OUR COUNTRY
OUR COUNTRY
The American South, culturally the most distinct region of the United States and once an independent nation, has the population and the economy to form one of the most powerful nations on earth. A Southern nation composed of only the eleven States of the former Confederate States of America, (i.e. Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia), would have 74 million people, the thirteenth most populous in the world. It would have more people than France or Britain, and almost as many as the united Germany. In economic power, a Southern nation composed of the above eleven States would have the fourth largest gross domestic product (1990) figures, after the remainder of the United States, Japan, and Germany.
A Southern nation could be larger or smaller than the above eleven States. The Census Bureau defines the South as the former Confederate States, plus Maryland, Delaware, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Oklahoma, with the District of Columbia thrown in. Politically, however, the South is best defined as the eleven Confederate States, plus Kentucky and Oklahoma. This is the South as defined by the Congressional Quarterly. The Census Bureau and Congressional Quarterly Souths each have the largest population and gross domestic product of the four major U.S. regions. Even the eleven State old Confederate South has more people than any other major U.S. region, and a gross domestic product larger than that of the Midwest or the West and essentially even with that of the Northeast.
A Southern nation composed of ten of the historic Confederate States, all except Texas, unique in a number of ways, would have 56 million people (about the size of France, Italy, and the United Kingdom), and the sixth largest gross domestic product of the nations of the earth.
Without Florida also, a State with many Northern immigrants, a nine-State South would retain 43 million people and have a gross domestic product not much below that of the United Kingdom. Even the five States of the Deep South, (Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina), alone have 22 million people, not far below that of Canada and four million more than Australia. Their gross domestic product is roughly in league with that of Canada, Brazil, and Spain.
A Southern nation with only one or two states would be better off than three quarters of the nations of the world and it would give the Southern people a place to call their own where the Southern culture, language, heritage and religious values could survive and prosper.
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[updated:12/26/01]