Old South
Geographically, the
From a cultural and social standpoint, the "Old South" is used to describe the rural, agriculturally-based, slavery-reliant economy and society in the
Culture
The social structure of the Old South was made an important research topic for scholars by
Historians in recent decades have paid much more attention to the enslaved people of the South and the world they made for themselves.[4][5] To a lesser extent, they have also studied the poor subsistence farmers, known as "yeoman farmers", who owned little property and no slaves.[6]
Politics
The Old South had a vigorous two-party system, with the Whigs being the strongest in towns, in the business community, and in upscale
Religion
Historians have explored the religiosity of the Old South in some detail.[9] Before the American Revolution, the Church of England was established in some areas, especially Virginia and South Carolina. However, the colonists refused to allow any Anglican bishops, and instead established a practicing layman as head of the vestry in each Anglican church, which then allowed for policy determinations as if the parish were a unit of local government. Thus it handled community issues such as welfare, cemeteries, and local infrastructure.
The
Honor
Historian Bertram Wyatt-Brown has emphasized how a very strong sense of honor, rooted in European traditions, shaped ethical behavior for men in the Old South. The rigid unwritten code guided family and gender relationships and helped provide a structure for social control. A highly controversial aspect of the honor system was the necessity to fight in duels, under rigidly prescribed conditions, whenever a man's honor was challenged by an equal. If one's honor was challenged by an inferior person, it sufficed to beat him up. Men had the duty of protecting the honor of their women as well. Honor became an important ingredient in differentiating manhood versus effeminacy and patriarchy versus companionate marriage.[11] College authorities strictly forbade violent duels. In response, undergraduates revised the code, dropping the duels, and set up a system whereby fellow students would dictate punishment when misconduct violated college rules or the code of honor. By claiming such control over their college environment, students reshaped the honor code and bridged the awkward gap between dependence and independent adulthood.[12] So many talented people were being killed that anti-dueling associations were organized which challenged the honor code.[13]
Old South Day
Since 1976, the city of Ochlocknee, Georgia has celebrated 'Old South Day' in November each year.[14]
See also
- American gentry
- History of the Southern United States
- Solid South
- South Atlantic States
References
- ^ "File:United States Central map 1784-03-01 to 1784-05-12.png - Wikipedia". commons.wikimedia.org. August 29, 2016. Retrieved October 26, 2022.
- ^ "United States - Old South to New South".
- ^ Charles C. Bolton, "Planters, Plain Folk, and Poor Whites in the Old South." in Lacy Ford, ed., A Companion to the Civil War and Reconstruction (2005), pp 75-94.
- ^ John W. Blassingame, Slave Community: Plantation Life in the Antebellum South (2nd ed. 1979)
- ^ Deborah Gray White, Ar'n't I a Woman?: Female Slaves in the Plantation South (1999)
- ^ Samuel C. Hyde, Plain Folk Yeomanry in the Antebellum South (2004).
- ^ Burton W. Folsom, "Party Formation and Development in Jacksonian America: The Old South". Journal of American Studies 7.3 (1973): 217-229.
- ^ William A. Link, Roots of Secession: Slavery and Politics in Antebellum Virginia (2004).
- ^ A leading source is Donald G. Mathews, Religion in the old South (1979).
- ^ Dickson D. Bruce, "Religion, Society and Culture in the Old South: A Comparative View." American Quarterly 26.4 (1974): 399-416. Online
- ^ Bertram Wyatt-Brown, 'Southern Honor: Ethics and Behavior in the Old South (1982)
- ^ Robert F. Pace and Christopher A. Bjornsen, "Adolescent honor and college student behavior in the Old South." Southern Cultures 6.3 (2000): 9-28.
- ^ William S. Cossen, "Blood, honor, reform, and God: anti-dueling associations and moral reform in the Old South." American Nineteenth Century History 19.1 (2018): 23-45.
- ^ Turner, Alicia (November 12, 2015). "Annual 'Old South Day' in Ochlocknee". WCTV. Retrieved June 2, 2018.
Further reading
- Abernethy, Thomas Perkins The Formative Period in Alabama, 1815-1828 (1922) online free
- Doddington, David. " "Old Fellows": Age, Identity, and Solidarity in Slave Communities of the Antebellum South." Journal of global slavery 3.3 (2018): 286-312. online
- Forman, Henry Chandlee. The Architecture Of The Old South The Medieval Style 1585-1850 (1948) online free
- Fox-Genovese, Elizabeth. Within the Plantation Household: Black and White Women of the Old South (1988) online
- Harris, J. William. The Making of the American South: a Short History, 1500-1877 (2008).
- Hyde, Samuel C. Plain Folk Yeomanry in the Antebellum South (2004).
- Jabour, Anya. Scarlett's Sisters: Young Women in the Old South (2007) online
- Kaye, Anthony E. Joining Places: slave neighborhoods in the Old South (U of North Carolina Press, 2007). online
- McMillen, Sally G. Southern Women: Black and White in the Old South (2002) online
- Merritt, Keri Leigh. Masterless Men: Poor Whites and Slavery in the Antebellum South (2017)
- Musher, Sharon Ann. "Contesting "The Way the Almighty Wants It": Crafting Memories of Ex-Slaves in the Slave Narrative Collection." American Quarterly 53.1 (2001): 1-31. online
- Phillips, Ulrich Bonnell. Life And Labor In The Old South (1929) online free
- Smith, John David. An Old Creed for the New South: Proslavery Ideology and Historiography, 1865-1918 (Southern Illinois University Press, 2008.
- Smith, Mark M. The Old South (Malden, Mass: Blackwell Publishers, 2001).
- Wertenbaker, Thomas Jefferson. Old South The Founding Of American Civilazation (1942) online free
- Wyatt-Brown, Bertram. Honor and Violence in the Old South (1986) online, an abridged version of his famous book, Southern Honor: Ethics and Behavior in the Old South (1982)
External links
- Documenting the American South. A digital publishing initiative that provides numerous documents and information about the South of the United States before and after the American Civil War.
- Jekyll Island Club - Victorian Playground of Northern Industrialists in the Old South
- Southern Arts Federation