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Last edited by Orchastrattor (talk | contribs) 27 days ago. (Update) |
Southern Chivalry was a popular term describing the aristocratic honor culture of the Southern United States during the Antebellum, Civil War, and early Postbellum eras. The concept of a "Southern gentleman" became popular as a chivalric ideal of the white planter class, emphasizing both familial and personal honor in addition to the ability to defend either by force if necessary. Prior to the Civil War this concept of a gentleman's honor was frequently used to justify duels and other forms of extrajudicial violence, most notably the caning of Charles Sumner by Preston Brooks, and contributed to the militarization of the South by encouraging young men to be taught at military schools.
By the later Antebellum era, the term had taken on an ironic meaning for Northerners and abolitionists, among whom it was used as a pejorative to describe the barbarism of Southern slave owners, as was particularly seen in various political caricatures before and during the war.
In the modern era the romanticization of Southern chivalry would become a core aspect of the Lost Cause Myth, which portrays the Confederate States of America as a morally and culturally superior civilization defending its honor against a materialistic and immoral North.
PLACEHOLDER edit
https://www.ushistory.org/us/27c.asp
https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_325684
Bummers History of the Southern United States White Southerners P. G. T. Beauregard Richard M. Weaver Leo Frank
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-i-learned-about-cult-lost-cause-180968426/
https://www.moma.org/magazine/articles/487
https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/arts-culture/lost-cause-religion/
Values edit
During the Antebellum period the culture of the Southern aristocracy was, according to some historians, loosely codified as a chivalric Southern Code, emphasizing the ability of a Southern gentleman to control their dependents, including both white family members and black chattel slaves.
Southern chivalry also placed great importance on upholding the strict gender roles seen among white Southerners of the time, encouraging a division between strong, educated gentlemen and demure, submissive belles.
History edit
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Popular concepts of chivalry originated with the heritage of the "Old South" as the colonial possessions of the British Empire, when the meteoric growth of the plantation industry led to the entrenchment of wealthy landowners as an aristocratic planter class. This aristocracy would then purposefully adopt many of the values and ideas from the ideals of the British gentry.
Preston Brooks edit
The senator from South Carolina has read many books of chivalry, and believes himself a chivalrous knight with sentiments of honor and courage. Of course he has chosen a mistress to whom he has made his vows, and who, though ugly to others, is always lovely to him; though polluted in the sight of the world, is chaste in his sight—I mean the harlot, Slavery. For her, his tongue is always profuse in words. Let her be impeached in character, or any proposition made to shut her out from the extension of her wantonness, and no extravagance of manner or hardihood of assertion is then too great for this senator. The frenzy of Don Quixote, in behalf of his wench, Dulcinea del Toboso, is all surpassed.[4]
Civil War edit
Postbellum South edit
First-wave feminist and former slaveowner Rebecca Latimer Felton cited chivalric values, particularly the duty of gentlemen to provide and care for a lady, when petitioning for women's suffrage.[5]
Lost Cause edit
Lost Cause proponents sought to represent the Southerners as tragic heroes fighting for the supposed moral ideals of the Confederacy, arguing that the Northern military victory came about due to their overwhelming industrial and numerical advantage, as opposed to the strength or constitution of the average Union soldier.
The Ku Klux Klan would also make frequent use of terms like "Knight" or "Empire" in their internal vocabulary and hierarchy.
Gallery edit
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"Arguments of the Chivalry" -
Caricature of "Southern Gentleman", Union Envelopes -
A quote from Woodrow Wilson used in Birth of a Nation.
See also edit
- United Confederate Veterans – American Civil War veterans' organization for soldiers and sailors of the CSA
- United Daughters of the Confederacy – American hereditary association
- Southern Cross of Honor – United Daughters of the Confederacy commemorative medal awarded to the United Confederate Veterans
- Antebellum architecture – Neoclassical architectural style characteristic of the 19th-century Southern United States
References edit
- ^ Weaver, R. M. “Southern Chivalry and Total War.” The Sewanee Review, vol. 53, no. 2, 1945, pp. 267–78. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/27537582. Accessed 29 Sept. 2023.
- ^ "The American Experience | Dueling, American Style". PBS. Archived from the original on 2012-11-11. Retrieved 2012-10-22.
- ^ Drake, Ross (March 2004). "Duel! Defenders of honor or shoot-on-sight vigilantes? Even in 19th-century America, it was hard to tell". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 2012-10-22.
- ^ Storey, Moorfield (1900). American Statesmen: Charles Sumner. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company. pp. 139–140 – via Google Books.
- ^ Scott, Thomas Allan (1995). Cornerstones of Georgia History: Documents that Formed the State. University of Georgia Press. p. 168. ISBN 978-0-8203-1743-4. Retrieved 22 September 2022.