In Look Away, Dixieland, Vermont-native Twitchell sets out from his current home in Florida on the inauguration day of America’s first black president to find the “real” South and to try to understand the truth about his illustrious ancestor. He travels in an RV from Georgia’s Okefenokee Swamp across Alabama and Mississippi to Coushatta, Louisiana. As he drives through the heart of Dixie, Twitchell sorts through the prejudices he learned from his northern rearing. In searching for the culture he had held at arm’s length for so long, he tours small-town southern life—in campgrounds, cotton gins, churches, country fairs, and squirrel dog kennels—and uncovers some fundamental truths along the way. Notably, he discovers that prejudices of race, class, and ideology are not limited by geography. As one man from Georgia mockingly summed up North versus South stereotypes, “Y’all are rude and we’re stupid.”

 

Unexpectedly, Twitchell also uncovers facts about his great-grandfather and sheds new light on his family’s past. An enlightening, humorous, and refreshingly honest search, Look Away, Dixieland reveals some of the differences and similarities that ultimately define us as a nation.