MAPPING SOUTHERNESS

African Americans

This map uses U.S. Census Bureau data from 2011-2015 to show where African American populations live. Rather than simply picture their distribution, this cluster map groups together neighboring counties with higher African American populations.

Strong geographic patterns in the South are suggestive of long-term patterns of habitation in the region, underscoring the significance of the African American population and their contributions there.

Southern + Dixie Businesses

This map uses ESRI and Infogroup data from 2016 to map the locations of businesses in the United States whose names contained 'Southern' or 'Dixie'. Rather than a simple distribution map, the businesses are shown clustered by county.

Mapping business names in this way highlights places outside the region, as there are businesses in California that call themselves Southern California Flower Market, for example. The South, however, is clearly visible on this map.

Chickens Sold

This map uses the 2012 USDA Census of Agriculture data to map the average number of chickens sold for meat per county. Rather than a simple distribution map, chickens sold are shown clustered by county.

While fried chicken is a quintessential southern dish, the industrialization of poultry production in the United States has concentrated chicken farms in the Southeast, in the so called "Broiler Belt". In 2012, nearly 9 billion chickens were sold for meat in the United States.

Places of Worship

This map uses Geographic Names Information Systems Churches data from 2016 to map places of worship in the United States. Rather than a simple distribution map, churches per capita are shown clustered by county.

Urban places with high population densities have high concentrations of churches, but in the Bible Belt, particularly in relation to other rural parts of the country, the map underscores the importance of religious culture in the South.

Confederate Symbols

Using 2016 data from the Southern Poverty Law Center, this map displays confederate monuments and symbols. It clusters neighboring counties with relatively high numbers of those monuments and symbols.

Debates about public memory in the South notwithstanding, the map reflects the privileging of one vision of the South's history in landscapes across the region, in places from Louisiana to the Carolinas to Virginia.

Acres of Field Crops

This map uses the 2012 USDA Census of Agriculture data to map acres of cotton, peanuts, rice, sugarcane, and tobacco together, traditionally among the most significant crops in the South.

Rather than a simple distribution, this map aggregates the data for each of these crops to show places characterized by clusters of farmland dedicated to cultivating these field crops.

Garden & Gun Subscribers

This map displays the number of subscribers to Garden & Gun magazine, per county, in 2018. Clusters show where high numbers of readers of the magazine reside in neighboring counties.

In light of Garden & Gun's focus on dimensions to life in the South from food to music, the arts and sports, this map parallels commonly held ideas about the extent of the region.

Place Names

This map uses data from the United States Geological Survey, the United States Department of Education, ESRI, and Here Corporation, from 2015 and 2016 aggregated together.

The map shows clusters of counties where cemeteries, parks and forests, public schools and streets were named for civil rights activists, confederate generals, prominent politicians and public figures and southern synonyms (e.g. as magnolia or Dixie).

Student Maps

Vernacular maps highlight ideas about places widely held by the general population. Here, College of Charleston undergraduate students mapped the South over successive semesters in introductory geography courses. Their responses were then analyzed by county.

This cluster map shows counties characterized by consensus on the part of those students about places they identified as Southern. Student maps of the region are at odds with a South that follows state boundaries.

The Index of Southerness

The Index of Southerness is a map created by fusing the other maps presented here. It showcases classic regional geographic patterns of core, domain, and sphere, where places that read as most Southern are readily identifiable.

In representing places where southerness is most intense, the Index reveals the resilience of the region. By also showing how southerness transitions across space, the map weaves a rich regional tapestry.