Sunday, November 27, 2005 North vs. South posted at 4:02 PM I just read an interesting piece in the Appalachian News-Express about Kentucky's identity. From across the country they come, Civil War buffs drawn by a towering monument that marks the birthplace of Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Many of the same people who ride the elevator up the 351-foot-tall spire at Fairview also will visit a quaint one-room log home about 100 miles away near Hodgenville, a replica of the cabin where Abraham Lincoln was born. Having supplied native sons as presidents and soldiers to both the Union and Confederacy, Kentucky remains very much a state divided, wrestling with its regional identity perhaps more than any other. It all comes back to the Civil War, when Kentucky was a slave state that didn't secede and was officially neutral. The symbols of that straddling are all around, with 72 Confederate memorials in Kentucky and just two to Union soldiers. And to this day, whether people consider themselves Southerners or not depends on whom you ask. I knew Lincoln was born in Kentucky, but I didn't realize Jefferson Davis was, too. Kinda funny. Where are you from, and do you consider yourself Northerner or Southerner? I always thought of myself as a mix. My dad seemed like a Southerner to me, and my mom a Northerner, so I just figured I got the good qualities of both. ;> Comments Here at Yale I belong to a "Quasi-Southerner" group that's for all those from areas distinctly Southern in charm that didn't secede. It's pretty much all Kentuckians. The other Border States have all fully integrated into one of the regional cultures. I myself just call myself a Kentuckian when asked whether I'm a Yankee or Southern and use the opportunity to explain the reasons. By  John Duns Scotus at Sunday, November 27, 2005 5:33:00 PM   Post a Comment

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