Southeastern United States

The history of human presence in the Southeast extends to before the dawn of civilization, to about 11,000 BC or 13,000 years ago. The earliest artifacts were from the Clovis culture. Before the arrival of Europeans, Native Americans of the Woodland period occupied the region for several hundred years.

The first Europeans to arrive in the region were conquistadors of the Spanish Empire. In 1541, Hernando de Soto journeyed through the southeast and crossed the Mississippi River. The region would host the first permanent European settlement in North America, with the Kingdom of England establishing Jamestown, Virginia in 1607. During Colonial America, the southeast states of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia were among the Thirteen Colonies who helped form what would become the United States during the American Revolution.

During the American Civil War, the Confederate States of America consisted of the southeastern states of Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Tennessee, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Louisiana, and Arkansas. Texas was a Confederate State that isn't defined as part of the southeast region. Missouri and Kentucky had dual competing Unionist and Confederate state governments in the Confederate government of Missouri and Confederate government of Kentucky, Maryland and Delaware were neutral southern border states that remained with the Union. West Virginia would split from Virginia during 1863, and also served as a border state that remained with the Union while being contested by the Confederacy and Confederate government of West Virginia. Following the Reconstruction era in the 1870s, many Southeast state legislatures would pass Jim Crow laws. The American segregation era would span from the late 19th century to the mid-1960s.

In the mid-to-late 20th century, the Southeast saw many shifting changes take place population wise and economically. The Southeast started to see a spur of new economic growth in the 1930s, which stemmed from New Deal policies such as the Tennessee Valley Authority and the Fair Labor Standards Act instituting a minimum wage for the entire nation. World War II further helped growth within the Southeast, as military bases and military production drew workers from farming or low-wage industries into a new economy. With farming mechanization picking up to speed in the 1940s, promotion of different industries, and federal spending on defense and space programs, the Southeast would see further economic transformation in the ensuing years and decades of the 20th century.[1]

The Southeast would benefit from its business and weather climate in its population growth during the late 20th century, as it helped in attracting job seekers and retirees from other U.S. regions. Florida in particular went from being the 27th most populated U.S. state in 1940 with 1.9 million residents, to being the 4th most populated U.S. state and having nearly 13 million residents in 2000. Southeast states such as North Carolina and Georgia saw large population growth increases as well during the late 20th century.[2]

The United States Geological Survey defines Southeastern United States as including the states of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin Islands, and Virginia.

There is no official United States Census Bureau definition of the Southeastern United States. They instead divide a larger region which includes Texas, Oklahoma, Maryland, Delaware, Washington, D.C., and West Virginia, designated as "the South," into three separate subregions, none of which are conventionally considered to define the Southeast.

The nonprofit American Association of Geographers defines the Southeastern United States as including Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia.[3] The OSBO (Organization Supporting Business Owners) uses the same states, but includes Arkansas and Louisiana. The states of Delaware and Missouri, along with the U.S. capital of Washington, D.C., are also sometimes added in definitions of the term.

The predominant culture of the Southeast U.S. has its origins with the settlement of the region by European colonists and African slaves during the 17th to 19th centuries, as large groups of English, Scottish, Scotch-Irish, Germans, Spanish, French, and Acadians migrated to the region. Since the late 20th century, the "New South" has emerged as the fastest-growing area of the United States economically. Multiculturalism has become more mainstream in the Southeastern states. African Americans remain a dominant demographic, at around 30% of the total population of the Southeast. The New South from a Southeastern standpoint, is largely built upon the metropolitan areas along the Interstate 85 (I-85) corridor. Cities along this corridor from north to south include Raleigh-Durham area, Greensboro, Charlotte, Spartanburg, Greenville, Atlanta, and Montgomery.

Most of the southeastern part of the United States is dominated by the humid subtropical climate (Cfa/Cwa). As one nears the southern portion of Florida, the climate gradually becomes tropical, as the winter season and all months have a mean temperature above 64.4 °F (18.0 °C) (the defined coldest monthly mean temperature of tropical climates).

Seasonally, summers are generally hot and humid throughout the entire region. The Bermuda High pumps hot and moist air mass from the tropical Atlantic Ocean and eastern Gulf of Mexico westward toward the southeast United States, creating the typical sultry tropical summers. Daytime highs are often in the upper 80s to lower 90s F.[15][16] Rainfall is summer concentrated along the Gulf Coast and the South Atlantic coast from Norfolk, Virginia southward, reaching a sharp summer monsoon-like pattern over peninsular Florida, with dry winters and wet summers. Sunshine is abundant across the southeastern United States in summer, as the rainfall often comes in quick, but intense downpours. The mid-South, especially Tennessee, and the northern halves of Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia, have maximum monthly rainfall amounts in winter and spring, owing to copious Gulf moisture and clashes between warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico and cold, dry air from Canada during the cold season. In this area, December, March, or April are typically the wettest months; August to October, the driest months (for example, in Tupelo, MS, Huntsville, AL and Memphis, TN).

Winters are cool in the northern areas like East Tennessee, Virginia, Maryland, and western North Carolina, with average highs in the 45 °F (7 °C) range in January. Farther south, winters become milder across interior eastern North and South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama, with average January highs in the 53 °F (12 °C) range. As one nears the Gulf of Mexico, coastal plain, and coastal areas of Georgia and the Carolinas, winters become warm, with daytime highs near or over 60 °F (16 °C), until far enough south in central Florida where daytime highs are above 70 °F (21 °C). Winters tend to be very dry and sunny across Florida, with a gradual increase in winter rainfall with increasing latitude, especially west of the Appalachian Mountains.

The Southeast economically has changed dramatically since the late 20th century. There has been a boom in its service economy, manufacturing base, high technology industries, and the financial sector. Examples of this include the surge in tourism in Florida and along the Gulf Coast; the numerous new automobile production plants such as Mercedes-Benz in Tuscaloosa;[17] Hyundai in Montgomery;[18] Toyota Motors in Blue Springs, Mississippi;[19] Kia in West Point, Georgia; BMW production plant in Greer, South Carolina; Volkswagen in Chattanooga; GM manufacturing plant in Spring Hill, Tennessee; with the Nissan North American headquarters in Franklin, Tennessee; Mercedes-Benz USA; and Porsche North American headquarters in the Atlanta area; the two largest research parks in the country: Research Triangle Park in the Triangle area of North Carolina (the world's largest) and the Cummings Research Park in Huntsville, Alabama (the world's fourth largest); corporate headquarters of Bank of America, Truist Financial, and Wells Fargo in Charlotte, North Carolina, the corporate headquarters of Verso Paper and FedEx in Memphis, Tennessee as well as the corporate headquarters of the Coca Cola Company, Delta Airlines, the Home Depot and United Parcel Service in Atlanta, Georgia. Dillards, along with Heifer International, is headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas. Walmart is also headquartered in Arkansas.

In 2020, Fortune 500 companies having headquarters in the Southeast region include: 22 in Virginia, 18 in Georgia, 18 in Florida, 13 in North Carolina, and 10 in Tennessee.[20] This economic expansion has enabled parts of the South to have some of the lowest unemployment rates in the United States.[21] In Alabama, there is the large-scale manufacturing project owned by the German steel megacorporation ThyssenKrupp, which operates a massive, state-of-the-art facility in Mobile.

Even with certain states and areas in the Southeast doing well economically, many Southeast states and areas still have a high poverty rate when compared to the U.S. nationally. In 2017, seven Southeast states were in the top ten nationwide when it came to having the highest poverty rate.[22]

• Appalachia
• Black Belt in the American South
• Deep South
• Hammock (ecology) – Southeastern habitat
• Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands
• Southeastern conifer forests – Southeastern habitat
• Southeastern mixed forests – Southeastern habitat
• Upland South

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Southeastern United States.

• Flora Atlas of the Southeastern United States – by the North Carolina Botanical Garden & University of North Carolina Herbarium (NCU).
• Sea Level Changes in the Southeastern United States. Past, Present, and Future – University of South Florida (August 2011)
• Britannica Southeast U.S. – video on YouTube

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