ipl-logo

Summary Of I Ll Take My Stand: The South And The Agrarian Tradition

1506 Words7 Pages

Throughout the history of Southern America, a key period of time was the Southern Renascence. During this time in the south was transforming its beliefs to form a new way of thinking in a new era of living. This way of thinking was composed of three main beliefs: The old history and loss in the civil war will always be a burden to those hailing from the south, expressing conservative views that make up the south’s culture, and emphasizing the idea that in a society where religion, family, and community used to often be more important than a single person shall no longer be more important and mask a person’s identity. This new era forming was following in the footsteps of progress the remainder of the United States had already made. Due to big …show more content…

These twelve writer published an agrarian manifesto also known as I’ll Take My Stand: The South and the Agrarian Tradition. Within this manifesto there is arguments and opinions explaining the importance of retaining certain agricultural traditions in society. They apply the importance of the old beliefs of “The Lost Cause” in appealing to the audience. The audience the Southern Agrarians are targeting are those who are not entirely decided on the impacts of pursuing a more industrialized society. What they want is to keep the old traditions which is a respectable goal, but in doing so they seem to be wanting to preserve too much of the traditions as to hold the south back from any sort of …show more content…

Going more deep into these beliefs, we find that the arguments are to keep this culture where religion and community come before the individual. I find in today's modern society this act of community before individuals is still present in the south as this is a plausible root of the manners and hospitality the south is known for. Some arguments the agrarians had for preserving the “Lost Cause” mentality is represented in this excerpt, “How far shall the South surrender its moral, social, and economic autonomy to the principles of the Union?” (Agrarians 391) From this view it is evident that the Southern Agrarians aren’t fond of the Union and the north’s society and how it has progressed. This is one strong argument that can target specific audiences that just don’t want to merge with beliefs of the Union. Another main argument the agrarians have is that machines are immensely malicious to a proper society. From one excerpt it states, “Even the apologists of industrialism have been obliged to admit that some economic evils follow in the wake of the machines. These are such as overproduction, unemployment, and growing inequality in the distribution of wealth.”

Show More
Related
266 Words | 2 Pages

In this paper there has been a discussion of the legislation and the tensions preceding the southern Secession. Based on this discussing it can be concluded that the tensions, which culminated with the Civil War, were present many decades before the secession itself. Even threats of Civil war and secession were present much prior to this particular conflict. 
This paper has also concluded that the threat of Lincoln was real to the South, because of the Republican party’s very distinct foundation as an anti-slavery party. Slavery was a soft spot in the South because of the substantial value slaves had.

Read More
1267 Words | 6 Pages

The secessionist tended to be strongest in plantation areas with high levels of swine production, large percentages of Methodists, and greater concentration of land in the hands of fewer owners.” Unionist sentiment represented the wheat-growers around the north-central counties. They relied on U.S. Army support “for protection from the Indian attack and to buy their surplus corn, wheat, and oats for government agencies in the Indian Territory to the north.” Baker and Baum assert that according to their analysis “religious considerations were more important in explaining the antisecessionist vote than the absence or presence of large, medium, or small slaveholders, or the absence or presence of certain levels of agricultural production, including wheat production.” The Baptist, Presbyterians, and Methodists possessed strong ties to other southern states, therefore they supported secession.

Read More
945 Words | 4 Pages

A great deal of contradicting information has been layered over the nature of the Civil War. Those would remember it today as a “just cause,” maintain that the issue of succession was solely about states’ rights against what the Southern States saw as an aggressive Republican government under, newly elected, President Abraham Lincoln. There are many surviving documents from the pre-war era supporting the argument as States Rights only and many supporting documents that support the institution of Slavery as a central issue. According to Dew’s, historians are also often split on what was the true nature of the act of succession by the Southern States of the US. It is hard to remove slavery from the many arguments altogether, and perhaps, including

Read More
204 Words | 1 Pages

Ira Berlin's “”I Will Be Heard!” : William Lloyd Garrison and the Struggle Against Slavery” shows there are a few large influences which help steer William Lloyd Garrison's vehement opinions regarding abolition and equal treatment of blacks. They include; his evangelical faith, his “exuberant idealism that had it roots in the radicalism of the American Revolution,” and most importantly his partnership with Benjamin Lundy(Berlin). Lundy had the experience of years on the road visiting slave states and brought an appreciation to Garrison about “the evil that was chattel bondage”(Berlin). Lundy's influence on Garrison is important because he delivered first hand knowledge and visualizations of the horror of slavery to Garrison.

Read More
656 Words | 3 Pages

During this time period there was many writers writing both for and against the South. A major person in history, Thomas Jefferson, would write against the North and for the South. That is only one of many example from back then, but at this time some of the greatest critics of the South were from the South. Some people believe the South has such a long memory on the civil war because they lost, and even though some people in the current South want many of their peers to just forget about that time in history, many will not give it up.

Read More
610 Words | 3 Pages

The aftermath of the Civil War left the South in a dismal state of fiscal decline, political confusion and societal pandemonium. The post Civil War in America saw the need for all and sundry, irrespective of political affiliation, to join hands in an effort towards reconstructing the South. Most of the governments that existed before the war ceased to exist, with the infrastructure in the south having been destroyed. A number of cities were in shambles, with farm fields having been overgrown. The social family order was no more.

Read More
560 Words | 3 Pages

Southerners believed that the U.S. was made for and by the white race, and that the Africans had no part of their establishment. They believed that slaves were justified by the “..experience of mankind, and the revealed will of the almighty creator.” (Document B.) They did not want to give up their businesses or their beliefs too soon therefore, they

Read More
1547 Words | 7 Pages

After the Civil War, the south was left in shambles. Not only were the southern states left with the destruction and damage of the war but the economy was injured and barely stable because of the costs of war. The union began a Reconstruction movement to rebuild the broken nation. The Reconstruction was also meant to repair the broken economy and the damaged society. But the effectiveness of this system is questionable because it both succeeded and failed.

Read More
1063 Words | 5 Pages

The living legacy of the United States Civil War is a complicated time in American history one finds difficult to describe. The ramification of the war prior, during and after still haunt the current citizens who call The States their home. Tony Horwitz’s book Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War looks at the wide gap of discontent that still looms in the late 1990s. For some southerners, the Confederacy still lives on through reenactments, stories and beliefs. For others in the South, reminders the land was dedicated to the Confederacy spark hatred and spite.

Read More
2349 Words | 10 Pages

A. Dr. Eric Foner calls Reconstruction “America’s unfinished revolution.” Was it? Defend your response. This essay will examine why Dr. Eric calls Reconstruction “America’s unfinished revolution.”

Read More
573 Words | 3 Pages

The American Civil War and the Reconstruction periods played an important role in defining the nation’s political, social, and economic identity in the sense that the country’s survival and democratic principles were radically tested. As the country was becoming a hemispherical power, sectional tensions and dissenting attitudes of opposing groups make these periods comparable with the Revolutionary War in three major components: the issue of slavery and struggle for equality, the role of the federal government vs. states’ rights, and scuffles related with economic power. Prior to the Revolutionary War, there was an existing struggle between social classes as the southern states had an inflexible social structure, whereas in the northern states the Industrial Revolution was beginning to take place, causing a dramatic shift of labor force after the country gained its independence in 1783. With the invention of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney in 1791, southern landowners took advantage of the slave force to increase their profits radically, and this reliance on slaves for the

Read More
1533 Words | 7 Pages

Racism’s Impact on Reconstruction While the issue of slavery evidently contributed to the divide that resulted in the American Civil War, it is debated whether prevailing ideals of racism caused the failure of the era following the war known as Reconstruction. With the abolishment of slavery, many of the southern states had to reassemble the social, economic, and political systems instilled in their societies. The Reconstruction Era was originally led by a radical republican government that pushed to raise taxes, establish coalition governments, and deprive former confederates of superiority they might have once held. However, during this time common views were obtained that the South could recover independently and that African Americans

Read More
1631 Words | 7 Pages

The Civil War left America in a state of disarray, with over 600,000 casualties of the war and the South founds itself in social and economical ruin. The following twelve years, from 1865 to 1877, even though one may argue that Reconstruction for the South started as early as 1863 with the Emancipation proclamation, marked an era of reconstruction that contained many challenges: first, the reunification of this divided nation, second the conversion of the South, whose economy relied entirely on slavery and finally the integration of the emancipated slaves, culturally as well as politically. It was a time of transition from a belligerent conflict between the North and the South to a political one and a time of many changes. We may thus wonder to what extent the Reconstruction Era was a rupture in American history and paved the way to a unified nation? My argumentation will consequently fall in two parts: on the one hand I will demonstrate that the Reconstruction Era marks the end of a time and then I will show that the reconstruction is far from fulfilling its ambitions.

Read More
696 Words | 3 Pages

Colossians 1:16-17 reads “You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.” In “Open Letter to the South” (1902-1967) written by Langston Hughes and the art piece “For Bread and Freedom all Workers Demonstrate.” (1929-1935) creator unknown associate skillfully together. The two pieces figuratively describe the inequality and injustices that the white and black community faced during a time when the two races could have been more influential together opposed to separate.

Read More
990 Words | 4 Pages

With air-conditioning, skyscrapers, interstates, rural improvement to shopping malls, the new South was no more plainly separated from the rest of the country. The political, economic and social change in the South brought historical movements, belief systems and patterns into the Modern South. I will be concentrating on Modern South 's political parties, social identities, culture wars, environmental conditions and change in economic aspects in the middle of WWII and today. By the most recent years of the twentieth century, the Republican Party had turned into a noteworthy power in the South.

Read More

More about Summary Of I Ll Take My Stand: The South And The Agrarian Tradition

Related Topics

Open Document