Missouri is one of those places that everyone has heard of but can't quite find on a map. If you're from the South it's in the North. If you're the from North it's in the South. However, it's neither, take it from someone who has lived there. Missouri is in the Midwest and couldn't be better for it. In my hometown of Columbia we had rednecks and hipsters, Eastern European immigrants, African Americans, Mexican immigrants, rich people, students, and everything in between. It was a place that taught tolerance by necessity. Moving here to the South has taught me quite a bit about the place a person comes from and how it affects who you are.
Missouri was admitted to the Union as a slave state with the Missouri compromise in 1821. Maine was also admitted but as a free state. Everywhere North of Missouri's southern border was then to be admitted as a free state. In the Civil war Missouri was entirely aligned with neither the Union or Confederacy and had factions of both within its borders. Notably the mascot of the University of Missouri comes from a group of soldiers who protected the city of Columbia from Confederate guerillas. I think this best emphasizes the midwestern tradition of being in the middle. Missouri has taken the best of both worlds and adapted them become part of a region all its own.
It was always strange being at home and having my friend Dena from Rhode Island come visit because she'd tell me how "Southern" I sounded. I don't think I sound Southern and after living in Alabama I don't think anyone here would say that I do either. In fact a lot of people would probably venture that I sound like a "Yankee." I rarely use "Y'all" and I don't know anyone at home that is able to use it without sounding like they're trying just a little bit too hard. But I also don't like being here and being told that I'm a Northener. I think what most is a little recognition for the place that I call home. I'm not a Northener or a Southerner. I'm a Midwestener and damn proud of it. It may be a place seldom traveled by people from around our Country but was a great place to grow up and I most certainly wouldn't be the person I am today without it.
I like the idea of "liminality" here--not being one thing or the other . . . if you're wanting to do more, I want to read more about what specifically about MO impacted you -- maybe you could figure out how to tie the disparate historical facts in with who you perceive yourself to be.
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