If I had to post the southern states, for some reason I would 100% list Maryland as one of them. Am I just plain wrong, or is there any possible way that this inclusion could be valid or make any sense?

45 comments

  2. It’s south of the mason Dixon line, but other than that I wouldn’t consider it south.

    From my experience MD has a very similar vibe to PA (especially the western parts of it- eastern is more similar to DE which also isn’t south), but once you cross into VA you eventually get to areas that have more of a southern vibe that isn’t present in PA/MD.

  3. Maryland is in the Mid-Atlantic. It was not part of the confederacy during the American civil war. And it is most definitely not part of the South.

    It IS, however, home to the world’s worst drivers.

  4. I mean…it’s not. The Mason-Dixon line was born in the 1700s and doesn’t reflect modern reality.

    People can appeal to history or geography or whatever, but I’ve lived much of my life in the South and Maryland just isn’t it at all. It’s Mid-Atlantic; the panhandle is a little rednecky (I say with affection) but it just has no characteristics of Southern states.

  5. Maryland was a slave state in 1861 so you aren’t really far off. It was prevented from seceding practically at gunpoint so Washington DC wouldn’t be surrounded by the Confederacy. And as others have pointed out, the Mason-Dixon line was the border line drawn between Pennsylvania and Maryland which gave us the term “Dixie”.

  6. I think a big reason people don’t consider Maryland very “southern” is because southern culture tends to be more small-town and rural. Other than Charleston and Savannah, idk if there’s any cities that feel “southern.” Most people know Maryland for D.C., Baltimore, and Annapolis. I’ve been to a small town in Maryland and it definitely felt southern, but pretty much everyone associates the state with Baltimore and for good reason given how prominent the city is

  7. Just ask yourself one question, does Baltimore have more in common with Birmingham or Philadelphia?

  8. Maryland doesn’t really fit the south in many ways. It’s a highly dense, highly educated, very urban & liberal state that bares far more in common with a state like new Jersey than it does Louisiana or Georgia. Most Maryland residents live in Washington DC suburbs, Baltimore suburbs, or Baltimore – where culturally and politically, it’s more similar to the northeast (or mid Atlantic so to speak) than the south. Obviously I can’t speak for 100-150 years ago, but the south of 2023 probably begins around Richmond, VA.

    There are some people who posit because it’s below the Mason-Dixon Line or because it has rural, more “country” areas on the eastern shore and western panhandle that means Maryland is southern, but I disagree. The M-D line was drawn a long ass time ago and is very out of date with contemporary US culture and politics, and every state has rural, redneck areas. Go to upstate New York and you’ll find the same thing. It doesn’t mean NY is in the south. It’s also worth mentioning that they compromise a pretty tiny portion of MD’s population in general.

  10. It fought for the Union.

    And it is decidedly not a Southern feeling state. It’s very much Mid Atlantic. .

  11. According to the US Census Bureau, Maryland is in “the South.”

    It’s weird, but legally it’s a southern state.

  12. Maryland and the rest of the Mid Atlantic are just “not the North” more than they’re the South.

  13. Maryland is solidly Mid-Atlantic with the western panhandle being Appalachia. I wouldn’t count any of it South. If you ask me, the northernmost board of the South that I’m willing to draw is the Occoquan River but most people in that area will prefer the Rappahannock as the border.

  14. Having lived in MD and the south, it definitely doesn’t feel southern at all. Maybe in the rural parts of like western MD, but most people live near DC or Baltimore

  15. It is most definitely not a southern state. I feel like anybody who says otherwise has never actually been to the south

  16. Yes IMO. Maryland seems to align itself politically with dc from what I’ve seen. Culturally, it seems to be similar to other northeast states.

    but I’m from the west coast so idk đŸ€·đŸ»â€â™€ïž

  18. I grew up on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, then moved to Knoxville, TN.

    It was very, very different. I don’t consider MD the South at all.

    On the plus side, I got to learn what culture shock was first hand!

  19. I once heard Maryland described as the state of northern hospitality and southern productivity

  20. Maryland is definitely Mid-Atlantic, in the same category as Pennsylvania, Delaware, and maybe New Jersey

  21. We argue about this in r/Maryland all the time.

    Maryland is not part of the South, due to the following, IMO:

    1. Baltimore is part of the Northeast Megalopolis
    2. Maryland was never in the Confederacy
    3. Except for Southern Maryland, the accent is not Southern, and neither is the vocabulary
    4. Tea is not sweet by default
    5. Lots of Type A people
    6. We’re don’t do the fake “Southern Hospitality” thing

    Just a few off the top of my head, but where I grew up Montgomery County, just outside of DC, it was basically a carbon copy of Westchester County, NY.

  23. Maryland is somewhere in the middle, and in no better example is that demonstrated than at Gettysburg. Soldiers from Maryland were on both sides of the battle of Gettysburg, and [Maryland’s monument at Gettysburg](https://gettysburg.stonesentinels.com/union-monuments/maryland/state-of-maryland/) depicts both a Union soldier and a Confederate soldier.

    In terms of the modern state of Maryland (in my experience growing up there, YMMV), Frederick County and areas west feel a lot like West Virginia or Virginia. The Eastern Shore (Wicomico County, Talbot County, Cecil County, et al.) feels a lot like North Carolina. Carroll County feels like this sort of weird blend of West Virginia and Pennsylvania. Central Maryland (Prince George’s County, Montgomery County, parts of Howard County, and parts of Anne Arundel County) to me always felt like New York or California lite (Baltimore City sorta falls into this as well). Southern Maryland (Saint Mary’s and Calvert Counties along with parts of Anne Arundel County) is the most Confederate like region, though nothing like Civil War Alabama – those counties are where all the tobacco plantations were, and still grew tobacco long after the Civil War.

    Basically, you can’t cleanly put Maryland into the category of North or South.

  25. Some parts of Maryland are quite southern. But just like Virginia and Florida, there are parts that are culturally southern and parts that aren’t. Maryland as a whole is not southern. But here is why it isn’t “crazy” to view Maryland as southern:

    People tend to not consider Maryland “the South” because our modern concept of the south is what is the “Deep South” . Maryland is not the deep south. However regionally the south has several areas. Western Maryland falls into the “Upper South” such as along the Appalachian Trail. Southern/Eastern Maryland falls into the Atlantic Coastal Plain/Tidewater region. This too is a mostly “southern” region. However a lot of Marylanders live outside these regions and wouldn’t consider themselves southern.

    Historically, we tend to divide North/South based on which side they “fought for”. Although Maryland didn’t secede many Marylanders fought for the Confederacy. There are several other historical ties that Maryland has to the south.

  26. The biggest determinant for what’s a northern or Southern state is who you ask.

    Having spent time in MD from people from across the country, people from North of it said yes. People from South of it say no. It’s a matter of opinion.

  28. Maryland is niether the south nor the north. we consider ourselves to be the mid atlantic in which we pull stuff from both regions. we have more southern style cooking while working northern jobs with a mix of each other cultures. in certain areas you can find more nice and charming people of the south and in other areas you havw the assholes of the north that will cut you off while driving.

  30. Lots of folks here confusing Appalachia and the South. They intersect in some places but they are not the same.

  31. Especially seeing the comment section, some people think it is and some don’t. Born/raised/currently living here and I agree with another commenter who said depending on where you go in the state, it kind of picks up vibes from neighboring states. The small towns of the Eastern Shore of MD absolutely carry a southern vibe, down to the regional accents which differ immensely from elsewhere. I have close cousins who sound nothing like me, and I have a slight southern twang to certain words, but very Baltimore with others—such as my pronunciation of “on”. Ocean City reminds me of New Jersey and the beach cities of North Carolina.

    As others have said, western Maryland carries a distinctly Appalachian vibe. Similar to Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia or even Asheville, North Carolina. DC and Northern Virginia feel very similar (obviously aside from shared territory), and the rural areas of Northern Maryland and Southern Pennsylvania blend together for me.

    I wouldn’t say you’re plain wrong at all, but maybe making a statement that a lot of folks (I imagine, most who have visited/lived here) wouldn’t necessarily agree with as a whole. Particularly looking through today’s lens, rather than a historical one. I personally view Maryland as “in-between” which is helpful to no one and I’m sure just as inaccurate.

  33. I’ve always said that the South starts at the cookout in Fredericksburg, VA. Northern VA fees the same as MD and much closer to mid Atlantic than it does to places like Richmond or further south. Fredericksburg is where it starts to feel more southern than mid Atlantic

  34. I’m from PA and I’ve always considered Maryland the start of the South. For one, you can get hush puppies there

  35. Maryland is technically the south being below the mason-dixon line. Historically, maryland culture was southern and maryland would have fought with the south if licoln had not forcibly annexed it. Today the southern culture still lives in small ways among marylanders, but is especially prevalent on the eastern shore

  36. There are parts of Maryland that are like the south. The reason Maryland is a blue state is because there are more people that live along the BW parkway than there are in the rest of the state.

  37. In one of John Waters’ movies (the only one I’ve seen) a lot of the characters speak in a Baltimore accent, which absolutely sounds southern.

  38. As a Marylander, I would say we are mid-Atlantic. When I travel north, I am very aware of my southernness, but when I travel even slightly south, it’s clear I am northern.

  40. No…it technically is the south, they even have southern accents. But only a short ride from OA, so diesnt seem like the south.

  41. Ahh the never ending debate! Maryland is below the Mason-Dixon Line. Growing up in Maryland, people I met from up north said we were southern and people I met down south said we were northern. Some parts of Maryland feel very southern and others don’t, and then there’s western Maryland which might as well be West Virginia. Basically, Maryland has a little bit of everything.

    TL/DR I don’t think you wrong to say South but I usually just say mid-Atlantic to avoid controversy

  42. I’m from Massachusetts and I feel like anywhere below Philadelphia (except New Jersey) is the south 😂

  43. South of the Mason-Dixon line, contributed troops to the confederacy, would have seceded if Lincoln hadn’t prevented it, attempted to assassinate Lincoln on his way to his inauguration, the Balwmer accent is a drawl, AND you can get decent biscuits and gravy?

    ​

    Seems awfully southern to me…

  44. It borders the south and has a lot of crossover when it comes to agriculture, trade, and historical population settlement. It’s sort of always in limbo with northern states viewing it as southern and southern states see it as north and it saw the bloodiest day of battle in the Civil War at Antietam.

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