There is a peculiar stillness in the late afternoon air of the South, a pause that speaks not only to the settling heat but to a deeper, more troubling quiet. It is the silence of a culture slowly slipping beyond reach, not through violence or sudden upheaval, but rather by the gentle erosion wrought by time, change, and migration. As one who has been both a witness and participant in this land’s unfolding story, I find myself compelled to reflect on the nature of this loss, which unfolds not in thunder but in the soft tread of new footsteps on old soil.
For generations, the South has been a crucible of distinct manners, language, and ways of being, an inheritance not solely of blood or lineage but of soil, speech, and shared memory. It is a civilization rooted deeply in agrarian rhythms, where the cicada’s song and the rustling of magnolia leaves accompany the lives of its people. Yet today, one can no longer deny the palpable transformation underway. Across small towns and once-familiar streets, new occupants arrive bearing the customs and values of distant places, Northern and Western ways that, while neither hostile nor ill-intentioned, inevitably alter the cultural fabric.
This displacement is neither conquest nor malice. It is the quiet commerce of demographics, market forces, and shifting priorities. The sprawling developments encroach on pine thickets. The new voices in school halls carry accents that do not echo the long-drawn vowels of our ancestors. Local festivals give way to calendars dictated by newcomers, and the old recipes find themselves sidelined by palates unaccustomed to the boldness of our spice or the slow-simmered humility of our greens.
There is an irony in this exchange. Southerners are often cast as the insular and defensive party, yet it is the South that has always been hospitable, inviting all who came to share in her bounty. What we now face is not the rejection of others but the surrender of a certain self-knowledge, a slipping away of that which made the South, in Faulkner’s words, “the South.” The question becomes whether a culture so intertwined with place and memory can survive the dilution of its borders and the soft replacement of its stewards.
Historically, civilizations have met this dilemma with a variety of responses, some violent, others more subtle. Jefferson himself envisioned a republic where states held sovereign authority, a federation that honored local customs and governance. The Tenth Amendment stands as a reminder that decentralization was no accident but a safeguard for the peculiarities of regional identity.
It is here that the conversation must turn to the necessity of cultural sovereignty, an assertion not of exclusion but of preservation. To preserve is not to wall off but to nurture, to maintain the cadence of regional life amid inevitable change. It means advocating for education that honors local history, for policies that respect vernacular language and tradition, for economies that sustain agrarian and artisanal ways as much as industrial ones.
This is not nostalgia for a mythic past, nor is it a call to arms against newcomers. Rather, it is a measured insistence that the South’s identity, forged through hardship, grace, and dignity, remains intact. That it continues to breathe in the speech of children, the carving of pecans, and the stories told on porch steps under the watchful gaze of ancient oaks.
To the Southern man who reads these words, know that this is no mere lament. It is a summons to stewardship. To remember that the land is more than acreage. It is the repository of a people’s spirit. And while change is inevitable, the soul of the South need not be lost if we tend it with deliberate care and a steady hand.
The views expressed at AbbevilleInstitute.org are not necessarily the views of the Abbeville Institute.
” And while change is inevitable, the soul of the South need not be lost if we tend it with deliberate care and a steady hand.”
Yes, and yes, and yes!
DEO VINDICE
Sustenance not only in Gabriel Ward’s article but that and inspiration in some of these comments.
“It is the silence of a culture slowly slipping beyond reach, not through violence or sudden upheaval, but rather by the gentle erosion wrought by time, change, and migration.”
I very much enjoyed this piece. I find myself correcting my children when I hear those Yankee words “you guys” come out of their mouths.
I live in Tallahassee, Florida. I often sit in coffee shops filled with college kids. They *all* say “you guys” even to several girls! Hardly a “y’all” to be heard!
Even the most radical liberal/socialist kids say this, utterly unaware of the misplaced sexual label, saying “you guys” to several ladies!
Particularly when their “you guys” quite often includes females.
The truth be spoken. Thanks for sharing.
An excellent article and I wonder just how long we as Southerners, can keep the south, The South.
I see *and* hear this too, from my Tallahassee residence. I hear SO many college kids talk, at the cafes I often go to. No southern accent there.
I see this change as a global thing! The “young” are abandoning the three corner definitions of what might could define a human being’s reality.
Which are…
Family.
culture.
higher power.
I just learned last week that the city where I once lived, Johnson City, Tennessee, is now 60 percent Northern people!
Yes, I thank you for the article. Yet a wakeup call. I suspect that little can be done to cease this as we all become more cosmopolitan. I have said this phrase for years, “the more intelligent that you are, the larger the city you will find most comfortable to live in”.
I have noticed, too, that there are many young people who consider their REAL family to be their same-age friends. “Religion” is dead for them.
“land” means nothing as they will move many times per ten years and often move hundreds of miles.
They gain a lot but lose so much…
Well, let them go ahead and just abandon the basic definitions of what defines a human being’s reality. For they surely just might be spewed out of the land.
This disappearance has been on my mind for some time. The article is timely and accurate. My father and mother had 11 grandchildren. The family has been deeply rooted in the South. Perhaps only 2 or 4 might be considered culturally Southern. No one has a Southern accent. Land means nothing to all but one or two. And I agree with a comment that same-age friends seem to be the real family.
Gradual blending of Southern culture with the rest of the USA seems to have begun with WW II. Dallas where I live could not be described as a Southern city, in my opinion.
Thank you for the fine article.
I really enjoyed this article, as well as the comments which followed. I think we live at a time in history when the world has indeed become smaller and more familiar with one another. The identity of people with familiar places, regional accents, and ancient landmarks are not seen as merely provincial or peculiar, but, even more sadly, irrelevant. The younger people already live in their “brave, new world” created by the internet which is, by its very nature, the definition of “cosmopolitan”. Of course, it will always be appropriate to remember our history and to honour, even celebrate, those gallant men and women who lived in the glorious past and who defined us as a people. This is our precious heritage, for it has been purchased by the blood of our ancestors on a thousand bloody battlefields, both great & small, famous or forgotten, from the Mason-Dixon line down to Florida’s Gulf Coast and extending westward across the South and across the plains of Texas to the Rio Grande. This was our country and this is our history. It would be nothing short of dishonourable if we failed to remember the price that has been paid by these noble forebears who so ardently defended their homes & their families from the scourge of war and subjugation. William Faulkner once wrote that in the South, “the past is not dead. It’s not even past.” Perhaps there is wisdom in his words.
Beautiful insight, awareness and wisdom. I think today I will double my modest monthly giving to the AI
Incredibly sad but I disagree that there’s no malice involved… there’s plenty of malice and leftist transplants to our region understand full well that they are looking down on us and consciously seeking to erase Who We Are. Not to mention the social engineers that are flooding our region with refugees and other foreigners on purpose. I think we’ve also arrived at a time where a certain walling off is absolutely necessary if we are to survive. The old hospitality no longer serves us and is foolish. I am personally through with it.
Sadly, your approach is likely the only potentially helpful re-action left, if only to preserve a remnant in one more generation.
I am going to write again as I thought that I was a bit “harsh” on the South.
At the end of the hippy Sanfrancisco time, someone said this, “We all hippies moved a mile to move everyone else in this country one inch”!
Just look at all of what the South gave to this country. The music! So much music with deep feelings and rhythms. The food. Oh, the storytellers and the writers. So much was given.
I lived in deep Appalachia for a spell. I enjoyed wandering up the mountain branches and coves. I felt dismayed at all of the abandoned cabins I saw. Some of these here cabins were very large farmhouses. I was told that the Exodus began at World War II when the boys went off to join the army. They saw the outside world, and they never went back! They had grown “too big” to fit back into this very supportive culture, but oh so narrow and confining!
Everything good must someday end…
Or, does it end?
I feel, myself, that there is something SO special about the South, something no social worker or researcher ever knows about! Almost mystical, spiritual.
Are these “global citizens”, our children now grown up, truly happy? 20 to 35-year-olds who live “productively” and “hydrate” themselves when thirsty.
[“hydrate” is, to me, a very overwrought word, a word reeking of Corporate jargon and new-speak. How about just a glass of water, you all?! Sweet tea, anyone?! The stress rate of these generations is off of the carts.
to wit: I once visited a childhood classmate that I had not seen for near 60 years. He was at his cottage and preparing to go out on the lake to
power power sky. Yes, that is right, not “water ski”, not “power water ski”. but power power water ski”. This is 80 MPH, folks!
He was a high-level CEO in a small Binghamton [NY] company. Lots of stress lines on his face. Oh, he is now made to be ADHD! he just *cannot* relax. No calm still-fishing for him, thank you.
He did not, maybe could not, absorb some of the Southern way of life!
I feel that somehow, and I have little idea how, that the South shall rise again!
Great article and words to consider. I, too, have seen a sort of ‘giving in’ to the constant attacks on our Southern culture over the past few years.
Our heritage is something envied! When you think about it, the best this country has to offer, and what continues to draw people from all over the world, is Southern. Look up history’s greatest war heroes, musicians, evangelists, enterpreneuers, authors, and journalists – too many to list, by and far they are from the South.
The thing about our culture is that despite the deliberate attempts to do away with it, ours is a culture longed for. With God’s grace and mercy, that will always remain!
I feel our culture fading away every day. You can’t go outside your house without a Yankee encounter…they’re everywhere! I also believe there is some leftist malice involved, but then there are others simply drawn to our Southern slice of heaven, or at least it used to be. I can’t fathom what the Lord has in store for His children, but I like to imagine He has some Southern details in mind. Hold fast, my brethren! Keep smiling and being yourselves with your sweet Southern accents and in so doing, heaping burning coals on their heads. I think they just hate us because they can’t be us! Take heart, for He has overcome the world, and so can we!
God bless y’all and God bless the South!! 🙌