"We're not stupid!! We're really Yankees stuck in this hellhole called the South. We can prove it! We come from a section of Tennessee that supported the North. We're not really part of that whole South thing."
Was that statement of his necessary? It's like someone saying, "Yeah, I live in Alabama but I'm originally from New York so I'm not stupid like my neighbors." He's right about people's reactions to the accent but he just sounds to me like he's saying he's better simply because he's from that area of Tennessee. Is that not the same thing he's complaining about but in reverse?
talmand,
I don't think the poster meant it that way.
Tennessee was truly the "brother against brother" scenario during the Civil War. I had ancestors who fought on both sides, one (confederate)in Fort Sumter, S.C., and others on the Union side in Greeneville TN. I have a copy of a bill of goods my grandma's grandfather kept for the use of our homestead for Union headquarters.
Greeneville, TN changed hands between Union/Confederate control nine times during the war. East Tennessee was mostly Union sympathizers, but also had some strong Confederate ties. And of course President Andrew Johnson from Greeneville became the Union's military governor during those days.