The Myth of the Morally Superior Yankee

http://www.lewrockwell.com ^ | February 10, 2004 | Thomas Dilorenzo

[Dan from Michigan]

Central Florida? Isn't that Michigan South? :)

[HELLRAISER II]

I can honestly tell you that Central Florida has representation from every state in the Union and also representation from almost every country on the planet.

[general_re]

All of this history has been whitewashed and hidden by politically-correct, Northern historians for generations.

Ah, well - I guess I just imagined studying the institution of slavery in New York. At my northern university. Under a northern professor.

He must have been an agent provocateur, eating away at the whitewash from within ;)

[squarebarb]

The conflict between north and south started in England. Puritans were from East Anglia and southern Hills people from the Scottish border. Two completely different cultures. They hated each other before America was discovered. See 'Albion's Seed', a great book.

A good novel on the clash between these cultures is 'Enemy Women'. Federal military in Missouri imprisoned thousands of women because their husbands/male relatives were suspected of Confederate sympathies.

[FUMETTI]

I concur #1CTYankee!

I am a lifelong New Yorker, but my father's side were good, unprejudiced union dues paying New Englanders from Lynn and Salem, Mass. I do not hold New Englanders accountable for their widespread reputation as "snotty, condescending and arrogant". It is probably that they elect some of the biggest blowhards in the country (Barney Frank, John Kerry, Lowell Weicker, Teddy Kennedy, Howard Dean).

By the way, this unfair and idea of the Northern arrogance and elitism is the main reason why the Bushes cringe when they are associated with New England..."we are TEXANS." This is in the face of the facts Bush's dad was a senator from Connecticut; Bush Sr. was born in Milton, Massachusetts; GW was born in New Haven, Connecticut; they have a homestead at Kennebunkport; and Sr's mom was born in Maine!

Although I am 100% supportive of our president, his curt dismissal of his New England roots are disengenuous and kind of insulting to those from Connecticut to Maine who support him as well. This distancing must be more media manipulation by Karl Rove.

In fact, GW Bush lost his first race for Congress in 1977 because he was "not Texas enough" according to the man who beat him. This reinvention is okay, but distancing himself from his roots are silly at best.

[aculeus]

Yankees have never shied away from using the coercive powers ...

... of baseball bats.

[atlaw]

Anyone who believes that yankees are somehow superior, hasn't met the painfully parochial townees of New Hampshire, the gap-toothed swamp yankees crawling around the backwoods of Vermont and Maine, the "jobless-beret-wearing-dressed-in-black" sophomore pontificators on the sidewalks of Boston, your basic "Brooklyn Moron", virtually any politician in Rhode Island, etc., etc.

Yes indeedy, those yankees have a real lock on sophistication.

[DallasMike]

Although I am 100% supportive of our president, his curt dismissal of his New England roots are disengenuous and kind of insulting to those from Connecticut to Maine who support him as well. This distancing must be more media manipulation by Karl Rove.

I don't think that Karl Rove has anything to do with it. Bush identifies with Texas much more than he identifies with Connecticutt or Maine. Like it or not, he really thinks and acts like a Texan.

[Paul C. Jesup]

One can trace all this Northern arrogance directly back to the puritans.

[martin gibson]

It’s also why Stalinism took hold in the North (especially in New York City) in the twentieth century, as did its offshoot, neoconservativism,

WTF...?

[oyez]

Wasn't Rodger Williams that go kicked out of Massachusetts colony because he believed the Indians should be getting paid for their land?

[dtel]

bttt

[Paul C. Jesup]

Sorry, I don't know, but it seems Pres. Grant had the same opinion on taking the Indians land as that Massachusetts colony.

[mtbopfuyn]

Damned Yankees are not superior, either by morals or genetics, to Texans.

[Freebird Forever]

"Hillary Clinton is a museum-quality specimen of a Yankee – self-righteous, ruthless, self-aggrandizing" ~ Clyde Wilson

When taking her state of origin into consideration, I think she is more appropriately labeled a F I B

[#1CTYankee]

The definition Yankee means different things to different people.
What might be thought of as unfriendly in say the south wouldn't be in New England.
I lived at the same adress for 15 years and never once spoke or knew the names of any of my neighbors.
They never introduced themselves(Sometimes that can be a good thing.) and so I assumed they wanted their privacy.

[Catspaw]

I've always been peeved that the Yankees called the Braves "Bush League."

[GOPcapitalist]

The conflict between north and south started in England. Puritans were from East Anglia and southern Hills people from the Scottish border. Two completely different cultures. They hated each other before America was discovered.

You are correct. That was also recognized on the eve of the civil war. His timeline slightly errs, and I believe intentionally so to make the point in jest, with the Mayflower but the summary is essentially accurate:

"The mere expression of “the irrepressible conflict” was credited first to Mr. Lincoln, and then to Mr. Seward, and then to the Senator from Ohio; but this doctrine of perfectibility in the people of the free States is of New England origin. It began before your Revolution; long before that. It began when Charles lost his throne. I think it began before his time. Old John Knox started it and then it got down into England. They helped Cromwell to cut off their King's head. After that, better than even the Puritans, they were called Independents; then they were called fifth-monarchy men; and then Cromwell had to run them out of England; and then they went over to Holland, and the Dutch let them alone, but would not let them persecute anybody else; and then they got on that ill-fated ship called the Mayflower and landed on Plymouth Rock. And from that time to this, they have been kicking up a dust generally, and making a mess whenever they could put their fingers in the pie. They confederated with the other states to save themselves from the power of old King George III; and no sooner than they had gotten rid of him than they turned to persecuting their neighbors. Having got rid of the Indians, and witches, and Baptists, and Quakers in their country; after selling us our negroes for the love of gold, they began stealing them back for the love of God. That is the history as well as I understand it." - Senator Louis T. Wigfall, March 2, 1861