"Who could not conquer with troops such as these?"   
Lt. General Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson on the Army of Northern Virginia

A genealogy company recently noted that the Mason-Dixon Line marked a genetic boundary usually occurring due to an ocean or mountain range. Southerners are a unique people with little in common with other US citizens. Southerners have built a wonderful civilization with beautiful towns and wonderful music. We have contributed greatly to the world's arts and literature. Southerners even managed to build a strong, world-class economy, overcoming an economy that had over 20% of its infrastructure destroyed by northern invasion, and the remains plunged into hopeless debt by corrupt carpetbag governments. Truly, as General Jackson noted, this is a uniquely Blessed and resilient people. This is the story of how that people came to be.
 
   Jamestown, Virginia, established in May of 1607, was the first permanent English colony on the North American mainland. The Mayflower wouldn't land at Plymouth Rock until 1620. Jamestown was named for and founded during the reign of King James l of England and Vl of Scotland.(He's the same King James who commissioned the King James version of the Bible)

Jamestown had a tough time surviving. Of the 630 first colonists who came that first year 510 perished during the first two and a half years. Next for the beleaguered survivors came "the Starving Time", winter of 1609-1610, during which only 60 of the colonists survived. 
These few survivors decided to abandon Jamestown. They sailed a ship from Jamestown to the mouth of the James River to meet Lord Delaware, who brought them the bountiful supplies they had prayed for during those bitter years of starvation.

2) These men, women and children were the first Southerners. Strong. Creative. Imaginative. The young colony would continue to struggle until 1649, which is when the ancestors of most modern Southerners left England for North America. King Charles I had been overthrown and beheaded, and those who had supported the King were in mortal danger from "Lord Proprietor" Oliver Cromwell and his fanatical Puritan supporters. Meanwhile, Sir William Berkley and the beautiful virgin soil of Virginia were beckoning-and Royalists answered the call.
 
   CAVALIERS: This is the political term that is used for the two largest, and earliest, groups of white Southerners. What they had in common was that they fought for the Episcopal (Anglican) Church and King Charles l(for whom the Carolinas were named) during England's Civil Wars, fought from January 1642 to December 1651. Unlike America's War for Southern Independence, the English War was an actual Civil War, fought between two factions for control of the same government.
 
   If you are a Southerner with an English background, you likely have an ancestor who was a Cavalier. Cavalier comes from the French word "Chevalier" which means Horseman and is also used as the French word for knight. Cavalry also comes from Cavalier. Cavaliers were known for their long hair, fancy attire and, well, their cavalier disregard of danger. They were outnumbered by the Puritans who were called "Roundheads" because of their short hair. They were given that name by Queen Henrietta Maria de Bourbon (Mrs. King Charles l) for whom Maryland was named. When she saw her first Roundhead, she asked who the round headed man was. The first Civil War was a draw but the second was a victory for Oliver Cromwell and Parliament. King Charles l was beheaded and Oliver Cromwell was instated. Cromwell is best remembered for coining the phrase "Warts and all" when giving his portrait painter instructions on how the dictator wanted an honest image of himself. The end of the second Civil War ended in Oliver Cromwell's Roundheads winning which resulted in large numbers of Royalist and Episcopalians leaving England for Virginia rather than live under Cromwell's Puritan rule.
 
   This was the South's biggest emigration event and it involved two very different types of Englishmen. The largest group was Celtic. They lived in Britain from the earliest times, before a monster tsunami washed away the land bridge around 8,200 years ago. They were isolated for thousands of years until about two thousand years ago when people from Europe began coming to the Island. The newcomers generally tried to exterminate the native Celts. For instance, when the Saxons invaded Sussex County, they killed all the native Celts. It was the invading Saxons gave the Welch their name; it means foreigner in Saxon. By 1600 the surviving Celts had been pushed to the west of England.

These Celts/Cavaliers have another name; Craykers or Crackers. A Crayker was a talented storyteller who was much loved and respected as storytelling was the main form of entertainment in an age before tv and movies. Crackers made up about 68% of Cavaliers. They, as well as their descendants today have the Southern accent that is not too different from the standard American accent. They pronounce their "R"'s.  It's the accent of Andy Griffith, Elvis Presley and Georgia's Governor Kemp. Craykers say "Merry is r church organist" very much like Midwesterners but much less nasal. The other Cavalier group, The Southern Anglo-Normans, sometimes known as the people with the "Gone with the Wind" accent, about 25% of Cavaliers, would say "Mayree is hour chuch awganist". These two people lived in the same small towns but didn't interact with each other on a daily basis because their lives were so separated. Craykers had successful smaller farms and would be the carpenters, the tool makers, and tradesmen whereas the "Gone with the Wind" people would have the plantations or be the lawyers and cotton brokers of the town. This wasn't a deliberate separation, but it kept two groups as distinctly separate groups until the latter part of the 20th century. Famous Southern Anglo-Normans would include Paula Dean and Rue McClanahan's character Blanch Devereaux on "Golden Girls". You might also know the Anglo-Normans of 100 years ago from Downton Abbey, in the characters of Lord and Lady Crawley- if you traced their trace them back 10 generations or so, you would likely find their ancestors as Anglo-Norman supporters of Charles I at the time of the English Civil War - this is the time the Southern Anglo-Normans separated from the Anglo-Normans. The English Anglo-Normans had huge land holdings and the eldest son inherited everything, leaving the younger sons to find another way of making a living. The limitless lands of Virginia were a perfect match for the younger disinherited sons, and the poorer Crayker Cavalier soldiers needing someone to pay their passage to Virginia was great opportunity for the Southern Anglo-Normans to acquire farm labor for the price of the voyage. A steep step down from dandy soldier to farm laborer perhaps, but it worked and most Cavaliers were able to acquire their own land. This is when the plantation system of the South was born.
 
The migration of Cavaliers to America took place between 1649 and 1652. The halfway year mark between 1652 and 2023 is 1836. This means that the Southerners who voted for independence in 1860 and today's Southerners, are living in the second half of the Cavalier family's existence in America.
 
MORE SOUTHERNERS in the future:
 
Rednecks, Ulster-Scots, Hillbillies, Covenanters.
 
Black Southerners
 
Creoles
 
Cajuns
 
American Indians
 
 
 
1)AN AMERICAN HISTORY by Nathaniel Wright Stephenson. Ginn and Co. Boston. 1913. p.28
 
2)An American History p.28

Merry Christmas from DixieWatchman! 
Just a friendly reminder that right now the poorest region in the country is giving their hearts out to the rest of the country while crews are working round the clock at Arlington National Cemetery to give all us Southerners a national middle finger.