Upland South

The Upland South and Upper South are two overlapping cultural and geographic subregions in the inland part of the Southern United States. They differ from the Deep South and Atlantic coastal plain by terrain, history, economics, demographics, and settlement patterns.

The term Upper South is a geographic term: the Southern states that are geographically north of the Lower or Deep South, primarily Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, North Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Oklahoma, and to a lesser extent the District of Columbia, Maryland, Delaware, and Missouri.^[1][2]

The Upland South is defined by elevation above sea level; it is west of the population centers on the east coast. It has its own history and culture, originating in Appalachia.^[3] It includes West Virginia and Kentucky, most of Tennessee, and parts of Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas. It also includes parts of some Northern states, such as Southern Illinois (generally the Shawnee Hills region), Southern Indiana, and Southern Ohio. Upland South outposts were settled along the shores of the Ohio River.