AHC: High Culture Mississippi and/or Alabama

Maybe this isn't true for everyone but in the parts of the United States that I have lived in Mississippi and Alabama have an extremely poor reputation as backwards and impoverished as well as virtually indistinguishable. How could one or both of these states be seen as a pillar of American arts & culture? My two ideas were either a) during the Civil War one of these states sees a massive slave uprising that leaves it freeman controlled after the war and slowly evolves to be a kind of super-Harlem or b) during a nuclear war Mississippi and Alabama are left relatively unscathed making them a major destination of refugees and thus one of the first places in the country to start rebuilding.
 
Antebellum plantation owners hire the lines of Bach. Next year, their neighbours hire another composer sighs the skills of Bethoven. Competition to hire better composers escalates.
 
High culture Missippi and Alabama....

This is doable the first thing you need to do is eliminate the low tax low services model that these two states operate on. Now fight corruption and concentrate that tax money on rule of law, and good public works. This is going to be the work of generations but its doable. Also make sure to improve the educational system and have equality before the law.

This will bring in the best and brightest that black america has, americas black population gave us blues, they gave us jazz, soul, rock and roll, rap. You can build off of an encourage those arts. Have old Miss be the center for american blues and Alabama the center of Jazz.

These are both classy respectable genres of music and you can build a reputation of high art and culture off of them. This is thing done over generations it will not be easy.
 
If by "high culture" you mean things like literature, fine art, theatre, ballet, opera, classical music, and so forth, I will posit the unattractive notion that "high culture" might well have flourished in Alabama and Mississippi had the South won the civil war. "High culture" has traditionally been supported by the aristocracies. It was the feudal lords, noblility, landed aristocracies, church, and later, the merchant class and industrialists who sponsored and supported the Bachs, Beethovens, Rembrandts, Turners, Tolstoys, etc, until the 20th century.

As riggerob says, the plantation class in the South, both because of competition as well as a near-universal desire they had to be seen as cultured aristocrats in the European sense, would seek to emulate their peers elsewhere in the world. High Culture and Fine Art might actually flourish.

Such an attitude might even extend into the south after the decline of plantation aristocracies. The extensive governmental support for the arts in Europe is, to varying extents, a holdover from the fact that art came to be seen as a national treasure by the aristocracies that formerly ruled them and something that the state itself should also foster.
 
Increased Viking settlers and explorers spread disease throughout the continent, but a gradual resistance develops among the survivors. One of the Mississippi cultures figures out hygiene and rudimentary germ theory. As a spurious consequence the people of the region begin to establish permanent agricultural states, with flourishing regional trade. By the time Spanish, French, Dutch, and English settlers arrive there is a strong federation from the Mississippi River to the Savannah River.

This Alabama Federation uses its small gold reserves wisely to establish a continental trade network, and is on the cusp of its own industrial revolution with water mills along the numerous rivers of the region. Mexican and Mayan city states purchase manufactured goods from Alabaman traders.

The Alabamans resist initial Spanish encroachment long enough to purchase firearms from Dutch, English, and French traders. Despite a decline in Mesoamerican trade because of Spanish Conquest, the Alabamans are able to trade with adjacent English and French colonies. As fine European goods, and African slaves flow into Alabama, a new culture begins to grow from which will come various "American" types of music.

An Italian troop comes over shortly before the Seven Years War, and preforms several operas and symphonies at the Palace of the Great Sun. The Alabamans maintained neutrality throughout the Seven Years War and sought to rebuild congeniality between their European neighbors by hosting the New World Olympics, featuring: Mayan Hipball, Lacrosse, track and field, et cetera.



Might be too many ASBs in there though.
 
Maybe this isn't true for everyone but in the parts of the United States that I have lived in Mississippi and Alabama have an extremely poor reputation as backwards and impoverished as well as virtually indistinguishable. How could one or both of these states be seen as a pillar of American arts & culture? My two ideas were either a) during the Civil War one of these states sees a massive slave uprising that leaves it freeman controlled after the war and slowly evolves to be a kind of super-Harlem or b) during a nuclear war Mississippi and Alabama are left relatively unscathed making them a major destination of refugees and thus one of the first places in the country to start rebuilding.

Alabama I believe is actually a fairly large target in the terms of a large scale nuclear conflict. Birmingham and Mobile would likely be glassed.
 
Slavery is phased out slowly with high levels of compensation for each slave, and a civil war is averted. Aristocratic plantation owners reinvest their money in more sustainable activities, maintain their wealth, and sponsor artists and composers.
 
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