Deep South

American  

noun

1. the southeastern part of the U.S., including especially South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana.

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Deep South British  

noun

1. the SE part of the US, esp South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana

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Deep South Cultural  

1. The southernmost tier of states in the South: South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Before the Civil War, these states were centers of cotton production and slavery. All of them seceded from the United States before the firing on Fort Sumter. They are sometimes distinguished from the states of the Upper South (Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas), which contained proportionately fewer slaves prior to the Civil War and which seceded only after the firing on Fort Sumter.

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Example Sentences

Local organizers understood the strategic importance of finding a sympathetic plaintiff to challenge bus segregation in the Deep South.

From Salon • May 20, 2026

This story was produced in partnership with Deep South Today, a network of nonprofit, nonpartisan local newsrooms in Louisiana and Mississippi.

From Slate • May 5, 2026

“In his three presidential campaigns, Mr. Trump made serious inroads in heavily Black counties, across the Deep South and beyond.”

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 14, 2026

"Sinners," the tale of gangster twins returning home to a supernatural and segregated Deep South in the 1930s, has already made Academy Awards history with its whopping 16 nominations.

From Barron's • Mar. 15, 2026

Enoch didn’t want to move back to the Deep South, but the school promised to let him both teach and coach.

From "The Parker Inheritance" by Varian Johnson