And there is an ethnic and religious angle to this we don’t acknowledge today.
Ethnically the immigration in New England mostly came from the midlands and south of England. That in the south came from the north of England. Go to England today and you will still see great differences between the north and the south. They were even more pronounced then.
But Puritanism was the big divide. The Puritans were basically run out of everywhere. They had the idea that God required them to bring forth his Kingdom on earth and then and only then would he return. That meant that not only could they not be evil, they could not tolerate in others. So, not only did it create and oppressive and controlling society, they were constantly seeking ways to improve and stamp out evil. Most southern immigration in the other hand came from the much more free and independent societies of Northern England and Souther Scotland. The borderlands. If you want to picture the difference take the books the Scarlet Letter for New England and Rob Roy for the South.
Anyway Puritanism eventually burned itself out as a religious force but in it’s descendants you can still see it’s progressive influence. The United Church of Christ is the absolutely most insanely liberal mainline protestant denomination in the US. This is the church that you will see ministers having abortion days and the like. And these are the ones who remain nominally christian. The other quasi-religious offshoots like Unitarianism are worse. But most in that tradition are simply nominal atheist these days. But the progressive urge to “improve” remains. Every social issue from abolition to temperance to women’s suffrage got it’s start in New England. And I might add this tradition fit in very well with later immigration patterns, particularly from European Jews who had their own progressive ideas and who were, like most descendants of the Puritans by then, practically, if not officially, atheist.
Contrast this religious and cultural tradition to the South. Take the Southern Baptist. It is the largest and most conservative large denomination in America. Many of you like to bash them, but I suspect the political and cultural views of your average Southern Baptist perfectly align with 90 percent of this board. The Baptist in America started with Roger Williams who was kicked out of New England and who had to form his own colony Rhode Island. The slavery issue split the denomination but the Southern Baptist today remain the largest and most conservative denomination.
And amongst the other denominations like Methodists you will see great distinctions between bishoprics in the North and the South. Many Methodist churches in the South are practically Baptist while many in the north will see the preacher wearing a rainbow shawl or some other nonsense.
The divide has always been there. It’s in our DNA. Subsequent immigration into the country and around the country has shifted things a bit, but until relatively recently the new arrivals generally adopted the dominant culture wherever they went and when people moved within the country they took it with them. We’ll see if in a hundred years any traces of any of us remain after the latest onslaught of third worlders.
A most excellant post. I could not have said it better myself.
