Dixie 1924 Monoplane

Dixie, also known as Dixieland or Dixie's Land, is a nickname for all or part of the Southern United States. While there is no official definition of this region (and the included areas shift over the years), or the extent of the area it covers, most definitions include the U.S. states below the Mason–Dixon line that seceded and comprised the Confederate States of America, almost always including the Deep South. The term became popularized throughout the United States by songs that nostalgically referred to the American South.

Region

Geographically, ''Dixie'' usually means the eleven Southern states that seceded from the United States of America in late 1860 and early 1861 to form the Confederate States of America. They are listed below in order of secession:

# South Carolina
# Mississippi
# Florida
# Alabama
# Georgia
# Louisiana
# Texas
# Virginia
# Arkansas
# North Carolina
# Tennessee

Although Maryland is rarely considered 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. 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, D.C.). However, the southern part of the state and Maryland's Eastern Shore still remain, culturally, Southern and continue to share many common traits associated with Dixie.So Where is the Border? It begins with an imaginary line from Cambridge, Md. to Fredericksburg, Va., follows the Rappahannock River up into the Piedmont, across the Baptist Line in West Virginia, along the Ohio River, and along the Baptist Line in southern Illinois.

As for the nation's capital itself: "Whether Washington should be defined as a Southern city has been a debate since the Civil War, when it was the seat of the Northern government but a hotbed of rebel sympathy," the ''Washington Post'' wrote in 2011. "The Washington area's 'Southernness' has fallen into steep decline, part of a trend away from strongly held regional identities. In the 150th anniversary year of the start of the Civil War, the region at the heart of the conflict has little left of its historic bond with Dixie."

The Florida Big Bend includes a Dixie County. Certain parts of Oklahoma and Missouri that are considered more culturally Southern than the rest of these two states have been nicknamed Little Dixie (Oklahoma) and Little Dixie (Missouri), respectively.

The location and boundaries of Dixie have, over time, become increasingly subjective and mercurial. 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. The concept of Dixie as the location of a certain set of cultural assumptions, mindsets, and traditions was explored in the book ''The Nine Nations of North America'' (1981).

Origin of the name

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:
* ''Dixie'' may 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. 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 nineteenth century New York City.
* ''Dixie'' may 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. These banks issued ten-dollar notes labeled ''Dix'' on the reverse side, French for ''ten'' (French pronunciation: , ). 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. Eventually, usage of the term broadened to refer to the Southern states in general.
* Another suggestion is that ''Dixie'' 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.

Uses of the term

During the Jazz Age and the American folk music revival, "Dixie" was used widely in popular music such as '' Swanee'', '' Are You From Dixie?'', ''Is It True What They Say About Dixie?'' and, more contemporaneously, '' The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down'' and '' Dixieland Delight''. The first popular song to contain "Dixie" in its name was '' I Wish I Was In Dixie,'' composed in 1859 and incorporated as an unofficial anthem of the Confederate States of America.

In terms of self-identification and appeal, the popularity of the word ''Dixie'' is declining. A 1976 study revealed that in an area of the South covering about 350,000 square miles (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. A 1999 analysis found that between 1976 and 1999, in 19% of U.S. 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. A 2010 study found that in the course of 40 years, the area in question shrank to just , to the area where Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida meet. In 1976, at about ''Dixie'' reached at least 6% of the popularity of ''American''; in 2010, the corresponding area was a .

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.

In 1965, the Washington Redskins football team removed from the team song the word "Dixie" and a musical quotation from the song of the name after a Black fan wrote to the owner of the team, describing the racial unrest that "Dixie" caused and asking for it to be stopped.

In the 21st century, several groups or organizations removed "Dixie" from their names so as not to glorify the Confederacy. They included Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede, the music group Dixie Chicks, and the Dixie Classic Fair. The board of trustees at Dixie State University in Utah voted unanimously in December 2020 to change the name of the institution, with the Utah Legislature putting "Utah Tech University" into effect in 2022 to distance the university from the "Dixie" term.

See also

* Bible Belt
*Deep South
* "Dixie" (song)
* Dixie (Utah)
*Dixie Alley, a nickname for a portion of the southern United States that sees frequent tornadoes
*Dixiecrat
* Removal of Confederate monuments and memorials

Notes

References

Further reading

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American culture
Culture of the Southern United States
Regions of the United States
Regions of the Southern United States
Antebellum South