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we can think of the South at one time both as the most American and most un-American part of our nation

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American

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it was here that Thomas Jefferson shaped the nation-state by writing the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution

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it's in the South we see deep roots of family, religion, and patriotism

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un-American

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it's also in the south that we see that most un-American institution of slavery where one race enslaved another

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it's also in the South that we see the tragic scenes of violence of the civil rights movement in the 1960s

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the South offers both a beautiful and a nightmarish world as we enter it

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you can think of the South in three ways:

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1. a distinct geographic region

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the old confederate states

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2. the South outside the South, the Southern diaspora

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just as James Joyce said that he fled the nets of family, religion and politics in Ireland

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people in the South have also fled, and we can add the net of race

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Mississippi Delta black families left the South and moved to Chicago

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Richard Wright

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left Mississippi to Chicago, to New York and to Paris

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Appalachian white families who moved to Cincinnati

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3. a mythic reality

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the music of B.B.King, the blues

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the music of Elvis

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the novels of William Faulkner

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the plays of Tennessee Williams

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the fiction of Alice Walker