Defining Confederate Nationalism

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses Confederate nationalism at the time of the American Civil War. The paper argues that Confederate nationalism was not a longstanding, widespread 'reality' which prompted secession in the first place, but rather a difficult and ongoing 'process of creation.' It shows how it was primarily undertaken by the Southern elite after secession, in an attempt to win a war fought largely in defense of their own prosperity.

From the Paper:

"Likewise, the actions of state governors as the war continued were very telling. Motivated by the fear of home-front explosion, particularly with regard to slave insurrection, states repeatedly thwarted the Richmond Government's attempts at securing victory by withholding men and munitions, for the preservation of state dignity and state sovereignty. What ensued was a tug-of-war between the will of Confederacy and the wills of the state governments it represented. These events demonstrated that ultimately, Southern people were thoroughly steeped in the doctrines of state rights and local patriotism; that nationalism was far from a reality within the Confederacy and more 'an ideal,' as conceived by the powerful groups who tried to instil it."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Hammond, James, 'Letter to an English Abolitionist' (1845), quoted by Michael Perman in Major Problems in the Civil War and Reconstruction (Chicago: University of Illinois, 1998).
• Beringer, Richard, Hattawa ,Archer & Still, William, Why The South Lost the Civil War, (Athens: The University of Georgia Pres, 1986).
• Donald, David, An Excess of Democracy : The American Civil War and the Social Process (Oxford, 1960).
• Faust, Drew Gilpin, The Creation of Confederate Nationalism, (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1989).
• McPherson, James, 'Was Blood Thicker than Water: Ethnic Nationalism in the American Civil War,' Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol.143, (March, 1999), pp.102-8.

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