Conservatism In The South Essay

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The south is a distinctive area of the United States that is constantly detached from the rest of the country. No matter where a person might originate from or reside in, it is indisputable that the south is different. Carl Degler delves into what makes the south continuously unique when compared to other areas of the United States and attributes most of the south’s characteristics to slavery and the Civil War. Setting the south apart from the rest of the nation has been going on for centuries. A couple of examples of this are the “Southern gentleman” and the myth of the Old South. Degler argued stereotypes that were created long before the Civil War still persists in modern America. For example, a survey conducted in 1970 by John Shelton Reed was given to forty-seven white southern college students and asked the students to list attributes for northerners and southerners. Northerners were considered industrious, materialistic, …show more content…

Even though other areas in the country did contain slavery, the south was the only region that maintained plantation slavery. Since the south was so involved and reliant on slavery, it was an area of the country that found its identity on more than just the Constitution and American ideals. At the Constitutional Convention of 1787, delegates, such as James Madison, noted that there was a clear division between the northern and southern states based on whom own slaves. Even in the early nineteenth century, the idea of the south existed in the minds of southerners and their identity was commonly founded in slavery. Since slavery was maintained for a great length of time and southern blood was shed to defend it, it was an identity that was passed down from generation to generation. This passing down of southern values would explain why distinct characteristics rooted in slavery continue to

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