Why "shortening" in stead of butter?

[riversconfluence368]

Sorry, they are not the same thing, and "shortening" in modern language is just short for vegetable shortening. It is not a southern thing, my parents are from the northern midwest, and Mom had and used shortening. People used to make their own shortening, see above entries, but it later became the canned vegetable variety it hit the market in 1911, brand name of Crisco.
It is not a substitute. Shortening has a higher melting point than butter, it will change the consistency of what you are baking if you substitute it for butter. Alton Brown on "Good Eats" has a whole show on cookies, and butter and shortening and sugar and consistency. It was just on recently.
Shortening remained a staple in baking and cooking until very recently, when it was identified as being bad for us. The Crisco company changed the formula.
Shortening was a godsend to the average cook, it came in a can, had a longer shelf life than butter, did not need to be refrigerated, though doing so would extend its shelf life. My Mom never refrigerated it, nobody ever got sick, it kept for months in the cabinet.