Tidewater Region

Tidewater is a region in the Atlantic Plains of the United States located east of the Atlantic Seaboard fall line (the natural border where the tidewater meets with the Piedmont region) and north of the Deep South. The term "tidewater" can be applied to any region where water levels are affected by the tide. Still, culturally and historically, the Tidewater region refers most commonly to the low-lying plains of southeastern Virginia (known as the coastal plain or Tidewater Virginia), eastern Maryland, the Eastern Shore, and the Chesapeake Bay. It can also encompass Delaware, the remainder of the Delmarva Peninsula, and northeastern North Carolina.

The cultural Tidewater region got its name from the effects of changing ocean tides on local rivers, sounds, and shorelines. The area has a millennia-old cultural heritage that sets itself apart from the adjacent inland parts of the United States, especially concerning its distinctive dialects of English, which are gradually disappearing, along with its islands, indigenous population and its receding shoreline.

History

Indigenous populations

Most Native Americans in the Tidewater region were various Algonquian polities including various member nations of the Powhatan Confederacy alongside nations such as the Doeg, Piscataway, Nacotchtank, Tockwogh and the Chickahominy. Algonquians generally lived from the fall line eastward to the Chesapeake Bay and south to the Albemarle and Pamlico Sounds. From north to south, they inhabited the area from the Potomac River in Maryland to the Neuse River in North Carolina. Two nations, the Accomac and the Accohanoc, also Algonquians, lived on the Eastern Shore.