The Old South and John Crowe Ransom
Most remember it as a time of dashing young heroes on horseback, fair damsels
in distress, and majestic castles hidden from the vulgarity of daily life by the cool shade of fragrant magnolia and honeysuckle. It was a time and place so far removed from
today’s fast moving, billboard covered world that one could easily imagine that this lost
civilization existed on some far off continent, or perhaps not at all. However, the fact
remains that once upon a time the old South did exist, and there are many people still
who feel that the loss of this culture and its ideals is nothing short of a tragedy. One such individual was John Crowe Ransom, a man whose life was tempered with his intense
yearning for the tradition and stability that the old South embodied, and that has been lost forever amid the skyscrapers and factories that have replaced the cotton fields and
plantation homes of long ago. The power that the old South held for Ransom drove his
works, as can be evidenced in his poem, “Old Mansion,” which describes his ultimately
futile attempts to return to the old traditions.
The common thread unifying Ransom’s work is that of longing for the stability
and tradition that the old South embodies. As in his essays, this poem explores the
possibilities of what unlocking the secrets of this lost era might entail, and what benefits could be reaped in today’s society from such an undertaking. In this poem, Ransom fails; however, the poem remains an important step in his journey to seek out the old traditions and integrate them into a modern framework. To begin this journey, Ransom introduces the “old mansion” as a concrete concept to represent the traditional values and lifestyles sought. Every bit of the structure, from its ivied columns, crumbling graveyard, and ultimately, its inhabitants themselves, serve as parables for Ransom’s search.
The language in the opening stanzas clearly demonstrates the reverence and
personal affinity Ransom feels for the plantation home, i.e. the old South. Yet despite
the fact that he wants nothing more than to return to this way of life, he still refers to himself as an “intruder” (ln 1) into this world that he cherishes so highly. Clearly,
despite Ransom’s desire for a return to these simpler times, he maintains a feeling of
respect for the past itself, and is not attempting to relive it. He is an intruder in this past, yet he wants desperately to understand its meaning, rather than just appreciate its beauty.
What The South Intends. THE CHRISTIAN RECORDERS August 12, 1865, Print. James, Edward, Janet James, and Paul Boyer.
In “Antebellum Southern Exceptionalism: A New Look at an Old Question” James McPherson argues that the North and the South are two very different parts of the country in which have different ideologies, interests, and values. Mcpherson writes this to show the differences between the north and the south. He gives perspectives from other historians to show how the differently the differences were viewed. These differences included the north being more industrialized while the south was more agricultural. He gives evidence to how the differences between the north and south came together as the south produced tobacoo, rice, sugar and cotton, which was then sent to the north to be made into clothing or other fabrics. Mcpherson analyzes the differences
...did through his poems. Although the themes of slavery, past and longing were depicted in Paul Laurence Dunbar’s poems, he provided a different aspect in each one; portraying ‘A Drowsy Day’ of a lonely reminiscent narrator, who was trapped in their confined home as well as their mind, being unable to escape from the constant swirl of memories. He uses ‘An Old Memory’ to convey the past as positive and full of hope, although disappointed by his present day, the past remained to have a ‘subtle charm’ – contrastingly in ‘Sympathy’, the poet describes the past as ‘cruel’, thus portraying it in a more dark and unwelcome light. Arthur Miller portrays the past as full of regret for Biff, but also of ambition for his father. All of these texts portrayed the past as a place where identity was stronger, however it could be argued that the past was where slaves had no identity.
It could be said that from the beginning the Confederacy would eventually fail. By 1864-65, the final losing battles that defeated the Southern military on top of the widespread economic conditions left the South with very few options. The “lost cause” was apparent in 1865, as the South surrendered and the Confederacy dissolved. The curtain lowered on the Antebellum South, and the institution of slavery, forever shaping the former Southern way of life.
In the 1830’s the Southerners thought, or made themselves think, slavery was a necessary evil. They thought that the Negroes were as helpless as children, without foresight or faculties that would enable them to depended upon anybody else but the white race. Southerners saw themselves as the great people who helped accelerate the transition process of this inferior tribe; the process from barbarianism to civilization. They felt enslavement benefited slaves; heaven forbid slaves were free,...
During the American Revolution and the civil war, the North and the South experienced development of different socio-political and cultural environmental conditions. The North became an industrial and manufacturing powerhouse as a result of rise of movements like abolitionism and women’s right while the South became a cotton kingdom whose labor was sourced from slavery (Spark notes, 2011).
The North and South were forming completely different economies, and therefore completely different geographies, from one another during the period of the Industrial Revolution and right before the Civil War. The North’s economy was based mainly upon industrialization from the formation of the American System, which was producing large quantities of goods in factories. The North was becoming much more urbanized due to factories being located in cities, near the major railroad systems for transportation of the goods, along with the movement of large groups of factory workers to the cities to be closer to their jobs. With the North’s increased rate of job opportunities, many different people of different ethnic groups and classes ended up working together. This ignited the demise of the North’s social order. The South was not as rapidly urbanizing as the North, and therefore social order was still in existence; the South’s economy was based upon the production of cotton after Eli Whitney’s invention of the cotton gin. Large cotton plantations’ production made up the bulk of America’s...
Slavery was an integral part of the South. Not only vital to the southern economy, the existence of slavery became ingrained in the southern culture and way of life. As such, there were a variety of arguments that the southerners posed to rationalize and defend their lifestyle of slavery.
The South was built politically, culturally, and economically on slavery. In the Antebellum South, the most important factor was not wealth but power. One theme of the Antebellum South was white supremacy and slavery ensured this through the control of labor which also worked as a system of racial adjustment and social order. Slave ownership elevated the status of the wealthy planters and this allowed the institution of slavery to be accepted due to the paternalistic culture of the South. This paternalistic master-slave relationship was important for slaveholders to maintain their power. The wealthy planters set the tone for the Southern society which maintained this idea of white supremacy through the exercising of hegemony. This infatuation
While the South became extremely wealthy by using slavery for agricultural labor, the North focused on trade, commerce, banking, shipping, and manufacturing. But the question can one survives without the other comes up? The North was able to attain such success in commerce because of the South’s cheap production of food and materials produced by slavery.
The end of the Civil War left many questions for both the North and the South. The federal government was faced with the responsibility of rebuilding the South and reuniting the country politically, economically, and culturally. At the war’s end, the country was left to grapple with 200,000 deaths and over a million casualties, more than any other war for the United States, either past or since[1]. The turbulence of the era left the countryside and the economy of the South in ruins. Plantation owners, the antebellum economic lords who ruled with an iron fist, were financially devastated by the war. Confederate currency was worthless, free slave labor was outlawed, and the federal government confiscated many acres of plantation land. In addition to rebuilding the Southern economy and its infrastructure, the federal government had to address the situation of newly freed blacks. Though Southern blacks had gained their freedom in the Emancipation Proclamation of 1862, they still faced great economic and social hardship as they struggled to make a living and find their niche in Southern society. While the Radical Republicans pushed for the full equality of blacks, they faced staunch opposition from Southern Democrats and more moderate Republicans. While the period of Reconstruction figured as a time of increased freedom and equality for southern blacks, it was ultimately only a temporary condition, as the power of the Southern Redeemers and the waning support of northern Republicans resulted in the reinstitution of white domination. With the end of slavery, Southern whites eventual...
He was stuck in the past like Willy, still trying to gain back the love they had once shared. "Can 't repeat the past?" he cried incredulously. "Why of course you can" (Fitzgerald 116).
This document acknowledges the different set of rules about what the master expect from his slaves to do and not to do. The plantation rules described in this document is accounted from the diary of Bennet Barrow’s, the owner of 200 slaves on his plantation in Louisiana on May 1, 1838. No one will be allowed to leave the plantation without Barrow’s permission is the first of many plantation rules. To add, no one is allowed to marry out of the plantation and allowed to sell anything without their master’s consent. Rules implemented by Barrow is strictly dedicated to the safety and security of his plantation of from encroachment of outsiders. He is more concerned about his
The poem also focuses on what life was like in the sixties. It tells of black freedom marches in the South how they effected one family. It told of how our peace officers reacted to marches with clubs, hoses, guns, and jail. They were fierce and wild and a black child would be no match for them. The mother refused to let her child march in the wild streets of Birmingham and sent her to the safest place that no harm would become of her daughter.
The theme throughout the two poems "A Black Man Talks of Reaping" and "From the Dark Tower" is the idea that African American live in an unjust