The Lost Cause: Influence Of The Confederacy

The Lost Cause
The Lost Cause influenced the honor and commencement offered to the Confederate heroes, and deemphasized the importance of slavery in their fight; without regard to the limitations due to the poor economic situation they were left in when the war ended. The purpose of Lost Cause of the Confederacy was to spread the idea that the American Civil War was not centralized around slavery, but was a struggle to preserve the Southern way of life, and their rights as states. While on the surface the actions taken by the Lost Cause advocates seemed not to focus on politics, it was perhaps underneath it all a political matter. The Lost Cause viewed the officers of the Confederacy as heroes, who fought for Southern unity and pride, therefore
The documents by Andrew and Taylor were similar in that both documents spoke to the Confederate supporters on the underwhelming importance of the institution of slavery to the southern cause. Matthew Andrews noted that the least important motive for the south to fight in the war was to protect chattel slavery. Since Andrews was not a slave at anytime in his life, his opinion was likely very biased that the women of the south helped morally improve the negro slaves. He impressed upon the fact that if indeed the war was fought on slavery, no slaves rebelled in the south which must mean the slaves were no longer the “savages” they once were.(5) Susie Taylor questioned the logic of the Confederate Daughters because they banned “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” but did not banned the horrendous treatment of negro people. As a former slave, Taylor was well aware how heinous the treatment of negro people could be, and she was especially sensitive to the issue. It does not make sense that the children would be scarred by a play, but would not be affected by the gruesome acts happening all around them. (6) The Confederacy was quite successful in their goals of the Lost Cause, but there were a few complications and
To a certain degree the Southerners weren’t seeking true reform, but instead just saving face. A similar event to the Lost Cause was the Holocaust of the mid 1900’s. This comparison may seem strange but in both events a common understanding of the motives were what the group desired. The Nazis hated Jewish people and that was the reason for the abhorrent treatment; however, according to Hitler he was pursuing a world full of the dominant race only. Most people, even in the present day, know the Civil War as a fight of the pro-slavery south versus the anti-slavery north. This idea is exactly the motive the south wanted to downplay and spotlight the intention to sustain the southern