Chapter 9 - The Inland South PDF

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Summary

Chapter 9 is the first of two chapters focusing on the American South. This is a region that has been less well integrated culturally and economically with the rest of North America. As a result, stereotyping of this region is still rampant in popular media. This presents a challenge in striking a b...

Description

Chapter 9: The Inland South Overview Chapter 9 is the first of two chapters focusing on the American South. This is a region that has been less well integrated culturally and economically with the rest of North America. As a result, stereotyping of this region is still rampant in popular media. This presents a challenge in striking a balance between presenting the economic and cultural challenges faced by the region currently and historically and making sure not to fall into those stereotypes. Today the South is growing economically and in population as globalization brings new business, people, and cultures to the region.

Outline 1. Environmental Setting a. Landforms b. Weather, Climate, and Hazards 2. Historical Settlement a. Population Changes in the South after the Civil War 3. Regional Economies and Politics a. The Changing Economic Position of the Inland South b. The Primary and Secondary Sectors in the Contemporary Inland South c. Environmental Geography: Mountaintop Removal Mining d. The Tertiary and Quaternary Sectors 4. Culture, Peoples, and Places a. Economic Geography: Riding with the Legend b. Places in the Eastern Inland South c. Places in the Central Inland South d. Cultural Geography: Country Music e. Places in the Western Inland South 5. The Future of the Inland South

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Identify and locate the four primary landform regions that make up the Inland South. Describe the weather and climate of this region and discuss how the climatic patterns in the Inland South relate to the natural hazards that regularly strike it. Compare and contrast the location patterns and environmental and economic challenges faced by cotton and tobacco farmers during the past century and a half in the Inland South. Discuss some of the major environmental impacts of the use of mountaintop removal practices to mine coal in the Inland South. Analyze some of the primary reasons for the rapid population growth in the Inland South region during the past two decades. Describe the early settlement patterns of at least four of the different Native American tribes who resided in the Inland South in the mid-19th century and their relocation in the decades after passage of the U.S. Indian Removal Act.

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Explain the positive environmental and economic impacts of the New Deal and the Tennessee Valley Authority on the Inland South. Identify and discuss the primary reasons why the Inland South has witnessed such a spectacular rise in the economic importance of the tertiary and quaternary sectors over the past half-century. Compare and contrast the cities, cultures, and economic patterns of the eastern Inland South, central Inland South, and western Inland South subregions. Distinguish between the geographic differences in the Inland South region (discussed in this chapter) and the Coastal South (discussed in Chapter 10).

Teaching Strategies for Chapter 9: The Inland South 1. Environmental Setting The physical geography of the Inland South is challenging for students to understand because this region includes a number of different physical regions. If you show students Figure 9.1 and Figure 1.9 in relation to each other, students will see for themselves that this region encompasses a large part of the Appalachian Uplands, the Southeastern Coastal Plain, the Interior Uplands, and the Interior Plains. So the region includes large areas of farmland as well as two mountain ranges—the Appalachians and the Ozarks. The region’s climate is generally humid and subtropical with mild winters and hot, humid summers. Mountainous areas experience milder summers and some winter snows at higher elevations. Year-round rains and thunderstorms are heaviest in the spring and summer. Tornadoes are relatively common in early spring in the flat parts of Mississippi and Alabama. Late summer and fall can bring hurricanes to the region. Heavy rains from storms lead to flash flooding, which at times have caused serious loss of life and property damage. The abundant rain means that, prior to human intervention, this region was heavily forested. Cutting of forests for lumber has increased flash flooding and erosion of fertile soils. This was one factor that contributed to the formation of the Tennessee Valley Authority (see Figure 9.5) during the New Deal period. The history of the creation of the Tennessee Valley Authority is complex and involves a number of cultural and political factors beyond simple flood control. A 1944 film The Valley of the Tennessee is available online (http://archive.org/details/gov.fdr.353.3.3) and shows government thinking about the problems of the region and how damming was believe to be the solution to flooding, erosion, and poverty. The film Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) also includes a brief scene of flooding caused by the damming of the Coldwater River to create Arkabutla Lake. 2. Historical Settlement The Trail of Tears is the name commonly given to the removal of Native Americas from the South to “Indian Territory” in Oklahoma. This is one of the most famous and historically significant episodes in the relations between native peoples and European settlers in North America. The settlement of the South by Europeans involved the forced removal of thousands of people already living in the region. Figure 9.3 shows some of the routes taken during this forced migration. In 2009, PBS released an excellent series of documentaries on the history of Native Americans. Episode 3 focuses on the Trail of Tears specifically and is available to watch online: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/weshallremain/.

In order to understand the history of settlement in the region, students need to understand the agricultural economy of the region during early settlement. Wealthy farmers of English decent created an economy around large plantations. These farms required a large labor force to grow crops such as cotton and tobacco. The plantation economy of the region came to depend on slaves imported from Africa for labor and many believed abolishing slavery would destroy plantation agriculture. Most settlers to the South were not owners of large plantations. Many, particularly in the hilly areas of the Ozarks, Piedmont, and Appalachians, were small farmers who owned few, if any, slaves. After the South lost the Civil War, many former slaves were forced to become tenant farmers or sharecroppers. These forms of agriculture left most African Americans in the region very poor. Poverty and discrimination led to the Great Migration (also discussed in Chapter 8). As discussed in Chapter 3, during the 1920s, the United States established a quota system limiting the number of immigrants allowed into the country. This led to a labor shortage in northern industrial cities, which also encouraged the migration of African Americans to these cities. 3. Regional Economies and Politics Since World War II, the culture and economy of the Inland South has undergone rapid transformation. This is something that students may or may not be familiar with. A discussion of common stereotypes of the South may uncover that many of these negative attitudes have not changed that much over the last 100 years. However, a number of factors have transformed the South. In contrast to Megalopolis and the Great Lakes, the economy of the South remained largely focused on agriculture well into the 20th century. Population grew slowly during the first have of the century. In recent decades, though, this trend has reversed. While the Great Lakes region has faced deindustrialization, many industries have moved their operations to the South. This is due in a large part to low wages and lack of unionization in the region. In recent years, these factors have even drawn international corporations such as car manufacturers to locate new plants in the South. Consequently, economic growth and decreasing discrimination has drawn increasing numbers of African Americans back to the region. The Latino population of the region has also been growing because of increasing job opportunities. The primary sector in the Inland South is often associated with cotton and tobacco farming, both of which have faced significant declines in recent years; cotton because of pest infestations and tobacco because of the decline in smoking in recent years. However, farming in the region includes a number of other crops such as onions, peaches, peanuts, and pecans. Livestock production has been increasing in the South in recent decades. Other parts of the South depend on forestry and mining. Coal mining in particular has been the economic base in many parts of Appalachia for many decades. Like farming, coal-mining techniques have been transformed by technological innovations during the 20th century. Box 9.1 discusses the most controversial mining method, mountaintop removal mining. This technique has engendered significant opposition, even in communities that have long depended on coal mining. An excellent short documentary that could form the basis of a class discussion is Leveling Appalachia: The Legacy of Mountaintop Removal Mining, produced by Yale Environment 360 (http://e360.yale.edu/feature/leveling_appalachia_the_legacy_of_mountaintop_rem oval_mining/2198/). This film presents the arguments on both sides and the challenges faced by many communities in developing alternative economies.

4. Culture, Peoples, and Places As the text states, the Inland South has grown in economic power and has become more fully connected to the rest of North America and the globe over the course of the 20th century. However, this has meant that culturally the South has in some ways become more like the rest of the United States. Many negative stereotypes about the South persist, so it is important to point out to students that many elements of American culture originated in the South. Almost all uniquely American musical forms have their roots in African American cultures of the South, from jazz to blues to country music to rock and roll. The text divides the places and cultures of the region into three subregions: eastern, central, and western. Because this region is so diverse and culturally rich, there are a significant number of associations and projects that have formed to study and preserve the culture and history of the region. One approach to presenting the complexity of the region would be to divide the class into groups and ask each group to do a little research on an important place or cultural element in their subregion. There are a number of places that students could start such research. A repository of primary sources related to the culture and history of the South is housed at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill (http://docsouth.unc.edu/). Appalshop (http://appalshop.org) is a nonprofit that produces all sorts of original media projects on Appalachian history and culture, including a number of films available online. Southern Spaces (http://www.southernspaces.org/) is a peer-reviewed online journal about the regions, places, and cultures of the South and their global connections. Their website includes a number of journal articles, as well as photo essays and short videos on particular places in the South. Southern Foodways Alliance (http://southernfoodways.org/) is a nonprofit based at the University of Mississippi that bridges scholarship and celebration of Southern food traditions. Their website features oral histories focused on specific places and foods with an interactive map.

Conceptual Checkpoints 9.1 Locate and describe each of the following landform subregions that are included in the Inland South—the Appalachians, Piedmont, Central Lowland, and Atlantic Coastal Plain. Atlantic Coastal Plain: coastal from southern Virginia through the Carolinas and into Georgia. This subregion is flat and featureless with sandy soils and large swamps. Piedmont: a region of plateaus east of the Appalachians and north and west of the Atlantic Coastal Plain extending from New Jersey to central Alabama. Appalachian Mountains: eastern mountain range that extends from Newfoundland to central Alabama with the highest peak in North Carolina. North American Central Lowland: west of the Appalachians. 9.2 Discuss the patterns of Native American settlement in the Inland South in the middle and late 19th century in the context of the federal Indian Removal Act and subsequent Trail of Tears. Native Americans were removed from their traditional homelands all over the Southeast to “Indian Territory” in what is now Oklahoma.

9.3 Identify and discuss three of the most important crops grown in the Inland South. Then discuss some of the economic and environmental challenges faced by cotton farmers in this region. Responses should include cotton and tobacco. A number of other crops are associated with the Inland South including Vidalia onions, peaches, peanuts, and pecans. Cotton farmers have to deal with boll weevil, a pest that has severely impacted production. 9.4 Although it was long considered a backwater region of the United States, the Inland South and its diverse peoples have made many contributions to U.S. culture and to other parts of the world. List and discuss some of the contributions of this distinctive North American region to global culture today. Responses could include musical styles, musicians, heroes of the Confederacy, or sports figures.

Answers to Review Questions 1. What are the topographic features of each of the four major landform subregions of the Inland South? Atlantic Coastal Plain: flat and featureless, sandy soils, large swamps Piedmont: rolling hills and plateaus Appalachians: mountainous with the northern area eroded by glaciers North American Central Lowland: rich soil, low hills and flatland 2. How do the current patterns of crop and livestock production in the Inland South relate to this region’s landforms and climates? Agriculture is focused in the central lowlands. The upland areas of the Ozarks and Appalachians are not as well suited to support large farms. The economies of these areas tend to focus on mining and forestry. There are also large livestock operations in both North Carolina and Arkansas. 3. What are some of the geographic reasons why the Inland South is prone to major hazards such as thunderstorms, floods, and tornadoes? The region has a humid subtropical climate, prone to storms that produce heavy rains. The flat areas of central lowlands in particular are prone to tornadoes. 4. What legislation has been passed in the United States to curb the damage being done to the environment caused by coal mining in the Appalachians? The Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 requires the land a mine is on to be restored to its original contours after mining. 5. What New Deal–era policies helped save the economy of the Inland South from the ravages of the Great Depression in the 1930s? The Rural Electrification Administration forced utilities to provide electricity to rural southerners who had previously lived without it. The Tennessee Valley Authority provided public power, flood control, and numerous jobs to Tennessee, northern Alabama, and nearby areas in the heart of the South.

6. Why has the population of the Inland South, and its tertiary and quaternary economic sectors, both expanded so dramatically during the past two decades? These sectors have expanded as the region has attracted more manufacturing and industry. The region has become significantly more integrated into the regional and global economy. Many immigrants from other parts of North America have been attracted to the growing employment opportunities in the region. 7. What are some of the contributions of the African American and ScotsIrish people in the Inland South to its distinctive regional culture? Many distinctive musical styles have emerged from the Inland South. Jazz, blues, and rock and roll are particularly associated with African American musicians. ScotsIrish people brought with them traditional folk music that developed into what is now called country music. 8. What factors explain the rise of tourism and retirement migration to parts of the region discussed in this chapter? As the Inland South has become more integrated into the culture and economy of the broader region, more people have become familiar with destinations such as the Great Smoky Mountains and the Ozarks. In addition, many areas in the Inland South have a low cost of living compared with other parts of the country....