Least “average” yet most “American” — not the contradiction it seems

Several years ago, I read on Wikipedia about how Illinois has long been considered a microcosm of the United States. I accepted that ideal easily, given that the state — excluding the Memphis, Tennessee-aligned southernmost three counties of Alexander, Pulaski and Massac — is a mixture of the Midwest and the nonplantation South, which I have come to view as the most generically “American” regions of the country.

Upon actually reading the article, originally published in The Southern Illinoisian in 2007, I found something somewhat surprising:

“West Virginia was the least typical state — poorer, whiter, more rural — followed by Mississippi, New Hampshire, Vermont and Kentucky.”

That New Hampshire and Vermont are among the least typical states is impossible to question. Although certain features of their cultures — among the most distinctive in the US — may be retained from or linked to Puritan history, their dependence on highly global industries like tourism and finance exposes them to highly modern influences.

Mississippi is a slightly complicated case. Although ever since the Civil rights era it has been thought exceptional, in reality its highly trouble civil rights history is not “Mississippi exceptionalism” but “Mississippi genericism” at least vis-à-vis the other wholly “Deep South” states of South Carolina and Louisiana. Both South Carolina and Louisiana are among the most distinctive states of the US culturally and in political structures. Mississippi, contrariwise, had and has political structures analogous to the nonplantation South (and most of the US).

It nonetheless surprised me that Kentucky and West Virginia would be called the least typical states. In many ways, especially regarding culture — not a criterion used by The Southern Illinoisan — Appalachia and other nonplantation areas of the South comprise the most distinctly “American” region of the United States. In that sense, West Virginia and Kentucky are (two of) the most “American” states in the country.

The interesting thing is that, when I think about it, there is no contradiction between being the least “typical” state and the most “American” one. The reason Appalachia and other nonplantation regions of the South are such is that they are almost completely unexposed to outside cultural influences. Instead, they have become what James Löwen called “white ghettoes”, but which he and I agreed are more accurately named “white cloisters”. For historical reasons, many rural areas in the nonplantation South, the Midwest and the interior west have chosen to isolate themselves from outside culture for either religious or racial reasons — which of course may be linked.