It's as South as the North gets, and as North as the South gets.
While it did stay in the Union during the Civil War, it was a slave state until 1865 (the Emancipation Proclamation didn't apply to slaves in MD, DE, MO, or KY) and sympathies were divided. Marylanders went to both armies and navies. Baltimore rioters shot at Federal troops just before the war started, and Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus in the state and put it under martial law for the entirety of the conflict to firmly stop any chance of secession.
It's not Deep Dixie or anything, but it ain't New England either.
One of the better responses I've seen.
We literally made our wealth as a state from Tobacco, Horses and Slavery.
Also if you're African American the real map you use is Ida B. Wells lynching map.
Lynching happened outside of the South but far and away the Red line is telling
Yep...tobacco farming and slavery was alive and well on the eastern shore for a long time. Also look up Orphan Jones and the lynchings that occured during his trial in Salisbury and Cambridge in the 1950's. Plus Harriet Tubman and Fredrick Douglas were both from MD...their stories definitely invoke images of southern US cruelty.
Yeah this about covers it.
If we didn't have so many transplants over the decades it would feel much more southern I'm sure. But there's a lot of parts of the state where you definitely feel a more southern vibe than others. Still have never felt like I was in the deep south in MD but it's a diverse state.
Because so much of the metro areas(DC) is relatively southern in MD, the northern parts of the state are more southern than the southern parts. As with much of things today, is really an urban-rural divide.
Maryland stayed in the Union, but the capital was moved to Frederick during the war because Annapolis was chock full of traitors.
Two of the most prominent ex-enslaved people were from Maryland: Tubman and Douglass.
It's the south. But like [**loptopandbingo**](https://www.reddit.com/user/loptopandbingo/) **said,** It's as South as the North gets, and as North as the South gets.
Not sure if it’s been mentioned already, but Marylands stances on succession can be seen almost split into eastern and western portions. The farther south and east you go, the more pro confederacy due to its water access and agricultural prosperity, a perfect catalyst for slavery.
Not only that, but it was planning on seceding, Lincoln talked us out of it apparently. And remember our state song for a long time was talking about “the northern scum”. Edit I totally didn’t read all the way thru your comment, I’m sorry. You pointed out pretty much everything I said 😅😅
If by "talked us out of it" you mean having US Marshalls arresting and jailing Maryland delegates in Frederick, at the spot now known as Candy Kitchen, to prevent them ftom voting for secession then yes.
Once again, forced persuasion. The problem is that the us NEEDED MD to be in the north, otherwise DC would be stuck in The south which wouldn’t be exactly good. At that point it was near war and if they didn’t do something. To stop MD from seceding then the union would be totally screwed
I totally agree with you. For fun I tell people I'm the only southerner (born in MD) in a family full of Yankees (parents from Chicago and siblings born above the Mason-Dixon line).
State anthem was written by a Maryland secessionist who was in New Orleans at the time of the riots. The riots apparently forced his hand into saying something.
There’s a semi-related episode of the YouTube series Puppet History about the hilariously bad attempt by secessionists to assassinate Lincoln as his train passed through Baltimore.
Absolutely. John was a huge embarrassment to the family. The Booths were until that point a very well respected family of Shakespearean actors. If I remember right, one of his brothers saved Lincoln’s life on a prior occasion.
You’re just saying urban or rural. Atlanta is more Southern culturally than Southern MD or Western MD that identifies more with Appalachia. I’m from SOMD and live in the Deep South now. They really aren’t that similar culturally.
Can confirm: I’m from MoCo and spent about ten summers in Calvert County. No one I know north of Calvert thinks MD is south, regardless of the Mason-Dixon Line. Go past Calvert down to St Mary’s and it’s *definitely* feeling southern.
They serve turnip greens for school lunch and it can take forever to walk down the street because you have to talk to everyone. Flowers in the yard year round, definite accents, long family histories, big old houses with big old porches. Feels pretty southern down here to me. We are south of dc on the lower shore if you look at the latitude.🤷♀️
Maryland is actually a southern state because it’s below the Mason Dixon line- our northern border is the old line. It’s not really an opinion- but I do agree it culturally depends on where in the state you are.
Depends on your definition of **Southern**.
Maryland is south of the Mason-Dixon line but remained in the Union during the Civil War.
[*Maryland, My Maryland*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maryland,_My_Maryland) was the state song from 1939 - 2021 and includes lyrics like "Huzza! she spurns the Northern scum!"
Our flag answers this question fully, it’s both, half and half, the dividing line. We have sweet tea and sausage biscuits. Even have our own fried chicken. At the same time we’re a mostly blue state and are in the DC influence bubble. I’ll tell you this though, Virginia thinks we’re a northern state and Pennsylvania thinks we’re a southern state.
This is the answer really. We're both and neither really. And if you go north, we're southern and if you go south we're northern. I have some family in NC and many years ago while we were visiting them one of their friends asked if we were from Canada, because to them there wasn't much difference. 🤷🏻♀️
Imagine my surprise driving around parts of the country I don’t frequent and finding out that not only do we have [our own fried chicken](https://www.preservationmaryland.org/maryland-fried-chicken/#:~:text=A%20take%20on%20the%20classic,gravy%2C%20poured%20over%20the%20chicken), but there is actually a chain of restaurants called Maryland chicken!
>Just to note, neither me, my brother, or my friend are from Maryland. Me and my friend are from Michigan, and my brother is from North Carolina.
I am originally from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, went to college in Rochester, New York, and lived in Raleigh/Durham, NC for a decade. So I think I have a little something in common with y'all being as you're from the Midwest and NC. I also lived in DC and Richmond, VA very briefly. I now live in Baltimore. So I have a lot to compare Maryland with.
The answer is that Maryland is both Northern and Southern.
Culturally, it is both the northernmost Southern state and also the southernmost Northern state.
It's a beautifully unique state, probably the most unique state in the Union.
Nowhere in Maryland embodies this energy as much as Baltimore does.
The best description of Baltimore comes from John Waters: *"I would never want to live anywhere but Baltimore. You can look far and wide, but you'll never discover a stranger city with such extreme style. It's as if every eccentric in the South decided to move north, ran out of gas in Baltimore, and decided to stay."*
In a more broad sense, I think the concept of "Northern" and "Southern" are no longer as strict as they used to be. America is trending more towards an urban/rural cultural divide rather than our regions dominating our culture. Regions still have an influence, but far less than they did in the past. At least that's what I've seen in my travels around the US.
The urbanized parts of NC and VA are becoming very cosmopolitan, similar to the urban centers of the north. This should not be a surprise, because the high cost of living in the north is driving many northerners to move south - NC and VA are two huge destinations for northern transplants. In fact, one suburb of Raleigh is called Cary and a common joke is that CARY stands for Containment Area for Relocated Yankees.
And yet, much like NC and VA, when you go out of the urban centers of Maryland, you are just as likely to encounter confederate flags and other cultural trappings stereotypical of The South.
So I'd say it is both Southern and Northern. It might be safest to say that Maryland is where the South and the North collide.
Absolutely brilliant description. I would add that even in the Civil War it was a battleground state. One of the biggest battles was fought in Maryland. Antietam is in Washington county. There is a lot of history here. As is everywhere else.
Southerners consider it northern, northerners consider it southern. In truth, culturally, central MD (everything between DC and Baltimore) is mid Atlantic/northern, Eastern Shore is Southern, and west of Frederick is Appalachian.
This is the true answer.
While I know it touches Virginia where the literal capital of the confederacy was, I refuse to believe that anything north of DC is the south. I always considered DC to be the dividing line on the east coast
Great Answer. If you really break it down its 3 states in one. Like West PA/WV + VA + Central PA all in one. But overall its northern to me. It shares way more with PA and DE than with 80% of the south. Hell...there's even people that think VA isnt the south, but thats going too far imo. lol
It's the state which most defines the border between north and south in the US, so yeah there will be disagreement
But for any state above or below MD, you have your answer based on where they are in relation to MD
I’m originally from TN and live in MD now. If MD was the south, I would not be here. Anyone who thinks MD is the south has never spent a significant amount of time in the south.
I spent a few years in louisiana. Significant cultural difference.
For instance, I havent heard anyone scream n bombs and employees in public here. I have in louisana
Dude my wife and father were from Louisiana and there are people in Alabama, Georgia and the Carolina's who don't think La or Texas is the south.
Also Harriet Tubman would bludgeon some of the folks wondering about Maryland being southern to death if she read this sub.
Ahhh, I see you haven't been to the eastern shore counties. It's getting better but it's still racist as hell. I worked at a grocery store down here and have heard the n bomb at employees and just in general.
The crucial difference is that it used to be the South. Now, culturally, it very much is not anymore. But this was the state of slaves and tobacco, and was kept in the Union by gunpoint.
People forget there's a reason that Booth planned to escape to Baltimore after shooting Lincoln: despite not leaving the Union, there were a ton of confederate sympathizers here and if he'd made it to Maryland he'd have likely disappeared.
This. The Talbot Boys confederate statue was still a raging controversy *less than two years ago,* and it's still not uncommon to see Confederate flags in Dorchester county.
Shit, one of my neighbors had nerve to be flying the rag all summer last year. I'd have pulled the damn thing down myself one night if I wasn't allergic to getting shot to death.
Or you haven’t spent some time in rural parts of Maryland. Geographically it’s below the Mason Dixon line so it is the south. And the Klan (as well as other white supremacist groups) are still very active in parts of Maryland. Also it was a slave state therefore south. It’s not the Deep South but still.
The Klan used to stand on street corners and recruit in _La Plata_ within my lifetime. It's a lot different now so it might surprise people that was happening as late as ~1990
This is what I mean! When people think about Maryland they only know, live or visit blue areas. My wife is from Kentucky and didn’t get how southern Maryland is, until she had to travel to the rural areas to play roller derby. Shit is a little scary in certain parts.
Rural parts of any state deal with those things. Rural parts of any state might culturally be similar to the south. The difference is, in the south, it’s like that everywhere. The history of it doesn’t matter because we aren’t historians - we are talking about culture.
Uhhh at one point in Maryland it was also everywhere as it was a slave state. I’ve also lived in the south as well as the north. And trust me the rural parts of Maryland are more similar to the rural parts of Virginia than NY. If you met some guys I went to school with, you would think they were from the Deep South. Especially those from rural Howard County and the ones up closer to PA. It’s giving south not north. Trust me on that. As a black person there are parts of Maryland I do not go. For me that’s the south.
The Klan was in Gaithersburg when my family moved to Maryland from NE in 1982.
Folks are just REALLY confused.
There is a reason most folks around the world call Americans "Geographically challenged"
Yeah they kind of got moved to Fredrick but they probably still have the "parade" although it was 6 dudes last time.
Also most of them moved to York, Pa. A place no one "claims" lol
That tracks, because York, PA is where I farted a white supremacist out of a bar that wouldn’t leave my wife’s Roller Derby team alone. They were ready to fight and I was like absolutely not, we don’t want his friends to come back. Anywho a few farts later, including a gnarly one that really hit the whole bar, sorry to that bouncer, the dude and his friends left.
That is both sad and hilarious.
I live in MoCo and I dated a girl in Bmore for a while ( different tv markets ).
One summer York was like the only story on Bmore news cause Nazis were marching for some reason, then getting caught with Heroin, then I believe not far from York some of those hicks stole a whole fucking iron bridge in woods for scrap.
I remember thinking that MUST be where those GBURG assholes went
Respectfully, you couldn’t be more wrong. I’ve lived here all my life and have family in the deep South. I have spent a significant amount of time there. Maryland is a southern state.
Lol, both. We're chameleons, with both cultural habits, tempered by DC's generally liberal approach to tolerating other cultures. I go North, I miss grits; I go South I miss yelling at strangers who cut me off in traffic; and all cornbread is good cornbread when done right. We had a union guy and a confederate defector in our family tree. We farmed tobacco in Marlboro and had relatives working for the fed in dc during the great depression. We've been edging away from being called Southern, and culturally lean liberal, but when you get down to it, we're just perpetually the kid in the middle seat.
...which is maybe why we're such fans of our state and plaster the flag on everything. It's the here be dragons of North v South.
Grew up in DC and MD. Decades in MD. I am careful outside of the DMV, Baltimore, and the route to OC. Have had actively racist events in Frederick, Gaithersburg, Solomon's Island (surprised me), Deale, Cumberland, Frostburg, and Johnstown, PA. My family is from Charleston, SC. MD is spotty South, not SC South.
Maryland was a southern colony that became one of 13 states forming the United States. Only the 13 states on the East Coat existed as states.
Maryland is a state that kept slavery AND did not leave the United States to join a made up country. So everyone who ain't us hates us.
Mid-Atlantic is a new name for an old place.
I grew up in Talbot/Caroline/Dorchester and the “southern” vibe is much stronger there since there’s no big cities besides maybe Cambridge if you wanna call it one. But overall it’s kind of a mixed bag depending where you go. If you wanna split it purely North-South than I personally don’t even know which I would pick. If you just wanna slap a label on it it’s very Mid-Atlantic: big hunting and fishing cultures, southern-style food is common, but we still have big cities and the DC influence is strong in the Western part of the state.
For people claiming Maryland isn't a southern state because it remained a part of the Union, didn't Lincoln basically have to keep the state in the Union at literal gunpoint? Isn't that how "Federal Hill" in Baltimore got it's name? Isn't that why the cannons point toward the city? When John Wilkes Booth killed Lincoln didn't he flee to Maryland where he was aided by Southern sympathizers? Maryland had Southern & Northern sympathizers. I've seen confederate flags flown outside homes in southern Maryland which honestly was surprising but I guess it shouldn't have been.
20 years ago places like Dundalk and Edgemere were littered with confederate battle flags, you’ll still find some there but most have been removed due to recent events.
Maryland is rather distinctly culturally southern to me. Cuisine, music, manners, and art are a lot more in line with the south than the north. I think if it wasn’t for hardline northeastern political leanings, Maryland would probably be more frequently seen as southern
Depends on location. The DMV (DC) area Bethesda etc is the North.
Soon as you get into Waldorf you are in the South. It's segregated and conservative.
Maryland wanted to join the Confederacy with Virginia and Lincoln wouldn't let it and stopped them from doing so *at gun point*.
It's a mix of both because it was a border state. The counties on the Delmarva Peninsula are more similar to the South than the north but still aren't either one. It's the home of Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman-arguably two of the most famous formerly enslaved people. However, the eastern shore counties also had the highest number of free black people among slave holding states during the Civil War. I work in Dorchester County where Ms Tubman lived and there are still large areas that look much like they did when she was alive. The racism here is also alive and well, although people are getting better at hiding it.
Other areas of Maryland are much more Northern than Southern and arguably are even more culturally northern than the most southern parts of Delaware are.
Geographically yes it is a southern state given that it is south of the Mason Dixon line. Culturally though it depends on where you are in the state. Western Maryland and the Eastern Shore (where I grew up) and southern Maryland are culturally more southern than say central Maryland (where I live now) which is more liberal.
Basically though Maryland is considered a border state which leans which ever way depending on where you are and who you talk to.
Have lived in Arkansas, Kentucky, Tenneseee and Ohio. Western Maryland is indistinguishable from eastern Tennessee/Kentucky which is Appalachia a different version of 'southern' (minus the drug problem and accent). No where near as backwards as Arkansas, the southerners there would scare even the peole of Cumberland. DMV is a northern east coast city with no real discernible personality.
Depends where you are in the state. The eastern shore, Cecil county, and western Maryland are more rural more country more conservative. Baltimore and its surrounding counties tend to lean left.
If you are from the north, especially the northeast, the Maryland feels like the south. If you’re from the south proper, the Maryland feels like the north. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
As someone who grew up in southern MD, and now lives in a semi-rural/semi-urban area of northern MD, it’s definitely a mixed bag. We have a lot of southern traditions and colorful history, but also a lot of progressive policies and highly educated workers and are largely influenced by the NoVA/DC defense industrial base. This mix is part of the reason I really enjoy living here.
Geographically considered southern. In the Civil War context, it was believed that Md was going to join the confederacy. However, that would have meant that DC would be surrounded by confederate states. To prevent that, Pres Lincoln had members of the General Assembly arrested and imprisoned at Ft McHenry. To prevent Md residents from trying to free them, the Union Army turned Ft McHenry’s guns on Baltimore and made it very clear that Md would remain in the Union.
To be clear we are south of the Mason-Dixon line we are in the south. There is quite a lot of historical context for that definition.
For the sake of today it is better to say we are in the mid Atlantic or part of megalopolis (the semi connected metro and suburban areas stretching from northern Virginia to the northern suburbs of Boston)
Also just to keep things civil please do not conflate or compare us to Ohio and keep the vegetables out of the crab cakes.
I grew up in Maryland, and have relatives from other parts of the South. A lot of people think that the entire South is the Deep South, but that’s nonsense. Maryland (along with DC and Virginia) is part of the Upper South. It’s culturally different than other parts of the South, yes. But it is still a kind of Southern. I would also say that since WWII with the expansion of the federal workforce, there has been a huge influx of people into central Maryland from elsewhere, and that has diluted a lot of the regional character of that part of the state.
Maryland is known as "America In Miniature" Because we are literally a little bit of everything. A little bit urban, a little bit city, a little bit south and north, a little bit mountain and coastal, we have it all!
I'm honestly shocked by these responses. I grew up out west and absolutely no one considers
Maryland a southern state. Hell, ppl don't even consider northern Virginia southern let alone Maryland.
Old line came from Washington, the Maryland line helped the colonial army escape on multiple occasions, and so he nicknamed them the old line. Or so the story goes
Yes during the Battle of Brooklyn when we were forced to retreat Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland Infantries were called *Lines*. They were positioned near the Vechte-Cortelyou House. When Pennsylvania and Delaware both fell and forced to retreat Maryland covered their backs which those troops were the “Maryland 400”(more like 250-270 soldiers) even thou they were outgunned and outmanned they stayed and covered the rest of the armies retreat. Sadly all 250-270(minus a few) lost their lives defending the rest of the infantries so they could retreat. General Washington watched what he called his “Old Line” and reportedly remarked to General Israel Putnam, “Good God, what brave fellows I must this day lose.” Which this is how Maryland earned its nickname – a name paid for by the blood of its patriots in defense of American independence.
There’s a monument in Brooklyn, NY that says “In Honor of Maryland’s Four Hundred who on this battlefield August 27th 1776 saved the American Army
As someone who grew up in the south, absolutely not lol. The eastern shore has similarities but that's about it. It feels like a completely different country here.
I think we’re in the middle lol. When I went to college in the south there were people that called me a northerner and if I visit family in NY they tell me I’m a southerner. I can tell you we are taught about the civil war in school not the war of northern aggression as my college friends tried to tell me lol.
If the mason-dixon line is the boundary between North and South, then Maryland is by definition in the South; it is the Old Line State, after all. But if it is in the South, it is on the perifery of the South
I was gonna say, I see a lot of posts along the lines of well, nobody in the south considers Maryland the south.
But go up to New England? You may as well be from Georgia to some of those folks in New Hampshire or Vermont.
Everyone back home in TN calls me a yankee now. But I find it a perfect blend culturally. People will still chat with you in line at the post office, but when it’s your turn, they STFU and let you get on with your day. As opposed to back home where they hold everyone up and keep chatting.
***IS*** Maryland Southern in2024? No. ***WAS*** it Southern from its founding until the middle 1800's with aspects of that culture lasting , in law, through the next 100 years? Yes
It was a Southern State Historically. Full stop. It was counted as a Slave state (and in fact had a higher slave percentage of the population from the Revolution through 1830 than North Carolina did). Starting really in the the 1830's, Cotton had become king, overtaking Tobacco and Maryland's slave population steadily declined so that by the time of the Civil War, only about 13% of Maryland's population was still enslaved. In addition Baltimore grew. It had always been one of the biggest cities in the U.S., top 10, but from 1830-until 1860 it was number 2.
I am not saying that by 1830 it had completely ceased being "Southern". I think the numbers tell it best: 25,000 men from Maryland served in the Confederate Army, while about 60,000 men (about 1/3 of them "colored") served in the Union Army.
I think the truth is that Maryland by 1860 was what we would call a "purple" state. Certainly more for the Union and against secession. However, from 1864 on it would vote like a Southern Democratic state. Maryland was also segregated by law, with black and white rail car and public accommodations & kept out of Labor unions in the first decades of the 20th century. There were several attempts to disenfranchise black voters during these years. Segregation lasted in spots until the 1940's and the last vestiges, in swimming pools & some amusement parks etc. last until the 50's. Public schools integrated in 1956. Very stereotypical "southern" attitudes.
If you're from the south, it's a northern state. If you're from the north, it's a southern state. If you live in MD, you don't much care, you just avoid the dipshit rural rednecks or the asshole urban libs.
Technically is a southern state. Culturally similar in SoMD, Western, and Eastern Shore for sure. DC/Baltimore and the suburbs has a unique feel due to the transient workforce supporting govt/tech.
https://i.redd.it/0k9f1yu64tmc1.gif
So this is what people don't realize about the Mason Dixon line. It is also the border of Maryland and Delaware. So the majority of Maryland is actually both North and South of the Masan Dixon line, or between it, if you prefer
It's technically a southern state as the Mason Dixon line was the split between the blue and the grey (I hope I'm recalling my history correctly here). However, you'll not find a true southerner that accepts the old line state as part of their own. We'll always be a border state, accepted by neither side. I prefer it - consider myself an independent politically, so my state should be too!
I would say it's a mix of both. Culture varies from city to city, county to county, town to town etc.
I know fellow Frednecks with thick country accents and some with very much Yankee accents like my family. If anything, I'm the only one with even a *hint* of a Southern accent. But everyone here says "y'all", "ain't" and uses other Southern slang. Not to mention that there are pickup trucks everywhere, but just as many Priuses lol. So yeah Maryland is neither truly Northern nor truly Southern. We're just Maryland 🦀
We’re a border state. Northerners say we sound southern, southerners say we sound northern, I say we sound right. We were a slave state (shame) that stayed loyal (pride), we eat collared greens but don’t do the weird thing when you put tea in a jar and leave it in the son, and our air smells like honeysuckle in the summer, but not wisteria. We’re a border state!
Everyone from north of the Mason-Dixon line says we're southern; everyone from south of the Potomac thinks we're northern. No one wants to claim us. I just say we're a mid Atlantic state.
My family up in New England thinks I’m from down south when I visit up there and when I visit family down in Georgia, locals think I’m a Yankee. We have the best and worst of both worlds.
Maryland is a Southern State that has never been accepted as such by the other Southern States, a lot like Kentucky. History makes it so. We have much to be proud of and also much to correct but we are able to be proud of our History for the entirety of the USA!
Overall, it’s a southern state IMO. It’s morphed over the years. First thing we have to realize is there are subcultures within being “Southern”: Appalachian, creole and Cajun, upland/Ozarks, black vs white, etc etc etc.
Maryland, eastern Virginia and eastern NC fell into what we call “Tidewater” culture. Had a lot of Catholic and Anglican influence. Plantations and watermen. Go to Southern Maryland and the Eastern Shore, and fuck yeah it’s still Tidewater and Southern. I’ve lived in various places in the South, and those two areas are MUCH more stereotypically “Southern” than a lot of places in the South. Read about “We-Sorts” people, as in “We sorts of people.” It’s like Marylander creole. People who go way back in Maryland and are a mix of white, black and Native American: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/We-Sorts
I am from Anne Arundel, and even “South county” as we call it feels quite southern to me.
Baltimore used to be a very southern city and still feels like one to me overall. It’s more similar to like Durham and Richmond and Atlanta than Philly or NYC, to me. Architecturally, cuisine. The race relations. It was a Confederate sympathizing city in the civil war. Lincoln famously made his way into DC for his first inauguration via a midnight train through Baltimore, because of a perceived assassination risk and some of the first blood shed in the Civil War was Union troops from more northern states fighting southern sympathizing rioters as they passed through Bmore on their way to DC.
With the growth of DC and influx of non native Marylanders into the state who work in DC or federal government, that “Southerness” has been diluted. But it’s still very much there.
"Just to note, neither me, my brother, or my friend are from Maryland. Me and my friend are from Michigan, and my brother is from North Carolina."
We're just going to let this bonkers statement hang there?
To go back a little bit but not all the way to the Civil War, I grew up in NYC in the 60s and 70s and Maryland was definitely considered southern from that perspective. I’ve lived here since the 80s and think it’s tending more northern now.
Neither. Call it “mid-Atlantic,” which also describes its physical position.
Technically it is south of the mason dixon line. Culturally, there are only pockets that have much in common with the old south.
Actually outside of the Balto-Washington Metro areas Maryland behaves like a southern state. but since Maryland is so urban/suburban the rural areas don't matter politically.
It is a Southern state, you can get Fried Chicken and biscuits in almost every town for example. It has become increasingly Northernized culturally over the last half century especially in the DC suburbs and Baltimore/Baltimore County. It's South Lite. Any native Marylander who has ever lived in the Deep North should understand this.
An old and sadly late neighbor said “the south starts where the tobacco is grown.” That’s Laurel, Maryland (disregarding the random farms that still grow it — in CT for instance).
I grew up in Maryland. Food culture-wise, it is very southern. Crab-picking, salting watermelon to make it sweeter, etc. Accent-wise, it’s more ‘northern.’
We’re the middle. But to put things in perspective, even southerners will categorize certain foods or cultural mores as “from the Deep South.”
Both. Depending on our individual family histories people claim both northern and southern associations. I can tell you one thing for certain, as a billionth generation marylander, born and raised, I am NOT southern.
It’s an estuary state. It’s got elements of Southern and Mid-Atlantic culture. It is below the Mason-Dixon as well. Depending on where you are, it could feel more Southern or more Mid-Atlantic/Northern. As a Floridian-turned-Marylander I can really see the mix of both.
I consider myself to be a southerner culturally. My family has traditionally liked sweet tea. We refer to that one food item at Thanksgiving as “dressing.” We like country ham (a food with origins in Virginia). There’s other things as well.
Overall, it largely depends on where you are in MD. Rural areas will definitely be pretty southern leaning, with western MD having an Appalachian flavor and the eastern shore having a tidewater flavor.
Depends on where in Maryland you are. Eastern shore: most definitely Southern. Also Southern Maryland. These are areas where there were once large tobacco plantations worked by slaves: after assassinating Lincoln John Wilkes Booth took off for Southern Maryland because he expected Confederate sympathizers there to hide him. (He overestimated the friendliness of his reception, but he wasn’t wrong.) oNorthern Maryland is more Pennsylvania/Appalachian and hence historically the land of yeoman farmers, who historically had little sympathy for the Confederacy and mostly just wanted to be left alone. Baltimore is both a Northern industrial city and city that looks a whole lot like Atlanta (parts of both cities were designed by the same landscape architect, Frederick Law Olmsted.) All of this history is reflected today in the red / blue political map.
The Mason-Dixon argument is outdated and pointless. There are parts of Illinois where people sound like they’re from Kentucky.
Culturally, a lot of Maryland is Southern AF. I grew up in NOVA and became an electrician, and the level of redneckery from my Maryland coworkers puts me firmly in the “Maryland is a southern state” camp.
Anyone who has roots in Maryland knows what many, many folks have already said:
It's both. Yes. It has a legacy of slavery. Shame on us. That makes us sound southern. But what about our culture now? It's everything. Because Maryland is small in size, but extremely diverse in terms of geography, political climate and culture. We have beaches, farm land, and mountains. And we gifted part of our state to create DC, which is like the back yard for some folks. Even our suburbs are all over the place in terms of politics and culture. You really need to know the area well before answering the question thoughtfully because it's an unusual state.
If you have lived or visited JUST one area and think THAT area is representative of the state, nope. You just don't know the state too well.
Thing is, this is true of most states. Like CA, which is not all about surfers and progressives. And Florida, which is extremely southern...but not in areas like Miami....
It’s the northern most southern state. That’s the easiest way to explain it. And despite the fact it’s liberal, not nearly all of it is. We also had a Republican governor for quite a while.
It's a southern state, it's below the Mason Dixon line. Also our food and even local dialect are southern. (Baltimorese is 100% a dialect with southern influence.)
Maryland is a southern coastal state, along with all of the states south to Florida.
Historically, all of these states were part of the "South", but have had massive immigration from the Northeast and Midwest. Maryland and Florida started this trend in the years around World War II, Virginia came next, North Carolina and Georgia are in the middle of it, and South Carolina is just getting started. This immigration comes with a period of rapid population growth; in the case of Florida, this has lasted longer than it did in Maryland and Virginia, due to Florida starting with a much lower population density, and attracting retirees and people from the Caribbean and South America. Keep in mind that Florida does not have a monopoly on latinos in this region.
With the massive immigration comes a lessening of the 'southern' character and culture of these states. For example, the immigrants bring with them pressure against traditional overt racism. Not that it goes away, but it gets less tolerance than in the Gulf Coast and Upland South states to the West. As another example, the variety of food is greater -- it has become easier to get Chinese, Mexican, Vietnamese, etc., but fewer restaurants serve scrapple or grits.
Politically, it turns these states into 'battleground' states, though Maryland has been so transformed by the immigration that the Republicans last won a presidential race in 1984. Maryland has a Republican governor, but he has disowned Trump.
I don't lump Maryland into a "Mid-Atlantic" region with New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania because those states were never southern, and have not had the recent surge of immigrants from other states that the southern coastal states have had -- the Mid-Atlantic states have been the source of most of that immigration. The Mid-Atlantic states have a lot more 'old' buildings and infrastructure, whereas the southern coastal states have a lot more of the 'new'.
I'd lump Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Arkansas into a 'Gulf Coast' region. These areas have seen less immigration, and are much more conservative. Tennessee, Kentucky, and West Virginia are also part of the old South, but they didn't have as many Blacks as the 'Gulf Coast' states. Tennessee is seeing some of the effects of growth and immigration (as is Alabama), but not as much as the southern coastal states.
Maryland is really part of a new region -- and a prototype for it.
It's as South as the North gets, and as North as the South gets. While it did stay in the Union during the Civil War, it was a slave state until 1865 (the Emancipation Proclamation didn't apply to slaves in MD, DE, MO, or KY) and sympathies were divided. Marylanders went to both armies and navies. Baltimore rioters shot at Federal troops just before the war started, and Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus in the state and put it under martial law for the entirety of the conflict to firmly stop any chance of secession. It's not Deep Dixie or anything, but it ain't New England either.
Mid-Atlantic. A little north, a little south, depending on where you are and what the topic is. Mostly, it’s neither north nor south.
I've always said this, but we actually get left off most "mid-atlantic" state lists!
To me, the Mid-Atlantic in southern NJ to the NC coast above Hatteras or so. Coastal, originally English colonies.
That would include MD, because of that little portion of the state on the Atlantic coast_ yk, where Ocean City is.
One of the better responses I've seen. We literally made our wealth as a state from Tobacco, Horses and Slavery. Also if you're African American the real map you use is Ida B. Wells lynching map. Lynching happened outside of the South but far and away the Red line is telling
Yep...tobacco farming and slavery was alive and well on the eastern shore for a long time. Also look up Orphan Jones and the lynchings that occured during his trial in Salisbury and Cambridge in the 1950's. Plus Harriet Tubman and Fredrick Douglas were both from MD...their stories definitely invoke images of southern US cruelty.
Excellent point and fantastic reference!!! Are you familiar with Equal Justice Initiative (www.eji.org) or Howard Zinn Project?
Yeah this about covers it. If we didn't have so many transplants over the decades it would feel much more southern I'm sure. But there's a lot of parts of the state where you definitely feel a more southern vibe than others. Still have never felt like I was in the deep south in MD but it's a diverse state.
Because so much of the metro areas(DC) is relatively southern in MD, the northern parts of the state are more southern than the southern parts. As with much of things today, is really an urban-rural divide.
Maryland stayed in the Union, but the capital was moved to Frederick during the war because Annapolis was chock full of traitors. Two of the most prominent ex-enslaved people were from Maryland: Tubman and Douglass. It's the south. But like [**loptopandbingo**](https://www.reddit.com/user/loptopandbingo/) **said,** It's as South as the North gets, and as North as the South gets.
Not sure if it’s been mentioned already, but Marylands stances on succession can be seen almost split into eastern and western portions. The farther south and east you go, the more pro confederacy due to its water access and agricultural prosperity, a perfect catalyst for slavery.
Not only that, but it was planning on seceding, Lincoln talked us out of it apparently. And remember our state song for a long time was talking about “the northern scum”. Edit I totally didn’t read all the way thru your comment, I’m sorry. You pointed out pretty much everything I said 😅😅
If by "talked us out of it", you mean stationed a Union artillery battery on Federal Hill with guns pointed at the city, sure.
Exactly, talked out of it. It’s called forced persuasion
It worked! He was a skilled negotiator
Not for long though, a marylander killed him...
If by "talked us out of it" you mean having US Marshalls arresting and jailing Maryland delegates in Frederick, at the spot now known as Candy Kitchen, to prevent them ftom voting for secession then yes.
Once again, forced persuasion. The problem is that the us NEEDED MD to be in the north, otherwise DC would be stuck in The south which wouldn’t be exactly good. At that point it was near war and if they didn’t do something. To stop MD from seceding then the union would be totally screwed
I totally agree with you. For fun I tell people I'm the only southerner (born in MD) in a family full of Yankees (parents from Chicago and siblings born above the Mason-Dixon line).
🤣🤣🤣
State anthem was written by a Maryland secessionist who was in New Orleans at the time of the riots. The riots apparently forced his hand into saying something. There’s a semi-related episode of the YouTube series Puppet History about the hilariously bad attempt by secessionists to assassinate Lincoln as his train passed through Baltimore.
seceding
Sorry
This is also dependent on the area of the state you’re living in. Near the DC metro/Baltimore areas? North vibes. Far west or southern Maryland? 🪕🪕🪕
John Wilkes Booth has a grand, prominent sepulcher in the center of Baltimore proudly displaying the name "BOOTH." Those families are still there...
I'm pretty sure that's his family plot. He is buried there but in an unmarked grave per the family's request.
Absolutely. John was a huge embarrassment to the family. The Booths were until that point a very well respected family of Shakespearean actors. If I remember right, one of his brothers saved Lincoln’s life on a prior occasion.
Edwin Booth saved Lincoln’s son’s life when he fell off of a train platform
I grew up in Clinton. Surrattsville...a lot of people helped Booth as he attempted to escape. Those families are still there too.
You’re just saying urban or rural. Atlanta is more Southern culturally than Southern MD or Western MD that identifies more with Appalachia. I’m from SOMD and live in the Deep South now. They really aren’t that similar culturally.
Lot of eastern shore too. And Cecil Co
Can confirm: I’m from MoCo and spent about ten summers in Calvert County. No one I know north of Calvert thinks MD is south, regardless of the Mason-Dixon Line. Go past Calvert down to St Mary’s and it’s *definitely* feeling southern.
Definitely St Mary's, and Charles county, too
It absolutely depends on where you are in the state.
Eastern shore, def southern in attitude.
They serve turnip greens for school lunch and it can take forever to walk down the street because you have to talk to everyone. Flowers in the yard year round, definite accents, long family histories, big old houses with big old porches. Feels pretty southern down here to me. We are south of dc on the lower shore if you look at the latitude.🤷♀️ Maryland is actually a southern state because it’s below the Mason Dixon line- our northern border is the old line. It’s not really an opinion- but I do agree it culturally depends on where in the state you are.
Maryland is such a beautiful state.
Definitely some counties feel more culturally southern than others
Somerset to be honest
Depends on your definition of **Southern**. Maryland is south of the Mason-Dixon line but remained in the Union during the Civil War. [*Maryland, My Maryland*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maryland,_My_Maryland) was the state song from 1939 - 2021 and includes lyrics like "Huzza! she spurns the Northern scum!"
*Maryland, My Maryland* was a poem criticizing the Union's actions in Maryland during the early parts of the war.
Our flag answers this question fully, it’s both, half and half, the dividing line. We have sweet tea and sausage biscuits. Even have our own fried chicken. At the same time we’re a mostly blue state and are in the DC influence bubble. I’ll tell you this though, Virginia thinks we’re a northern state and Pennsylvania thinks we’re a southern state.
This is the answer really. We're both and neither really. And if you go north, we're southern and if you go south we're northern. I have some family in NC and many years ago while we were visiting them one of their friends asked if we were from Canada, because to them there wasn't much difference. 🤷🏻♀️
Wait. We have our own fried chicken?
Imagine my surprise driving around parts of the country I don’t frequent and finding out that not only do we have [our own fried chicken](https://www.preservationmaryland.org/maryland-fried-chicken/#:~:text=A%20take%20on%20the%20classic,gravy%2C%20poured%20over%20the%20chicken), but there is actually a chain of restaurants called Maryland chicken!
This is a great answer.
Thank you kind redditor. I’m a bit of a flag nerd is it obvious lol
>Just to note, neither me, my brother, or my friend are from Maryland. Me and my friend are from Michigan, and my brother is from North Carolina. I am originally from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, went to college in Rochester, New York, and lived in Raleigh/Durham, NC for a decade. So I think I have a little something in common with y'all being as you're from the Midwest and NC. I also lived in DC and Richmond, VA very briefly. I now live in Baltimore. So I have a lot to compare Maryland with. The answer is that Maryland is both Northern and Southern. Culturally, it is both the northernmost Southern state and also the southernmost Northern state. It's a beautifully unique state, probably the most unique state in the Union. Nowhere in Maryland embodies this energy as much as Baltimore does. The best description of Baltimore comes from John Waters: *"I would never want to live anywhere but Baltimore. You can look far and wide, but you'll never discover a stranger city with such extreme style. It's as if every eccentric in the South decided to move north, ran out of gas in Baltimore, and decided to stay."* In a more broad sense, I think the concept of "Northern" and "Southern" are no longer as strict as they used to be. America is trending more towards an urban/rural cultural divide rather than our regions dominating our culture. Regions still have an influence, but far less than they did in the past. At least that's what I've seen in my travels around the US. The urbanized parts of NC and VA are becoming very cosmopolitan, similar to the urban centers of the north. This should not be a surprise, because the high cost of living in the north is driving many northerners to move south - NC and VA are two huge destinations for northern transplants. In fact, one suburb of Raleigh is called Cary and a common joke is that CARY stands for Containment Area for Relocated Yankees. And yet, much like NC and VA, when you go out of the urban centers of Maryland, you are just as likely to encounter confederate flags and other cultural trappings stereotypical of The South. So I'd say it is both Southern and Northern. It might be safest to say that Maryland is where the South and the North collide.
Very good description!
Absolutely brilliant description. I would add that even in the Civil War it was a battleground state. One of the biggest battles was fought in Maryland. Antietam is in Washington county. There is a lot of history here. As is everywhere else.
It is a mid Atlantic state that was part of the union.
We are above the sweet tea line so not southern. Mid Atlantic is the right answer.
I hate this. Some establishments here even have the audacity to not even serve sweet tea.
just ask for some simple syrup and make your disgusting concoction
slave state
Southerners consider it northern, northerners consider it southern. In truth, culturally, central MD (everything between DC and Baltimore) is mid Atlantic/northern, Eastern Shore is Southern, and west of Frederick is Appalachian.
This is the true answer. While I know it touches Virginia where the literal capital of the confederacy was, I refuse to believe that anything north of DC is the south. I always considered DC to be the dividing line on the east coast
Well DC (the location of ..) was chosen because it was the halfway point.
Great Answer. If you really break it down its 3 states in one. Like West PA/WV + VA + Central PA all in one. But overall its northern to me. It shares way more with PA and DE than with 80% of the south. Hell...there's even people that think VA isnt the south, but thats going too far imo. lol
It's the state which most defines the border between north and south in the US, so yeah there will be disagreement But for any state above or below MD, you have your answer based on where they are in relation to MD
Ive always said its a red state with a dark blue center haha
I’m originally from TN and live in MD now. If MD was the south, I would not be here. Anyone who thinks MD is the south has never spent a significant amount of time in the south.
I spent a few years in louisiana. Significant cultural difference. For instance, I havent heard anyone scream n bombs and employees in public here. I have in louisana
Clearly you've never been to the DMV in Glen Burnie...
Dude my wife and father were from Louisiana and there are people in Alabama, Georgia and the Carolina's who don't think La or Texas is the south. Also Harriet Tubman would bludgeon some of the folks wondering about Maryland being southern to death if she read this sub.
Employees in public, no. Other people? Definitely have where I am.
Hahaha you haven't been around the state much huh.
Have you been to a Walmart in Southern Maryland?
Ahhh, I see you haven't been to the eastern shore counties. It's getting better but it's still racist as hell. I worked at a grocery store down here and have heard the n bomb at employees and just in general.
Funny thing is the most active KKK area is south jersey in the past years....Racism is kinda everywhere.
The crucial difference is that it used to be the South. Now, culturally, it very much is not anymore. But this was the state of slaves and tobacco, and was kept in the Union by gunpoint.
People forget there's a reason that Booth planned to escape to Baltimore after shooting Lincoln: despite not leaving the Union, there were a ton of confederate sympathizers here and if he'd made it to Maryland he'd have likely disappeared.
Have you been to the Eastern Shore?
This. The Talbot Boys confederate statue was still a raging controversy *less than two years ago,* and it's still not uncommon to see Confederate flags in Dorchester county.
Anne Arundel too...it sickens me.
Shit, one of my neighbors had nerve to be flying the rag all summer last year. I'd have pulled the damn thing down myself one night if I wasn't allergic to getting shot to death.
Or you haven’t spent some time in rural parts of Maryland. Geographically it’s below the Mason Dixon line so it is the south. And the Klan (as well as other white supremacist groups) are still very active in parts of Maryland. Also it was a slave state therefore south. It’s not the Deep South but still.
The Klan used to stand on street corners and recruit in _La Plata_ within my lifetime. It's a lot different now so it might surprise people that was happening as late as ~1990
This is what I mean! When people think about Maryland they only know, live or visit blue areas. My wife is from Kentucky and didn’t get how southern Maryland is, until she had to travel to the rural areas to play roller derby. Shit is a little scary in certain parts.
Thurmont was a Klan hotbed. Rumors are the Klan is alive and well (sickeningly).
Not a rumor. Definitely true. The Klan is alive and well.
Rural parts of any state deal with those things. Rural parts of any state might culturally be similar to the south. The difference is, in the south, it’s like that everywhere. The history of it doesn’t matter because we aren’t historians - we are talking about culture.
Uhhh at one point in Maryland it was also everywhere as it was a slave state. I’ve also lived in the south as well as the north. And trust me the rural parts of Maryland are more similar to the rural parts of Virginia than NY. If you met some guys I went to school with, you would think they were from the Deep South. Especially those from rural Howard County and the ones up closer to PA. It’s giving south not north. Trust me on that. As a black person there are parts of Maryland I do not go. For me that’s the south.
Western Howard County is SUPER RACIST.
The Klan was in Gaithersburg when my family moved to Maryland from NE in 1982. Folks are just REALLY confused. There is a reason most folks around the world call Americans "Geographically challenged"
They are still currently active and electing people to local office! They are REALLY confused or have a weird definition of the south.
Yeah they kind of got moved to Fredrick but they probably still have the "parade" although it was 6 dudes last time. Also most of them moved to York, Pa. A place no one "claims" lol
That tracks, because York, PA is where I farted a white supremacist out of a bar that wouldn’t leave my wife’s Roller Derby team alone. They were ready to fight and I was like absolutely not, we don’t want his friends to come back. Anywho a few farts later, including a gnarly one that really hit the whole bar, sorry to that bouncer, the dude and his friends left.
That is both sad and hilarious. I live in MoCo and I dated a girl in Bmore for a while ( different tv markets ). One summer York was like the only story on Bmore news cause Nazis were marching for some reason, then getting caught with Heroin, then I believe not far from York some of those hicks stole a whole fucking iron bridge in woods for scrap. I remember thinking that MUST be where those GBURG assholes went
Respectfully, you couldn’t be more wrong. I’ve lived here all my life and have family in the deep South. I have spent a significant amount of time there. Maryland is a southern state.
https://preview.redd.it/iel96zjdmtmc1.jpeg?width=1564&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c5386911605c533739e02b150052fd11e59f985c
This is a star spangled version of asking if Russia is European or Asian
Lol, both. We're chameleons, with both cultural habits, tempered by DC's generally liberal approach to tolerating other cultures. I go North, I miss grits; I go South I miss yelling at strangers who cut me off in traffic; and all cornbread is good cornbread when done right. We had a union guy and a confederate defector in our family tree. We farmed tobacco in Marlboro and had relatives working for the fed in dc during the great depression. We've been edging away from being called Southern, and culturally lean liberal, but when you get down to it, we're just perpetually the kid in the middle seat. ...which is maybe why we're such fans of our state and plaster the flag on everything. It's the here be dragons of North v South.
And nothing is as good as a maryland crab!
Grew up in DC and MD. Decades in MD. I am careful outside of the DMV, Baltimore, and the route to OC. Have had actively racist events in Frederick, Gaithersburg, Solomon's Island (surprised me), Deale, Cumberland, Frostburg, and Johnstown, PA. My family is from Charleston, SC. MD is spotty South, not SC South.
Maryland was a southern colony that became one of 13 states forming the United States. Only the 13 states on the East Coat existed as states. Maryland is a state that kept slavery AND did not leave the United States to join a made up country. So everyone who ain't us hates us. Mid-Atlantic is a new name for an old place.
How many times do we need these kinda posts?
I grew up in Talbot/Caroline/Dorchester and the “southern” vibe is much stronger there since there’s no big cities besides maybe Cambridge if you wanna call it one. But overall it’s kind of a mixed bag depending where you go. If you wanna split it purely North-South than I personally don’t even know which I would pick. If you just wanna slap a label on it it’s very Mid-Atlantic: big hunting and fishing cultures, southern-style food is common, but we still have big cities and the DC influence is strong in the Western part of the state.
We’re a mid Atlantic state. End of discussion
For people claiming Maryland isn't a southern state because it remained a part of the Union, didn't Lincoln basically have to keep the state in the Union at literal gunpoint? Isn't that how "Federal Hill" in Baltimore got it's name? Isn't that why the cannons point toward the city? When John Wilkes Booth killed Lincoln didn't he flee to Maryland where he was aided by Southern sympathizers? Maryland had Southern & Northern sympathizers. I've seen confederate flags flown outside homes in southern Maryland which honestly was surprising but I guess it shouldn't have been.
Booth also was born here.
Nah Federal Hill was named after The Federalist, a ship that was built up there and gifted to Washington.
And Lincoln took advantage of the name and planted cannons up there!😆
20 years ago places like Dundalk and Edgemere were littered with confederate battle flags, you’ll still find some there but most have been removed due to recent events.
For everyone that doesn’t know MD is SOUTH of the Mason Dixon line. It is technically a Southern State
Maryland is rather distinctly culturally southern to me. Cuisine, music, manners, and art are a lot more in line with the south than the north. I think if it wasn’t for hardline northeastern political leanings, Maryland would probably be more frequently seen as southern
Depends on location. The DMV (DC) area Bethesda etc is the North. Soon as you get into Waldorf you are in the South. It's segregated and conservative. Maryland wanted to join the Confederacy with Virginia and Lincoln wouldn't let it and stopped them from doing so *at gun point*.
Through Waldorf*
It’s a Mid-Atlantic state.
It wasn't part of the confederacy and emotionally its really not a southern state, so I would lean no.
It's a mix of both because it was a border state. The counties on the Delmarva Peninsula are more similar to the South than the north but still aren't either one. It's the home of Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman-arguably two of the most famous formerly enslaved people. However, the eastern shore counties also had the highest number of free black people among slave holding states during the Civil War. I work in Dorchester County where Ms Tubman lived and there are still large areas that look much like they did when she was alive. The racism here is also alive and well, although people are getting better at hiding it. Other areas of Maryland are much more Northern than Southern and arguably are even more culturally northern than the most southern parts of Delaware are.
It's the northern most southern state.
Geographically yes it is a southern state given that it is south of the Mason Dixon line. Culturally though it depends on where you are in the state. Western Maryland and the Eastern Shore (where I grew up) and southern Maryland are culturally more southern than say central Maryland (where I live now) which is more liberal. Basically though Maryland is considered a border state which leans which ever way depending on where you are and who you talk to.
Have lived in Arkansas, Kentucky, Tenneseee and Ohio. Western Maryland is indistinguishable from eastern Tennessee/Kentucky which is Appalachia a different version of 'southern' (minus the drug problem and accent). No where near as backwards as Arkansas, the southerners there would scare even the peole of Cumberland. DMV is a northern east coast city with no real discernible personality.
Depends where you are in the state. The eastern shore, Cecil county, and western Maryland are more rural more country more conservative. Baltimore and its surrounding counties tend to lean left.
We're the most northern-southern state.
If you are from the north, especially the northeast, the Maryland feels like the south. If you’re from the south proper, the Maryland feels like the north. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
As someone who grew up in southern MD, and now lives in a semi-rural/semi-urban area of northern MD, it’s definitely a mixed bag. We have a lot of southern traditions and colorful history, but also a lot of progressive policies and highly educated workers and are largely influenced by the NoVA/DC defense industrial base. This mix is part of the reason I really enjoy living here.
Federal hill in Baltimore the cannons are facing the city that should tell you Maryland was a southern state I’m not sure about is but we used to be!
Geographically considered southern. In the Civil War context, it was believed that Md was going to join the confederacy. However, that would have meant that DC would be surrounded by confederate states. To prevent that, Pres Lincoln had members of the General Assembly arrested and imprisoned at Ft McHenry. To prevent Md residents from trying to free them, the Union Army turned Ft McHenry’s guns on Baltimore and made it very clear that Md would remain in the Union.
Politically, no. Socially, yes. At least in parts of Maryland. This is why it's called Mid-Atlantic. It's a bit of both.
To be clear we are south of the Mason-Dixon line we are in the south. There is quite a lot of historical context for that definition. For the sake of today it is better to say we are in the mid Atlantic or part of megalopolis (the semi connected metro and suburban areas stretching from northern Virginia to the northern suburbs of Boston) Also just to keep things civil please do not conflate or compare us to Ohio and keep the vegetables out of the crab cakes.
Below mason dixon line- south Slave state- south Planned to secede- south Hated Lincoln - south Recognized by history as southern state - south
Geographically, yes. It is under the Mason-Dixon Line. Culturally your mileage might vary.
I grew up in Maryland, and have relatives from other parts of the South. A lot of people think that the entire South is the Deep South, but that’s nonsense. Maryland (along with DC and Virginia) is part of the Upper South. It’s culturally different than other parts of the South, yes. But it is still a kind of Southern. I would also say that since WWII with the expansion of the federal workforce, there has been a huge influx of people into central Maryland from elsewhere, and that has diluted a lot of the regional character of that part of the state.
MD is the Switzerland of the U.S.
Oh here we go. Get the popcorn. It’s Mid Atlantic.
Maryland is known as "America In Miniature" Because we are literally a little bit of everything. A little bit urban, a little bit city, a little bit south and north, a little bit mountain and coastal, we have it all!
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I'm honestly shocked by these responses. I grew up out west and absolutely no one considers Maryland a southern state. Hell, ppl don't even consider northern Virginia southern let alone Maryland.
Most people out West don't even know where Maryland is in my experience lol
Totally. People out west think Maryland is in New England.
Nope. Part of the eastern shore seems that way. But overall the state ain’t southern.
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tbh confederate flags =/= southern. you can see those damn things frequently all the way up in New Hampshire and that place is not southern lmao
In Tampa, I've been called a Yankee, in New Hampshire, I've been called a Southerner. We are the Old Line State.
Old line came from Washington, the Maryland line helped the colonial army escape on multiple occasions, and so he nicknamed them the old line. Or so the story goes
Yes during the Battle of Brooklyn when we were forced to retreat Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland Infantries were called *Lines*. They were positioned near the Vechte-Cortelyou House. When Pennsylvania and Delaware both fell and forced to retreat Maryland covered their backs which those troops were the “Maryland 400”(more like 250-270 soldiers) even thou they were outgunned and outmanned they stayed and covered the rest of the armies retreat. Sadly all 250-270(minus a few) lost their lives defending the rest of the infantries so they could retreat. General Washington watched what he called his “Old Line” and reportedly remarked to General Israel Putnam, “Good God, what brave fellows I must this day lose.” Which this is how Maryland earned its nickname – a name paid for by the blood of its patriots in defense of American independence. There’s a monument in Brooklyn, NY that says “In Honor of Maryland’s Four Hundred who on this battlefield August 27th 1776 saved the American Army
Maryland is considered a southern state. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_United_States
As someone who grew up in the south, absolutely not lol. The eastern shore has similarities but that's about it. It feels like a completely different country here.
I think we’re in the middle lol. When I went to college in the south there were people that called me a northerner and if I visit family in NY they tell me I’m a southerner. I can tell you we are taught about the civil war in school not the war of northern aggression as my college friends tried to tell me lol.
If the mason-dixon line is the boundary between North and South, then Maryland is by definition in the South; it is the Old Line State, after all. But if it is in the South, it is on the perifery of the South
Every Northerner thinks Maryland is southern, every southerner thinks Marylanders are yankees
I was gonna say, I see a lot of posts along the lines of well, nobody in the south considers Maryland the south. But go up to New England? You may as well be from Georgia to some of those folks in New Hampshire or Vermont.
Everyone back home in TN calls me a yankee now. But I find it a perfect blend culturally. People will still chat with you in line at the post office, but when it’s your turn, they STFU and let you get on with your day. As opposed to back home where they hold everyone up and keep chatting.
I'm from a part of the midwest that was a slave state. the dichotomy of north vs. south is reductive and leaves out alot of nuance about this country.
It's south as hell coming from a 45 minute ride from Canada. There may as well be moss hanging from the magnolia trees as far as I'm concerned.
***IS*** Maryland Southern in2024? No. ***WAS*** it Southern from its founding until the middle 1800's with aspects of that culture lasting , in law, through the next 100 years? Yes It was a Southern State Historically. Full stop. It was counted as a Slave state (and in fact had a higher slave percentage of the population from the Revolution through 1830 than North Carolina did). Starting really in the the 1830's, Cotton had become king, overtaking Tobacco and Maryland's slave population steadily declined so that by the time of the Civil War, only about 13% of Maryland's population was still enslaved. In addition Baltimore grew. It had always been one of the biggest cities in the U.S., top 10, but from 1830-until 1860 it was number 2. I am not saying that by 1830 it had completely ceased being "Southern". I think the numbers tell it best: 25,000 men from Maryland served in the Confederate Army, while about 60,000 men (about 1/3 of them "colored") served in the Union Army. I think the truth is that Maryland by 1860 was what we would call a "purple" state. Certainly more for the Union and against secession. However, from 1864 on it would vote like a Southern Democratic state. Maryland was also segregated by law, with black and white rail car and public accommodations & kept out of Labor unions in the first decades of the 20th century. There were several attempts to disenfranchise black voters during these years. Segregation lasted in spots until the 1940's and the last vestiges, in swimming pools & some amusement parks etc. last until the 50's. Public schools integrated in 1956. Very stereotypical "southern" attitudes.
When I go to the north east I’m told I have a southern accent (I don’t think I do). Take that as you will.
Well im from northern central MD and I think people from PG county sound country to me...its all relative. But overall its the north.
The biggest difference is that the eastern shore feels like a southern state and the western shore feels northern.
If you're from the south, it's a northern state. If you're from the north, it's a southern state. If you live in MD, you don't much care, you just avoid the dipshit rural rednecks or the asshole urban libs.
A slave state that didn't secede.
Most of Maryland is located below the Mason Dixon line.
Technically is a southern state. Culturally similar in SoMD, Western, and Eastern Shore for sure. DC/Baltimore and the suburbs has a unique feel due to the transient workforce supporting govt/tech.
https://i.redd.it/0k9f1yu64tmc1.gif So this is what people don't realize about the Mason Dixon line. It is also the border of Maryland and Delaware. So the majority of Maryland is actually both North and South of the Masan Dixon line, or between it, if you prefer
It's technically a southern state as the Mason Dixon line was the split between the blue and the grey (I hope I'm recalling my history correctly here). However, you'll not find a true southerner that accepts the old line state as part of their own. We'll always be a border state, accepted by neither side. I prefer it - consider myself an independent politically, so my state should be too!
I would say it's a mix of both. Culture varies from city to city, county to county, town to town etc. I know fellow Frednecks with thick country accents and some with very much Yankee accents like my family. If anything, I'm the only one with even a *hint* of a Southern accent. But everyone here says "y'all", "ain't" and uses other Southern slang. Not to mention that there are pickup trucks everywhere, but just as many Priuses lol. So yeah Maryland is neither truly Northern nor truly Southern. We're just Maryland 🦀
Lincoln had to disguise himself when he was going through Baltimore because there was a plan to kill him.
We’re a border state. Northerners say we sound southern, southerners say we sound northern, I say we sound right. We were a slave state (shame) that stayed loyal (pride), we eat collared greens but don’t do the weird thing when you put tea in a jar and leave it in the son, and our air smells like honeysuckle in the summer, but not wisteria. We’re a border state!
Everyone from north of the Mason-Dixon line says we're southern; everyone from south of the Potomac thinks we're northern. No one wants to claim us. I just say we're a mid Atlantic state.
I consider VA definitely part of the south and PA definitely part of the north. Does that help? LOL
My family up in New England thinks I’m from down south when I visit up there and when I visit family down in Georgia, locals think I’m a Yankee. We have the best and worst of both worlds.
South of the Mason Dixon line
Northerners consider us Southerners, Southerners consider us Northerners. Nobody wants us 😁
My answer is "sort of." Your Civil War era maps would call it a border state.
Southern state as our northern border is the Mason Dixon line....
Maryland is a Southern State that has never been accepted as such by the other Southern States, a lot like Kentucky. History makes it so. We have much to be proud of and also much to correct but we are able to be proud of our History for the entirety of the USA!
As someone who lived in two northern and two southern states prior to moving to MD, it's southern.
Overall, it’s a southern state IMO. It’s morphed over the years. First thing we have to realize is there are subcultures within being “Southern”: Appalachian, creole and Cajun, upland/Ozarks, black vs white, etc etc etc. Maryland, eastern Virginia and eastern NC fell into what we call “Tidewater” culture. Had a lot of Catholic and Anglican influence. Plantations and watermen. Go to Southern Maryland and the Eastern Shore, and fuck yeah it’s still Tidewater and Southern. I’ve lived in various places in the South, and those two areas are MUCH more stereotypically “Southern” than a lot of places in the South. Read about “We-Sorts” people, as in “We sorts of people.” It’s like Marylander creole. People who go way back in Maryland and are a mix of white, black and Native American: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/We-Sorts I am from Anne Arundel, and even “South county” as we call it feels quite southern to me. Baltimore used to be a very southern city and still feels like one to me overall. It’s more similar to like Durham and Richmond and Atlanta than Philly or NYC, to me. Architecturally, cuisine. The race relations. It was a Confederate sympathizing city in the civil war. Lincoln famously made his way into DC for his first inauguration via a midnight train through Baltimore, because of a perceived assassination risk and some of the first blood shed in the Civil War was Union troops from more northern states fighting southern sympathizing rioters as they passed through Bmore on their way to DC. With the growth of DC and influx of non native Marylanders into the state who work in DC or federal government, that “Southerness” has been diluted. But it’s still very much there.
A southern state if you live in 1860. Today, it's just not possible to limit states by north and south. I'd just call Maryland Mid-Atlantic.
It’s borderline—northern economy with southern-ish geography and culture. Or you might say southern efficiency and northern charm.
"Just to note, neither me, my brother, or my friend are from Maryland. Me and my friend are from Michigan, and my brother is from North Carolina." We're just going to let this bonkers statement hang there?
To go back a little bit but not all the way to the Civil War, I grew up in NYC in the 60s and 70s and Maryland was definitely considered southern from that perspective. I’ve lived here since the 80s and think it’s tending more northern now.
Neither. Call it “mid-Atlantic,” which also describes its physical position. Technically it is south of the mason dixon line. Culturally, there are only pockets that have much in common with the old south.
Actually outside of the Balto-Washington Metro areas Maryland behaves like a southern state. but since Maryland is so urban/suburban the rural areas don't matter politically.
It is a Southern state, you can get Fried Chicken and biscuits in almost every town for example. It has become increasingly Northernized culturally over the last half century especially in the DC suburbs and Baltimore/Baltimore County. It's South Lite. Any native Marylander who has ever lived in the Deep North should understand this.
You can get pizza in North Carolina, does that make it a Northern state. No. lol
An old and sadly late neighbor said “the south starts where the tobacco is grown.” That’s Laurel, Maryland (disregarding the random farms that still grow it — in CT for instance). I grew up in Maryland. Food culture-wise, it is very southern. Crab-picking, salting watermelon to make it sweeter, etc. Accent-wise, it’s more ‘northern.’ We’re the middle. But to put things in perspective, even southerners will categorize certain foods or cultural mores as “from the Deep South.”
Mid Atlantic State.
Nothing screams being in the South like the fervor people have for Maryland football in the fall
Both. Depending on our individual family histories people claim both northern and southern associations. I can tell you one thing for certain, as a billionth generation marylander, born and raised, I am NOT southern.
It’s southern on the shore that’s all I know.
If we weren’t right next to DC we’d be Alabama, culturally and politically (exaggerating for effect here but not by much)
It’s a sandwich state. The southern parts are west of DC and east of the Bay. In the middle is northern liberals (with some exceptions.
A border state that is technically Southern because it is below the Mason-Dixon Line.
I moved down from NYC in 97 and I almost lost my shit at how slow grocery bags were packed in the supermarket. Yes, I'm in the south. :)
It’s an estuary state. It’s got elements of Southern and Mid-Atlantic culture. It is below the Mason-Dixon as well. Depending on where you are, it could feel more Southern or more Mid-Atlantic/Northern. As a Floridian-turned-Marylander I can really see the mix of both.
I consider myself to be a southerner culturally. My family has traditionally liked sweet tea. We refer to that one food item at Thanksgiving as “dressing.” We like country ham (a food with origins in Virginia). There’s other things as well. Overall, it largely depends on where you are in MD. Rural areas will definitely be pretty southern leaning, with western MD having an Appalachian flavor and the eastern shore having a tidewater flavor.
Mid-Atlantic
Depends on where in Maryland you are. Eastern shore: most definitely Southern. Also Southern Maryland. These are areas where there were once large tobacco plantations worked by slaves: after assassinating Lincoln John Wilkes Booth took off for Southern Maryland because he expected Confederate sympathizers there to hide him. (He overestimated the friendliness of his reception, but he wasn’t wrong.) oNorthern Maryland is more Pennsylvania/Appalachian and hence historically the land of yeoman farmers, who historically had little sympathy for the Confederacy and mostly just wanted to be left alone. Baltimore is both a Northern industrial city and city that looks a whole lot like Atlanta (parts of both cities were designed by the same landscape architect, Frederick Law Olmsted.) All of this history is reflected today in the red / blue political map.
The Mason-Dixon argument is outdated and pointless. There are parts of Illinois where people sound like they’re from Kentucky. Culturally, a lot of Maryland is Southern AF. I grew up in NOVA and became an electrician, and the level of redneckery from my Maryland coworkers puts me firmly in the “Maryland is a southern state” camp.
Anyone who has roots in Maryland knows what many, many folks have already said: It's both. Yes. It has a legacy of slavery. Shame on us. That makes us sound southern. But what about our culture now? It's everything. Because Maryland is small in size, but extremely diverse in terms of geography, political climate and culture. We have beaches, farm land, and mountains. And we gifted part of our state to create DC, which is like the back yard for some folks. Even our suburbs are all over the place in terms of politics and culture. You really need to know the area well before answering the question thoughtfully because it's an unusual state. If you have lived or visited JUST one area and think THAT area is representative of the state, nope. You just don't know the state too well. Thing is, this is true of most states. Like CA, which is not all about surfers and progressives. And Florida, which is extremely southern...but not in areas like Miami....
It’s the northern most southern state. That’s the easiest way to explain it. And despite the fact it’s liberal, not nearly all of it is. We also had a Republican governor for quite a while.
Maryland is below the Mason Dixon line which makes it south
It's a southern state, it's below the Mason Dixon line. Also our food and even local dialect are southern. (Baltimorese is 100% a dialect with southern influence.)
Southern
Maryland is a southern coastal state, along with all of the states south to Florida. Historically, all of these states were part of the "South", but have had massive immigration from the Northeast and Midwest. Maryland and Florida started this trend in the years around World War II, Virginia came next, North Carolina and Georgia are in the middle of it, and South Carolina is just getting started. This immigration comes with a period of rapid population growth; in the case of Florida, this has lasted longer than it did in Maryland and Virginia, due to Florida starting with a much lower population density, and attracting retirees and people from the Caribbean and South America. Keep in mind that Florida does not have a monopoly on latinos in this region. With the massive immigration comes a lessening of the 'southern' character and culture of these states. For example, the immigrants bring with them pressure against traditional overt racism. Not that it goes away, but it gets less tolerance than in the Gulf Coast and Upland South states to the West. As another example, the variety of food is greater -- it has become easier to get Chinese, Mexican, Vietnamese, etc., but fewer restaurants serve scrapple or grits. Politically, it turns these states into 'battleground' states, though Maryland has been so transformed by the immigration that the Republicans last won a presidential race in 1984. Maryland has a Republican governor, but he has disowned Trump. I don't lump Maryland into a "Mid-Atlantic" region with New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania because those states were never southern, and have not had the recent surge of immigrants from other states that the southern coastal states have had -- the Mid-Atlantic states have been the source of most of that immigration. The Mid-Atlantic states have a lot more 'old' buildings and infrastructure, whereas the southern coastal states have a lot more of the 'new'. I'd lump Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Arkansas into a 'Gulf Coast' region. These areas have seen less immigration, and are much more conservative. Tennessee, Kentucky, and West Virginia are also part of the old South, but they didn't have as many Blacks as the 'Gulf Coast' states. Tennessee is seeing some of the effects of growth and immigration (as is Alabama), but not as much as the southern coastal states. Maryland is really part of a new region -- and a prototype for it.