Looking back into Southern history, this chapter examines ways Border Formation Narratives disrupted cultural continuity for enslaved Africans, walled out “uncivilized” cultures, extended slavery into contested territories, and created the South’s borders. Examining hegemonic devices and struggles against them, this chapter analyzes early writings by Equiano, Wheatley, and Cabeza de Vaca, and an image of Pocahontas and then focuses on 19th Century border building that identified the Mason-Dixon as marker of Southern nationhood and pushed Native Americans and Hispanic Americans out of the Southern frame to solidify the region as based on polarities of black and white. The chapter examines Ruiz de Burton’s reflections on border circumstances of Mexican-Americans, Hentz’s fictional transformation of a Northern-born woman into a Southerner, and the revisionist history of the composition of the song “Dixie.” There is also discussion of attempts by Haley and Walker, and artist Tom Feelings to reclaim control of communal narratives.