Catlyn Cox Confederates in the Attic Essay Throughout Tony Horwitz’s novel Confederates in the Attic an overarching theme of Southern Pride occurs. Tony gets first-hand experiences of what southern heritage means through a cross-country road trip visiting historic sights and meeting locals. Tony meets people from every walk of life and is open to their stories and historical information. He meets people who have been oppressed and the oppressors themselves. Many people show their pride through commemorating the past, in the south this often means commemorating the Civil War. Pride is coupled with the ways men and women choose to honor the Civil War, and the rift it has caused within racial tensions. Men and women honor the confederacy in …show more content…
Most of the southern people mentioned in Tom’s journey were genuinely interested in sharing the history of the Civil War and honoring soldiers who passed fighting for the country they loved. Many African Americans Tom spoke with felt they were treated as average people. The first African American Tom met on his journey said when he arrived in Salisbury, North Carolina he was the only black man in sight. James Connor also said generally white people treat him like any other human being. One man said African Americans are chosen people who have proven they are capable of surviving many atrocities. Many other African Americans Tom met had an attitude of acceptance but apprehension from white people in their area. My favorite quote from the book came from Emily Hayes, and African American woman working weaving baskets outside of a convenience store which sold rebel memorabilia, “They can remember that war all they want, so long’s they remember they lost.”(52) Emily’s words would not be an acceptable opinion for many people Tony met on his journey, I do not recall any southern people admitting defeat in the story. This quote came from Charleston, North Carolina where it seemed the Civil War was only a small segment of the state’s rich history, almost like they wanted to sweep it under the rug. Similarly, Laura Jones spoke about Mississippi saying segregation was …show more content…
Tony scribbled in his notebook about conversations of lynching and swastikas while the brooding men threatened to beat him up. The bar patrons openly supported the KKK or Ku Klux Klan, a racist organization who uses violent tactics to suppress other races. The KKK calls themselves an American post-Civil War society, in their own twisted way they commemorate the Civil War. While reading I learned the state of Kentucky houses many active KKK members and rallies. The KKK is fighting their own war of sorts, against other races, specifically African Americans, and religions such as Judaism. Their pitch to draw recruits includes words like “justice” and “religion” while burning crosses and hating people of other religions. Many people support KKK beliefs without actually being members. One such person was Bud Sharpe from South Carolina, who openly favored segregation from African Americans then claimed it was not hatred, but preference. When Tony visited an Alabama public school he got a taste of racism from black students to white people. Although, he finds out the students are simply uninformed. When he asks them what the Civil War meant, they said nothing to do with race or slavery. Tony spoke to a twelve year old girl who compared Salisbury’s Prison Camp to Auschwitz. This was an insightful view for a young person to make, and not an incorrect one because in each situation people were
More than 25,000 letters and 250 private diaries from men on both side of North and South. Talking about the soldier's ideals for which they fought over conflicts and beliefs of each side. McPherson took all of the soldier’s ideas and beliefs and made this powerful and important book on an often-overlooked aspect of the Civil War. Also, it brought great honor and powerfully moving account for the men that fought in the civil war.
In the book “A Year in the South: Four Lives In 1865” the author Stephen V. Ash is able to inform his audience about the true story of the lives of four individuals living in the north and south during the year of 1865. These four individuals consisted of a slave (Lou), a Confederate soldier (John), a wife of a Confederate colonel (Cornelia), and a minister (Samuel). John, Cornelia, Lou, and Samuel played different roles throughout the civil war and all had through change their ways of life after the war was over. While some lived decent lives during the war it all came to a change when the war came to an end.
As I gazed across the book isles and leaned over carefully to pick one up out of the old dusty vaults of the library, a familiar object caught my eye in the poetry section. A picture in time stood still on this book, of two African American men both holding guitars. I immediately was attracted to this book of poems. For the Confederate Dead, by Kevin Young, is what it read on the front in cursive lettering. I turned to the back of the book and “Jazz“, and “blues” popped out of the paper back book and into my brain. Sometimes you can judge a book by it’s cover, I thought. Kevin Young’s For the Confederate Dead is a book of poems influenced by blues and jazz in the deep rural parts of the south.
What This Cruel War Was Over evaluates the American Civil War through the eyes of both northern and southern soldiers. By examining the conflict through this lens, Chandra Manning delivers a narrative with intricacies that explore an in-depth perspective to a greater degree than other authors have in the past. Revealing how men thought about slavery and the Civil War frames her book, and the examples she utilizes to fulfill her goal in arguing her thesis conveys an original body of work. Additionally, several of the concepts established in the author’s book are also discussed through various methods in other books.
In James McPherson’s novel, What They Fought For, a variety of Civil War soldier documents are examined to show the diverse personal beliefs and motives for being involved in the war. McPherson’s sample, “is biased toward genuine fighting soldiers” (McPherson, 17) meaning he discusses what the ordinary soldier fought for. The Confederacy was often viewed as the favorable side because their life style relied on the war; Confederates surrounded their lives with practices like slavery and agriculture, and these practices were at stake during the war. On the other hand, Northerners fought to keep the country together. Although the Civil War was brutal, McPherson presents his research to show the dedication and patriotism of the soldiers that fought and died for a cause.
The Civil War was one of the most horrific confrontations that Americans have faced, killing close to 620,000 soldiers. Culture is a big influence in the way a society performs. The North and the South had different cultures from the beginning. They came from different economies, social structures, customs and political values. Each side had advantages and disadvantages. The cultures of each side helped them continue going forward during the Civil War. The main issue of accepting slavery became the core conflict between the two sides. My mission in this case study is to explain the different cultures of the North vs the South, and how their beliefs impacted the Civil War.
In the historical narrative Redemption: The Last Battle of the Civil War, Nicholas Leman gives readers an insight into the gruesome and savage acts that took place in the mid-1870s and eventually led to the end of the Reconstruction era in the southern states. Before the engaging narrative officially begins, Lemann gives a 29-page introduction to the setting and provides background information about the time period. With Republican Ulysses S. Grant as President of the United States of America and Republican Adelbert Ames, as the Governor of Mississippi, the narrative is set in a town owned by William Calhoun in the city of Colfax, Louisiana. As a formal military commander, Ames ensured a
As Tony Horwitz illustrates in Confederates in the Attic, the Civil War is far from over. Horwitz, determined to find the answers to this conflict, treks through the South, seeking to explain man's longtime obsession with a war that divided the nation. Talking to historians and Civil War reenactors of all kinds, he finds that people are still divided today when it comes to the war and present issues in society. He collects a vast amount of data, which proves to make things very difficult in drawing a general conclusion. Horwitz learns how differently the south views the war, discovers the way in which people use history to suit their own needs, and explores issues of race.
W. Fitzhugh Brundage, “Introduction, No Deed but Memory” in Where Theses Memories Grow: History, Memory, and Southern Identity, ed. W. Fitzhugh Brundage. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2000), pp. 1 -28.
During winter months, basic huts were constructed from wood when it was available. During the civil war, most of the soldiers fought only 75 percent of the time. When they were not fighting, their day usually started at 5:00 in the morning during the summer and spring, and 6:00 in the morning during the fall and winter. Soldiers would be awakened by fifes and drums, then the first sergeant would take a roll call, and all the men sat down to eat breakfast. During the day, soldiers would be engaged in sometimes as many as five 2-hour long drill sessions on weaponry or maneuvers.
The Confederate flag is a famous symbol of the South’s side in the American Civil War. The controversy surrounding this flag has received a great bit of media attention considering how deeply affected and offended some people have become. Southerners consider themselves to be personally affected. A majority of supporters state that banning the Confederate flag strips them of their heritage, referring to the South’s part in the American Civil War. Persons who do not support the continued showing of the Confederate flag, such as non-Southerners, African Americans, and many others say that while the flag is a symbol of southern history, much of the history in the South includes racial segregations, lynchings, and slavery. As a matter of fact, the purpose of the Confederacy in the Civil War was to make sure slavery stayed an institution in America. The man who created the Confederate flag, William T. Thompson, stated this about the symbol of heritage: “As a people we are fighting to maintain the heavenly ordained supremacy of the white man over the inferior or colored race; a white flag would thus be emblematical of our cause” (Miessler par. 3). This alone clearly shows what the goal of the Confederacy
“The Confederate Flag: Controversy and Culture.” David Sarratt American Studies University of Virginia. Web. 22 Feb. 2014
Every great civilization or country has had at least one dirty little time in their history that all would rather forget. America knows this feeling well, especially within the 19th century, the slave era. America was divided, the North was generally against slavery and all for letting the African Americans roam free in a colony in Africa. The South on the other hand viewed African Americans as tools, essential to the economy and work, however still just tools. Tools to be bought a sold and driven until the breaking point just like every other implement in the shed. Fast-forward to the 21st century, slavery is gone from America and has become that dirty period of time that is spoken about in whispers. A question of immeasurable proportions arises, how were the incredibly difficult slave owners of the South get convinced that slavery was bad? The largest answer is the power of rhetoric, otherwise known as the written word. Two books played the largest role in molding of American society, Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe and The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas by none other than Frederick Douglas himself. Important stylistic and rhetorical choices made by Douglas and Stowe greatly affected change in the major political and moral issue of slavery in 19th century America in two different ways, through politics via the male society (Douglas) and through the home front via religious and moral cases made to women (Stowe).
“It was like a Nazi rally. Yes, it was just that way Nuremberg must have felt.” (Lambert, 114) The Nazi rally was referred to the public address Governer Ross Barnett gave at half time during the football game between Ole Miss and the University of Kentucky. Nazi’s as well had rallies lead by Hitler. They had a notion that Jews were an inferior race, based on the idea of Eugenics. The Nazi’s and the South were alike in that aspect. The South saw African Americans as an inferior race and the only race that could be superior was the white race. In, The battle of Ole Miss: Civil Rights v. State Rights, the author Frank Lambert presents historian James Silver’s idea that Mississippi was a “closed society,” therefore diminishing any other views besides their own. Before one could consider Mississippi as a “closed society,” one must look at the history of what created Mississippi to become a “closed society,” to have strong beliefs of white supremacy and why they tried to sustain those beliefs at all cost. In this novel, Lambert address the issue that made a significant impact on Mississippi and its people. The issue of James Meridith, an African American who sought for high education from a prestigious school, Ole Miss. White Mississippians beliefs of white supremacy towards African Americans extreme. What caused Mississippi to become this society dates back to the civil war, the fear on African Americans surpassing them, and the politics.
Percival Everett’s “The Appropriation of Cultures” (2004), demonstrates the power of a symbol and the meanings that it can carry. In the story, Daniel Barkley is a highly accomplished African American man who graduated from Brown and frequently plays guitar near the campus of The University of South Carolina. From the beginning of the story, Barkley exposes a distinct independent personality that isn’t afraid to break stereotypes or labels. The first scene describes an instance in a bar where white fraternity boys were challenging Barkley to play ‘Dixie’ for them. Instead of refusing, like most would have done, he instead begins to play and take ownership of the song. Later in the story, Barkley decides to purchase a truck with a giant confederate flag decal in the back. Despite the strange stares and confusion