Kansas-Do you Consider it the South?
Replies: 25 - Last Post: Jun 23, 2012 5:48 PM Last Post By: dreamsignals86
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Kansas-Do you Consider it the South?
While planning a road trip through the Dakotas and Midwest I've now heard from a couple of friends that Kansas is considered the South.I've always put Kansas in the Midwest category, along with Nebraska and Iowa. One friend, whose family is from Kansas says they consider themselves southerners.
Anyone here care to share how they think of Kansas--is it a Midwestern or Southern state?
5
I suppose it could spring from which side their ancestors were on in the Civil War.My paternal grandparents were from Missouri but grew up with older relatives that had been on opposite sides in the war and that definitely filtered down as to where their allegiances were.
Thanks for your answers, it confirms my public school education wasn't a complete waste.
6
You have encountered an artifact of American History. Look up John Brown (the one whose "body lies moldering in the grave,") The Kansas-Nebraska Act, "Jayhawkers" ( NOT the college sports teams,) and "Bleeding Kansas." Kansas once was one of the "warm-up" acts that preceded the American Civil War or War of Northern Aggression depending on your perspective. Some people once DID consider Kansas to be part of "the South." They lost.8
Sometimes "The South" is defined as the states that were part of the confederacy during the Civil War. So Missouri might qualify as the south under that definition, but not Kansas.It's also north of the Mason-Dixon line, another typical dividing line.
There may be some southern dialects that start creeping in when you get to parts of Kansas, so that could be a factor in what you have heard. Or they could be from Minnesota like me and think that anything south of Des Moines is "The South." ;-)
Dave
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Sometimes "The South" is defined as the states that were part of the confederacy during the Civil War. So Missouri might qualify as the south under that definition, but not Kansas
Except that xMissouri never joined the Confederacy.xKentucky and xOklahoma are the oddball cases for this definition.
It's also north of the Mason-Dixon line, another typical dividing line.
If you extend the Mason-Dixon line west, most of xKansas will lie south of it (including the capital, Topeka).
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I'm a fifth generation Kansan and we would never, ever consider the Sunflower State as part of the South. The State was vehemently anti-slavery and more men volunteered for the Union Army on a per capita basis than any other state. Yes, we consider the state to be part of the Midwest or Great Plains.That said, our weather seems to becoming Southern and some people do have Southern accents (esp. along the Oklahoma border). I remember when I was living in England some people thought I had a southern accent.
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Some northern states had school segregation: See Wikipedia:School segregation in the North was also a major issue.34 In Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, towns near the Mason-Dixon line enforced school segregation, despite state laws outlawing the practice of it.34 Indiana also required school segregation by state law.34
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the informal definition of the Mason-Dixon line was the area where slavery was legal
Well, I guess there are informal definitions a.k.a mistaken usages of all sorts of things, but the actual Mason-Dixon line was a latitudinal boundary surveyed by Messrs. Mason and Dixon to establish xPennsylvania's southern border and later projected further west. There was some slavery north of it.
Some northern states had school segregation.
Including Delaware, often classified as "Northern" these days although mostly below the M-D line, and the subject of one of the several cases consolidated with Brown v. Board of Ed of Topeka.
Kansas-Do you Consider it the South?
If I were Inuit, I'd say yes.
14
but the actual Mason-Dixon line was a latitudinal boundary surveyed by Messrs. Mason and Dixon to establish xPennsylvania's southern border and later projected further west.
Including Delaware, often classified as "Northern" these days although mostly below the M-D line
Speaking of mistaken, the border included the longitudinal Maryland-Delaware border.
Including Delaware, often classified as "Northern" these days although mostly below the M-D line
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