Though your reply was to someone else, please take note I have yet to mention slavery.
Oh, and incase your ever interested, this yankee boy will put his pig pickin skills and his BBQ sauce (vinegar based or tomato based) up against any born and bred southerner. Many of my native friends readily admit that I am the only yankee they know who knows what they are doing around a pig.
Are you and the guy from Illinois playing tag team? He responds to my posts to you and you respond to my posts to him? No matter, okay I take note that you didn't bring up slavery...it is usually people in the border states that do that...and then they accuse us of still fighting the war. They keep wanting us to admit they were "right" ...fat chance.
Now in response to your pig pickin' skills...do you just pick 'em...or kill 'em yourself? And does it get cold enough in whatever part of NC you are in to do that? I am assuming you are talking about your youth in rural New York. We always did our hog killings in the late fall after the crops were in and the weather was cooler.
Also, the reason I tried to make a point to you about the different areas of the country is because I have found in my travels that the country is not divided by regions as much as it is divided by big city, small town, and rural. Small town people seem to be the same all over, north, south and west.