Slavery And Southern Honor Essay examples - 1658 Words

Parallels To southern men, honor was everything. I dictated their standing in society, whether or not they could own slaves; it basically was a secret caste system. A man held in the highest honor experienced a good life from a social stance in the south. The honor system used in the south was related to the language used by southern gentlemen.# Honor and Slavery by Kenneth S. Greenburg attempts to explain the vernacular and customs used by men in the antebellum south. It would be hard for a person in todays society to understand the way honor was shown; it would have even been a challenge for men living in the Northern United States to understand at that time.# As Greenburg states, Since the language of honor was the dominant†¦show more content†¦Greenberg talks about how John invited a man to dinner, only to forget his invitation later. When the man showed up for dinner, John had to refuse him, saying Sir I am not at home.# This could have easily led to a duel because Joh n was obviously lying to his unintended guest. If the man wanted to accuse John of lying and most likely challenge him to a duel all that he would have had to do was give him the lie. It was an official way of announcing that another person was without honor because he had just lied.# Being given a lie may not sound serious to someone today but in the Old South it was a very serious accusation and it threatened the integrity of a man. Most would have preferred death to being unmasked and admitting a lie. Jefferson Davis would kill or be killed rather than accept the affront.# To be unmasked was to have an entire life of lies exposed because it is assumed that most honorable men have lied throughout their lives. P.T. Barnum is another example of the seriousness of lying. The south did not care if his Feejee Mermaid was a fake they only cared that P.T. Barnum was lying to them about it being real.# Often times, lying resulted in a duel. Dueling was considered the proper way for two gentlemen to settle a disagreement and it also proved their honor.# However dueling was not always full of hatred and anger.# Often times duelists would exchange gifts and fire shots in the air, not atShow MoreRelatedSouthern Cross: The Beginnings of the Bible Belt by Heyman Christine Leigh1535 Words   |  6 PagesHeyrman Christine Leigh’s â€Å"Southern Cross: The Beginnings of the Bible Belt† goes hand in hand with Greenberg Kenneth’s concepts on the depiction of southern men. Both texts present the structural relationship between the social elites and those considered to be at the bottom of the societal pyramid. In this case, slaves held the last place as per the laws by the white people. Heyrman points out that the turn of the century brought changes that shook the south and said changes did not have the perfectRead MoreSouthern Women And The Civil War1678 Words   |  7 PagesSouthern Women and the Civil War: The Burdens of Patriotism and Wo manhood in the Confederacy The Civil War altered the lives of women, in both the North and South, just as it altered the nation as a whole. Although it is irrefutable that both the North and the South felt the wrath of the war, the South encountered a unique set of troubles that caused the weight of the war to fall predominantly on Southern women. 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In the book Honor Slavery: Lies, Duels, Noses, Masks, Dressing as a Woman, Gifts, Strangers, Humanitarianism, Death, Slave Rebellions, The Pro – Slavery Argument, Baseball, Hunting, and Gambling in the Old South, â€Å"Every puzzling action or statement analyzed in the book relates to honor, and since Southern gentlemen defined a slave as a personRead MoreConfederate Flags Worth1360 Words   |  6 Pagescitizens. In 1860, a man who was against slavery by the name of Abraham Lincoln became president. When he became president this caused some southern states to seceded from the Union and form the Confederate States of America. In 1861, the American Civil War was started. There were high tensions between the northern and southern states going on for awhile now over issues including states rights versus federal authority, westward expansion and slavery. 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Although Steven Douglass, the man instrumental in getting the bill to pass Congress, designed it to ease sectional tensions, it led the way for a series of political events that would change America’s history. The acceptance of popular sovereignty which was a key component of the 1850 Compromise open the interpretation of former compromises, specify the Missouri Compromise of 1820