Upland South

Not to be confused with Southern Uplands.
The Upland South is defined by landform, history, and culture, and does not correspond well to state lines. This map shows the approximate region known as the Upland South.

The Upland South and Upper South are two overlapping cultural and geographic subregions in the inland part of the Southern United States. They differ from the Deep South and Atlantic coastal plain by terrain, history, economics, demographics, and settlement patterns.

The term Upper South is a geographic term: the Southern states that are geographically north of the Lower or Deep South, primarily Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Oklahoma, and to a lesser extent the District of Columbia, Maryland, Delaware, and Missouri.[1][2]

The Upland South is defined by elevation above sea level; it is west of the population centers on the east coast. It has its own history and culture, originating in Appalachia.[3] It includes West Virginia and Kentucky, most of Tennessee, and parts of Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas. It also includes parts of some Northern states, such as Southern Illinois (generally the Shawnee Hills region), Southern Indiana, and Southern Ohio. Upland South outposts were settled along the shores of the Ohio River.

  1. ^ The Upper South. tulane.edu. Retrieved February 15, 2021.
  2. ^ "United States: The Upper South". Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
  3. ^ Peres, M. Tanya. (2008). Foodways, Economic Status, and the Antebellum Upland South in Central Kentucky. Historical Archaeology, Vol. 42, No. 4, pp. 88–104. Retrieved February 15, 2021.