--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -59,7 +59,6 @@
     python_requires=">=3.7",
     install_requires=[
         'python-dateutil>=1.5',
-        'six>=1.10.0'
     ],
     classifiers=[
         "Development Status :: 5 - Production/Stable",
--- a/vertica_python/compat.py
+++ b/vertica_python/compat.py
@@ -67,7 +67,6 @@
 from __future__ import division
 from __future__ import print_function
 
-import six as _six
 
 
 def as_bytes(bytes_or_text, encoding='utf-8'):
@@ -80,7 +79,7 @@
     Raises:
       TypeError: If `bytes_or_text` is not a binary or unicode string.
     """
-    if isinstance(bytes_or_text, _six.text_type):
+    if isinstance(bytes_or_text, str):
         return bytes_or_text.encode(encoding)
     elif isinstance(bytes_or_text, bytearray):
         return bytes(bytes_or_text)
@@ -101,7 +100,7 @@
     Raises:
       TypeError: If `bytes_or_text` is not a binary or unicode string.
     """
-    if isinstance(bytes_or_text, _six.text_type):
+    if isinstance(bytes_or_text, str):
         return bytes_or_text
     elif isinstance(bytes_or_text, (bytes, bytearray)):
         return bytes_or_text.decode(encoding)
@@ -110,10 +109,7 @@
 
 
 # Convert an object to a `str` in both Python 2 and 3.
-if _six.PY2:
-    as_str = as_bytes
-else:
-    as_str = as_text
+as_str = as_text
 
 
 def as_str_any(value):
@@ -130,7 +126,7 @@
 
 
 # Either bytes or text.
-bytes_or_text_types = (bytes, bytearray, _six.text_type)
+bytes_or_text_types = (bytes, bytearray, str)
 
 _allowed_symbols = [
     'as_str',