West "by God" Virginia and The Free State of Winston
Is West Virginia really a part of the south? Jason Headley in an article entitled "A State of Confusion" pleads the case for his home state in the recent issue of Oxford American. Headley maintains that in spite of the geographical and philosophical differences between West Virginia and, say, the state of Virginia, that West Virginia is, by default at least, a southern state.
I once dated a guy from West Virginia. He grew up not far from Wheeling -- which in spite of Billy Joel's convincing lyrics was not the birthplace of Billy the Kid. My friend also happened to be Catholic, but my mother, southern to the core and Methodist born and bred, made everything all right by saying " at least he's from the south and he isn't a practicing Catholic." I was careful not to remind her that he was from West “by God” Virginia.
The peculiar position occupied by the state of West Virginia has always reminded me of the unique situation of Winston County in Northwest Alabama. When the state of Alabama voted to secede from the Union, legend has it that the "Free State of Winston" elected to secede from Alabama. It is true that the representative from Winston County voted against secession at the convention and that the county's sympathies lay more with the Union than with the Confederacy, but when the officials met to draw up a resolution, it was to state neutrality on the issue of secession. The resolution declared that if a state can withdraw from the Union so might a county secede from the state. At this point someone shouted "Oh, Winston secedes. The Free state of Winston." And so the county received its famous nickname. This colorful event is dramatized in a outdoor musical theater production entitled "The Incident at Looney's Tavern.”
If anatomy is destiny (as Freud seems to have suggested), so is geography. West Virginia is mountain country; Winston County is made up of hills and forest. Both West Virginia and Winston County are rich in coal and lumber. Neither was or is suitable for the cultivation of cotton. In 1860 less than 5% of the population of Winston county owned slaves. Winston County is also called the Republic of Winston, a reference to its independence. The official motto of the state of West Virginia is Montani Semper Liberi ~Mountaineers are always free!
W. J. Cash in The Mind of the South makes an interesting case for the formation of the southern consciousness. In true agrarian tradition, he saw the south as shaped and determined by the cultivation of cotton and the presence of a slave economy. These and other such influences created, according to Cash, the "mind" of the south.
The debate over whether or not there is a separate and distinctive region known as the South rages on. Perhaps the issue is best summarized by one reviewer of Cash's work who wrote the following: "What makes the mind of the South different is that it thinks it is."
---Penne J. Laubenthal
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