2. The Lost Cause of the Confederacy Or how the South won the peace

3. What was at stake after the war? The reasons why the war was fought – whether it be over slavery, states’ rights, economics, or regional differences. The legacy of the great men who led the troops and government – how will they be remembered by the history books? The role African Americans played in the post- war South – would they hold any political or economic power or would they be subjected to a state akin to slavery?

4. What is the Lost Cause? The Lost Cause is a romanticized notion of the Antebellum South and the Civil War that focused on three key elements: The effort to write and control the history of the war and its aftermath; Its use of white supremacy to keep blacks under control both politically and economically; Women are seen as the keepers of the Lost Cause.

5. A quote on the history of the Antebellum South “[Blacks had been] put to servitude…trained in the gentle arts of peace and order and civilization; they increased from a few unprofitable savages to millions of efficient Christian laborers. Their servile instincts rendered them content with their lot…their strong local and personal attachment secured their faithful service…” Jefferson Davis, former Confederate president, in The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government

6. Controlling their version of history included… The belief that blacks were enslaved for their own good, that they were content with slavery, and That the Old South lived in a harmonious relationship much like a family. The white people of the South were like those who ruled Greece and Rome in their golden ages. The North, an industrial, capitalistic juggernaut that doesn’t care for tradition, ruined this relationship with offers of freedom for the slaves who were ill-equipped for life in America. They could not compete against the greatest race in human history.

7. The War Continues In the Histories Established in 1869 in New Orleans, the Southern Historical Society (SHS) set about to collect, classify, preserve, and publish the Confederate story. It insisted upon documentation and praised supporters for choosing “the cause of truth” over money with their donations of personal collections. However, for every memoir a Northerner wrote in the post war era, it seemed that a former Confederate had to answer back. “We must meet their attacks when it seems wise to do so,” stated former CSA general John B. Gordon in 1872. The battles waged on in the memoirs for what the history of the war meant, and the Southerners were organized to counter any offensive the North could muster.

8. War in the Memoirs, Part 2 Scores were settled with each other and with former enemies. For instance, James Longstreet became the scapegoat for the loss at Gettysburg (mainly b/c he had sided w/ the Radical Republicans after the war). General Lee, on the other hand, could do no wrong. He became a paragon of virtue, strength, and Southern loyalty and patriotism. Any faults or mistakes that he might have made in the war were quickly glossed over or attributed to other generals like Longstreet. The only reason that General Lee was defeated was by overwhelming Union numbers of soldiers and materiel. General Grant had little to do with it.

9. Reconstruction was a failure! According to Lost Cause mythology (and even up until the 1950s) Recon failed because of the widespread corruption (which there wasn’t any more than in the North) and “Negro Rule” – the term used for black men being allowed to vote and run for office. Jefferson Davis saw the end of Reconstruction as a victory. “This is a great victory…a total non-interference by the Federal Government with the domestic affairs of the States.” Fact is, Reconstruction was a success b/c during this period blacks gained more political and economic rights than they ever had before. Only through the KKK were whites able to reestablish some semblance of control over the Southern states again.

10. White Supremacy The Lost Cause mythology was rooted in the belief that white men should rule the South. Their victory over Reconstruction just reinforced this belief, and white run state governments quickly took charge after 1876. African Americans had few options to fight white rule after the soldiers left in 1877. The followers of Booker T. Washington accepted segregation as long as blacks were involved in economic progress.

11. White Supremacy, Part II Other Southern blacks, like newspaper editors, condemned the Lost Cause in the newspapers at the risk of their life. Others continued to exercise their right to vote whenever they could despite violence and intimidation.

12. Voting Restrictions Mississippi, Aug – Oct. 1890 – A state constitutional convention met and passed the first laws that explicitly took the right to vote away from black men. Through the use of poll taxes, property qualifications, and literacy tests, blacks were no longer allowed to vote in that state until 1964. Within the next 20 years, all of the former Confederate states passed similar laws.

13. United Daughters of the Confederacy Founded in 1894, the UDC spread across the South by 1900 w/ 412 chapters and 17,000 members. It’s estimated that by 1914, it may have had almost 100,000 members. The UDC engaged in a “wide variety of memorial activities” and were “strikingly successful at raising money to build Confederate monuments, lobbying legislatures and Congress for the reburial of Confederate dead, and working to shape the content of history textbooks.”

14. Southern White Womanhood The UDC did more to plant a white supremacist vision into the Lost Cause mythology than any other organization through its essay contests and college scholarships. Southern white women were supposed to be the keeper of the flame while the war had gone on. They kept the Southern spirit alive, and it is their charge now (their burden, in fact), the young and the old, to keep that Southern fire burning. They were the only reason the Lost Cause was still going.

15. Jim Crow Laws Jim Crow laws were laws that imposed racial segregation upon whites and blacks in private and public places in the South. The term came from an old minstrel song, “Jump, Jim Crow” in 1830 where a white man dressed like an elderly slave to perform for whites.

16. 1881 1st Jim Crow laws Tennessee was the first state to pass Jim Crow laws in 1881. Mississippi was the first state to take away blacks’ right to vote in 1890. Many Southern states followed suit in both regards.

17. Plessy v. Ferguson -1896 Previously, the Supreme Court failed to overturn voting restrictions, and now in this landmark case, the Court decided that separation of the races doesn’t violate the 14 th Amendment. The case established the doctrine of “separate but equal” which allowed states to maintain separate facilities as long as they provided equal services

18. Lynching Lynchings were a tragic but true fact of life for Black folks throughout America until late into the 20 th Century. Blacks would be lynched for many different reasons – looking at a white woman, falsely accused of raping a white woman, talking back to a white man, etc. http://www.withoutsanctuary.org/

19. Booker T. Washington (1856-1915) -Born a slave in VA but college educated after the war, he helped build Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. -Washington was a champion of blacks learning a trade and achieving economic equality and self-respect before achieving political and social equality. He was criticized by more radical Black leaders as “accomodationist” b/c he didn’t challenge white supremacy. However, he recognized the depth of white racism and felt that economic independence was the key to eventual Black political and social equality. - George Washington Carver joined Tuskegee’s faculty in 1896 and became a famous chemist who helped boost the South’s economy.

20. W.E.B. Dubois (1868-1963) -Born in the North, Dubois was the first Black man to graduate from Harvard w/ a doctorate. -Unlike Washington, Dubois wanted full social and political rights for African Americans immediately w/ the rationale that they were citizens. -He helped found a fledgling civil rights group called the Niagara Movement in 1906 with the goals to advocate civil justice and abolish caste discrimination. It eventually failed but Dubois eventually helped form the NAACP in 1909. He became the editor of its newsletter, The Crisis. -In 1903, Dubois wrote The Souls of Black Folks in which he was critical of Washington and others who he felt didn’t push hard enough. -He was also a huge believer in the concept of the Talented Tenth – nurturing the best of his race to be future leaders

21. Ida Wells (1862 -1931) - 1884 – she was thrown off a train for refusing to give up her seat in the ladies’ car. Court awarded her $500 in damages before higher court reversed decision. - Newspaper editor and journalist who launched an anti- lynching campaign in 1892. Her editorial in May 1892 resulted in her newspaper office being destroyed by a white mob. She relocated to NYC and continued her written assault on injustice from there by publishing accounts of lynchings. She also condemned the Chicago World’s Fair for excluding Black Americans in 1893. - She also pushed for women’s issues by helping form the Ntn’l Assn. of Colored Women in 1896 to push for black women’s suffrage.

22. Ida Wells’ famous editorial published in May 1892. "Nobody in this section of the country believes the old thread-bare lie that Negro men rape white women," wrote Wells. "If Southern white men are not careful they will over-reach themselves and public sentiment will have a reaction; a conclusion will then be reached which will be very damaging to the moral reputation of their women."

23. Summary of the Lost Cause 1.The brave Southern soldiers were never truly defeated in battle, just overwhelmed by the massive resources of the North. 2.The mythology of the Confederate past is a comfort to those who cannot stand all of the social and political upheaval of the times. 3.The UDC guarded the Confederate history against any enemies, real or imagined.

24. Summary of Lost Cause, cont. 4. The cause of the War Between the States was really states’ rights and not slavery. 5. Slavery wasn’t a cause because slaves were faithful and content with their lot in life. Together, these arguments reinforced Southern pride, nationalized the Lost Cause (especially in movies like Birth of a Nation and Gone With the Wind), and racialized Civil War memory for post war generations.