What is a Nation? Southrons as a People-Group

by Nat Rudulph

Some would say that in this shrinking world of the global village, the mobility of population has diluted the inhabitants of Dixie to the point of non-existence as a separate people-group.

However, a look at the distribution of surnames in different regions indicate that much less migration has occurred than is commonly believed. Names which are historically Southern remain in great concentration in Dixie.

The name Hardee would be most often identified by the average individual as a fast food establishment. One acquainted with history would know of General Hardee, who wrote the infantry tactics book used by both Union and Confederacy. He is buried in Selma, Alabama. Today there are just under 2,400 Hardee household across the US, and almost half of these are in the Carolinas, which also happens to be the location of the restaurant chain’s headquarters, as well as General Hardee’s homeplace. The Hardee name has remained primarily in the South, even after more than 200 years on this continent, with 2,089 of them (87.4%) located in just 10 of the Confederate states. Only 5 households are in all of New England, 7 in New York state.  

That famous secessionist William L. Yancey would find his surname today mainly in Georgia -- 511. Texas is second with 428, Virginia third with 398. Seventy-two percent of the Yanceys  reside in ‘demographic’ Dixie. These states hold only 29% of the total US population.

What about Thurmond? A patriotic 1,776 listings are found, and 883, nearly half, live in the 4 states of Georgia, Tennessee, Texas, and Missouri. More reside in Georgia (321) than all the Yankee states west of the Mississippi combined.

North Carolina ranks first in a number of famous Southern names. Helms has 10,611 households in the US, with 2,537 in NC (24%). Sixty-nine percent still live in the 13 states represented by the stars on the Confederate flag. North Carolina is also home to 41% of the Pegram listings, and 76% of them (1,114 of 1,462) make their home in Dixie. North Carolina leads in Lassiters, occuring 1,227 of 4,047 times (30% ). All told, 80% live in the South.

Confederate general Edmund Pettus is an Alabama hero with a popular surname in the state today (16% of the US total). Another Alabama Confederate name is Jemison -- 24% of all US listings occur in Alabama. The state abounds in folk named Turberville and Tuberville, 46% of the US total, with 92% in Dixie.

Rhett and Gist are famous in South Carolina, and 25% of each still live there today. More Blackwells live in South Carolina than any other state.

Culpepper occurs 3,497 times, and 671 are in Georgia (19%). Then comes Texas with 580, and Alabama with 325. 84% of these folks still live in old Dixie.                

Eighty percent of the Rawls live in the thirteen Southern states plus Oklahoma (2,782 of 3,487).

Flatt occurs 417 times in Tennessee, 22.5% of the US total of 1592. There are more Flatts on the two streets of Chesnut Avenue and Flatt Street In Cookeville, Tennessee, than in all six states of New England combined.

Grizzard is a well known Southern surname occurring 89% of the time in Dixie. And more Dabneys and Mosbys still reside in Virginia than any other state.

This is not a scientific study, and no factors other than name are taken into account. Nevertheless, these random samples show that names peculiar to this region, most of which can be traced to migrations before 1800, have remained generally confined to the South, and are likely representative of all Southern migration patterns. The implication is that the only ‘melting pot’ most Southerners have been in, regardless of their name, is a Southern one and an Anglo-Celtic one. The sense of a family belonging to a piece of land, and loyalty to kin are sentiments which are still with us, and have contributed to this characteristic.

The Southern people have much to regain and reclaim. But we still have all the characteristics of a nation.

Differences in the characteristics that distinguish a people as having a separate identity were evident in the South long before 1776. Observers at that time noted the Southern dialect, distinctive customs, mores, and thinking. Thomas Jefferson in 1785 wrote a French friend that Southerners were ‘indolent and hostile, but polite.’ Northerners, he said, were mainly ‘out to make a buck.’

The University of North Carolina surveyed folks asking them to identify the main characteristics of Southerners. The answers came out almost identical both in and out of the South, and Southerners were different from folks in other parts of the country. The top characteristics of Southrons were, in order of preference:

1)Courteous

2)Religious

3)Conservative

4)Loyal to family

A ‘Nation’ is commonly understood as being identical to a ‘country’, but this is true only in the broadest meaning of the word. In the strict sense, a political entity such as Canada is a ‘country’, but the French-speaking people of Quebec are a ‘nation’. A ‘people-group’ is the most accurate way of defining ‘nation’. It is a group of people with a distinct culture, common language, blood ties, and history. For example, we speak of the ‘Basque nation’, which though they cannot be found on a map, are a definite people-group.

Today, every people-group is vying for autonomy. Self-determination, devolution, and secession are vital forces. When our Confederate forbearers sought to secede, they were going against the stream. The world was moving at that time toward consolidation, and bigger empire. Though their main motivating principle was the right to self-government, there was a deeper and subtler factor driving this political expression. That was the cultural differences between the inhabitants of the North, whose mother was Massachusetts, and those of the South, whose civilisation sprang initially from Virginia. Although there were other varied settlements in all sections, the foundational influence was laid down by these two early colonies. Differences were amplified by the fact that immigrants to the South came mostly from the Celtic fringe, so that the Celtic culture has been preserved and carried on to a much greater extent in the South. The North has also had more late immigration.

The Southern ‘people-group’ was a nation before the War of Secession from Great Britain, and we have continued to be a nation even after 130 years of reconstruction, and a policy of cultural genocide by our Yankee conquerors.

Whether one travels today to rural Virginia or eastern Texas, the farms of Florida, or southern Missouri, a striking kinship can be observed among the people. One finds the consciousness of a shared history, evidence of an Anglo-Celtic heritage, and similar ‘Bible Belt’ religious attitudes. Profound differences from their neighbours to the north are evident in communicating, relating, and living. There are greater differences between Southerners and New Yorkers than there are between New Yorkers and citizens of Ontario.

Dixie's cultural and national consciousness has been so distorted and downtrodden, however, it appears at times non-existent. Even though a survey by the University of North Carolina found that 17% of those in the South think that Dixie would be better off as an independent country, 26% of it’s residents do not even consider themselves Southerners! Self-abased Southerners take speech classes to eliminate their accent, so they can be ‘culturally correct’ as well as politically correct.

Instead of looking to Southern creativity, centres of learning draw their sustenance from outside. Like Patty Hearst, the Southerner’s own identity has been so intensely assaulted that they have taken on the attributes and cause of their abusers. They have adopted as their own sentiment a degrading stereotype of the South.

Such a stereotype was voiced by Rep. Peter King (R-NY) a few years ago as he spoke on the floor of the US House: ‘...typical of the South, union-hating, ignorant, hillbilly, revival-meeting attending bunch that represents everything unAmerican.’

Notice that this fellow is a Republican. A lot of those people really think this way about Southerners, but usually refrain from saying it in public. However, when they need votes or volunteers they’re eating grits with the best of us. Can you imagine the howl if a similar comment was said about any other group from a legislative podium? This cultural genocide should be condemned in the strongest terms.

Southerners should insist that their leaders, educators, and their broadcast media sound like them, and take pride in our beautiful language. Nothing is more pleasing when spoken in an articulate manner by Southern ladies and gentlemen. And Southern institutions should have Southern scholars with a Southern point of view. Why should we seek acceptance from a group of people who have fouled their own culture, and squandered the greatest inheritance in the world?

Nat Rudulph is the editor of Southern Events.