Introduction
Woodard argues that North America is not comprised of unified nations but rather eleven distinct ethnoregional “nations” that have competed for influence since the colonial period, with their boundaries cutting across state and national borders rather than following them.
- Core Thesis: The continent consists of eleven rival regional cultures whose conflicts explain American political divisions better than traditional frameworks like “North vs. South” or red/blue states
- These nations formed in the colonial period with distinct values, settlement patterns, and cultural characteristics
- They have maintained their identities despite massive immigration and continue to shape modern politics
- Regional Nations Identified: Yankeedom, New Netherland, the Midlands, Tidewater, Greater Appalachia, Deep South, New France, El Norte, Left Coast, Far West, and First Nation
- Each has distinctive attitudes toward government, individual liberty, religion, and social organization
- Their alliances and conflicts drive federal politics more than class, party, or economic interests
- Methodology and Evidence: Cultural boundaries visible in linguistic maps, voting patterns, religious affiliations, and demographic data spanning centuries
- 2008 same-sex marriage voting in California followed cultural, not state boundaries
- Yankee-settled Ohio counties voted differently from Appalachian ones in 2000 and 2004 elections
- Religious importance surveys show Deep South/Appalachian states twice as likely as Yankee states to consider religion important daily
Part One: Origins 1590-1769
Founding El Norte
El Norte was the first European culture established in what is now the United States, beginning with Spanish colonization in the late 1500s, but remained underdeveloped due to Spain’s focus on European religious wars and its colonial mission system’s failures.
- Spanish Imperial Context: Spain received papal grant of most Western Hemisphere in 1493, with mandate to convert inhabitants to Catholicism
- Spain’s wealth from American silver funded religious wars against Protestant Europe for over a century
- Anti-Spanish sentiment became ingrained in English, Scottish, and Dutch cultures, later affecting attitudes toward El Norte
- Geographic and Cultural Boundaries: El Norte developed as a distinct mestizo culture in what is now northern Mexico and southwestern United States
- Sparsely populated settlements from Santa Fe (1610) to San Antonio faced constant supply shortages
- Cultural isolation led to unique blend of Spanish, indigenous, and frontier characteristics
- Mission System Failures: Spanish attempt to convert and “civilize” Native Americans through mission settlements largely unsuccessful
- Missions functioned more like slave plantations with forced labor and corporal punishment
- French visitors compared California missions to West Indian slave colonies
- System failed to create stable, growing communities or effective cultural assimilation
- Political Structure: Authoritarian colonial system with no self-governance or democratic institutions
- All major decisions made by distant imperial authorities in Mexico City or Spain
- Local patrón system created feudal-like relationships between elite landowners and peons
- This political culture persisted into 20th century, with votes bought and sold through patron networks
- Distinctive Regional Character: Despite Spanish colonial control, norteños developed reputation for independence and resistance to tyranny
- More adaptable and self-sufficient than central Mexican populations
- Led Mexican Revolution and later political reforms against corrupt PRI party
- Multiple 19th-century secession attempts, including Republic of Texas and Republic of Rio Grande
Founding New France
New France was established by French explorers seeking to create a tolerant, feudal society in alliance with Native Americans, but French colonists often abandoned European ways to adopt indigenous lifestyles, creating a unique métis culture.
- Founding Vision: Samuel de Champlain and Pierre Dugua envisioned a hierarchical but tolerant society respecting Native Americans as equals
- Champlain promoted intermarriage and cultural exchange: “Our young men will marry your daughters, and henceforth we shall be one people”
- Religious tolerance extended to French Protestants, unlike other colonies
- Commoners granted hunting and fishing rights denied in France
- Cultural Integration: Unlike Spanish conquest or English displacement models, New French settlers extensively intermarried with Native Americans
- Many French coureurs de bois abandoned European settlements to live in indigenous communities
- Métis children equally comfortable in French and Native settings
- Jean Vincent d’Abbadie de Saint-Castin exemplified pattern: French baron who married Penobscot chief’s daughter and raised family in Native manner
- Colonial Economy Challenges: New France remained chronically underpopulated and economically dependent
- Only 62,000 French in Quebec and Acadia by mid-18th century versus 750,000+ in English colonies
- Most colonists came from northwestern France, particularly Saintonge region
- High mortality and harsh conditions led two-thirds of male servants to return to France
- Feudal System Breakdown: Louis XIV’s attempt to impose rigid hierarchical control failed due to frontier conditions
- Seigniors impoverished as laborers fled to live with Indians or became independent fur traders
- “We were Caesars, being nobody to contradict us,” explained coureur de bois Pierre-Esprit Radisson
- Commoners displayed unusual independence, refusing to accept peasant status
- Religious and Military Dependence: New France relied heavily on Native American military alliances for survival
- Tiny French population vastly outnumbered by English colonists to the south
- Success depended on maintaining indigenous partnerships against English expansion
Founding Tidewater
Tidewater was established by English gentry seeking to recreate aristocratic manor life in the New World, developing into a hierarchical society based on tobacco plantations and, eventually, slavery.
- Early Jamestown Failures: Initial colonization attempts were disasters due to poor planning and unrealistic expectations
- 104 settlers arrived in 1607; only 38 survived nine months later
- Colonists expected to find gold and rule over Indian kingdoms like Spanish conquistadors
- Multiple “starving times” including 1609-1610 winter when colonists resorted to cannibalism
- Tobacco Revolution: John Rolfe’s successful tobacco cultivation in 1617 transformed Virginia into profitable plantation society
- Labor-intensive crop required large workforce, initially supplied by indentured servants
- Virginia Company offered 50 acres per person transported, encouraging importation of bound laborers
- 80-90% of 150,000 Europeans who came to Tidewater in 17th century were indentured servants
- Cavalier Immigration: English Civil War brought influx of Royalist gentry who became Tidewater’s ruling class
- Governor William Berkeley invited “distressed Cavaliers” fleeing Puritan victory
- Included ancestors of Washington, Lee, and Mason families
- These families intermarried to create hereditary oligarchy controlling Virginia politics for generations
- Classical Republican Ideology: Tidewater elite embraced Roman/Greek model of republicanism based on libertas (liberty as privilege)
- Contrasted with Germanic concept of Freiheit (freedom as birthright) embraced by Yankees
- “I am an aristocrat. I love liberty; I hate equality,” declared Virginian John Randolph
- System assumed most humans born into bondage, with liberty granted as privilege to worthy few
- Transition to Slavery: Labor shortage after 1670s led to replacement of indentured servants with enslaved Africans
- Initially, black and white servants treated similarly with some blacks owning property and servants
- Gradual shift to racial slavery as solution to need for permanent, controllable workforce
- “The South was not founded to create slavery; slavery was recruited to perpetuate the South”
Founding Yankeedom
Yankeedom was established by Puritan Calvinists seeking to create a religious utopia and model society, emphasizing community welfare, education, and the use of government to improve the world.
- Religious Mission: Puritans came to build a “city on a hill” - a Protestant theocracy serving as model for the world
- 25,000 Puritans arrived 1630-1642, fleeing not persecution but unwillingness to compromise on religious policy
- Community salvation more important than individual salvation; everyone’s behavior affected the whole covenant with God
- “No such thing as minding one’s own business” since entire community’s fate depended on everyone doing their part
- Democratic Innovation: Despite religious intolerance, Puritans created remarkably democratic political structures
- Towns functioned as self-governing republics with elected selectmen and town meetings
- 60-70% of adult males could vote (30-35% of total adult population) - far higher than European standards
- Egalitarian land distribution with no massive grants to create landed aristocracy
- Educational Emphasis: Believed everyone must be literate to read scriptures and participate in community decisions
- Public schoolhouses built and staffed by salaried teachers in every town
- Two-thirds of Massachusetts men and one-third of women could read/write by 1660
- Harvard founded 1636, just six years after Massachusetts Bay Colony establishment
- Expansionist Mission: Believed God charged them to spread their ways and improve the corrupt world
- This drive to impose Yankee values on others made them “loathed by the other nations”
- Conquered and annexed neighboring colonies including Maine, Connecticut, Plymouth
- Origins of American Exceptionalism and Manifest Destiny concepts
- Conflict with Indians: Viewed Native Americans as agents of Satan in the wilderness requiring conversion or destruction
- Pequot War (1636) featured burning alive of entire village of men, women, children
- Captured Indian children sold to slavery in Caribbean or killed as “young serpents”
- Approach contrasted sharply with New France’s alliance and intermarriage strategy
Founding New Netherland
New Netherland was founded as a commercial trading post by the Dutch West India Company, creating North America’s first truly diverse, tolerant society that became the cultural foundation of New York City.
- Dutch Commercial Model: New Amsterdam established 1624 as global trading entrepôt with little concern for social cohesion or religious uniformity
- Population of only 1,500 when conquered by English in 1664, but already remarkably diverse
- 18 languages spoken among 500 residents by 1643, according to visiting Jesuit priest
- Included French Walloons, German Lutherans, Portuguese Catholics, Irish, Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews
- Netherlands as European Model: Holland was the most advanced, tolerant society in 17th-century Europe
- Invented modern banking, global corporations, and established religious freedom
- Half of all books published in 17th century came from Dutch presses
- Haven for persecuted intellectuals like Descartes, Galileo, Spinoza, and John Locke
- Religious Tolerance: Company officials enforced diversity and religious freedom against governors’ prejudices
- When Governor Stuyvesant tried to expel Jewish refugees, Amsterdam overruled him citing Jewish shareholders’ investments
- Residents of Flushing protested religious restrictions, noting tolerance extended to “Jews, Turks and Egyptians” in Holland
- “Allow every one to have his own belief, as long as he behaves quietly and legally”
- Economic Pragmatism: New Netherlanders developed practical tolerance based on commercial interests rather than idealistic principles
- Fair treatment of Indians based on economic necessity - couldn’t afford to offend Iroquois trading partners
- Introduced continent’s first organized slave trade and slave markets to address labor shortages
- By 1670, approximately 20% of population was African origin, many with “half freedom” allowing property ownership
- Cultural Legacy: Despite English conquest, Dutch values of tolerance and commercial focus persisted
- Elite comprised self-made merchants rather than hereditary aristocrats
- Families like Van Cortlandts, Philipses, Vanderbilts rose from humble origins to great wealth
- Surrender agreement preserved Dutch laws, customs, language, and religious practices
The Colonies’ First Revolt
The Glorious Revolution of 1688 triggered separate rebellions in Yankeedom, New Netherland, and Tidewater as each nation sought to preserve its distinct culture against King James II’s authoritarian centralization efforts.
- James II’s Centralization Campaign: King sought to merge colonies into authoritarian Dominion of New England, eliminating representative assemblies
- Nullified Puritan property titles, forcing landowners to buy new ones from crown
- Imposed exorbitant tobacco duties and other taxes without colonial consent
- Appointed royal governors backed by imperial troops to replace elected bodies
- Yankee Response: Massachusetts led most unified resistance with broad popular support
- April 18, 1689 Boston revolt involved 2,000 militiamen from surrounding towns
- Captured governor, royal officials, and HMS Rose in coordinated action
- Rebels controlled Massachusetts within 24 hours, justified by protecting “New England” covenant with God
- New Netherland Rebellion: Dutch residents sought liberation from English rule hoping William of Orange would restore Dutch control
- Jacob Leisler led coalition of Dutch, Walloons, Jews, and Huguenots against English occupation
- Long Island Yankees marched on New York City before being bought off by Lieutenant Governor Nicholson
- Dutch community took control after Nicholson threatened to “set fire to the town”
- Tidewater Uprising: Protestant majority in Maryland feared Catholic Calverts were conspiring with Indians against them
- Rumors spread that Catholics were smuggling weapons to slaves for mass uprising
- Protestant Associators army of hundreds marched on St. Mary’s City and captured governing council
- Successfully ended Calvert rule and established Anglican dominance in Maryland politics
- Mixed Outcomes: King William endorsed some rebellions but refused full restoration of previous autonomy
- New Netherland most disappointed - William declined to return colony to Dutch control
- Massachusetts regained assemblies and land titles but had to accept royal governor and broader voting rights
- Tidewater achieved goal of removing Catholic influence and establishing Protestant control
Founding the Deep South
The Deep South was founded by Barbadian slave lords who created the most brutal and hierarchical society in North America, based on the West Indian plantation model and designed to concentrate wealth and power in the hands of a small elite.
- Barbadian Origins: Charleston founders came from Barbados, the richest and most infamous slave society in the English-speaking world
- Barbadian planters notorious for “immorality, arrogance, and excessive displays of wealth”
- John Dickinson called them “cruel people… a few lords vested with despotic power over myriad vassals”
- Island’s brutal slave system shocked contemporaries with its mortality rates double those of Virginia
- Extreme Wealth Concentration: South Carolina became the wealthiest region in North America through rice and indigo cultivation
- Per capita wealth reached £2,338 by 1770s, more than quadruple that of Tidewater
- “We are a country of gentry; we have no such thing as Common People among us”
- Statement ignored lower three-quarters of white population and enslaved black majority (80% of lowland population)
- Comprehensive Slave Code: 1698 law declared Africans had “barbarous, wild, savage natures” requiring extreme control
- Graduated punishments for runaways: whipping, branding with “R”, ear removal, castration, execution
- Whites who killed slaves fined £50 (cost of gentleman’s wig); servants who killed slaves faced harsh punishment
- System served as model for all future Deep South slave codes until Civil War
- Caste System Development: Deep South created rigid racial hierarchy unlike other slave regions
- Blacks outnumbered whites 5 to 1 in some areas, requiring constant importation to replace high mortality
- Marriage across racial lines strictly forbidden; interracial sex acceptable only for white male pleasure
- Mixed-race children automatically assigned to black caste and denied inheritance rights
- Military Culture: Constant fear of slave rebellion led to heavily armed, militarized white society
- Planters organized mounted militia with honorary military ranks like “colonel” and “major”
- 1739 Stono Rebellion saw disciplined slave army fight toward Spanish Florida before being crushed
- Heads of rebel slaves displayed on mileposts along road back to Charleston as warning
Founding the Midlands
The Midlands was founded by English Quakers as a multicultural, pacifist utopia emphasizing tolerance and individual conscience, but Quaker governmental incompetence led to their loss of political control to other immigrant groups.
- Quaker Revolutionary Vision: William Penn’s “holy experiment” sought to create society based on Inner Light doctrine and Golden Rule
- No armed forces, peaceful coexistence with Indians through fair land purchases
- Universal voting rights and religious freedom for all Christian denominations
- Government limited by annual legislative approval of taxes and budgets
- Successful Colonization: Pennsylvania attracted largest and most diverse immigration of any early colony
- Penn pre-sold 750,000 acres to 600 investors, raising capital for initial settlement
- 2,000 colonists arrived 1682, reaching 8,000 by 1686 (faster growth than Virginia or New France)
- Marketing campaign in multiple languages across Europe brought German, Dutch, Swedish settlers
- German Immigration Impact: Massive influx of German speakers made Pennsylvania first English colony without English majority
- 5,000 Germans arrived 1683-1726, followed by 57,000 more between 1727-1755
- Germans maintained separate communities with own language, schools, newspapers into 20th century
- Brought advanced farming techniques, log cabin construction, Conestoga wagon invention
- Anti-Slavery Position: Quakers and Germans shared opposition to slavery based on religious principles
- 1712 Germantown protest declared “We shall do to all men like as we will be done ourselves”
- Pennsylvania legislature imposed prohibitive slave import duties in 1712 and 1773 (overturned by crown)
- Most Quaker slaveholders voluntarily freed their slaves and compensated them for past labor
- Quaker Governmental Failure: Belief in human goodness proved inadequate for practical governance
- Constant quarrels over doctrine left assembly unable to hold regular meetings or pass essential laws
- Delaware counties broke away in 1704 due to lack of effective government
- Pacifist principles prevented defense against Indian attacks and Scots-Irish violence, forcing Quaker leaders to resign offices
Founding Greater Appalachia
Greater Appalachia was founded by waves of Scots-Irish, Scottish, and northern English refugees from war-torn borderlands who brought a warrior culture emphasizing individual liberty, personal honor, and clan-based loyalty.
- Borderland Origins: Settlers came from regions devastated by 800 years of warfare between Scotland, northern England, and Ireland
- Ancestors fought with William Wallace and Robert Bruce; regions described as “very poor and uncultivated and exceedingly wretched”
- Embraced Presbyterian Calvinism holding they were God’s chosen people watched over by wrathful Old Testament deity
- Valued individual liberty and personal honor above all else, quick to take up arms in defense
- Mass Migration Waves: Five major waves 1717-1776 brought over 100,000 Borderlanders, mostly through Philadelphia
- Driven by droughts, rent increases, famine, and economic collapse in Ulster and Scottish borders
- By 1770s, emigration so massive British officials feared economic devastation of home regions
- Philadelphia newspapers accused newcomers of counterfeiting, murder, rape, and threatening authority
- Frontier Settlement Pattern: Borderlanders rushed straight to backcountry, seizing vacant land without permission
- Built dispersed settlements in forested hills, practicing slash-and-burn agriculture and herding
- Stored wealth in mobile livestock rather than fixed property vulnerable to warfare
- Created whiskey as portable currency and trade good for remote frontier economy
- Clan-Based Social Structure: Communities organized around kinship networks extending four generations
- Justice administered through personal retaliation and blood feuds (Hatfields vs. McCoys)
- “Lynch’s law” named for Virginia Borderlander William Lynch who advocated vigilante justice
- Leaders gained authority through personal charisma and genealogical connections rather than inherited status
- Conflict with Other Nations: Appalachian expansion disrupted other colonies’ territorial control and cultural norms
- 1764 Paxton Boys march on Philadelphia nearly led to military confrontation with Midlanders
- Killed peaceful Christian Indians, demanded representation in Pennsylvania assembly
- Created independent governments like State of Franklin (1784-1788) and Transylvania in defiance of colonial authorities
Part Two: Unlikely Allies 1770-1185
A Common Struggle
The American Revolution was not a unified national uprising but rather separate wars of colonial liberation fought by distinct nations, each seeking to preserve its own culture against British attempts at imperial standardization.
- British Imperial Transformation: By mid-18th century, Britain developed aggressive new ruling class seeking to standardize and control American colonies
- Elite created artificial “upper-class” accent and centralized boarding schools (Eton, Westminster, Harrow)
- New taxes designed to keep “mean persons” out of universities and legal profession
- 10,000 imperial troops stationed in America primarily “to secure the dependence of the colonies on Great Britain”
- Regional Motivations Varied: Each nation joined or opposed resistance based on threats to their specific cultural values
- Yankees fought to preserve self-governance, Congregational Church, and Anglo-Saxon birthright freedoms
- Tidewater gentry opposed threats to their “liberties” and aristocratic privileges
- Midlands wanted to avoid conflict entirely, preferring imperial protection from Yankees and Borderlanders
- Deep South feared disruption might trigger slave rebellions
- Military Participation Patterns: Revolutionary forces came overwhelmingly from Yankeedom and Greater Appalachia
- New England provided “lion’s share of troops, arms, and materiel” including most decorated black regiment
- Appalachian soldiers so dominant that British officer called it “line of Ireland” and King George III called it “a Presbyterian War”
- Midlands largely passive; New Netherland initially opposed until Fort Sumter attack changed opinion
- First Continental Congress Divisions: September 1774 meeting revealed deep cultural fault lines among colonies
- Yankees pushed for complete trade embargo and military preparation against Britain
- Deep South delegates “seemed to fluctuate between liberty and convenience”
- Midlander Joseph Galloway led opposition, arguing colonies were “totally independent of each other” and needed compromise
- Fort Sumter as Turning Point: South Carolina’s attack on federal fort unified previously divided nations against Deep South
- Before attack, New Netherland supported Southern position and considered independent city-state
- Mayor Fernando Wood proposed New York City leave United States to become free-trade port
- Attack transformed Northern opinion overnight: “The attack on Fort Sumter has made the North a unit”
Six Wars of Liberation
The American Revolution consisted of six distinct regional conflicts, each fought according to different cultural values and military traditions rather than a unified continental war.
- Yankee Popular Uprising: New England fought as citizen militias organized by elected officers and town covenants
- Minutemen regarded commanders as public servants rather than superiors, often challenged decisions
- Washington complained they were “nasty people” who insisted on serving with neighbors under familiar leaders
- Won effective independence by March 1776 with British evacuation of Boston
- New Netherland Loyalist Stronghold: Greater New York became capital of loyalist North America and British military headquarters
- Population swelled from 22,000 to 33,000 during war as loyalist refugees poured in
- British used region as base for campaigns against other nations
- 30,000 civilians fled to Britain and Nova Scotia when peace treaty denied British control
- Midlands Neutrality: Pacifist region occupied by both sides but refused to actively participate in war
- Continental Congress had to “totally suppress” Pennsylvania’s legitimate government to force participation
- British easily occupied Philadelphia 1777-1778, welcomed enthusiastically by inhabitants
- Midland farmers preferred selling supplies to British who paid in hard currency
- Deep South Reluctant Rebellion: Planters initially supported boycotts expecting British compromise, horrified when war actually began
- Henry Laurens wrote rebellion expressed “Fear & Zeal” rather than principled opposition
- Rumors of British-armed slave uprising drove panicked whites to support independence
- Easily reconquered 1778-1780 when British implemented “Southern Strategy”
- Appalachian Civil War: Borderlanders fought whichever enemy seemed greater threat to their liberty - sometimes each other
- Pennsylvania Scots-Irish became “shock troops of revolution” against Midlander and British authority
- North Carolina backcountry opposed Tidewater-led rebellion due to recent Regulator suppression
- South Carolina and Georgia descended into vicious guerrilla warfare with “execution of prisoners, torture, rape, and plunder”
- Tidewater Gentlemen’s War: Virginia elite fought according to 18th-century codes of honor and decorum
- Provided officer class but few enlisted men to Continental Army
- Royal Governor Murray’s threat to arm slaves turned Tidewater against Britain
- 10,000 slaves fled to British forces when they returned in 1780, forming region’s largest loyalist contingent
Independence or Revolution?
The post-war period revealed that the American “revolution” was actually a conservative effort to preserve existing regional cultures, creating an unstable confederation that faced popular democratic uprisings the elite found alarming.
- Articles of Confederation Structure: First constitution created European Union-like alliance of sovereign states rather than unified nation
- Each state retained “sovereignty, freedom, and independence” with power to reject congressional measures
- Institution served states rather than “the people,” with delegates voting along regional cultural lines consistently
- Yankee New England faced off against four Southern states with middle states serving as swing voters
- Elite Fear of Democracy: Revolutionary rhetoric about fighting tyranny inspired common people to demand actual political participation
- “God gave mankind freedom by nature” declared New Hampshire Yankee, challenging wealth requirements for voting
- Appalachian militiamen informed legislators “all persons who expose their lives in defense of a country should be admitted to…rights…of a citizen”
- Property requirements lowered in many colonies; Pennsylvania eliminated them entirely under Appalachian control
- Constitutional Convention Response: Elite delegates gathered 1787 in Philadelphia to check “impudence of democracy” and “turbulence and follies of democracy”
- Alexander Hamilton advocated powerful monarch ruling for life to keep politics from “great unwashed”
- Virginia Plan backed by Yankees, Tidewater, Deep South created strong central government with appointed president and senate
- Final compromise passed five states to four, split not between large and small states but between Yankees/Deep South
- Ratification Along National Lines: Voting patterns at state conventions reflected cultural rather than state boundaries
- Yankee areas, New Netherland, Midlands, Deep South, and Tidewater generally supported new constitution
- Greater Appalachia opposed everywhere except Virginia, joined by disgruntled farmers in Yankee areas
- New Netherland demanded Bill of Rights modeled on 1664 Dutch surrender terms before agreeing to ratify
- National Compromises in Constitution: Final document reflected messy bargaining between rival cultural nations
- Tidewater/Deep South: strong president selected by Electoral College rather than popular vote
- New Netherland: Bill of Rights guaranteeing freedom of conscience, speech, religion, assembly
- Midlands: state sovereignty as insurance against Southern despots and Yankee meddling
- Yankees: equal state representation in Senate and three-fifths compromise limiting slave state power
Nations in the North
The Canadian colonies developed along similar cultural lines to their American counterparts, with Yankees dominating the Maritimes and Midlanders settling Ontario, but British imperial control prevented these nations from developing independent political institutions.
- Nova Scotia Yankee Settlement: Half of 23,000 European Americans in Nova Scotia/New Brunswick by 1775 were New England transplants
- Yankees “laid abiding foundations of Nova Scotian life” and refused militia service against American rebels
- Cape Sable fishermen completely oriented toward Boston, barely acknowledged British jurisdiction
- Eastern Passamaquoddy Bay asked Continental Congress for admission; St. John Valley petitioned Massachusetts for annexation
- New France Survival: Despite British conquest, Québec’s 70,000 French inhabitants maintained cultural autonomy
- 1763 peace treaty guaranteed freedom to speak French and practice Catholicism
- Thousands greeted 1775-1776 American invasion as liberation: “Our yoke is broke…glorious liberty…has now arrived”
- Hundreds joined Continental Army in two Canadian regiments; foundry at Trois Rivières produced American mortars
- Loyalist Settlement Patterns: 28,000 American refugees created New Brunswick but failed to establish unified culture
- 70% came from eclectic mix in Greater New York: Philadelphia Quakers, Manhattan Anglicans, New Jersey farmers, German pacifists
- Only 22% were New Englanders who actually shared culture with “old inhabitants” they were supposed to displace
- Loyalists splintered into rival religious, professional, class, and ethnic factions without natural cohesion
- Ontario’s Midland Character: Upper Canada settled primarily by Pennsylvania Germans and other “late loyalists” seeking cheap land
- “True” loyalists in 1783-1784 numbered only 6,000 Yankees and disbanded soldiers
- 10,000 “late loyalists” 1792-1812 were actually poor opportunity-seekers, three-quarters from middle states
- 90% came from New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania; contemporary called it “second edition of Pennsylvania”
- Imperial Control Limitations: British officials maintained tight political control to prevent republican uprising
- Appointed governors could dissolve legislatures, veto laws, control budgets without legislative review
- Voting rights extremely limited, press tightly controlled, councils of appointed grandees served for life
- System aimed to “ultimately destroy or disarm the spirit of democratic subversion”
First Secessionists
In the early decades after independence, Greater Appalachia and Yankeedom both seriously considered leaving the United States, with Borderlanders leading armed rebellions against federal financial policies and Yankees threatening secession over federal power and expansion policies.
- Appalachian Financial Grievances: Borderlanders discovered federal financial system was massive corruption scheme benefiting wealthy speculators
- Robert Morris and Alexander Hamilton rigged system so friends bought worthless government IOUs for 1/6 to 1/40 face value
- Federal taxes then collected from common people to pay speculators face value plus 6% interest in precious metals
- Just 400 individuals held 96% of Pennsylvania war debt; 28 men controlled nearly half
- State of Franklin: Appalachian North Carolina counties created independent state 1784-1788 after being ignored by Tidewater elite
- Constitution prohibited lawyers, clergy, doctors from office; made apple brandy and animal skins legal tender
- Applied for Congressional membership, supported by seven states but blocked by Southern opposition
- Defeated by North Carolina forces but leaders maintained contact with Spanish officials seeking alliance
- Whiskey Rebellion: Pennsylvania Borderlanders organized 9,000-man army and marched on Pittsburgh 1794
- Threatened to burn city unless Midlander authorities supported their cause
- Regional independence congress with 226 delegates raised six-striped flag representing western counties
- Discussed reaching out to Spain and Britain for protection before submitting to Washington’s 10,000-man federal army
- Yankee Secession Threat: New England opposed to Jefferson’s policies and western expansion, feared permanent minority status
- Louisiana Purchase seen as conspiracy to create slave states and ensure “ultimate predominancy of slave power”
- Massachusetts population fell from 2nd to 5th place by 1820; region lost national political influence
- Embargo Acts 1807-1808 seen as economic warfare against New England shipping interests
- Hartford Convention: December 1814 meeting came close to New England secession during War of 1812
- John Lowell called for new federal constitution offering membership only to original 13 states
- Majority of Massachusetts citizens reportedly supported secession according to opposition papers
- Convention proposed constitutional amendments to end Southern political dominance: eliminate 3/5 compromise, require 2/3 majority for wars and new states
- British offered military assistance for New England independence, but war ended before secession occurred
Part Three: Wars for the West 1816-1877
Yankeedom Spreads West
New Englanders systematically colonized the upper Midwest through organized community migration, transplanting their educational, religious, and political institutions to create a “greater Yankeedom” across the northern United States.
- Land Company Strategy: Yankees used Connecticut and Massachusetts land claims to direct settlement of western New York and northern Ohio
- Massachusetts sold 6 million acres of western New York to Boston speculators who marketed to New Englanders
- Connecticut retained 3-million-acre “Western Reserve” in northern Ohio, also developed by Yankee land companies
- Result: settlement directed by Boston-based interests with virtually all colonists from New England
- Community-Based Migration: New Englanders moved west as intact communities rather than individuals
- Entire families traveled with neighbors and ministers to plant planned towns with green, church, school
- Ipswich, Massachusetts group constructed “Mayflower of the West” flotilla to found Marietta, Ohio in 1787
- Vermontville, Michigan founders signed constitution modeled on Mayflower Compact before departure
- Cultural Infrastructure: Yankees built extensive network of colleges, schools, and churches across upper Midwest
- Founded Marietta, Oberlin, Case Western Reserve, Beloit, Ripon, Carleton, Grinnell, Illinois College
- All headed by New England-born Calvinist ministers dedicated to “essential doctrines…of Christian religion”
- Near-total control over politics: 5 of first 6 Michigan governors were Yankees; 9 of first 12 Wisconsin governors
- Religious Innovation on Frontier: Removal from orthodox control led to explosion of new religious movements
- Western New York became “Burnt-over District” due to religious fervor and new denominations
- William Miller predicted Christ’s return in 1843-1844 (Seventh-Day Adventists)
- Joseph Smith Jr. found golden plates revealing Jesus would return to Missouri (Mormons)
- John Humphrey Noyes created Oneida Community with communal property and sexual relations
- Immigrant Sorting: Foreign immigrants chose destinations based on compatibility with dominant regional culture
- Scandinavians comfortable with Yankees’ civic responsibility, sobriety, and state-church acceptance
- Catholics avoided Yankee areas due to schools designed to assimilate children into Yankee culture
- German Protestants conflicted with Yankees over brewing traditions and Sabbath observance
- Irish Catholics and Southern Baptists consistently voted opposite to English Congregationalists regardless of class
The Midlands Spread West
The Midlands expanded across the Heartland through German immigration and Pennsylvania Dutch migration, creating America’s most ethnically diverse region while maintaining characteristic pluralism and tolerance.
- German Immigration Dominance: Massive 1830-1860 German immigration ensured Midland control of American Heartland
- Germans hoped to create “New Germany” as model for democratic society they couldn’t build at home
- German Society of Philadelphia promoted western settlement as “secure refuge…a mighty fourth force”
- By 1860, Wisconsin reached 16% German-born, but Germans never achieved state-level majorities anywhere
- Pennsylvania Dutch Expansion: Early Midland settlers replicated Delaware Valley pluralistic communities in Midwest
- Founded New Philadelphia, Ohio (Moravians), Berlin, Hanover, Dresden (Pennsylvania Dutch)
- Built characteristic stone houses, barns, United Brethren churches in 50-mile belt across Ohio
- Attracted direct German immigration to Cincinnati and other established German enclaves
- Agricultural Excellence: German farming techniques became legendary for productivity and sustainability
- Selected best farmland, conserved soil through crop rotation, improved livestock through selective breeding
- “Pretty to behold our back settlements where barns are large as palaces” observed 1753 surveyor
- Invented Conestoga wagon and perfected log cabin construction for frontier conditions
- Political Moderation: Midland areas served as swing vote between Yankee and Southern political coalitions
- Initially supported anti-Yankee Democratic Party to resist cultural assimilation efforts
- Split along doctrinal lines in 1850s over slavery: reform-minded denominations joined Republicans, traditional ones stayed Democratic
- German defection to Lincoln tipped Illinois, Ohio, Indiana into Republican column in 1860, giving him presidency
- Religious Pluralism: Midland communities maintained characteristic tolerance despite internal ethnic divisions
- Individual towns dominated by single ethnic groups, but counties remained pluralistic
- Germans insisted on entering “melting pot collectively, on their own terms”
- Used German language in schools/newspapers, married within ethnic group into 1880s, maintained separate cultural identity
Appalachia Spreads West
Greater Appalachian culture spread faster and wider than other nations due to Borderlanders’ willingness to live beyond government control and their mobile, individualistic lifestyle, but this expansion was marked by violence, poverty, and cultural conflict with other settlers.
- Rapid Westward Movement: Borderlanders were first to cross Appalachians and expand into trans-Appalachian territories
- Founded illegal governments like Transylvania and State of Franklin before official territorial organization
- Rafted down Ohio River while Yankees still colonizing upstate New York
- By 1850 had spread to north Texas, carrying Ulster and English Marches speech patterns to western frontier
- Distinctive Settlement Pattern: Appalachian people expanded as individuals rather than organized communities
- Built homes in center of plots for privacy rather than on roads
- Scattered through forests and hollows, formed towns “almost as an afterthought”
- Proportion of Kentuckians in public schools in 1850 was 1/6 that of Maine; far fewer libraries per capita
- Mobile Subsistence Economy: Borderlanders practiced woodland economy focused on livestock rather than crops
- Burned trees or girdled them, planted corn between stumps, fed corn to hogs and cattle
- Stored wealth in mobile herds rather than fixed improvements vulnerable to destruction
- 60-80% of frontiersmen moved within decade of arrival; poorest relocated most often
- Cultural Conflicts with Yankees: Stark differences in values and practices created mutual hostility
- Yankees built homes on roads, ate potatoes, planted orchards, used written contracts
- Borderlanders built away from roads, ate corn, spurned orchards, relied on verbal honor-bound agreements
- Illinois Borderlander thanked God “that God made the world before He made the Yankees”
- Religious Transformation: Frontier conditions led to emotional, individualistic evangelical Christianity
- Presbyterian authority undermined; Southern Baptist and Methodist churches emphasized personal salvation
- 1801 Cane Ridge revival drew 20,000 with “hundreds fell prostrate…more than one thousand persons broke into loud shouting”
- Contrast with Yankee frontiersmen who joined reform-minded, utopian, or works-focused denominations
- Political Opposition to Yankees: Borderlanders consistently voted Democratic to oppose Yankee cultural imperialism
- “Butternut Democrats did not care much about slavery, but they could not stand the Yankees”
- Supported Jefferson over Adams, Jackson over John Quincy Adams, Douglas over Lincoln
- Ohio congressman Clement Vallandigham blamed Yankees for endangering Union: “You are a peculiar people”
The Deep South Spreads West
The Deep South rapidly expanded westward through the cotton boom, displacing both Greater Appalachia and competing cultures while developing an elaborate intellectual defense of slavery as a positive good and superior social system.
- Cotton Revolution: Market demand and Eli Whitney’s 1791 cotton gin enabled Deep South plantation system to expand beyond coastal lowlands
- World cotton production tripled while Deep South’s share rose from 9% (1801) to 68% (1850)
- Labor-intensive crop allowed slaveholding planters to outcompete small family farmers
- Rising land prices encouraged Appalachian settlers to sell out and move further west
- Demographic Transformation: Deep South expanded from 2 to 6 state governments, while Tidewater stagnated
- Tidewater unable to expand westward due to geographic barriers and competing nations
- Deep South voices replaced Virginia gentlemen like Washington, Jefferson, Madison with South Carolina firebrands
- Slave exports: Tidewater alone sold 124,000 slaves to Gulf states 1810-1820 in “Second Middle Passage”
- Intellectual Defense of Slavery: Deep Southern thinkers developed comprehensive justification for human bondage as positive good
- James Henry Hammond argued enslaved workers “happier, fitter, and better looked after” than free workers
- Slavery prevented “fearful crisis in Republican institutions” by keeping exploited classes under control
- Alexander Stephens declared Confederacy “rests upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man”
- Norman Race Theory: Deep South elites claimed genetic superiority over Yankees as master Norman race
- DeBow’s Review: “The Cavaliers, Jacobites, and Huguenots who settled the South naturally hate…the Puritans”
- Yankees described as “slave race, descendants of Saxon serfs” from “cold and marshy regions”
- “The Norman cavalier cannot brook the vulgar familiarity of the Saxon Yankee”
- Imperial Expansion Plans: Hemmed in by geography and rivals, Deep South sought tropical territories for “Golden Circle” empire
- Attempted private invasions of Cuba; President Pierce tried to purchase island from Spain
- William Walker seized Nicaragua 1856, reestablished slavery to win Deep Southern support
- Knights of the Golden Circle plotted slave empire encompassing Mexico, Central America, Caribbean
Conquering El Norte
El Norte fell under U.S. control through a combination of Mexican governmental collapse, illegal Anglo-American immigration, and military conquest, but the cultural boundary between norteño and Anglo regions persisted despite political changes.
- Mexican Independence Crisis: 1821 independence left El Norte isolated and impoverished
- War killed 1/10 of Mexico’s population, cut gross national product in half
- Mexico City presidency changed hands 36 times between 1833-1855
- Soldiers and missionaries stopped receiving pay; supply caravans no longer reached northern settlements
- Illegal Immigration Wave: Anglo-Americans flooded into Texas despite Mexican law prohibiting foreign settlement
- By 1823, 3,000 illegal immigrants roughly equaled official territorial population
- Immigration legalized 1824-1825 but newcomers refused to assimilate: spurned Catholicism, lived away from norteño enclaves
- By 1835, American immigrants outnumbered Tejanos more than 10 to 1
- Texas Revolution Dynamics: 1835-1836 revolt began as joint norteño-Anglo resistance to Santa Anna’s dictatorship
- San Antonio mayor Juan Seguín and other Tejano leaders joined rebellion, served in revolutionary army
- Seven Tejanos died at Alamo; Seguín supervised burial of the dead
- Deep Southern newspapers cast war as racial struggle, inspiring thousands of Southern volunteers
- Post-Revolution Dispossession: Anglo settlers systematically drove Tejanos from land and political power
- Even revolution hero Juan Seguín forced into exile by claims he was “Mexican sympathizer”
- Anglos regarded norteños as “inferiors and enemies to be dispossessed, just as the Cherokee had been”
- Stephen Austin characterized struggle as war “of barbarism…waged by the mongrel Spanish-Indian and Negro race against…the Anglo-American race”
- Cultural Boundaries Established: Revolution pushed El Norte border back to current location north of San Antonio
- Northeast, north-central Texas absorbed into Appalachia; northern Gulf Coast annexed to Deep South
- South and west Texas remained norteño, creating state’s classic cultural divisions
- Mexican-American War (1846-1848) extended this pattern across Southwest, with opposition concentrated in Yankeedom
Founding the Left Coast
The Left Coast emerged from a combination of Yankee-led colonization efforts and diverse gold rush immigration, creating a culture that blended New England idealism with individual self-exploration and environmental consciousness.
- Yankee Missionary Impulse: New Englanders sought to create “second New England on Pacific” and save California from Catholic influences
- Salem and Portland founded by New Englanders; latter named by Maine native after coin toss with Bostonian
- Yankee ministers like Timothy Dwight Hunt told San Francisco New England Society in 1852: “make California the Massachusetts of the Pacific”
- 10,000 Yankees arrived by sea in 1849 alone, donating land and money for churches and schools
- Oregon Territory Development: Yankees dominated politics despite being outnumbered by Appalachian farmers
- 1843 provisional government drafted by Yankees prohibited slavery and elected predominantly New England officers
- Six of first eight governors and six of first eight U.S. senators were Yankees
- Appalachian settlers concentrated on farms while Yankees controlled towns and institutions
- Gold Rush Disruption: 1848-1850 California gold rush brought 300,000 people from around the world
- San Francisco grew from 800 to 20,000 in two years, resembling “Port Royal in time of buccaneers”
- Yankee missionaries organized to save California from “gold-thirsty race” seeking quick wealth
- American Home Missionary Society saw opportunity to create Protestant beachhead for converting Asia
- Educational Infrastructure: Yankees built extensive school and college system despite diverse population
- San Francisco school board entirely staffed by New Englanders by 1853, imposed Boston curriculum
- College of California (now UC Berkeley) founded as “Yale of the West” with New England professors
- Even Boston and California Joint Stock Mining Company brought staff pastor and divinity students
- Cultural Synthesis: Left Coast blended Yankee moral idealism with Appalachian/immigrant individualism
- Yankees failed to create “commonwealth of saints” but influenced regional values toward social improvement
- Constitutional convention dominated by Borderlanders and norteños, limiting Yankee political control
- Resulting culture “idealistic but individualistic,” allied with Yankeedom but temperamentally different
War for the West
The Civil War era represented not a “North versus South” conflict but a struggle between rival coalitions of nations, with the Deep South and Tidewater facing off against Yankeedom, while other nations sought neutrality or joined coalitions reluctantly.
- Demographic Shift by 1850: Northern nations gained population advantage through immigration while Deep South expansion stalled
- Free states had 8 foreign-born inhabitants for every 1 in slave states by 1850
- Deep South hemmed in by climate, ecology, and rivals with nowhere else to expand within U.S.
- Yankees controlled Left Coast, ensuring California, Oregon, Washington would join as free states
- Yankee Abolitionist Leadership: Anti-slavery movement centered in New England with national implications
- William Lloyd Garrison founded The Liberator, Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin
- Frederick Douglass found refuge in Massachusetts; John Brown organized Kansas violence from Connecticut
- 1860 Lincoln won every county in New England, Western Reserve of Ohio, Yankee Wyoming Valley of Pennsylvania
- Deep Southern Secession Logic: Slave lords recognized they faced permanent political minority and sought independence
- James Henry Hammond’s defense of slavery as foundation for “well-designed and durable” republic
- Alexander Stephens declared Confederacy based on “great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man”
- South Carolina seceded first; only states joining before Lincoln’s inauguration were Deep South-controlled
- Regional Splits Within “South”: Appalachian, Deep Southern, and Tidewater areas showed different patterns of support/opposition
- Texas struggle pitted South Carolinian Louis Wigfall against Borderlanders John Regan and Sam Houston
- New Orleans Creoles remained Unionist; free blacks in Louisiana outnumbered those in most Northern cities
- Appalachian counties in Gulf states elected Unionist representatives opposing their lowland counterparts
- Northern Alliance Formation: Yankees eventually gained support from New Netherland and Midlands after Fort Sumter attack
- Before attack, New Netherland Mayor Fernando Wood proposed independent city-state allied with Confederacy
- Midlands advocated “Central Confederacy” to serve as neutral buffer between Yankees and Deep South
- Attack unified Northern opinion: “The attack on Fort Sumter has made the North a unit”
- Appalachian Civil War: Borderlanders split based on which culture they saw as greater threat to liberty
- Western Virginia, eastern Tennessee, northern Alabama formed Union governments and regiments
- 250,000 men from Appalachian sections of Confederacy served in Union army
- Lower-lying areas with more Appalachian slaveholders (middle Tennessee, western North Carolina) supported Confederacy
Part Four: Culture Wars 1878-2010
Founding the Far West
The Far West became North America’s only environmentally-determined nation, where harsh arid conditions destroyed traditional farming and settlement patterns, creating a region dependent on external capital and corporate control rather than ethnocultural traditions.
- Environmental Challenges: West of 98th meridian, only 20 inches annual rainfall made traditional Euro-Atlantic agriculture impossible
- Altitude so high that familiar crops wouldn’t grow in alkali-poisoned soils
- Shallow rivers unsuitable for navigation; mounted Indian warfare effectively controlled territory
- “Transcontinental trails littered with bodies of livestock and people” who ran out of water or faced outlaws
- Corporate Colonization Model: Only two ways for Euro-Americans to survive: adopt nomadic Indian ways or attach to industrial corporations
- Railroad companies received 150 million acres (size of Montana and Idaho combined) from federal government
- Mining cartels deployed capital, machines, mercenaries to extract resources with ruthless efficiency
- Individual producers quickly displaced by capital-intensive operations requiring external financing
- Mormon Exception: Utah Mormons created successful farming enclave through communal irrigation projects and group cohesion
- 20,000 Yankees led by Vermont-born Brigham Young arrived 1847-1850
- Intensive group organization enabled construction and maintenance of irrigation infrastructure
- Created enclave of independent producers in region otherwise controlled by absentee owners
- Nevada Corporate Takeover: Comstock Lode silver boom (1859) demonstrated pattern of corporate control over Far Western politics
- Initial territorial legislature dominated by independent prospectors and small businessmen
- Mining interests introduced bill exempting mines from taxation despite representing most economic activity
- By 1865-1900, every U.S. senator save one was closely associated with Bank of California or Central Pacific Railroad cartels
- Railroad-Directed Settlement: Companies conducted massive marketing campaigns using fraudulent advertising
- Wyoming’s Laramie Plain claimed comparable to “fertile prairies of Illinois” despite being 5,000 feet higher with 1/3 the rainfall
- “Rain follows the plow” theory promoted by scientists like Cyrus Thomas: “As population increases, moisture will increase”
- Hundreds of thousands settled based on assumption that 160 acres of Colorado prairie equaled 160 acres of Illinois grassland
- Environmental Catastrophe: 1886 winter killed 1/3 to 3/4 of High Plains cattle; drought 1887-1890 drove out 60% of farmers
- Kansas and Nebraska populations fell by nearly half as 600,000 farmers abandoned region
- Overgrazing destroyed topsoil, turning clear Missouri River permanently brown
- “Since those high and far-off days the range has never been capable of supporting anything like the number of cattle”
Immigration and Identity
The great immigration waves of 1830-1924 reinforced rather than dissolved the differences among American nations, as immigrants concentrated in specific regions and either assimilated to local dominant cultures or formed ethnic enclaves within them.
- Immigration Scale and Distribution: 36 million immigrants 1830-1924, but never more than 10-14% of U.S. population at any time
- Three waves: Irish/Germans (1830-1860), continued European plus Scandinavian/Chinese (1860-1890), Southern/Eastern European (1890-1924)
- Concentrated heavily in New Netherland, Midlands, Yankeedom, and Left Coast gateway cities
- Virtually none settled in Tidewater, Appalachia, Deep South, or El Norte due to feudal conditions and lack of opportunities
- Regional Assimilation Patterns: Each nation’s immigrants assimilated to local dominant culture rather than creating unified “American” identity
- New Netherland and Midlands had been explicitly multicultural since foundation, easily absorbed diverse groups
- Yankeedom created “melting pot” model through public schools designed to acculturate immigrants to New England norms
- Henry Ford English School graduation ceremony: immigrants entered giant cauldron in native dress, emerged in American suits waving flags
- Yankee Cultural Imperialism: New England developed systematic program to assimilate immigrants and other regions to their values
- Horace Mann argued immigrants couldn’t be “transformed into full stature of American citizens” without proper education
- Created mandatory evening classes in English, mathematics, U.S. history, and “hygiene and good behavior”
- Harvard historians created mythic national history emphasizing Pilgrims, Boston Tea Party, Yankee figures while ignoring Jamestown
- Cultural Pluralism vs. Assimilation Debate: Modern immigration debate reflects historical tensions between different national approaches
- Samuel Huntington argued “Anglo-Protestant” culture and “American Creed” essential unifying factors
- Multiculturalists argue America’s genius is allowing different groups to maintain distinct identities
- Both sides invoke characteristics true only of subset of nations rather than “America” as whole
- El Norte Reconquista: Modern Mexican immigration represents return to historical patterns rather than unprecedented challenge
- 12.7 million Mexican-born in U.S. by 2008 (11% of all native Mexicans), 32% of all foreign-born
- Vast majority live in El Norte where they constitute overwhelming majority and see no reason to assimilate to “Anglo-Protestant norm”
- University of New Mexico professor Charles Truxillo: “Southwest Chicanos and Norteño Mexicanos are becoming one people again”
Gods and Missions
The post-Civil War period saw the crystallization of two hostile religious and cultural blocs: a northern “Public Protestant” alliance emphasizing social reform and betterment of this world, versus a southern “Private Protestant” coalition focused on individual salvation and preservation of traditional social order.
- Dixie Religious Resistance: Defeated Confederate nations organized resistance around evangelical churches emphasizing individual salvation over social reform
- Southern Baptists, Methodists, Episcopalians became “Private Protestants” believing world inherently corrupt and sinful
- Emphasized personal salvation and maintaining order rather than transforming society through social gospel
- Southern Methodist minister declared opposition to slavery made Yankees “disloyal to laws of God and man”
- Lost Cause Civil Religion: Southern clergy fostered myth that God tested his chosen people through Confederate defeat
- Nashville Presbyterian preacher: defeat “did not prove the heathen to be right” since “questions of right and wrong are not settled…by force of arms”
- Righteous would defeat federal government through “steadfastness to principle” like biblical resistance to “beast having seven heads”
- Goal was promoting Deep Southern folkways while prescribing “democracy for elite and obedience for everyone else”
- Reconstruction Success and Failure: Yankee-led occupation temporarily democratized South but withdrew before permanent change
- 15 African Americans elected to U.S. House 1870-1877; 2 represented Mississippi in Senate
- After 1876 withdrawal, whites restored supremacy through rewritten constitutions, poll taxes, literacy tests
- South Carolina presidential vote fell from 182,600 (1876) to 50,000 (1900) despite population increase
- Northern Public Protestant Alliance: Yankees, New Netherlanders, Left Coasters emphasized collective salvation and social gospel
- Viewed alcoholism as social ill requiring legislative solution rather than individual character failing
- Led temperance movement: Maine first prohibition state, Women’s Christian Temperance Union founded in Yankee Evanston
- Anti-Saloon League founded in Ohio’s Western Reserve by Congregational minister descended from Massachusetts Puritans
- Social Reform Movements: Northern alliance dominated child welfare, women’s suffrage, early environmental protection
- Child labor, adoption laws, playground requirements, anti-abuse societies all began in Massachusetts and New York
- Women’s suffrage: 1848 Seneca Falls meeting, Worcester conventions backed by Yankee male leaders
- Environmental movement entirely concentrated in Public Protestant nations before 1960s: Sierra Club (San Francisco), Audubon Society (New York), national parks (Theodore Roosevelt)
Culture Clash
The 1960s cultural revolution and simultaneous civil rights movement represented the eruption of the century-long cultural Cold War between the northern alliance and Dixie bloc into open conflict, with each bloc experiencing internal uprisings that drew outside intervention.
- Civil Rights as Second Reconstruction: African Americans in Deep South challenged apartheid system with decisive support from northern alliance federal power
- 1955 Deep South still required rigid apartheid: separate facilities, no intermarriage, blacks addressed whites as “Mister/Miss” but never received those titles
- Movement leaders primarily Deep Southerners: MLK Jr. (Atlanta), John Lewis (Alabama), Rosa Parks (Tuskegee)
- Federal intervention crucial: Kennedy brothers, Massachusetts politicians provided blueprint for LBJ’s follow-through
- White Southern Resistance: Dixie bloc responded with “massive resistance” revealing inhuman nature of cherished practices
- Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus used National Guard to block school integration, forcing Eisenhower to deploy 101st Airborne
- Communities shut down entire public school systems rather than integrate; Prince Edward County, Virginia went without schools for years
- Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission declared voter registration drives subversive to “Mississippi’s way of life”
- Sixties Youth Movement Geography: Cultural revolution of 1960s barely touched Dixie bloc, concentrated in four northern nations
- Port Huron Statement combined Yankee/Midlander values: “participatory democracy,” universal disarmament, end to “power rooted in possession”
- Major events in Northern alliance: hippies (San Francisco Bay Area), Free Speech Movement (Berkeley), Woodstock (Yankeedom), Stonewall (Greenwich Village)
- Students for a Democratic Society strongest at Harvard, Cornell, Berkeley, Columbia, with little presence in South
- Regional Patterns in Other Movements: El Norte and New France also experienced successful cultural liberation movements
- Crystal City, Texas (95% norteño) exemplified pattern: Anglo minority controlled government until 1960s voter mobilization
- Québec’s “Quiet Revolution” transformed province along lines of postwar France: secular education, strong welfare state, nationalized utilities
- 1995 independence referendum defeated by only 0.4% margin, with northern First Nation sections voting 9-1 against
- Environmental Movement Geography: Opposition to 2009 carbon emissions cap-and-trade bill followed predictable national lines
- Near-unanimous support in New Netherland, Left Coast, Yankeedom including every New England congressman
- Near-unanimous bipartisan opposition from Far West, joined by overwhelming majority of Appalachian and Deep Southern lawmakers
- Similar patterns for Equal Rights Amendment, gay marriage laws, abortion access if Roe v. Wade overturned
War, Empire, and the Military
Foreign policy debates consistently divide along national lines, with the Dixie bloc supporting virtually every war and military intervention while opposition concentrates in the northern alliance nations, especially Yankeedom.
- Spanish-American War (1898): Initial unity collapsed over imperial expansion, with Yankees leading anti-imperialist movement
- Boston-based Anti-Imperialist League had 28 of 43 vice presidents from Yankeedom, only 3 from Deep South
- Massachusetts Senator George Hoar championed Filipino independence; Harvard alumni opposed honoring McKinley
- Dixie bloc supported military victory but feared empire would require large standing armies that might be turned against South
- World War I Patterns: Dixie bloc most enthusiastic for war and suppression of dissent under Southern president Woodrow Wilson
- Wilson said pacifists filled with “stupidity” and opponents deserved “firm hand of stiff repression”
- Mississippi’s Jackson Clarion-Ledger editorialized antiwar leaders should be “shot or hung”
- Four leading Senate opponents all Yankees or Left Coasters: Harry Lane (Oregon), George Norris (Nebraska), Asle Gronna (North Dakota), Robert La Follette (Wisconsin)
- World War II Mobilization: Hitler united nations to unprecedented degree, but also transformed Far West and El Norte through federal spending
- Dixie bloc provided 90 military volunteers per 100 draftees vs. 50 federation average
- 88% of Southerners said war justified vs. 70% of Northeast, 64% of “Midwestern” residents
- Federal shipyards, aircraft plants, steel mills, nuclear facilities industrialized previously colonial Far West and El Norte
- Vietnam War Opposition: Antiwar movement centered in Northern alliance with Dixie bloc providing strongest hawk support
- Only 2 of 30+ Dixie senators consistently opposed war; both were Appalachian (Fulbright of Arkansas, Yarborough of Texas)
- Antiwar events concentrated in Yankeedom, New Netherland, Left Coast: Berkeley teach-ins, Pentagon march, Kent State
- L. Mendel Rivers of South Carolina: “Words are fruitless…There can be only one answer from America: retaliation, retaliation, retaliation!”
- Iraq War (2003): Bush administration’s Dixie bloc leadership implemented unilateralist foreign policy agenda
- August 2002 Gallup: “Southerners” approved invasion 62-34% vs. “Midwesterners” 47-44%
- Dixie congressional representatives voted 4-1 for war authorization; Deep Southerners and Far Westerners opposed criticism of 2006 “surge”
- Left Coast delegation unanimous in disapproval of surge; Yankeedom and El Norte nearly unanimous in opposition
The Struggle for Power I: The Blue Nations
The Northern alliance of Yankeedom, New Netherland, and the Left Coast has maintained consistent political priorities for over a century, favoring strong central government, corporate regulation, and environmental protection regardless of which party was dominant.
- Historical Coalition Formation: Yankee-Left Coast alliance formed in 1840s, joined by New Netherland in early 20th century
- 1877-1897 Northern alliance dominated with Midlands and Far West support through tariffs and Civil War pensions
- New Netherland initially aligned with Dixie on trade issues but joined North due to urban infrastructure needs and opposition to Protestant supremacy
- Together promoted “strong central government, federal checks on corporate power, conservation of environmental resources”
- Republican Era Consistency (1897-1932): Northern alliance Republicans supported progressive policies despite “conservative” reputation
- Theodore Roosevelt broke up trusts, intervened in strikes for miners, created National Park Service and food/drug regulation
- Taft continued antitrust, backed constitutional amendments for income tax and direct Senate election
- Coolidge, famous for hands-off approach, promoted labor protections and inclusion of workers on corporate boards as Massachusetts governor
- Modern Electoral Patterns: Three nations supported same presidential candidates in nearly every election 1988-2008
- All chose Obama over McCain, Kerry and Gore over Bush, Dukakis over Bush Sr.
- New Netherland only nation to definitively reject conservatives Reagan and Nixon
- Only disagreement: New Netherland chose McGovern over Nixon in 1972
- Congressional Voting Cohesion: Northern alliance representatives vote together regardless of party affiliation
- 2010 health care: Yankeedom 62-21, New Netherland 24-6, Left Coast 21-2 in favor
- 2010 financial regulation: Yankeedom 63-19, Left Coast 21-1, New Netherland 26-4 in favor
- Republican defectors on party-line votes nearly always from Northern alliance or Midlands
- Republican Party Collapse in Region: GOP “extinct in region of its birth” by 2009
- Vermont’s Jim Jeffords left party after colleagues stripped disabled children funding
- By 2009 only 3 Republican senators left in entire Northern alliance, 2 with American Conservative Union ratings under 50%
- Republicans lost control of every lower house legislature, all but one upper house, 7 of 13 governors by 2010
The Struggle for Power II: The Red and the Purple
The Dixie bloc has served the consistent economic interests of the Deep Southern oligarchy for four centuries while using racial and religious appeals to maintain the support of Greater Appalachia, despite the inherent tensions between these partners.
- Deep Southern Economic Agenda: Oligarchy has consistently sought to maintain colonial-style economy with compliant low-wage workforce
- “High-technology version of plantation economy of Old South” with working classes as sharecroppers
- Campaign on abortion, immigration, gun rights; govern by cutting taxes for wealthy, eliminating regulations, subsidizing agribusiness
- Thomas Frank’s Kansas analysis: “Vote to stop abortion, receive rollback in capital gains taxes”
- Appalachian Recruitment Strategy: Oligarchy overcame Borderlander populist traditions through racism and Private Protestant religion
- Appalachian populists included LBJ, Ross Perot, Mike Huckabee, Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Cordell Hull
- “It is hard to say who they hate most, the rebels or the Negroes” - Tennessee Governor William Brownlow (1865)
- Shared Private Protestant values bonded ordinary people across Dixie bloc against secular, feminist, environmentalist Northern values
- Post-1965 Republican Realignment: Civil rights legislation drove Dixie into Republican Party, transforming national politics
- LBJ: “I think we just delivered the South to the Republican Party for a long time to come”
- 1968 Dixie backed George Wallace: “there sure are a lot of rednecks in this country”
- Coalition rallied to Nixon and Reagan from El Norte’s Anglo minority who captured GOP leadership
- Congressional Leadership Extremism: Dixie representatives consistently advocate positions shocking to Northern alliance
- Trent Lott: 1984 GOP platform good because “full of things Jefferson Davis and his people believed in”
- Tom DeLay: youth violence caused by “working mothers who take birth control pills” and “teaching of evolution”
- Phil Gramm during 2008 financial crisis: America become “nation of whiners…complaining about loss of competitiveness”
- Swing Nations’ Critical Role: Neither superpower bloc can dominate without support from Midlands, El Norte, and/or Far West
- 1877-1933 Northern alliance controlled with Far West and Midlands support
- 1980-2008 Dixie dominance based on Far West and Midlands alliance plus conservative El Norte Anglos (Goldwater, Nixon, Reagan)
- El Norte’s growing Hispanic majority increasingly aligned with Northern alliance, threatening Dixie’s future prospects
Epilogue
The United States faces potential disintegration due to irreconcilable differences between its component nations, with several possible futures ranging from peaceful devolution to violent breakup, while the northern regions demonstrate that successful multicultural federations are possible.
- Signs of Imperial Decline: U.S. exhibits classic symptoms of failing superpower similar to historical Holland and Britain
- Massive external debt, military overreach, financial services dominance, religious extremist political influence
- Deeply divided citizenry with “Tea Party” adopting revolutionary rhetoric against federal government
- 2000 election damage, 2008 financial meltdown, extreme political dysfunction suggest systemic breakdown
- Mexican Federation Collapse Potential: Mexico increasingly described as failed state with regional independence movements
- Drug cartels control state governors, police chiefs; Maya fighting independence struggle in Chiapas
- Northern Mexicans question benefits of association with Mexico City, which “extracts tribute” like “old Aztec empire”
- Climate change, financial collapse, terrorism could trigger Mexican breakup, freeing El Norte’s Mexican sections
- Canadian Stability Through Compromise: Canada most stable North American federation because nations made mutual concessions
- New France nearly achieved independence in 1995 (defeated by 0.4% margin, saved by First Nation opposition)
- Federal government officially bilingual while Quebec officially French-only
- Canada rejected illusion of single dominant culture, embraced multiculturalism as civic religion
- U.S. Breakup Scenarios: Federation could dissolve through constitutional crisis, abandonment of rule of law, or mutual agreement for devolution
- Crisis scenario: pandemic, terrorism, economic collapse leading to suspension of civil rights and constitutional government
- Peaceful scenario: nations agree to limit federal government to defense, foreign policy, interstate