Culture of the Southern United States

The culture of the Southern United States, Southern culture, or Southern heritage, is a subculture of the United States. From its many cultural influences, the South developed its own customs, dialects, arts, literature, cuisine, dance, and music. The combination of its history and the fact that many Southerners maintain—and even nurture—an identity separate from the rest of the country have made it one of the most studied and written-about regions of the United States.

From the 17th century until the mid-19th century, the central role of agriculture and slavery during the colonial period and antebellum era economies stratified society by land ownership. This landed gentry differentiated culture in the early Southern United States from areas north of the Mason–Dixon line and west of the Appalachians. The upland areas of the South were characterized by yeoman farmers who worked on their small landed property with few or no enslaved people, while the lower-lying elevations and Deep South were societies of more plantations worked by African slave labor. Events such as the First Great Awakening (1730s–1750s) would strengthen Protestantism in the South and United States as a whole. Communities often developed strong attachment to their churches as the primary community institution.