Quote:
Originally Posted by SouthByMidwest
Most reckon the border is the Mason-Dixon line (between Pennsylvania and Maryland/West Virginia) and the Ohio River but that's really an over-simplified generalization. Southern Indiana, Illinois and Ohio have a bit of the South - if not Alabama Deep South, then certainly Kentucky and West Virginia. Lots of people from Appalachia came to cities like Indy, Cincinnati, Dayton etc. for work in the 20th century. This convergence is well reflected in Indy's architecture. For example, the house in frame #41 would look right at home in Atlanta or Charlotte.
Maybe I-70 (another artificial boundary) more accurately reflects where the dividing line between north and south ought to be, but that too is a generalization. There's much debate, for example, about the Southern qualities of modern-day Maryland, and southward migration from the Midwest and Northeast has blurred the line somewhat to the south. 75-100 years ago it was Southerners moving to Northern industrial cities like Detroit.
There's always been migration every which way in US history, making classifications such as what place belongs to which region difficult.
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as someone who spends their life "running" back and forth/up and down through the midlands and the mid-south that's correct in a general way.
a more fine grained way to deconstruct it might be to underscore the difference between the appalachian-influenced midlands (kentucky, southern indiana, southern illinois, and missouri) and "dixie." in missouri, as you speed towards new orleans from st. louis along I-55, there is a very specific spot (in fact a specific hill, which name escapes me) in southeast missouri where you enter the "mississippi delta." once you are on the flatlands, the mississippi delta, you are speeding unencumbered through "dixie" all the way to the gulf of mexico, or enevitably towards a debaucherous sunrise (or disaster) in new orleans.
additionally, major cities either represent the surrounding midlands (like indianapolis or kansas city for the upper midlands, louisville for the lower midlands) or are old enough to have their own specific stank that overlays the greater area like a weird island (like st. louis, cincy, and to a greater extent new orleans).
the "kentuckian" midlands that leech into illinois, missouri, and indiana generally stretch on a sort of diminishing gradient far to the north - nearly lapping to the edge of the I-80 corridor (in rural areas), but the extent is somewhat esoteric. however, the start of "dixie" south of the midlands comes on a little more quickly. in missouri it is the start of the delta (and the end of small german catholic towns up in the hills), as i have said, and further east crossing the ohio river places you are in a landscape where the "southern gradient" ramps up quickly as you approach tennessee. however, the midlands/kentucky thing is its own distinct "thang." missouri also has a very heavy southern influence north of st. louis (to where it feels like you are actually driving south from st. louis) along the mississippi river in antebellum towns like louisiana and hannibal, and west along the missouri river like boonville and lexington towards kansas city. the ozarks is pure rough hewn gritty flint-kickin' appalachia, without the "sweetness" and organized class structures of dixie.
i don't know what happens east of cincy.
west of kansas city, everything melts into the plains - divided roughly into north and south plainsfolk somewhere in kansas. it gets weird.
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