Ain’t got but: Have only.

“He ain’t got but himself to blame.”

Most US regions have historic racial divides; but few have been as staunch as the political and economic system that began in the 17th-century South (at least if Lawrence’s excellent installment on early Southern history is to be believed). This division between black and white southerners constitutes a central axis in the history of the South, and has defined most the region’s important historical events.

Mmmmmm.... cultural influence....

But after surviving abolition, emancipation, and Civil Rights, a new development might finally undermine this old Southern dichotomy for good: immigration. While most Americans think immigration is isolated to places like New York, California, Texas, or South Florida; few recognize that a new wave of immigration is shifting away from these traditional gateways into more unlikely places.

Now it’s important to not overstate the issue – Mississippi is not a “majority-minority state,” like California – yet, even on a smaller scale, immigration is having a noticeable impact on some places in the South. Consider North Carolina. Between 1990 and 2000 the state experienced 274% growth in the percent of the population that was foreign-born. Below, you can see the growth in all state’s whose foreign-born pop.’s doubled between 1990 and 2000.

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Which US state was the first to make Christmas an official holiday (Post your guess as a comment before you read below — no cheating!).

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(this post comes to you from Panama City, FL…the land that internet largely forgot–Happy Holiday)

I don’t fly home often.  Port Columbus Airport is an efficient airport, and while not a hub does generally get the job done for a reasonable price (even if one ignores Columbus’s shortlived center of operations for discount airline Skybus).  In fact, this is only the third time in 4.5 years I’ve flown from Columbus to Panama City, and the third time I’ve ever flown into Panama City (PFN) from anywhere in my entire life.
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To round out the series, here are the final 3 Wonders of the Panhandle: Wakulla Springs, the Suwannee River, and the state capital Tallahassee.

6. Wakulla Springs

Wakulla Springs

The signs you see everywhere at Wakulla Springs proudly state that it is one of the largest and deepest freshwater springs in the world.  The Spring flows up and out from an underground river at a rate of over 400,000 gallons per minute. While the county government of Wakulla County claims the springs as the largest and deepest in the world, the Weeki Wachee Springs go down to a verified 403 feet, which makes them deeper.

Even so, I’ve been to Wakulla Springs, and it is truly a stunning place, full of quintessential North Florida wildlife and glass-bottom boats to fully appreciate the wonder of the springs. I highly recommend going.

A few famous movies were shot at Wakulla Springs in the 1940s and 1950s: two of Johnny Weissmuller’s Tarzan films, “Tarzan’s Secret Treasure” and “Tarzan’s New York Adventure,” and “The Creature from the Black Lagoon.”

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I’ve been doing some recreational reading here while visiting family in Florida (by the way – Lord I had forgotten how much happiness the Sun brings me).  Right now I’ve been reading The American South in the Twentieth Century and I came across a passage worth sharing.  I’m not sure how much I would agree with the rest of John Shelton Reed’s work (this is just a short anthology piece); but I think this passage sums up the spirit of what we’ve found at the Guide:

To allow that southern culture has changed, is changing, does not mean that it is disappearing as a variant on the American norm (whatever that might be).  It is difficult to summarize the facts of southern cultural difference, however, because nearly every logical possibility of what could be happening is happening.

For example, most of the recent economic and demographic change in the South has been a matter of the South’s converging on nonsouthern patterns (and the same could be said, in general, about changes in race relations), so those “southern” characteristics that were, in fact, the characteristics of poor, rural, poorly educated folks are plainly on the wane.  But other longstanding cultural differences are hanging in there.  For instance, attitudes toward the role of women have been changing everywhere, but the South remains relatively conservative on this score.

Some regional differences are getting larger: the South is more Baptist now than it was a century ago, for instance; regional differences in churchgoing are larger than they used to be; southerners are now more economically conservative than they were a generation ago.  And they’re more likely to say “fixing to” and “might could.”

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In my procrastinating, i came across this article on Yahoo! about dying from environmental phenomena across the country.

It featured this map

Lighter Shade of Pale.

It brought home a lot of the things we’ve talked about in the south.  While the western Great Plains seem to be the most dangerous, with a mix of winter and severe weather, the south ranks in the next most dangerous group, led primarily by a death category called “other.”

First, I was prompted to think about “obesity” as a southern problem.  Obviously, people who are in worse physical shape will be more likely to suffer in bouts of extreme weather, especially ones that knock out the power.

But I wonder why for many of these regions, “other” constitutes between a third and a half of all deaths.  Can we get a little more precise here?

For instance, I remember going to a museum with my campers down in South Florida, that had a map to show how rare shark attacks were, but did so by comparing it with lightening strikes.  Of course, they did not mention that Tampa Bay is the lightening strike capital of the world for meterological reasons I don’t understand.  Interestingly enough, Panama City was the only area where shark attacks outnumbered lightening strkes.  Besides, every tourist season, there are a number of drownings because tourists don’t understand rip currents (and are more likely to swim in dangerous conditions).  Hell, last summer, there was a drowning a week in the central Emerald Coast for about two months.  This might be an attack on PC’s lack of lifeguards, but I wonder if they are counting at at all.

Unemployment in the United States is at 6.7% (as of the November figures). What about in the Panhandle? What about in the South more generally? With the NY Times reported “States’ Funds for Jobless Are Drying Up” these questions have a more tangible important to our readers in the South.

Using Jeff’s map of the Panhandle as my starting point, I compiled the unemployment averages of all 29 counties in the Florida Panhandle from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The most recent numbers available for October are compared below to that month’s national average of 6.5%.

Data is for Panhandle counties in the following order: Alachua, Baker, Bay, Bradford, Calhoun, Dixie, Escambia, Flagler, Franklin, Gadsden, Gilchrist, Gulf, Hamilton, Holmes, Jackson, Jefferson, Lafayette, Leon, Levy, Liberty, Madison, Okaloosa, Santa Rosa, Suwannee, Taylor, Union, Wakulla, Walton, Washington

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Mind to:  Intention of doing something. Often used aggressively.

“I’ve got a mind to go down there and tell him how it is.”

I guess its time for me to lay out all my cards and start earning my keep around here. One of my academic fields is economic history, and I believe that one of the ways that the south is most different than the rest of the country has to do with its particular economic experiences.

A historical map. As if you didn't know what the Southeast looked like.

I plan to make this analysis in three parts. In this outing, I will discuss southern economic history into the early nineteenth century, taking us through the Colonial periods, essentially setting up what will happen when King Cotton ascends to the throne in the wake of the early national period. My next issue will take the story of cotton through to nearly the 20th century, and I’ll conclude with a story of the past 100 years.
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Would argue with a fence post: to be stubborn, or to constantly argue.

“Steven won’t ever shut up. That guy would argue with a fence post.”

Jeff has started us up by discussing three of the panhandle’s natural wonders.

Although I take exception to his determination that the Emerald Coast, and the world’s most beautiful beaches are bound to the east by Sandestin. Point of fact, Panama City’s ABC affiliate, WMBB TV is so named because of the acronym World’s Most Beautiful Beaches. If you can’t trust the call letters for a TV station, what can you trust?

Insert your favorite line from "Network" here.

By bringing together both the natural and built environments, the wonder that is the Panhandle is readily apparent, so, without further ado…

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