Was Missouri ever southern?

[mcheiss]

Where do you think the line in Missouri is drawn from where it changes from Southern to Midwestern?

[kcpimp]

Where do you think the line in Missouri is drawn from where it changes from Southern to Midwestern?

Oh I would say the southernmost quarter of the state, like from Springfield on down. Why do you ask?

[mcheiss]

Oh I would say the southernmost quarter of the state, like from Springfield on down. Why do you ask?

I've always wondered where the line is drawn. I've been to the other side of Missouri (Cape Girardeau, Sikeston, etc) and they seem like a hybrid of midwestern and southern.

[Chazarelli]

I agrees with you "mcheiss". I am from Kansas City, but go to school in Rolla, which is in the middle of the state, and has a "southern" atmosphere. I would say the line is drawn around the Jefferson City latitude, with the big cities (KC, STL, Columbia, Jeff City) being hybrid type cities, with a small southern type influence.

[Southron]

I think one could make a pretty strong case that a good chunk of Missouri was once southern, especially Little Dixie and the Bootheel. I lived in the Bootheel for a while, and it's indistinguishable from Arkansas or Tennessee even today.

[danielmdifranco]

Missouri is the crossroads of the country. The northern part of the state (above I70) is decidedly mid-western, as would be expected.

St. Louis has many aspects of an eastern city probably due to it's ethnic heritages. Kansas City is a blend of Midwest and the West ala Denver. The southern part of the state is a real mix of midwest, southern, and a little western/plains. The state as a whole is Midwestern, but it has influences of many parts of the country. Just look at a map: it is bordered by Oklahoma, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennesee, and Arkansas. It is a blend as you would expect. But to answer the original question, is Missouri southern? No. Maybe influenced in certain spots, but it is a midwestern state, no question about it.

[Maddie2008]

I had ancestors on both sides of the war. The area I live would probably be considered southern in some aspects. For example, people generally associate the hunting and farming with more southern attributes, but of course that goes on the in north, too.

People from the bootheel sound very much southern. Once you get south of Poplar Bluff the accent really changes.

From my understanding, the Missouri government was under Union control during the war, but some of the southern areas had plenty of Confederates as well.