Southern Nationalism on the Landscape: County Names in Former Confederate States

Abstract

The Confederate period and celebration of the Lost Cause are significant sources of county names in eleven of the former Confederate states. Since 1861, counties in these eleven states have been named for Confederate soldiers and prominent antebellum and Confederate politicians. Among these states, important differences in the frequency of choosing Southern nationalist names for counties are apparent. These findings partially explain the lack of mainstream American nationalism on the landscape of states in the Deep South.

British and Irish Toponyms in the South Atlantic States

“…9. These alternate sources of names are the subject of Gulley (1990); Kolin (1977); and Zelinsky (1988).…”

New Memorial Landscapes in the American South: An Introduction

“…Interpretation and representation of the past is essential to the process of identity formation, particularly national identities (Gillis 1994;Johnson 1995Johnson , 1996Edensor 1997). Often represented as a nation within a nation, the American South is a region where the past plays a central role in how its inhabitants "imagine" or identify themselves (Winberry 1983;Gulley 1990;Cobb 1999). In fact, noted author William Faulkner (1951, Act I Scene III) characterized the American South as a place where "[t]he past is not dead; it is not even past."…”