Where To Move- Why Every Says MD is getto (Silver Spring: neighborhood, live in)
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Southern Maryland? Maryland was a slave state and wanted to secede. Lincoln played a strong hand when Maryland was deciding to secede (arrested several legislators). Like today, it was diverse. There were Unionists in the North & NW, and Confederalists in the South and SE. Maryland is a very diverse place, and I think you can find both Northerner MDers and Southerner MDers, just like then.
One of my "Old Baltimore" ancestors, whose family came originally from Scotland, was an ardent abolitionist.
Some of the States of the Deep South put secession to the vote. It was rejected in numerous parishes of Louisiana, for example, but carried a majority state-wide. North Carolina tried to avoid secession, frequently calling South Carolinians "crackpots" and "hot-heads," but ultimately couldn't bear arms against its neighbors and finally gave in. And so on . . .
This is an endless debate. But anyone with an open mind on the subject might enjoy reading "The Mind of the South" by W. J. Cash, which is probably the definitive work on what made the South the South.
The circumstances that brought forth Southern Culture were absent from Maryland to any significant extent. Most of MD never really developed Cash's landed pseudo-aristocracy, a large population of pig-ignorant slaves who were then emancipated en mass, a large population of lazy subsistence farmers marginalized by plantation culture who spent their time making and drinking moonshine while their wives did whatever farm chores (Cash calls these people "crackers" and "white trash" -- his terms, not mine), a textile-mill-company-town culture (he calls these people "millbillies"), a hyper-inflated sense of individualism, and so on. Rather, most of MD developed by way of the port of Baltimore, commerce, industrialization, banking, and the like, mostly (yes, I know about tobacco and Baltimore's Rolling Road!).
Cash is pretty rough, but he "wrote the book" on this subject. He was a protege of Baltimore's H. L. Mencken and a lot like him, very smart and very nasty.
I hope no Southerners reading this take offense, as the world that Cash describes is long gone, and does not apply to the modern South. I personally live in NC now and enjoy NC culture very much.
I think Cash's description applied to at least 1/2 the state pre-Civil War, and is strangely more accurate now if you think about it. Replace the "landed elite" with the "intellectual suburban elite." Replace "ignorant slaves" with "ghettoized African Americans" and the poor "cracker" whites are still around in Western Maryland and the Eastern Shore. We have our mill/mine towns too, just go to the George's Creek Valley in Western Maryland.
So, is the only real distinction between Maryland and our more southernly neighbors is that Baltimore had a railroad that spawned industry and small cities close to Mason-Dixon, and the farmers closer to Mason Dixon were more the yeoman German types, which extend down into VA as well through the Great Valley.
Let me assure you, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the people who are actually from the south, DO NOT consider Maryland to be a southern state. I was born in Annapolis and lived in Maryland for 48 years. I now live in Greenville, NC. Locals have never mistaken me for being a southernor. Their term for me is Yankee. Unless you call that structure in your backyard where you keep your mower, shovel and rakes a barn, then you're not a southernor either. You more than likely call it a shed.
I hear all of this nonsense about cultural this and cultural that and how MD is a southern state because of it. Trust me. It is a whole different culture here in the south. Just speaking to the children will convince you of that. They ALL say Yes Ma'am and Yes Sir and use the term Mister or Miss when speaking with an adult. They are taught to absolutely respect their elders. I go back to MD on a regular basis and that type of thing has been missing in MD for a very long time.
And people in Alabama think the folks from North Carolina are Yankees.
mmmmmmmmmmmmm. Sorry, I just went down memory lane thinking about some of the Mobile Belles I met. They really liked anyone in a white dress uniform and gold wings.
I think Cash's description applied to at least 1/2 the state pre-Civil War, and is strangely more accurate now if you think about it. Replace the "landed elite" with the "intellectual suburban elite." Replace "ignorant slaves" with "ghettoized African Americans" and the poor "cracker" whites are still around in Western Maryland and the Eastern Shore. We have our mill/mine towns too, just go to the George's Creek Valley in Western Maryland.
So, is the only real distinction between Maryland and our more southernly neighbors is that Baltimore had a railroad that spawned industry and small cities close to Mason-Dixon, and the farmers closer to Mason Dixon were more the yeoman German types, which extend down into VA as well through the Great Valley.
Three things come to mind after reading your post --
(1) The substitution of intellectual suburban elite for landed elite doesn't work at all in Cash's argument, which had very little to do with the elite part, and a lot to do with the landed part -- planters literally marginalizing others by taking the best land, pushing yeomen and crackers further out, and working the land with slaves, minimizing the need for paid labor.
(2) "Half the state" brings up the following: by land area or by population? I am thinking that Baltimore counted for a large percentage of the population of MD in, say, the early 19th century, but I don't really know.
(3) Cash also discusses the effect of the Civil War, which was experienced very differently in MD vs, say, NC, SC, or Georgia.
If you have not already read the book, you might find it to be worthwhile, although it is a little hard to read (the language flourishes too much for my taste). But a fundamental, relentless piece of work. Reading it changed my mind as to whether MD is Southern or not. Convinced me that the Baltimore part of MD is not southern at all (although some of the people, like me, have some of the Southern character in them).
I need to confess that I have never been to Western Maryland, so I don't know anything at all about that culture (and I personally don't like Southern Maryland very much).
1. You don't think the suburban elite is taking up all the best land in the state, raising the value of said land, and marganalizing and pushing the rest of the state's population further and further out? That sounds exactly what is happening now, which is why the population totals for the exurban counties are growing.
2. Baltimore's growth was very slow when compared to cities like New York or Philly. Its population explosion didn't take place until the middle of the 19th century. Although by 1860 about 1/3 of the state's population was in Baltimore. None the less, much of that population must have considered themselves to be Southern, hence the firing on the federal troops.
3. You have a border state that contributed troops to both sides, you have the Battle of Sharpsburg, still the bloodiest day in US history, you have Lincoln declaring Martial Law and suspending habeus corpus and imprisoning the local Maryland Southern leaders, you have Lee march through the state towards Gettysburg, you have the ransom of Hagerstown, Battle of South Mountain, Battle of the Monocacy. Not to mention the our official state song - which "spurns the Northern scum." So I think the Civil War had a deep impact on the citizens and culture of the state.
I am sure Cash's book is wonderful, but does he care about Maryland? Does he focus on us at all? I scoured the academic literature to find academic research on the Appalachia parts of Maryland and come up empty time and time again. Is it because we aren't Appalachian out where I live? No, it is because our state is small and often completely ignored when researchers address topics of regional identity. It is no doubt easier to research the big bigger states that are easier to pigeon-hole than it is to wade into the Maryland identity quagmire that seems to bog down even unrelated threads here.
1. You don't think the suburban elite is taking up all the best land in the state, raising the value of said land, and marganalizing and pushing the rest of the state's population further and further out? That sounds exactly what is happening now, which is why the population totals for the exurban counties are growing.
2. Baltimore's growth was very slow when compared to cities like New York or Philly. Its population explosion didn't take place until the middle of the 19th century. Although by 1860 about 1/3 of the state's population was in Baltimore. None the less, much of that population must have considered themselves to be Southern, hence the firing on the federal troops.
3. You have a border state that contributed troops to both sides, you have the Battle of Sharpsburg, still the bloodiest day in US history, you have Lincoln declaring Martial Law and suspending habeus corpus and imprisoning the local Maryland Southern leaders, you have Lee march through the state towards Gettysburg, you have the ransom of Hagerstown, Battle of South Mountain, Battle of the Monocacy. Not to mention the our official state song - which "spurns the Northern scum." So I think the Civil War had a deep impact on the citizens and culture of the state.
I am sure Cash's book is wonderful, but does he care about Maryland? Does he focus on us at all? I scoured the academic literature to find academic research on the Appalachia parts of Maryland and come up empty time and time again. Is it because we aren't Appalachian out where I live? No, it is because our state is small and often completely ignored when researchers address topics of regional identity. It is no doubt easier to research the big bigger states that are easier to pigeon-hole than it is to wade into the Maryland identity quagmire that seems to bog down even unrelated threads here.
To understand (1) you're going to have to read the book.
About (2) -- looking at my own attitudes, and how they have changed on this question, I (personally) would rather ask "would a disinterested observer consider MD southern?" rather than would some of the people themselves. I was simply kidding myself that I was somehow Southern having grown up in Baltimore, probably because of my affinity for the many positive attributes of the true Southern character. Not to be patronizing in my response, but some of the people in antebellum Baltimore (and probably also in today's Baltimore) might consider themselves to be Martian -- doesn't mean that they are.
Regarding (3), having lived in both NC and MD (more than 20 years in each), I would disagree categorically that the impact of the War on MD was anything like its impact on the former CSA states. The CSA was absolutely trashed, ruined for generations, impoverished to the bone by the War, which was not the case in MD. For example, one branch of my family had a plantation on the Mississippi, which was deliberately shelled to rubble by the U.S. Navy, civilians be damned. Nothing at all happened to my people living in Baltimore at the same time. Also, MD was not subjected to the brutality, and I mean brutality, of Reconstruction, from occupation, from carpetbaggers, from the KKK.
But your last point is exactly what I am trying to convey -- Cash did not consider MD to be part of the South, and as you correctly suggest, he did not discuss MD much at all. He calls it a border state and lets it go at that. In his consideration of southern cities, he does not not even mention Baltimore, IIRC, which was certainly far more important (at that time) than the Southern cities he does discuss.
Aargh -- Cash's book is not wonderful -- but it is profound and relentless.
By the way -- I enjoy your posts a lot (even if I don't agree with every detail), and think that you add a great deal to this forum. You are right in saying that the topic is a quagmire, so I won't comment any more in this thread.
Thanks again for your thoughts, and best regards -- Hamish
I always say "border state," but for that label to apply to Maryland at least some of what Cash says has to be true for MD, if only he had bothered to look.
if you think rednecks are on the street you should check out the baltimore city police department.its full of rednecks,and they seam to be encouraged by there redneck police commissioner
I will be relocating to MD this fall and will be looking for a job, preferrably non-clinical healthcare. I think I've decided on living in Columbia (seems like the East Coast version of my current city Irvine, CA). Is the job market there as bad as it is pretty much everywhere in the country? Or does it seem to be on an upswing? Any tips for where to look for jobs online besides careerbuilder, monster or craigslist?
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