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The seven states that seceded from the United States before the firing on [[Fort Sumter]] and the start of the [[American Civil War]], which originally formed the [[Confederate States of America]]. In order of secession, they are South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas.
The first six states to secede were those that held the largest percentage of slaves. Ultimately, the Confederacy included eleven states. A large part of the original [[Cotton Belt (region)|"Cotton Belt"]] is sometimes included in Deep South terminology. This was considered to extend from [[
==Origins==
[[File:Slavery in the 13 colonies.jpg|thumb|A map of the [[Thirteen Colonies]] in 1770, showing the number of slaves in each colony<ref>Ira Berlin, ''Generations of Captivity: A History of African-American Slaves'' (2003) pp. 272–276.</ref>]]
The [[Colonial period of South Carolina|colony of South Carolina]] was dominated by a [[planter class]] who initially migrated from the [[British West Indies|British Caribbean]] island of [[Barbados]], and used the [[Barbados Slave Code]] as a model to control and terrorize the African American slave population.<ref>Joseph Hall, [http://www.common-place-archives.org/vol-03/no-01/reviews/hall.shtml "The Great Indian Slave Caper", review of Alan Gallay, ''The Indian Slave Trade: The Rise of the English Empire in the American South, 1670-1717''], ''Common-place,'' vol. 3, no. 1 (October 2002), accessed 5 March 2017.</ref> The [[Province of Georgia|Georgia colony]] was initially founded by [[James Oglethorpe]] as a buffer state to defend the southern British colonies from Spanish Florida. Oglethorpe imagined a province populated by "sturdy farmers" who could guard the border; because of this, the colony's charter prohibited slavery. Unfortunately, the ban on slavery was lifted by 1751, and the colony became a [[royal colony]] in 1752.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/royal-georgia-1752-1776 |title=Royal Georgia, 1752-1776 |website=New Georgia Encyclopedia |language=en |access-date=2018-07-24}}</ref> At the time of the [[American Revolution]], South Carolina and Georgia were majority African American, as indicated by the map on the right.▼
▲The [[Colonial period of South Carolina|colony of South Carolina]] was dominated by a [[planter class]] who initially migrated from the [[British West Indies|British Caribbean]] island of
Although often used in history books to refer to the seven states that originally formed the Confederacy, the term "Deep South" did not come into general usage until long after the Civil War ended. For at least the remainder of the 19th century, "Lower South" was the primary designation for those states. When "Deep South" first began to gain mainstream currency in print in the middle of the 20th century, it applied to the states and areas of South Carolina, Georgia, southern Alabama, northern Florida, Mississippi, [[North Louisiana|northern Louisiana]], [[West Tennessee]], [[South Arkansas|southern Arkansas]], and eastern Texas, all historical areas of cotton plantations and slavery.<ref>Roller, David C., and Twyman, Robert W., editors (1979). ''The Encyclopedia of Southern History''. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press.</ref> This was the part of the South many considered the "most Southern."<ref>James C. Cobb, ''[[The Most Southern Place on Earth: The Mississippi Delta and the Roots of Regional Identity]]'' (1992) p. vii.</ref>▼
At the time of the [[American Revolution]], South Carolina and Georgia were majority African American, as indicated by the map on the right. In 1765, London philanthropist Dr. [[John Fothergill (physician)|John Fothergill]] remarked on the cultural differences of the British American colonies southward from Maryland and those to the north, suggesting that Southerners were more similar to the people of the Caribbean than to the colonies to the north.<ref name=cob/> A visiting French dignitary concurred in 1810 that American customs seemed "entirely changed" over the [[Potomac River]], and that Southern society resembled those of the Caribbean.<ref name=cob>{{cite book |last1=James C. Cobb |title=Away Down South A History of Southern Identity |date=2005 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780198025016 |pages=10–12}}</ref>
▲Although often used in history books to refer to the seven states that originally formed the Confederacy, the term "Deep South" did not come into general usage until long after the Civil War ended. For at least the remainder of the 19th century, "Lower South" was the primary designation for those states. When "Deep South" first began to gain mainstream currency in print in the middle of the 20th century, it applied to the states and areas of South Carolina, Georgia, southern Alabama, northern Florida, Mississippi, [[North Louisiana|northern Louisiana]], [[West Tennessee]], [[South Arkansas|southern Arkansas]], and eastern Texas, all historical areas of cotton plantations and slavery.<ref>Roller, David C., and Twyman, Robert W., editors (1979). ''The Encyclopedia of Southern History''. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press.</ref> This was the part of the South many considered the "most Southern."<ref>James C. Cobb, ''[[The Most Southern Place on Earth: The Mississippi Delta and the Roots of Regional Identity]]'' (1992) p. vii.</ref> In 1939, Florida was described as "still very largely an empty State," with only [[North Florida]] largely settled until after [[World War II]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Florida. A Guide to the Southernmost State|date=1939|place=New York|author=Federal Writers' Project|publisher=Oxford University Press|page=7}}</ref>
Later, the general definition expanded to include all of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana, as well as often taking in bordering areas of [[West Tennessee]], [[East Texas]] and [[North Florida]]. In its broadest application, the Deep South is considered to be "an area roughly coextensive with the old [[Cotton Belt|cotton belt]], from eastern North Carolina through South Carolina, west into East Texas, with extensions north and south along the Mississippi."<ref name="ReferenceA" />
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==Early economics==
After the Civil War, the region was economically poor. After [[Reconstruction era|Reconstruction]] ended in 1877, a small fraction of the white population composed of wealthy landowners, merchants and bankers controlled the economy and, largely, the politics. Most white farmers were poor and had to do manual work on their farms to survive. As prices fell, farmers' work became harder and longer because of a change from largely self-sufficient farms, based on corn and pigs, to the growing of a cash crop of cotton or tobacco. Cotton cultivation took twice as many hours of work as raising corn. The farmers lost their freedom to determine what crops they would grow, ran into increasing indebtedness, and many were forced into tenancy or into working for someone else. Some out-migration occurred, especially to Texas, but over time, the population continued to grow and the farms were subdivided smaller and smaller. Growing discontent helped give rise to the [[People's Party (United States)|Populist movement]] in the early 1890s. It represented a sort of [[class warfare]], in which the poor farmers sought to gain more of an economic and political voice.<ref>Ted Ownby, "The Defeated Generation at Work: White Farmers in the Deep South, 1865–1890". ''Southern Studies'' 23 (1984): 325–347.</ref><ref>Edward L. Ayers, ''The promise of the new South: Life after reconstruction'' (Oxford University Press, 2007) 187–214, 283–289.</ref>
===Distinct from neighboring regions===
The Deep South is generally associated historically with cotton production. By 1850, the term "Cotton States" was in common use, and the differences between the Deep South (lower) and Upland South (upper) were recognized. A key difference was the Deep South's [[plantations in the American South|plantation]]-style [[cash crop]] agriculture (mainly cotton, rice and sugar), using the [[Slavery in the United States|forced labor]] of enslaved African Americans on large farms while plantation owners tended to live in towns and cities. This system of plantation farming was originally developed in the [[the Caribbean|Caribbean West Indies]] and introduced to the United States in South Carolina and Louisiana, from where it spread throughout the Deep South, although there were local exceptions wherever conditions did not support the system. The sharp division between town and country, the intensive use of a few cash crops, and the high proportion of slaves, all differed from the Upland South.<ref>For Antebellum differences between the Upper South and Lower South, see Meinig (1998) pp. 222–224</ref>
The [[Tidewater (region)|Tidewater region]], encompassing the [[Chesapeake Bay]] and [[Eastern North Carolina]], stands out as different from both the Deep South and Upland South. Its [[history of slavery in Virginia|history of slavery]] originated in Virginia and predated the Caribbean plantation model, relying on [[Tobacco in the American colonies|tobacco as a cash crop]] from the start. Tidewater had few urban centers, instead establishing multiple markets along tributaries. Cotton and rice operations were large and factory-like, while tobacco profits hinged on skilled, careful, and efficient labor units.<ref name="CV - EV">{{Cite web |title=Colonial Virginia |url=https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/colonial-virginia/ |access-date=2021-05-12 |website=Encyclopedia Virginia |language=en-US}}</ref>
==From Reconstruction through the Civil Rights Movement==
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== Climate ==
[[File:Atlantic Plain Continental Shelf.jpg|thumb|Extent of the Atlantic Plain Continental Shelf province as indicated by the 1928 work by Fenneman.]]
As part of the [[Sun Belt]] and [[Atlantic Plain]], the Deep South tends to have Temperate and [[Subtropics|Subtropical]] climates with long hot summers and short mild winters. The climate tends to display more pronounced Subtropical characteristics the closer you get
Crops grow readily in the Deep South due to its climate consistently providing growing seasons of at least six months before the first frost. Some common environments include [[bayous]] and swamplands, as well as the southern [[pine forests]]. Due to its proximity to the [[Gulf of Mexico]] and [[Atlantic Ocean]], [[hurricanes]] are also a frequently-occurring natural disaster.
[[Booker T. Washington]] wrote in his 1901 autobiography<ref>{{cite book |last=Washington |first=Booker T. |date=1901 |title=Up From Slavery |url=https://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/92/up-from-slavery/1600/chapter-7-early-days-at-tuskegee/ |accessdate=January 26, 2020}}</ref>
<blockquote>I have often been asked to define the term "Black Belt". So far as I can learn, the term was first used to designate a part of the country which was distinguished by the colour of the soil. The part of the country possessing this thick, dark, and naturally rich soil was, of course, the part of the South where the slaves were most profitable, and consequently they were taken there in the largest numbers. Later, and especially since the war, the term seems to be used wholly in a political sense—that is, to designate the counties where the black people outnumber the white.</blockquote>
==People==
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Historian [[Thomas Sugrue]] attributes the political and cultural changes, along with the easing of racial tensions, as the reason why Southern voters began to vote for Republican national candidates, in line with their political ideology.<ref>[https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/its-not-dixies-fault/2015/07/17/7bf77a2e-2bd6-11e5-bd33-395c05608059_story.html Thomas J. Sugrue, "It's Not Dixie's Fault"], ''The Washington Post'', July 17, 2015</ref> Since then, white Deep South voters have tended to vote for Republican candidates in most presidential elections. Times the Democratic Party has won in the Deep South since the late 20th century include: the [[U.S. presidential election, 1976|1976 election]] when Georgia native [[Jimmy Carter]] received the Democratic nomination, the [[U.S. presidential election, 1980|1980 election]] when Carter won Georgia; the [[1992 United States presidential election|1992 election]] when Arkansas native and former governor [[Bill Clinton]] won Georgia, Tennessee, Louisiana, and Arkansas, the [[1996 United States presidential election|1996 election]] when the incumbent president Clinton again won Louisiana, Tennessee and Arkansas, and when Georgia was won by [[Joe Biden]] in the [[2020 United States presidential election]].
In 1995, Georgia Republican [[Newt Gingrich]] was elected by representatives of a Republican-dominated House as [[Speaker of the United States House of Representatives|Speaker of the House]]. The incumbent Speaker of the House since [[October 2023 Speaker of the United States House of Representatives election|October 2023]], Republican [[Mike Johnson (Louisiana politician)|Mike Johnson]], is from Louisiana.
Since the 1990s the white majority has continued to shift toward Republican candidates at the state and local levels. This trend culminated in 2014 when the Republicans swept every statewide office in the Deep South region [[United States elections, 2014|midterm elections]]. As a result, the Republican party came to control all the state legislatures in the region, as well as all House seats that were not representing [[majority-minority districts]].
Presidential elections in which the Deep South diverged noticeably from the [[Upper South]] occurred in [[U.S. presidential election, 1928|1928]], [[U.S. presidential election, 1948|1948]], [[U.S. presidential election, 1964|1964]], [[U.S. presidential election, 1968|1968]], and, to a lesser extent, in [[U.S. presidential election, 1952|1952]], [[U.S. presidential election, 1956|1956]], [[1992 United States presidential election|1992]], and [[U.S. presidential election, 2008|2008]]. Former Arkansas Governor [[Mike Huckabee]] fared well in the Deep South in the [[2008 Republican primaries]], losing only one state (South Carolina) while running (he had dropped out of the race before the Mississippi primary).<ref>Charles S. Bullock III and Mark J. Rozell, eds. ''The New Politics of the Old South: An Introduction to Southern Politics'' (2009) p 208.</ref>
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