Southern Culture Essay

Southern Culture Southern culture and history has many intriguing topics to learn about. During the duration of this American studies course my knowledge about the southern culture and region has grown intellectually. Being born and raised in the South was an advantage for me learning about certain topics because there was a direct correlation between the information and my upbringing. The material taught in this class provided good insight on historical events that have ties with southern culture such as: College mascots, Antebellum era, and the Confederate flag. Those three topics enhanced my knowledge about the Southern culture and history because each contributed to the south that individuals know of today. The South that individuals

The Confederate flag has been a prominent representation of Southern culture and heritage. Particularly, the significance of the Confederate flag in my home state of South Carolina is the symbolic representation of Southern states succeeding from the Union because of ideas by Abraham Lincoln that were not ideal to Southerners. The origin of the Confederate flag was during the Civil War when Confederate regiments could not distinguish the Union battle flag of stars and stripes apart from their own. Throughout the progression of the Civil War as southerners became known as Confederates, they began to distance themselves from symbols of the Union and sought a new symbol that represented their “confirmed independence”. The symbol later became the Confederate battle flag. As stated in the Confederate Battle Flag by John Coski, General John Bell Hood states, “To avoid dangerous confusion in action, each regiment will be required to bear the Confederate battle flag” (Coski 13). Confederate regiments were seeking for uniformity by adopting one battle flag to represent the Confederacy not only on the battlefield, but as a separate nation as well. Following the significant amount of blood shed from the Civil War, the Confederate flag did not shy away during Reconstruction. The flag ties in with southern culture because many southerners believe its representation is of their fallen ancestors who fought during the American Civil