If the Southerners i.e Batists, hillbillies, rednecks etc are indeed Anglo-Saxons (English) then how come they are called trash compared to English gentlemen civilized people? shouldnt the Southerners also be same as English people as a whole in their mentallity?
Anonymous
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I don't know what a Batist is, but not all Southerners are hillbillies,rednecks or white trash. Hillbilly,redneck and white trash do not mean the same thing and never have.
The British southern colonies in America were settles by people from all parts of Great Britain and Ireland. Some areas were heavily settled by English people, some of who,me were of Anglos Saxon stock, some of "Celtic" British stock and even some descended from Norman English families. Eastern Virginia and the DelMar peninsula, South Carolina and later North Carolina were settled by families associated with the English gentry and lesser nobility. By the late 1600s English Quakers began moving into central North Carolina mostly after having stopped off first in Pennsylvania or other northern colonies. These Quakers were soon followed by other religious refugees including Ulster Scots, German Protestants, and the descendants of French Huguenots who had been dispersed about the Netherlands, Great Britain and Ireland. As you might know Georgia was originally a penal colony and being poor was crime so people from anywhere in the Britsh Isles could have ended up there. The wave of Scots, Germans and Huguenots made it's way as far as western S.C. and Georgia. The Scots settled heavily in the Southern Appalachians and got on famously with the Cherokee. So many white Southerners claim Cherokee ancestry and many Cherokee are mixed down and have Scottish surnames. There was also a Scottish enclave in Eastern N.C. There was a Swiss colony in N.C. and many modernSoutherners have Swiss ancestry. The Irish have been present in the Americas almost from the earliest stages of colonization. Many Southerners of Irish ancestry can tell you that their Irish ancestors were here by the late 1600. The Irish continued trickling in until shortly before the revolution; not just from Ulster, but names known to be associated with the southern half of Ireland such as O'Sullivan, O'Brian, Brennan, Keogh, Coffey and Considine to name a few. There are people in Alabama, Georgia and Louisiana who have Spanish and French surnames going back to when those states were French and Spanish territories. I would be remiss in not mentioning the many Welsh colonists present in the early southern colonies.
Tennessee was originally part of N.C. and was mostly settled by people who moved due west from that state with some help from the border areas of VA, S.C. and GA. Georgia and South Carolina had a big hand in the settling of Alabama and Mississipi with considerable help from North Carolina,Virginia and even Kentucky families. From there people moved on to Arkansas and Texas.
One etymology of the term hillbilly traces it to those Scots who supported William of Orange and were known as "Billy boys." THose who made it to America and setteled in the Appalachians came to known as "hillbillies" Red neck supposedly has an origin in the practice by Scottish Covenanters of identifying themselves by the use of a red scarf or other red cloth around their necks. These red necks were relatively cultured people and Presbyterians something quite different from what people think of these days when they say or hear redneck used as a slur. White trash is a term which grew in use during the post Civil War reconstruction period as a reference to poor, unmotivated, shiftless whites who made no social or economic advancement for themselves nor did they contribute to society. They were so undesireable that they were held in lower esteem and were even looked down upon by former black slaves.
I am not sure what mentalities you think that English people in general or Southerners in general have, but I can tell you that as a Southerner I get on very well with English people and apparently have less trouble communicating with them than many of my northern compatriots.
Amaretta
American Southerners today come from a wide range of backgrounds. Many of them are Hispanic, predominantly from Mexico in some states and from Cuban in Florida, but they also come from many other Spanish-speaking countries. Louisiana has a large population with a French or French-Canadian background. They also have quite a few Vietnamese people now. Texas had many German settlers. Miami, Charleston and other Southern towns have Jewish populations. Virginia has a large population from China, El Salvador, Afghanistan, India, Vietnam, Korea and many other countries. The largest ethnic group in the South is probably African-American. There are also many long-time Southerners whose background is English, Scottish and Irish. You shouldn't assume that Southerners are all anything.
Elizabeth
I'm from Alabama, and here, a lot of us seem to have Irish ancestry and Cherokee Indian ancestry. The Irish came to help on plantations, and the Cherokee were already here when the British got here....I also know a few people with German and Scottish heritage.
And by the way ...it is Baptist. And that's a religion...has nothing to do with race.
?
The early days of American Colonization by the British broke upon established English religious barriers, with Puritans in the Northeast of America, and Anglicans in the South.
Maxi
Just like anywhere else in the world there are uneducated and ignorant people...everyone in England is not your stereotypical English Gentleman( or women)...I have no idea what US Southerners are like and I am sure they are not all 'Batists, hillbillies, rednecks'........and it is flawed thinking to believe that....................