As many of us know, Woodrow Wilson was born in Staunton, VA, in 1856; his father, Joseph Ruggles Wilson, was a Presbyterian minister. When Wilson was approximately four years old, his father accepted a call to a church in South Carolina: that would make Wilson the only US president to have lived in the Confederacy. Spending his formative years in the Reconstruction-era South, Wilson formed attitudes that would surface later (see, for example, the less-than-progressie treatment afforded blacks in his administration).
However, suppose Wilson's father had, at the same time, received a call from a church in, say, Pennsylvania, Ohio, or Kentucky? Now Wilson is spending his formative years in a decidedly different environment. Would his pseudo-progressivism have been replaced by something more closely approximating progressivism, or would attitudes carried to the north have still prevailed?
However, suppose Wilson's father had, at the same time, received a call from a church in, say, Pennsylvania, Ohio, or Kentucky? Now Wilson is spending his formative years in a decidedly different environment. Would his pseudo-progressivism have been replaced by something more closely approximating progressivism, or would attitudes carried to the north have still prevailed?