Violence and culture in the antebellum South / by Dickson D. Bruce, Jr.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bruce, Dickson D., 1946- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Violence--Southern States--History.

Violence.

Southern States--Social conditions.

Southern States.

Southern States--Race relations--History.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (333 p.)

Place of Publication:

Austin : University of Texas Press, [1979]

Summary:

This provocative book draws from a variety of sources—literature, politics, folklore, social history—to attempt to set Southern beliefs about violence in a cultural context. According to Dickson D. Bruce, the control of violence was a central concern of antebellum Southerners. Using contemporary sources, Bruce describes Southerners’ attitudes as illustrated in their duels, hunting, and the rhetoric of their politicians. He views antebellum Southerners as pessimistic and deeply distrustful of social relationships and demonstrates how this world view impelled their reliance on formal controls to regularize human interaction. The attitudes toward violence of masters, slaves, and “plain-folk”—the three major social groups of the period—are differentiated, and letters and family papers are used to illustrate how Southern child-rearing practices contributed to attitudes toward violence in the region. The final chapter treats Edgar Allan Poe as a writer who epitomized the attitudes of many Southerners before the Civil War.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Acknowledgments

VIOLENCE AND CULTURE IN THE ANTEBELLUM SOUTH

Introduction

1. The Southern Duel

2. Preparation for Violence: Child-Rearing and the Southern World View

3. Feeling and Form: The Problem of Violence in Society

4. Violence in Plain-Folk Society

5. Slavery and Violence: The Masters' View

6. Slavery and Violence: The Slaves' View

7. Militarism and Violence

8. Violence and Southern Oratory

9. Hunting, Violence, and Culture

10. Violence in Southern Fiction: Simms and the Southwestern Humorists

Conclusion: Edgar Allan Poe and the Southern World View

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Includes index.

Bibliography.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

0-292-75818-9

OCLC:

1286807317