CANS 406 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: South Carolina State House, Arthur Ashe, Middle Ages
22 May 2018
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10. Monday February 5th: Confederate Symbolism in the Contemporary US
Civil War Symbolism
- June 27 2015, Bree Newsome climbed the statue in front of the South Carolina State
house and removed it
- Did this following church attack in south carolina, who killed 9 people
- Got charged with defamation of a memorial on state grounds
- Eventually dropped but punishable by up to 3 years in prison
- Need to understand myth symbol complex
Myth-Symbol Complex
- All these disputes are a long continued conflicts that have long histories to redefine
meanings
- Deeply political
- Origins are traceable, since 1860’s
- Start of a major effort by southerners to reinterpret the conflict and the meaning of the
conflict itself
What’s in a name?
- Civil war
- Take place within nations, between people of that nation
- Idea that it is a war within the nation, aligns with union’s idea
- In fact secession by the confederation was illegitimate
- Civil war would be most commonly used by contemporaries, but not universal
- War for the Preservation of the Union
- Less common, used at some degree in the moment and post 30 years
- Commonly found on memorials in the north
- Similar to meaning of civil war, emphasizes that confederacy sought to break up
the states and union sought to keep the union and preserve the state
- Each names shows the political goals of each side and has certain connotations
- War between the States
- Commonly used in the south
- States were separate and distinct, own political entities and somewhat of their
own nations
- Conflict was more akin to a war between nations, then within a nation
- South was distinctive from north
- Used during war, but pretty rare
- Became preferred name of the war in the south, in the post war era (20-40 years
after)
- Pushed very aggressively for school and state documents
- Pushed by United Confederate Veterans and Daughters of Confederate
something
- War of Northern Aggression
- Started being used in 1950’s in the south
“Lost Cause” Myth
- Conflict shows the conflict over the meaning over the war
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
- Efforts of confederate sympathizers to reproduce meanings of the war were termed the
narrative of the “lost cause”
- “Lost cause” was southern independence and their way of life
- Covers up slavery and the causes of the war
- Birth of a Nation 1915 film
- Celebrates founding of KKK
- Widely celebrated and honoured movie in 1915
- President of USA woodrow Wilson sponsored screening of the movie at the white
house
- Helped established poplar mythical history of pre-war south and the particular
post-war reconstruction
- In the narrative of the “lost cause”
- Slavery was a benevolent system with a few minor exceptions
- Owners had a paternalistic relation with their slaves
- In this view, during the war, the south was seeking to defend itself against overwhelming
odds against the northern aggressor that was seeking to destroy the southern way of life
- “Way of life” was very vague
- Romantic vision of southern plantation owners and southern aristocrats
- Concepts of honour and chivalry
- Tradition
- Religiosity
- Distinctiveness of the south
- Defenders of traditional codes against a corrupt honourless and secular north
Birth of a Nation Clip (KKK rides to the rescue)
- Reconstructions period after civil war is a tragedy for the south
- Corrupt gvmts are run by africans and northern neighbours
- KKK are heroic defenders of whites
- Southern whites are oppressed
- The confederate army gets to win the war in this clip
- In reality, reconstruction was a brief window (10 year) where states enjoyed a more
democratically form of govt until the 1970’s
- Very few whites lost the right to vote, none of the political leadership suffered
legal or political consequences for what was legally treason
- Violence was almost totally directed at african americans, justification was that
that they thought the african american men were going to commit sexual assault
against white women.
- Contrastingly, assault against black women was not a crime
Gone with the Wind Movie (“Lost Cause”)
- Similar to Birth of a Nation
- Just more gentille
- Appeal to same mythical version of history
- Both considered landmarks of cinematic history (pioneered techniques like cross-cutting)
- Became great source for the myth-symbol concept, in short film can be a form of lieux de
memoires
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Monday february 5th: confederate symbolism in the contemporary us. June 27 2015, bree newsome climbed the statue in front of the south carolina state house and removed it. Did this following church attack in south carolina, who killed 9 people. Got charged with defamation of a memorial on state grounds. Eventually dropped but punishable by up to 3 years in prison. All these disputes are a long continued conflicts that have long histories to redefine meanings. Start of a major effort by southerners to reinterpret the conflict and the meaning of the conflict itself. Take place within nations, between people of that nation. Civil war would be most commonly used by contemporaries, but not universal. Idea that it is a war within the nation, aligns with union"s idea. In fact secession by the confederation was illegitimate. War for the preservation of the union. Less common, used at some degree in the moment and post 30 years.
