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In many circles, the antebellum South is revered as an “honor culture”, with a rigorously enforced social code of propriety and individual status. This is a society where a public insult is met with a challenge to fight a duel, where real or perceived slights are met with swift retribution. The opposite – pluralistic modernity – is a society where insults are borne patiently, grievances are taken for adjudication by the court-system, and the police are called whenever there’s an altercation. The implication is that men have become effeminate, towns can no longer protect themselves, big bad Federal Government sticks its finger in every pie, and the citizenry has turned into hapless drones without pride or principle, lulled into spineless complacency by a diet of TV and public benefits. In short, the antebellum South captures the imagination as being the mythical land of self-reliance and righteousness, in contrast with a tawdry and debased modernity. But this really says more about modern frustrations, than necessarily about revisionist fascination with a mythical South.
It wasn't a "Black problem". It was a Black problem. And it was created by freeing 4 million uneducated, inexperienced, lost black people and giving them no choice but to roam among 5 million worn out, beaten, humiliated, white people.
You mean to say it was a white problem, who couldn't handle seeing black people not at the very bottom and resorted to violent means to mainatin politcal power. For instance,
I should dress up as Sherman and attend one of these balls
You would be welcome I'd bet.
That's because I never heard of an antebellum ball at a southern college. Like a lot of things, the Southern Antebellum Ball is something that rarely, if ever, occurs. It's largely a myth. Just try, if you dare, to get some of today's black students to attend as a slave. You might begin, I suggest, by announcing your ball theme at an Ole Miss football practice.
Lemme know how that works for you.....
PS: If you are in the habit of keeping a diary, you may want to be sure you know how to spell "A$$ Whuppin"................
You would be welcome I'd bet.
That's because I never heard of an antebellum ball at a southern college. Like a lot of things, the Southern Antebellum Ball is something that rarely, if ever, occurs. It's largely a myth. Just try, if you dare, to get some of today's black students to attend as a slave. You might begin, I suggest, by announcing your ball theme at an Ole Miss football practice.
Lemme know how that works for you.....
PS: If you are in the habit of keeping a diary, you may want to be sure you know how to spell "A$$ Whuppin"................
Such balls (also known as Dixie Balls) are actually quite common--though there has been a push recently to ban them.
One of my best friends attended a top-30 university in the South. One of her school's frats/sororities co-held an Olde South Ball. The ladies dressed up as Southern belles while the men dressed up as Confederate soldiers.
When a civilization is destroyed, and the Antebellum South was a civilization destroyed by the Civil War, its survivors tend to romanticize their past. The post-war South was an economically deprived place for many and the subsequent generations grew up among the decayed grandeur of past days. The landscape was littered with shabby or abandoned plantation houses, historic cities such as Charleston decayed into backwater towns and the memories of past wealth and privilege was still fresh for too many people. The once powerful South, within the context of the post-Civil War United States, became a politically weak and ignored place unable to compete, economically, culturally or politically with the north or the booming midwestern states or California.
You'll find similar romanticizing of other collapses of civilization such as the fascination with the collapse of the Russian aristocracy in 1918.
That aside, my wife once commented that perhaps the real reason the antebellum days are romanticized is because the women wore hoopskirts. The hoopskirted belle is a powerful cultural imagery for many reasons that have little to do with the actual issues surrounding the causes of the civil war and it's the association with wealth, manners and privilege that resonates the most.
This is very true. I think comparing it to the fall of czarist Russia is the perfect analogy.
Such balls (also known as Dixie Balls) are actually quite common--though there has been a push recently to ban them.
One of my best friends attended a top-30 university in the South. One of her school's frats/sororities co-held an Olde South Ball. The ladies dressed up as Southern belles while the men dressed up as Confederate soldiers.
In 2009, Kappa Alpha Order at the University of Alabama was criticized for wearing Confederate uniforms for an "Old South" parade that passed by an African-American sorority house celebrating its 35th anniversary. The organization apologized for any offense that might have been caused. Kappa Alpha Order on other campuses, including Auburn, Centenary College and the University of Georgia had already ceased to wear Confederate uniforms in public following complaints from black students.[21] The national organization has since banned the wearing of Confederate uniforms to its "Old South" parades.[22]
I can see why they are banned. Puts some students in a strange position.
I find it particularly weird that so-called liberal Hollywood has up until this day has fostered the myth of the romantic rebel, from the Birth of the Nation to AMC's Hell On Wheels, the former confederate is always portrayed as the tortured, but loyal and steadfast anti-hero. Frankly, I can only think of one or two Westerns where Union forces or former union soldiers have been portrayed in a like manner. In fact I can only think of one, Glory and even glory gives us the portrayal of the thieving union officers and soldiers (Bruce Dern).
Southern audiences loved films, and later TV shows, in which the South was portrayed in a heroic light, and Northern audiences didn't care as long as it was a good story.
The losers of wars often are more obsessed with them than the winners.
Southern audiences loved films, and later TV shows, in which the South was portrayed in a heroic light, and Northern audiences didn't care as long as it was a good story.
I admit that I am guilty (at least in my mind) of glorifying antebellum as well as my confederate ancestors. So shoot me! But before you do, know this. I also glorify my Union ancestors as well. Yes, I have both as a lot of us do but few of us care to know.. For me its not glorifying the South or the Confederacy as much as it is glorifying my ancestors. I know that these men (and women) were NOT as honorable, brave, loyal and upstanding as I make them out to be in my own mind but that is the beauty of my story, or my history. It's mine and I get to write the character backgrounds to suite my own desires.
That is exactly what is happening on a larger scale when you see antebellum and the old south glorified on TV and in the movies. Its a damn shame we don't see MORE stories or movies about the Union and the North because those men and women deserve just as much glorification.
I think the South had this long period of looking inward and indulging its self with enormous wealth and an autocratic life style. The North and the West were involved in new ideals from Europe and were busy with the future , modernization ,the enlightenment and the Gilded age. The continued to stand still and just look back because they had little or no outside influence.
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But before you do, know this. I also glorify my Union ancestors as well. Yes, I have both as a lot of us do but few of us care to know.. For me its not glorifying the South or the Confederacy as much as it is glorifying my ancestors. I know that these men (and women) were NOT as honorable, brave, loyal and upstanding as I make them out to be in my own mind but that is the beauty of my story, or my history. It's mine and I get to write the character backgrounds to suite my own desires. 
