That's not really surprising. The American southern accent is, afaik, widely believed to be much closer to the accent spoken by the British who first colonized

That's not really surprising. The American southern accent is, afaik, widely believed to be much closer to the accent spoken by the British who first colonized the US. This accent would have been something on the cusp of early modern english (which Shakespeare's work is an example of) turning into modern english.