Hey, y’all, let’s get this straight.  Virginia is a southern state.  I’ve run across people from Texas, Alabama, Georgia and even South Carolina who have referred to my state as being “Yankee.”  I don’t know if this arose because some people don’t understand that West Virginia and Virginia aren’t the same state or if it stems from a lack of geographical knowledge or if those people missed an important lesson in history class.

Where was the capital of the confederacy, y’all?  Sure, it was in Montgomery, Alabama, for a couple of months but then it was moved to Richmond, Virginia, for years.  I’m sure Jefferson Davis didn’t put his capital in a Yankee state.

If y’all are proper southerners the names Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson ought to ring a bell. So where do you think they hail from?  Virginia.  Yep.  Virginia.

And grits?  Has there ever been anything more southern?  Virginia is in the traditional grits belt. Folks usually say if grits aren’t on the restaurant menu, you’re not in the south.  Just try to find a breakfast spot in Virginia that doesn’t serve grits.

And while were talking about what is and isn’t a southern state, let’s spare a little kindness for the state of Maryland.  No, they didn’t secede from the union but they really wanted to join the confederacy.  You see, martial law was declared in Maryland by the federal government who sent troops in to stop their vote for secession because everyone knew the vote was going to the south.  And, of course, the Yankees didn’t want their capital to be an island surrounded by Jeff Davis’ troops.

Aside from that there is another important fact to remember: the Mason-Dixon line–the original dividing line of the north and south.  No, it doesn’t run across the top of North Carolina as a Texan told me, it cuts straight across the top of Maryland, forming the dividing line between that state and Pennsylvania.

So, basically, y’all who think Virginia is not in the south, you’ve got to expand the borders in your mind because history places them in a different place than you thought.