page_title: Upland South
section_title: Distinct from neighboring regions
hierarchical_section_title: Upland South / History and culture / Distinct from neighboring regions
caption_attribution_description: English: Young forest along the crest of Cooper Mountain in Standing Stone State Forest in Overton County, Tennessee, in the southeastern United States. This trail is an extension of a forestry maintenance road that intersects the Cooper Mountain Trail appx. 2.5 miles east of the trail's Mill Creek bridge access.
context_page_description: The terms Upland South and Upper South refer to the northern section of the Southern United States, in contrast to the Lower South or Deep South. It typically consists of North Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas, and eastern Oklahoma, sometimes also Missouri, Virginia, West Virginia, and Kentucky.
context_section_description: The Deep South is generally associated historically with cotton. By 1850 the term "Cotton States" was in common use and the differences between the Deep South (lower) and Upland South (upper) recognized. A key difference was the Deep South's plantation-style cash crop agriculture (mainly cotton, rice, sugar), using African American slaves working large farms while plantation owners tended to live in towns and cities. This system of plantation farming was originally developed in the West Indies and introduced to the United States in South Carolina and Louisiana, from where it spread throughout the Deep South, although there were local exceptions wherever conditions did not support the system. The sharp division between town and country, the intensive use of a few cash crops, and the high proportion of slaves, all contrasted with the Upland South. Virginia and its surrounding region stands out as different from both the Upland South and the Deep South. Its history predates the West Indian plantation model, and while tobacco was a cash crop from the start, and African slaves became widely used, Virginia did not share many of the Deep South's characteristics, such as the early proliferation of towns and cities.
  As a result of the difference in the use of slaves, the boundary between the Upland South and Deep South can still be seen today on maps showing the population percentage of African-Americans. The term Black Belt originally referred to a region of black soil in Alabama that was especially good for cotton farming, and has a high percentage of African-Americans. In contrast, the Upland South was less involved with slavery from the start.
  In addition, the Cotton Belt of the Deep South was controlled by Indians (mainly the Five Civilized Tribes of the Cherokee, Creek (Muscogee), Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Seminole) powerful enough to keep pioneering settlers from moving into the region. The Deep South's cotton boom did not occur until after the Indians were forced west in the early 19th century. In contrast, the Upland South, Kentucky and Tennessee especially, were the scene of Indian resistance and pioneering settlement in the late 18th century. Thus the Upland South was already colonized and had established its particular settlement patterns before most of the Deep South was opened to general colonization.
   
  The differences between the Upland South and lowlands of the Southern Atlantic Seaboard and cotton belt often resulted in regional tension and conflict within states. For example, during the late 18th century, the upland "backcountry" of North Carolina grew in population until the Upland Southerners there outnumbered the older, well-established, wealthier coastal populations. In some cases the conflict between the two resulted in warfare, such as War of the Regulation in North Carolina. Later, similar processes resulted in divergent populations in states to the west. Northern Alabama, for example, was settled from Tennessee by Upland Southerners, while southern Alabama was one of the core regions of the Deep South cotton boom. During the American Civil War some areas of the Upland South were noted for their resistance to the Confederacy. The uplands of western Virginia became the state of West Virginia as a result, though half the counties of the new state were Secessionist, and partisan warfare continued throughout the war. Kentucky and Missouri remained in the Union but were torn by internal strife. The southern Appalachian region of East Tennessee, parts of western North Carolina and some parts of Northern Alabama and Northern Georgia were widely noted for their pro-Union sentiments.
  The two regions also differ physically. The upland south is dominated by deciduous hardwood forest, in contrast to the Deep South's predominantly evergreen pine forests. The upland south is often much hillier than the deep south, due to the Deep South being part of the coastal plain.
caption: Hardwood forest in Middle Tennessee
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