re: How did Maryland and Delaware escape the South’s cultural orbit?

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If West Virginia is Southern, then this little wedge stuck way up in between Ohio and Pennsylvania grants Ohio and Pennsylvania at least some measure of “Southerness.”

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I live in that part of WV actually. It's only about 5 miles wide but it's noticeably more Southern here than across the Ohio or PA line. Not saying it's full-blown South but the accents here are definitely more Southern than anything you'd find in Pittsburgh. Likely people from different parts of the state though.

Pittsburgh is a strange case in general though. It's definitely more of an Appalachian city than a Mid-Atlantic city

West Virginia is not and never has been southern. The several counties that constitute the state seceded from the state of Virginia in 1863 and remained part of the Union. They were then granted statehood by the federal government. One problem here though. If it was illegal for Virginia to secede from the Union, then constitutionally (and it’s even written in the constitution) West Virginia could not legally be made a state since those counties had no authority to secede from Virginia.

The confederacy was never recognized as a nation by the Union states, and member states of the Confederacy were labeled “states in rebellion.” If this is the case, then West Virginia cannot legally and constitutionally hold the legal standing of state. But, if West Virginia is considered a state because of Virginia’s secession from the Union, then it must be admitted that the Confederacy was indeed a legal entity, separate and apart from the United States. This, the United States invaded and conducted a war against a sovereign nation in order to subdue that nation and acquire its territory.

It’s an interesting mental exercise to justify the existence of West Virginia as a state.

As for Maryland… It was a slave state and would have seceded from the Union as well. However, federal troops were dispatched to Ft McHenry near Baltimore where they turned the guns and cannons from Chesapeake bay toward the city of Baltimore and threatened to destroy it if Maryland seceded.

That wretched hive of scum and villainy known as Washington, D.C. has been out of control in its quest to usurp power and authority from the states and the people for a hell of a lot longer than most people realize or care to admit.