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Dixie's Dead, Long Live the South
stories by Mary Dalrymple
Cotton, Confederates, and chivalry. Self-consciously different from
the rest of the Union, the South celebrates its own history, traditions,
and culture. But scholars say our
Gone With the Wind image of the South obscures the realities - past
and present.
Glenn Hinson, associate professor of anthropology, says the
South began to see itself as "a place apart" in the early
1800s, when a code of honor and a distinct class consciousness were
developing in white society.
"The key image of the old South, of antebellum South, is
gentility," he says. "It's peopled by Southern gentlemen,
demure belles, and happy, loyal servants." According to Hinson, the
romance of the plantation heritage, still celebrated in some corners of
white society, is based on historical myth.
"This image is just simply false," he says. In fact,
few plantations dotted the region, and most evolved only after the
invention of the cotton gin in 1793. "For the most part,"
Hinson says, "the plantation South existed in a tiny window of time
of maybe thirty years."
The Plantation Myth
And the plantation system describes the past of only some
Southerners. "While the African-American experience
was the plantation experience, the white experience was
not," explains Hinson. "To portray the history of the
South as the history
of the plantation is to completely forget the existence of the vast
majority of white Southerners."
These forgotten Southerners include hired farm laborers,
railroad workers, farmers, grain- and textile-mill workers,
artisans, and tradesmen. "Our sense of the grand narrative begins
to change when we begin to factor in the experience of
working class people and black and white women in the South," says
Jim Leloudis, associate professor of history.
Part of the plantation myth is the image of a South
untouched by the industrial revolution. But Peter Coclanis, professor
of history and associate dean for general education, argues that the
South was integrated into world markets far earlier than
the North was. "The South has always been much more affected by
global economic issues than many have believed," he
says.
The decline of the rice industry in Georgia and the Carolinas,
for example, is usually attributed to the Civil War. But Coclanis
argues that the decline was precipitated mostly by changes occurring
outside the South, including the rise of steam
shipping, the opening of the Suez Canal, and the expansion of commerce
in Southeast Asia. "If you look at long-term trends,"
Coclanis says, "you can see that these states were already losing
their market share long before the Civil War."
Studying the South in isolation has led scholars to downplay
broader historical trends in favor of regional events, and
Southern history has become synonymous with the Civil War.
"Historians have traditionally locked on to the Civil War,"
Coclanis states, "but it's impossible to understand the South
without understanding the world."
Today, nostalgia for the Southern past is reviving interest in
local folk culture. Terry Zug, professor of English and chair
of the Curriculum in Folklore, says that many traditions such as
hand-made pottery that might have gone out of business 50 years ago due
to modernization are now being reclaimed as art.
"Many of the old traditions are absolutely flourishing
today," Zug says. "Such art attracts collectors because it
embodies
nostalgic fantasies about the past, an imagined time when economic
turmoil, ethnic violence, or ecological disaster were
supposedly unknown."
In the plantation myth, Southern society is defined by a clash
between blacks and whites. Historians now realize antebellum
culture was more complex. "The black and white dichotomy hides
historic diversity," says George Noblit, professor of education.
Many Native American tribes populated the Southeast, and there was
considerable mixing of the Native American and slave
populations. Even within the slave community there was significant
diversity. "Many slaves came from the Caribbean," Noblit
says. "There is more diversity in the African-American population
than normally admitted."
As a result, the South is infused with a distinct, historically
evolved culture, incorporating more than just black and white
heritage. Hinson argues that Southern culture is a creole culture,
evolving out of intimate cultural contact and trading. "If you
tried to take Southern culture apart and take out the parts that owe
their deepest tradition to West Africa, and the parts that owe
their deepest traditions to Western Europe, you'd still have a whole
lot left."
This historic diversity still shapes the South, says Daniel
Patterson, Kenan professor of English. "To understand the South,
you've got to come to terms with the diversity of the South," he
says. "All of these pasts leave their residues of attitudes and
unresolved problems. They created our world."
Immigration
Recent immigration patterns are adding new dimensions to
Southern diversity. According to Noblit, immigration in the
past two decades has come from two sources. First, economic development
in the South has attracted highly educated Asian, Muslim, Hindu, and
Eastern European immigrants. Second, consistently low unemployment rates
have attracted large
numbers of Latino immigrants to the South.
"There is a need for workers at the lower end of the
industrial scale," Noblit says. "Some industries even send
buses to Mexico." These immigrants, who once came through the South
as migrant workers, now settle permanently.
In certain areas - especially rural areas with agricultural industry -
the Latino population is beginning to outnumber the black population.
Says Noblitt, "Latinos will soon become the largest minority in a
number of small towns in North Carolina.&q
uot;
An Economic Proving Ground
New immigration patterns, economic downsizing and dislocation,
and the transition to a service economy are all affecting the South as
much as the rest of the country. But Coclanis says some of these changes
are familiar.
"The South has already experienced many of the problems and
throes of economic adjustment the U.S. as a whole has been
going through in the past decade," he states. "What is
happening to manufacturing and services today happened to Southern
agriculture one hundred and thirty years ago."
Coclanis argues that the Southern economy has historically been
affected by the migration of capital and labor now
seen in many parts of the country. Industry and jobs came to the South,
attracted by business incentives and inexpensive
labor. And the South has lost jobs to areas of even cheaper labor.
This experience has made the South a testing ground for economic
growth policies. "Restrained macro-economic
policies and pro-business economic environments were tested policies of
Southern governors," says Coclanis. "Many
parts of the U.S. are using the South as a model."
Economists are not the only ones applying lessons learned in
the South. Scholars from many countries are interested in
learning how the South has dealt with issues of diversity and
multi-culturalism. "It makes sense for other parts of the world
facing these questions to look to the South, where you can see the
dangers and the real potential for accomplishment,"
Coclanis says.
The Pressures to Change
Drastic changes - demographic, social, and economic - present
the South with challenges and stress. In eastern North
Carolina, for example, large-scale hog and poultry production is
changing the nature of agriculture.
Steve Wing, associate professor of epidemiology, has been
studying the swine industry's effect on the environment and
health. Wing says that intensified hog production is more akin to
manufacturing than to farming. Ownership and decision-making are
typically located outside the community. Large operations can dominate
the market, forcing smaller farms out of business.
"It's not only a loss of jobs," Wing adds. "It's
also a loss of land." Land that traditionally has been held by
local communities, particularly African-American communities, is now
owned by businesses outside the area. Wing says land is not
only an economic base, but also a source of social stability.
Scholars disagree over how such changes will affect Southern
culture. Noblit insists that the South is losing its character.
"The South is becoming 'Yankeeified,'" he says. "The
upper classes are no longer Southern. They are more likely to be
corporate immigrants."
But others believe that Southern culture is resilient. Patterson
maintains that traditional religion, music, and storytelling
are Southern resources for coping with change. "Folk cultures -
traditional songs and stories - create unity and teach
young people the value of the group and culture," he says.
Hinson agrees, and insists that modernization does not
necessarily mean cultural loss. Citing traditions that are distinctively
Southern yet relatively new, such as African-American gospel music and
NASCAR, Hinson argues that new traditions are constantly emerging.
"The South maintains its ways of keeping its identity. This is not
a zero-sum game."
This story reports work from the College of Arts and
Sciences, the School of Education, and the School of Public Health.
Southern Studies at Carolina
The Center for
the Study of the American South
The Center for the Study of the American South was created in 1992 to
promote teaching, research, and public
service in Southern studies. According to Annette Wright, associate
director of the Center, students, scholars,
policy analysts, and community leaders - experts both inside and
outside the university - work through the Center to better understand
the South and assess its long-term needs.
"By harnessing the University's resources, the Center
brings what is learned in classrooms, libraries, and communities into
board rooms and legislative halls, the centers of decision making,"
Wright says.
With the Atlanta Journal-Constitution
and the UNC-CH Institute for Research in Social Science, the Center
cosponsors the Southern Focus Poll, a national public opinion survey.
The Center also publishes the
Southern Research Report and produces Southern Cultures,
a quarterly journal featuring Southern literature, arts, history, and
folklife, published by UNC Press. In collaboration with the Southern
Historical Collection and the Southern Oral
History Project, the Center coordinates several projects to document
the South:
- Southern Business History Initiative
- Heritage Tourism Project
- Program on Politics, the Media, and Public Life
- North Carolina Literary Festival
- Sport in the American South
- Foundation Investment in the South
Southern
Historical Collection
Founded in 1929 by J. G. de Roulhac Hamilton, the Southern Historical
Collection is one of the world's foremost centers for the documentary
study of the Southern United States, housing historical material from
all Southern
states dating from the eighteenth century through the present.
The Southern Historical Collection also houses the Southern Folklife
Collection, perhaps the world's largest collection of musical and
story-telling traditions from the Southeast and its people. This
collection includes commercial
and field recordings, as well as photos, interviews, oral histories,
video and film documentaries, books, and periodicals.
Southern Oral
History Project
The Southern Oral History Project collects and preserves the
first-person oral narratives of well-known figures in
Southern society, as well as people not normally included in the
historical record. The project also fosters outreach and teaching
services to communities and schools throughout the South.
Rebel Flags and Manly Men
Southerners are no more likely than anyone else to fly the
confederate flag, according to the Southern Focus
Poll. But they
are more likely to think that men are less manly and women less
feminine than they used to be - and that this is not good.
Carolina's Institute for Research in Social Science conducts the
poll to find out if Southerners really are all that
different from everyone else. The Fall 1996 poll was co-sponsored by
the UNC-CH Center for the Study of the
American South and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
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