a hallmark of the region. Of
the eleven American nations scholars have identified, five are located
in the South: the Tidewater, Greater Appalachia, the Deep South, New
France, El Norte, and the Spanish Caribbean. There is not one Southern
accent, but at least eleven different regional dialects. The South is
also home to at least five major culinary traditions. There is no doubt
that the peoples of the British Isles have left the deepest cultural
imprint upon the South, but crucial contributions to Southern culture
and tradition have also been made by people of African, German, French,
and Spanish descent. Here is true diversity, not the current pretend
variety where a community celebrates differences, as long as everyone
thinks and acts within a rigid ideological template.
