Southside (Virginia)

[1] During the colonial era, Southside was considered the area where entrepreneurs settled, as opposed to some of the more established and wealthier families in the Tidewater counties.

In the 21st century, however, some people use a more limited definition of the region that is confined to the Piedmont area: those counties lying south of the James River, west of the Fall Line, and east of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Southside represents the northeastern extremity of the American Black Belt, a heavily African-American region stretching from Virginia to East Texas.

In addition, the western part of Southside has long been reputed for its isolated, rural, and culturally conservative character.

Residents of South Boston and Clarksville, Virginia travel to the Research Triangle for amenities, including use of the Raleigh–Durham International Airport.

The nutrient-rich soil, along with frequent spring rains, provided ideal growing conditions for tobacco, as well as soybeans and some cold-hardy cotton plants.

Tobacco exhausts the soil, however, and in the early 19th century, planters moving into the Piedmont area shifted to mixed crops.

The Fall Line was the area where the first industries were established, with mills running off the water power of rivers, in Richmond and Petersburg, Virginia, for instance.

The textile industry, formerly located in New England and the Northeast, shifted to the South because of cheaper labor costs and less union organization.

Beginning in the 1970s, however, many of the textile mills closed, outsourcing work to other countries where labor costs were cheaper, such as Mexico, India and other nations in Southeast Asia, and China.

Numerous prisons were established in the area, and employed local people in relatively high-paying security jobs.