As the environmental history of the South is exposed and recovered, and historians explain more fully the intimate relationship between agriculture, agrarian and pastoral sensibilities, the history of slavery, and the physical environment of the South, we may discover that the South is instead out in front, waiting for the rest of America to catch up. Environmental historians of other regions in the United States, or indeed environmentalists in general who are seeking a usable past, may once again find a great deal to learn from historians of the South.