Dixie


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For other uses, see Dixie (disambiguation).
Ten Dollar Note from Banque Des Citoyens of Louisiana, 1860

Dixie is a nickname for the Southern United States.

Contents

Origin of Dixie

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the origins of this nickname remain obscure. According to A Dictionary of Americanisms on Historical Principles (1951), by Mitford M. Mathews, three theories most commonly attempt to explain the term:

  1. The word "'Dixie'" refers to a privately issued currency from banks in Louisiana[1]. These banks issued ten-dollar notes, labeled "Dix" (French for "ten") on the reverse side. These notes are now highly sought-after for their numismatic value. The notes were known as "Dixies" by English-speaking southerners, and the area around New Orleans and the Cajun-speaking parts of Louisiana came to be known as "Dixieland". Eventually, usage of the term broadened to refer to most of the Southern States.
  2. The word preserves the name of a kind slave owner on Manhattan Island, a Mr. Dixy. (Slavery was legal in New York until 1827.) His rule was so kindly that "Dixy's Land" became famed far and wide as an elysium abounding in material comforts.
  3. "Dixie" derives from Jeremiah Dixon of the Mason-Dixon line which defined the border between Maryland and Pennsylvania, and, for the most part, free and slave states (a small portion of Delaware, a Union border state, and slave state up to the promulgation of the Emancipation Proclamation, lay north of the boundary.)

Dixie as a region

As a definite geographic location within the United States, "Dixie" is usually defined as the 11 Southern states that seceded to form the Confederate States of America. They are (in order of secession): South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Tennessee. This definition is strongly correlated with history and, in the minds of many Southerners, remains the traditional and emotional South.

An ethno-telephonic map of dixie using a modernization of Dr. Reed's methodologies.

In other ways however, the "location" and boundaries of Dixie have become, over time, more limited, vernacular, and/or mercurial. In popular mindset today, it is most often associated with those parts of the Southern United States where Old South traditions and legacies of the Confederacy live most strongly, and are most widely celebrated and remembered.

In this particular contemporary realm, there are no hard and fast lines. Roughly however, it might be an area which begins in southern Virginia, maybe a county or two north of Richmond (and perhaps the southern parts of West Virginia), then extends south into North Central Florida. On the northern boundary it sweeps west to take in Tennessee and southern parts of Kentucky, then continues through Arkansas, possibly taking in a small part of southern Missouri and also Oklahoma. On the southern end it would run through the Gulf states until the northern and southern boundary lines connect to include East Texas.

Many businesses in the South contain "Dixie" in their name as an identifier, e.g. "Dixie Produce". One of the more famous is supermarket chain Winn-Dixie. Related to this fact, renowned cultural sociologist and "Southernologist" Dr. John Shelton Reed has attempted to "locate" Dixie by a criterion measuring the ratio of business listings containing the term as compared to those utilizing "American". First published in a 1976 article in Social Forces, this particular study was later updated in 1988. In contrasting the two, the delineating lines measuring over 6% of Dixie to American remained fairly constant in covering the Old Confederate States, with the exception being in Texas where, in both surveys, it was fairly well limited to eastern parts of the state.

Noted anomalies were the inclusion, and later even slight extension, into parts of the lower Midwest, particularly southern Indiana and southwestern Ohio. Neither of these areas can be properly considered a part of the South, so one explanation could be the extent of the so-called "Dixie Highway" into those particular locales and business names reflecting such.

In using a yardstick of 15%, all but a tiny slice of northeast Texas drops out of the picture. Also losing considerable ground were Virginia and most of Florida save the panhandle. Notable losses also occurred in North Carolina and Kentucky. Most remarkable of all however, was, as Reed stated, the fact that Dixie "dissolves as a coherent region" when the even more demanding standard of 25% was applied. In 1988 as compared to 1976, with the exception of small and isolated parts of adjoining states, only in Mississippi, Georgia, and South Carolina were large areas still recorded on the data map.

I Wish I Was in Dixie

Main article: "Dixie (song)"
"I Wish I Was in Dixie's Land" Sheet music

"I Wish I Was in Dixie" is a popular song about the South. It was written by composer Daniel Emmett, a Northerner, and published in 1859. A blackface minstrel-show troupe debuted the song that same year in New York City. As with other minstrel show numbers, the song was performed in blackface and in exaggerated Black English Vernacular. The song proved extremely popular and became widely known simply as "Dixie". The song has also been published as "Dixie's Land".

The song became the unofficial anthem of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War. This and the tune's minstrel-show origins have created a strong association of "Dixie" with the Old South. As a result, some today view the song as offensive and racist while others see it as a legitimate part of Southern heritage.

"Dixie"

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1916 rendition of Dixie by the Metropolitan Mixed Chorus with Ada Jones and Billy Murray
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The first 12 notes of Dixie are the opener on The Dukes Of Hazzard. Also, they are the horn of The General Lee.

Songs that mention Dixie


See also

References

  • John Shelton Reed (with J. Kohl and C. Hanchette) (1990). The Shrinking South and the Dissolution of Dixie. Social Forces, 69 (September 1990): 221-233. 

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