The students in Miss Caroline's class might be behind in their reading and writing, but they know their history. When Miss Caroline tells the children where she's from, they equate her with the County that stood with the Union and turned its back on their neighbors during the Civil War. The war between the states is still a sore spot in the South. Miss Caroline, and the way the children see her cid proof of those prejudices. Miss Caroline printed her name on the blackboard and said, “This says I am Miss Caroline Fisher. I am from North Alabama, from Winston County.” The class murmured apprehensively, should she prove to harbor her share of the peculiarities indigenous to that region. (When Alabama seceded from the Union on January 11, 1861, Winston County seceded from Alabama, and every child in Maycomb County knew it.) North Alabama was full of Liquor Interests, Big Mules, steel companies, Republicans, professors, and other persons of no background.
