Dixie

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For the 19th-century song, see Dixie (song). For the cultural and geographic subregion of the southern United States, see Deep South. For all other uses, see Dixie (disambiguation).
Dark red indicates the states almost always included in modern-day definitions of Dixie, red – sometimes included (see Southern United States for the U.S. Census definition), while pale red – occasionally included due to their historic connections to the South.[1][2][3][4]

Dixie, also known as Dixieland, is a nickname for the Southern United States. While there is no official definition of this region, or the extent of the area it covers, most definitions include the states which seceded to form the Confederate States of America.[5]

Region[]

Bayou Navigation in Dixie, engraving of a Louisiana Steamboat, 1863

As a definite geographic location within the United States, Dixie is usually defined as the eleven Southern states that seceded from the United States of America in late 1860 and early 1861 to form the new Confederate States of America, listed below in order of secession:

  1. South Carolina
  2. Mississippi
  3. Florida
  4. Alabama
  5. Georgia
  6. Louisiana
  7. Texas
  8. Virginia
  9. Arkansas
  10. North Carolina
  11. Tennessee

Although Maryland is not considered to be part of Dixie today, it is below the Mason–Dixon line. If the origin of the term Dixie is accepted as referring to the region south and west of that line, Maryland lies within Dixie. It can be argued that Maryland was part of Dixie before the Civil War, especially culturally.[6] In this sense, it would remain so into the 1970s, until an influx of people from the Northeast made the state and its culture significantly less Southern (especially Baltimore and the suburbs of Washington, DC).[7] Similarly, the character of Florida—a state which seceded in 1861 and was a member of the Confederacy—lost much of its Southern culture in the 20th century due to a great influx of Northerners, in particular New Yorkers.[8] The Florida panhandle is still arguably culturally part of Dixie; it includes a county named Dixie.

The location and boundaries of Dixie have, over time, become increasingly subjective and mercurial.[9] Today, it is most often associated with parts of the Southern United States where traditions and legacies of the Confederate era and the antebellum South live most strongly.[10] The concept of Dixie as the location of a certain set of cultural assumptions, mind-sets, and traditions was explored in the 1981 book The Nine Nations of North America.[11]

Uses of the term[]

In terms of self-identification and appeal, the popularity of the word Dixie has been found to be declining. A 1976 study revealed that in an area of the South covering approximately 350,000 square miles (910,000 km2) (all of Mississippi and Alabama; almost all of Georgia, Tennessee and South Carolina; and around half of Louisiana, Arkansas, Kentucky, North Carolina and Florida) the term reached 25% of the popularity of the term American in names of commercial business entities.[12] A 1999 analysis found that between 1976 and 1999, in 19% of US cities sampled, there was an increase of relative use of Dixie; in 48% of cities sampled, there was a decline; and no change was recorded in 32% of cities.[13] A 2010 study found that in the course of 40 years, the area in question shrank to just 40,000 square miles (100,000 km2), to the area where Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida meet.[14] In 1976, at about 600,000 square miles (1,600,000 km2)[a] Dixie reached at least 6% of the popularity of American; in 2010, the corresponding area was a 500,000 square miles (1,300,000 km2).[15][clarification needed]

"Rethinking the Boundaries of the South" by Christopher A. Cooper and H. Gibbs Knotts

Sociologists Christopher A. Cooper and H. Gibbs Knotts surveyed all 50 states and the District of Columbia for the use of the words "Dixie" and "Southern" in business names. Unlike the survey conducted by John Shelton Reed, who concentrated on cities, Cooper & Knotts surveyed entire states using modern technology rather than the physical search of telephone books that were available to Reed. They excluded the chain Winn-Dixie from the study. Their data, within these parameters, resulted in a 13 state region which they divided into three tiers, from high to low scores. In the first tier were Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi. The second tier was Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. The third tier was Florida, Oklahoma, Virginia and West Virginia.[16]

In the 21st century, concerns over glorifying the Confederacy led to various things called Dixie being renamed, including Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede[17] and the music group Dixie Chicks.[18] The board of trustees at Dixie State University in Utah voted unanimously in December 2020 to change the name of the institution.[19]

Origin of the name[]

Ten-dollar note from Banque des citoyens de la Louisiane, 1860

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the origin of this nickname remains obscure. The most common theories, according to A Dictionary of Americanisms on Historical Principles (1951) by Mitford M. Mathews include the following:

  • The word Dixie could have originally referred to currency issued first by the Citizens State Bank in the French Quarter of New Orleans and then by other banks in Louisiana.[20] These banks issued ten-dollar notes[21] labeled Dix on the reverse side, French for ten (French pronunciation: [dis], DEESE). The notes were known as Dixies by Southerners, and the area around New Orleans and the French-speaking parts of Louisiana came to be known as Dixieland.[5] Eventually, usage of the term broadened to refer to the Southern states in general.
  • Dixie is sometimes claimed to be derived from Jeremiah Dixon, one of the surveyors of the Mason–Dixon line, which defined the border between Maryland and Pennsylvania, separating free and slave states subsequent to the Missouri Compromise.[22] This namesake is likely retroactively attributed long after it came into use rather than being a genuine source of origin. Jonathan Lighter, the editor of the Historical Dictionary of American Slang, connects the terms Mason–Dixon line and Dixie via a children's game played in New York City.[23]
  • One apocryphal account claims the word preserves the name of Johan Dixie (sometimes spelled Dixy), a slave owner on Manhattan Island. According to a story recounted in Word Myths: Debunking Linguistic Urban Legends (2008), Dixie's slaves were later sold in the South, where they spoke of better treatment while working on Dixie's land. There is no evidence that this story is true.[24][25]

See also[]

Notes[]

  1. ^ from eastern Texas and Oklahoma to southern Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia and Virginia

References[]

  1. ^ Oh, Soo. "Which states do you think belong in the South?". Vox. Retrieved 5 October 2016.
  2. ^ Wilson, Charles & William Ferris Encyclopedia of Southern Culture ISBN 978-0-8078-1823-7; Univ. of Pennsylvania Telsur Project Telsur Map of Southern Dialect
  3. ^ Vance, Rupert Bayless, Regionalism and the South: Selected Papers of Rupert Vance, University of North Carolina Press, 1982, p. 166 ISBN 0-8078-1513-6 "West Virginia is found to have its closest attachment to the Southeast on the basis of agriculture and population."
  4. ^ David Williamson (June 2, 1999). "UNC-CH surveys reveal where the 'real' South lies". Retrieved 22 Feb 2007.
  5. ^ Jump up to: a b "Dixie". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved August 18, 2017.
  6. ^ "The General Assembly Moves to Frederick, 1861". Retrieved 25 Oct 2017.
  7. ^ Rasmussen, Frederick (March 28, 2010). "Are we Northern? Southern? Yes". The Baltimore Sun. Archived from the original on May 11, 2018. Retrieved February 23, 2018.
  8. ^ According to the New York Times, as of 2012, 8% of Floridians were born in New York Gregor Aisch; Robert Gebeloff (15 Aug 2014). "Mapping Migration in the United States". New York Times.
  9. ^ There is such a multitude of threads to the fabric called Dixie that official organizations draw boundaries enclosing anywhere from nine to seventeen states and call the region the South.Joel Garreau (1981). The Nine Nations of North America. Houghton Mifflin. pp. 132. ISBN 0-395-29124-0.
  10. ^ Ottenhoff, Patrick (January 28, 2011). "Where Does the South Begin?". The Atlantic.
  11. ^ Joel Garreau (1981). The Nine Nations of North America. Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0-395-29124-0.
  12. ^ John Shelton Reed, "The Heart of Dixie: An Essay in Folk Geography", [in:] "Social Forces" 54/4 (1976), pp. 925-939
  13. ^ Derek H. Alderman, Robert Maxwell Beavers, "Heart of Dixie Revisited: an Update on the Geography of Naming in the American South", [in:] "Southeastern Geographer" XXXlX/2 (1999), p. 196
  14. ^ Christopher A. Cooper, H. Gibbs Knotts, "Declining Dixie: Regional Identification in the Modern American South", [in:] "Social Forces" 88/3 (2010), pp. 1083–1101
  15. ^ Cooper, Gibbs Knotts 2010, p. 1090
  16. ^ Christopher A. Cooper and H. Gibbs Knotts, Rethinking the Boundaries of the South. Southern Cultures, Volume 16, Number 4, Winter 2010, pp. 72-88
  17. ^ Freeman, Jon (11 January 2018). "Dolly Parton's Civil War-Themed 'Dixie Stampede' Attraction to Change Name". Rolling Stone.
  18. ^ Shaffer, Claire (25 June 2020). "Dixie Chicks Change Name to 'The Chicks,' Drop Protest Song". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 25 June 2020.
  19. ^ Cortez, Marjorie (December 14, 2020). "Trustees vote to drop 'Dixie' from Dixie State University name". Deseret News. Retrieved 2020-12-16.
  20. ^ "Dixie" Originated From Name "Dix" An Old Currency - New Orleans American May 29 1916, Vol. 2 No. 150, Page 3 Col. 1 Archived 2011-08-07 at the Wayback Machine Louisiana Works Progress Administration, Louisiana Digital Library
  21. ^ Ten Dollar Note Archived 2012-03-20 at the Wayback Machine George Francois Mugnier Collection, Louisiana Digital Library
  22. ^ John Mackenzie, "A brief history of the Mason–Dixon Line Archived 2018-07-17 at the Wayback Machine", APEC/CANR, University of Delaware; accessed 2017-01-05.
  23. ^ Zimmer, Ben (2020-06-26). "What 'Dixie' Really Means". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2020-07-03.
  24. ^ Wilton, David (2008). Word Myths: Debunking Linguistic Urban Legends. Oxford University Press. p. 147. ISBN 978-0-1953-7557-2.
  25. ^ Campanella, Richard (2010). "Appendix A: Western River Commerce in the Early 1800s" (PDF). Lincoln in New Orleans: The 1828-1831 Flatboat Voyages and Their Place in History. University of Louisiana at Lafayette Press. p. 276, n. 99. ISBN 978-1-9357-5402-2.

Further reading[]

  • Reed, John Shelton (with J. Kohl and C. Hanchette) (1990). The Shrinking South and the Dissolution of Dixie. Social Forces. pp. 69, 221–233.[ISBN missing]
  • Sacks, Howard L. and Judith Rose. Way Up North In Dixie. (Smithsonian Institution Press, 1993)

Coordinates: 34°N 86°W / 34°N 86°W / 34; -86

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