Deep South

The Deep South or the Lower South is a cultural and geographic subregion of the Southern United States. The term is used to describe the states which were most economically dependent on plantations and slavery, generally Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina. East Texas, North Florida, the Arkansas Delta, South Arkansas, West Tennessee, and the southern part of North Carolina are sometimes included as well. Following the end of the American Civil War in 1865, the region experienced significant economic hardship and became a focal point of racial tension during and after the Reconstruction era.

Before 1945, the Deep South was often referred to as the "Cotton States" since cotton was the primary cash crop for economic production. The civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s helped usher in a new era, sometimes referred to as the New South. The Deep South is part of the highly religious, socially conservative Bible Belt and currently is politically a stronghold of the Republican Party, after historically being one for the Democratic Party.

It is contrasted with the Mid-South and Tidewater region, as well as the Upper South and the border states, although considerable overlap between these regions exists, with the Mid-South including South Arkansas, the Arkansas Delta, and West Tennessee, and Appalachian Alabama and Georgia belonging to the Upper South.

The term "Deep South" is defined in various ways, but most definitions typically include the states: Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina. Texas and Florida are sometimes included as well, due to their proximity, coastlines with the Gulf of Mexico, histories of slavery, large African American populations, and their former status as part of the Confederate States of America.

The eastern part of Texas is the westernmost extension of the Deep South, typically the area east of Dallas. North Florida is also part of the Deep South region, typically the area north of Ocala. West Tennessee is sometimes included due to its history of slavery, its prominence in cotton production during the antebellum period, and cultural similarity to the Mississippi Delta region. The Arkansas Delta is also sometimes included, though Arkansas is usually considered part of the Upper South.

Seven states seceded from the United States before the firing on Fort Sumter and the start of the American Civil War, which originally formed the Confederate States of America. In order of secession, they are South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas.

The first six states to secede were those that held the largest percentage of slaves. Ultimately, the Confederacy included eleven states. A large part of the original "Cotton Belt" is sometimes included in Deep South terminology. This was considered to extend from the South Carolina Lowcountry to Georgia and North Florida, through the Gulf States as far west as East Texas, including West Tennessee, eastern Arkansas, and up the Mississippi embayment. Historically, sugar was the predominant crop in Louisiana, and rice was an important crop in South Carolina.

The inner core of the Deep South, characterized by very rich black soil that supported cotton plantations, is a geological formation known as the Black Belt. The Black Belt has since become better known as a sociocultural region; in this context it is a term used for much of the Cotton Belt, which had a high percentage of African-American slave labor. The Mississippi Delta has been called "The Most Southern Place on Earth", because of its unique racial, cultural, and economic history.