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I mean that in my opinion, MD is a mirror opposite of Virginia. They are neighboring states but the only thing they really share is the Bay. As I said before, my view might be somewhat skewed because I am a native of extreme southern VA (grew up 10 miles from the NC border) and I live in NC now not far from the Tidewater area. So the Virginia I know has always seemed more like eastern NC to me than MD. The times I have been to Maryland, it "feels" like it does when I go to places like PA and NJ...like the Northeast. I don't get that same feel anywhere in Virginia except for perhaps the immediate counties near DC like Fairfax, parts of Prince William, and the cities of Alexandria and Arlington.
So when I say MD is the anti-Virginia, I mean it just feels like the Northeast to me while Virginia for the most part feels more a part of the Southeast to me. I once read an article in one of the Washington papers that contrasted Virginia and Maryland politically and culturally. It talked about how different the two states were and how bills that didn't have a prayer of passing in one state pass easily in the other, especially bills related to gun control, school prayer, and other "liberal vs conservative" type bills. Virginia is MUCH more conservative than MD...more like its sister Southern states. And don't forget that Virginia is home to a large number of Southern Baptists and is home to people like Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson. Maryland doesn't really have that aspect to its culture.
Of course this is an argument that no one is going to win. I will say this though. Most other Southerners will claim Virginia LONG before they will ever claim Maryland. There are the "core" Southern states that most everyone agrees are Southern: AL, GA, MS, LA, SC, NC, AR, and usually TX. Then there are "peripheral" Southern states that most will put in the South as well. VA and KY are usually the first two mentioned, sometimes WV gets lumped in there too along with OK. MD and DE don't usually get mentioned in that list of states. Virginia's Confederate history ties it to the South without question. Richmond was afterall the Capital of the Confederacy and a good number of Virginians are still quite proud of that fact.
Marylanders are free to claim that they are part of the South if they want to. But I think most real Southerners will tend to disagree.
Yes, Norfolk also has a Confederate monument in the middle of downtown, many Virginia places have Confederate memorials and monuments. Northern Virginia obviously has many schools and such named after Virginian Confederate heroes.
Sharpsburg, Maryland has a KKK 'event' every year. I was amused when I read the Maryland forums and hear that native Marylanders and others are asked to join the KKK if they wander into the wrong counties or if they aren't white, told not to get out of the car or instinctively don't. I haven't experienced these moments yet in Virginia or Maryland however.
Hampton Roads is not considered Southern or Northern and neither is Maryland. Hampton Roads is developed but not urban, only Norfolk is urban. Northern Virginia is Mid-Atlantic (or "Northern"), Hampton Roads is Tidewater, Richmond is Southern in descending metro population order and these three metro areas form practically all of the state's population.
Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads represent over half the state's population, so one could be forgiven for calling us half Northern and half Southern (but you should be called ignorant), like many are now saying, Virginia and Maryland are Mid-Atlantic in culture to be lazy. In contrast, I and most would consider North Carolina in general to be Southern.
I still say it is a grave mistake to equate Hampton Roads with Northern Virginia. Yes, both areas are heavily populated but with very different groups of folks. HR is very much socially conservative, probably due to the presence of the natives in conjunction with the significant military population.
And as I have said on other threads, many larger metro areas may seem similar at their cores to other metro areas across the U.S. You won't likely find much Southern about metro Atlanta. But go 30 or 40 miles outside of the city and it's a whole different game. Same with Hampton Roads. If you are in the urbanized areas of Norfolk or Virginia Beach, it may not feel very Southern. But try heading 30 miles south or west and you will be in strongly Southern areas where you will hear strong Southern drawls, genuine Southern hospitality, and see cotton and peanut fields. Places like Southampton County, Isle of Wight County, and parts of Suffolk in Virginia, and Gates, Camden, Pasquotank, and parts of Currituck Counties in North Carolina are but a 40 minute drive from the center of Hampton Roads. All of these places are very Southern...some have changed very little in 50 years such as Gates County, NC. I urge you to come spend one day in Gates County NC and tell me you are not firmly within the borders of the South. And in that same county you will be reading Norfolk's newspaper and watching Norfolk's television stations.
The residents of Southampton County, VA not long ago forced the filming of a movie about Nat Turner out of the county. This is where the Nat Turner Rebellion took place and there are many folks still living in this county who are descendents of Nat Turner's victims. And here we are 170 years later and those people still haven't forgotten. This is a county of cotton gins and ham processing facilities. This is less than an hour west of Norfolk.
This is what makes Hampton Roads different from NOVA. NOVA is strongly tied to metro DC and Baltimore. Hampton Roads does not have such ties. In addition, keep in mind that part of the Hampton Roads Metro Area extends into the counties of northeastern NC. Much of northeastern NC is within Norfolk's sphere of influence. So if NC is Southern then what does that make Hampton Roads?
I will admit that being in the middle of Hampton Roads, one would not feel like they are in the South due to the high migration of transplants into the area. It is certainly not the same place it was 50 years ago. But as I said, in Hampton Roads, you do not have to travel very far at all to be in the true Southland. Don't forget that downtown Norfolk is only 25 miles from the North Carolina border. NOVA is 200 miles north of there and much more heavily influenced by DC/Baltimore/the Northeast than metro Norfolk is.
NOVA and Hampton Roads are similar only in that they have larger populations than other metro areas in Virginia.
technically speaking maryland is part of the south in fact every place from D.c. delaware to texas is the south but being from New Haven Connecticut & moving to North Carolina & going back & forth having also been to a couple of places in Virginia & also maryland they all mostly seem the same to me: southern states with up north influence. Raleigh, Durham, Greensboro, Winston-Salem, & Charolette just has a northern feel like Richmond or Baltimore with so many people being from New York & Connecticut & people use New York slang such as money, B, & son. Eveytime I look around I see NY & CT license plates so NC is now a Mid Atlantic state to me. I've also been to Atlanta & some places & Tennessee & they are just plain southern & country & don't even look at North Carolina as part of the dirty south as they do Texas & Florida. Plus the hip hop scene in NC is like that in VA & MD northern style mid atlantic not the dirty south crunk & slow flow. So the question is irrelevant so DC, DE, MD, VA, NC should be connected as the way Georgia, Tennessee, Florida, Alabama, & the rest of the deep south r connected.
technically speaking maryland is part of the south in fact every place from D.c. delaware to texas is the south but being from New Haven Connecticut & moving to North Carolina & going back & forth having also been to a couple of places in Virginia & also maryland they all mostly seem the same to me: southern states with up north influence. Raleigh, Durham, Greensboro, Winston-Salem, & Charolette just has a northern feel like Richmond or Baltimore with so many people being from New York & Connecticut & people use New York slang such as money, B, & son. Eveytime I look around I see NY & CT license plates so NC is now a Mid Atlantic state to me. I've also been to Atlanta & some places & Tennessee & they are just plain southern & country & don't even look at North Carolina as part of the dirty south as they do Texas & Florida. Plus the hip hop scene in NC is like that in VA & MD northern style mid atlantic not the dirty south crunk & slow flow. So the question is irrelevant so DC, DE, MD, VA, NC should be connected as the way Georgia, Tennessee, Florida, Alabama, & the rest of the deep south r connected.
I dont know about that.. VA and MD have questionable southern ties currently but in my opinion there's no question if NC is the South or not. North Carolina is definetly the South. One of my best friends came from Elizabeth City, NC which actually borders Hampton Roads and he had a Southern accent and personality just as if he was from Alabama. I also know many ppl from Mississippi and SC and when they coem up here they always speak as if we are Northerners or something. They always say how things are better "down South" and it makes you feel like like True Southerners dotn really respect VA or MD as The South. I have no problem being called Southern since I hail from MD and VA. But I never looked at myself as a "Southerner" persay. I think the Mid-Atlantic term fits us best, even though there are a few exceptions like Richmond, which is just a Southern city straight up and down for the most part the term fits. I mean it even snows in VA and MD, we have alot it common with The South and North but I dont think you would be correct in putting either state in a north/south category completely in todays time.
I dont know about that.. VA and MD have questionable southern ties currently but in my opinion there's no question if NC is the South or not. North Carolina is definetly the South. One of my best friends came from Elizabeth City, NC which actually borders Hampton Roads and he had a Southern accent and personality just as if he was from Alabama. I also know many ppl from Mississippi and SC and when they coem up here they always speak as if we are Northerners or something. They always say how things are better "down South" and it makes you feel like like True Southerners dotn really respect VA or MD as The South. I have no problem being called Southern since I hail from MD and VA. But I never looked at myself as a "Southerner" persay. I think the Mid-Atlantic term fits us best, even though there are a few exceptions like Richmond, which is just a Southern city straight up and down for the most part the term fits. I mean it even snows in VA and MD, we have alot it common with The South and North but I dont think you would be correct in putting either state in a north/south category completely in todays time.
Yeah but Elizebeth City is a university town & your friend is probably from Alabama & just going to school there. Maybe you see NC as a normal southern state but you probably never been to the Raleigh-Durham triangle, Greensboro, High Point , or Charlotte. Go to these places & you'll know what I'm talking about really. The people in these urban areas actually think they are New York or something because these areas have the highest transplants from NY, NJ, & CT & actually call other areas of the states & deep south states country or southern. NC does'nt have much southerness as it once did becaues the transplants & NC natives coming back from NY or Ct and taking like they are from there & using their slang believe me I know because I'm really from CT & thats what exactly happen Virginia & Maryland. But they all are technically southern states regardless of this because they all had slaves, produce cotton & tobacco, & had the Jim Crow laws.
I dont know about that.. VA and MD have questionable southern ties currently but in my opinion there's no question if NC is the South or not. North Carolina is definetly the South. One of my best friends came from Elizabeth City, NC which actually borders Hampton Roads and he had a Southern accent and personality just as if he was from Alabama. I also know many ppl from Mississippi and SC and when they coem up here they always speak as if we are Northerners or something. They always say how things are better "down South" and it makes you feel like like True Southerners dotn really respect VA or MD as The South. I have no problem being called Southern since I hail from MD and VA. But I never looked at myself as a "Southerner" persay. I think the Mid-Atlantic term fits us best, even though there are a few exceptions like Richmond, which is just a Southern city straight up and down for the most part the term fits. I mean it even snows in VA and MD, we have alot it common with The South and North but I dont think you would be correct in putting either state in a north/south category completely in todays time.
The big cities which includes Raleigh- Durham with a whole lot of non-southern accents are fast paced cities and should be classified as Mid-Atlantic.
The Mid-Atlantic region, which defintely includes Virginia (at least the coastal half) along with MD, DE, DC and even the northeastern NC coast (IMO), has a slightly southern flavor but with much of the culture and affluence that you find in the Northeast. It also has a strong maritime history, traces of which are still apparent today in port cities like Baltimore and Norfolk. Never had this feeling in Georgia or Tennessee which people from these states view NC a mid atlantic state and that we don't have much southern pride.
I live in Montgomery County, MD in the DC Metro area. The cultural boundaries between North and South, since the beginning of the Civil War, has been the Potomac.
I don't see how MD and VA could possibly be even more different. MD is a densely populated, small, very liberal, Northeastern state, and VA (NoVa aside) is the exact opposite. Virginia definitely has waaay more common with North Carolina than it does with Maryland. Maryland's sister state is definitely more likely to be New Jersey or Connecticut. While 95% of VA is Southern and rural in culture, MD is 95% of Northeastern and urban in culture, and only on the Eastern Shore will you ever encounter someone with a Southern accent. And even Ocean City is beginning to resemble the coastal towns of New Jersey more so than Myrtle or Virginia Beach. Most of Maryland's counties are part of either the Washington, Baltimore, or Philadelphia Metro areas., while the vast majority of Virginia's counties are rural. Western Maryland is (IMO) part of the Rust Belt and more like Western Pennsyvania, Indiana, Ohio, and West Virginia in culture, rather than Southern.
For those who still don't believe take a visit to Baltimore and Richmond; the two cities couldn't possibly be more different. Baltimore is like Newark, NJ's big twin, while Richmond resembles Savannah, GA and other Southern cities. Maryland was also ranked first when how reliant states' economies are on there tech sectors by the Washington Businedd Journal. Virginia's economy is still heavily focused on growing tobacoo for crying out loud. If it wasn't for Northern Virginia, the state would be as poor as Mississippi.
Politically, the only other state more liberal than Maryland is Massachusetts. The Dem's don't even bother campaigning in MD anymore. Take out Hampton Roads and Northern Virginia, Virginia would probably be more conservative than Texas. Virginia is also relatively poor (18th in median income), while Maryland is the wealthiest state in the country (1st in median income).
To me "Mid-Atlantic" is a cop out term. Only the media uses it and everyone defines it differently. I don't check any American would disagree that Virginia is a Southern state, and most persons would agree that Maryland, as well as DC and Delaware are part of the Northeast. And for the record I prefer North Carolina way more than I do Virginia.
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MD vs VA
