Little Dixie (Missouri)

Little Dixie is a 13- to 17-county region of Missouri found along the Missouri River, settled primarily by migrants from the hemp and tobacco districts of Kentucky, Virginia, and Tennessee. When the Southerners resettled in Missouri, they brought their cultural, social, agricultural, political and architectural practices; they also brought enslaved Africans and their descendants, from whom they extracted forced labor and thus accumulated wealth. On average Missouri’s slave population was only 10 percent, but in Little Dixie, county and township slave populations ranged from 20 to 50 percent, corresponding to the concentration of large plantations along the river.

While definitions of the counties included in Little Dixie vary, the following had populations with proportions of slaves of 25 percent or more in 1860: Callaway, Boone, Howard, Saline, Chariton, Lafayette, and Clay. The only other county of the state where the enslaved population was as high in 1860 was New Madrid in the southeast, devoted to cotton plantations along the Mississippi River. [T. J. Stiles, "Jesse James: The Last Rebel of the Civil War", New York: Vintage Books, 2003, pp.10-11]

Some defined the “heart” of Little Dixie as the following:
* Callaway,
* Boone,
* Howard,
* Audrain,
* Ralls,
* Randolph,
* Monroe, and
* Chariton counties. [ [http://www.missouridivision-scv.org/littledixie.htm The Story of Little Dixie, Missouri, Missouri Division - Sons of Confederate Veterans] , accessed 3 Jun 2008]

The major cash crop was hemp. In Lafayette County, locals went so far as to declare hemp as king and dedicate all production to it while foregoing necessary food production. Planters in other Little Dixie counties, such as Platte, Howard, Chariton, and Ralls, grew large quantities of tobacco in the millions of pounds on large plantations with 20 or more slaves. Some farmers and planters grew cotton and sent their surplus down the Missouri River to St. Louis and New Orleans.

Planters named their large estates, such as Greenwood, Redstone, Oakwood, and Sylvan Villa in Howard County. On these large plantations, slave populations ranged between 15 and 70 people, who cultivated acreage of 500 acres (2 km²) to 2000 acres (8 km²), or more.

Legacy

In many parts of Little Dixie, the antebellum plantations still stand today and many people participate in heritage tourism and historic projects.

Ballad

The ballad of Little Dixie:

It's the heart of Missouri, blooded of three, Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee. It's a tall spare man on a bluegrass hoss. It's sugar-cured ham without raisin sauce. It's coon dog, coon, persimmon tree. It's son or brother named Robert E. Lee. It's tiger stalking a jay-hawk bird. It's the best hog-calling that ever you heard. It's fiddler fiddlin' you out of your seat, Fiddler fiddlin' you off your feet. It's bluebird singing in a hawthorn thicket. It's vote to a man the Democratic ticket. It's crisp brown cracklin's and hot corn pone. It's catfish fried clean off the bone. It's hominy grits and none of your scrapple. It's mellow pawpaws and the Jonathan apple. It's sorghum sweetenin' and belly-warming corn. It's old Jeff Davis a-blowin' on his horn. Unreconstructed it rares and bites At touch of a rein that would curb its rights. It's come in, stranger, draw up a chair; There ain't no hurry and we'll all get there.

Athletic Conference

"Little Dixie" later was used as the name of a former Missouri athletic conference. The Little Dixie Conference, or LDC, was made up of the following area high schools:

* South Callaway HS (Mokane)
* Southern Boone HS (Ashland)
* Harrisburg HS
* Hallsville HS
* Community R-VI HS (Laddonia)
* Sturgeon HS

The Little Dixie Conference disbanded prior to the 2006 fall sports season. All schools (except Community and Sturgeon) formed the new Mid-Missouri Conference along with North Callaway and Tipton high schools.

References

External links

* [http://www.missouridivision-scv.org/ Missouri Division - Sons of Confederate Veterans]
* [http://www.missouridivision-scv.org/littledixie.htm The Story of Little Dixie, Missouri] , Missouri Division - Sons of Confederate Veterans Website
* [http://www.missouridivision-scv.org/litdixmap.htm Map of Little Dixie, Missouri] , Missouri Division - Sons of Confederate Veterans Website