Southern Culture: The Lost Cause

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The Lost Cause is considered an intellectual attitude that reigned throughout the South after 1875. I would agree with this argument because of the amount of evidence Wilsons book provides. For instance, the book starts out showing how the southerners used The Lost Cause as a construct to help define a cultural identity in the aftermath of the defeat in the Civil War. Which in turn pushed the religious identity and how the Southerners were to keep a different culture which could only survive if religion is at the heart of this culture. Which leads me to believe that the Lost Cause after 1875 was the foundation for the southern culture and way of life. For instance, The Lost Cause taught southerners to crusade against evil, to bear the suffering which accompanied that struggled and to die in Christian Faith. Heroes such as Lee at Appomattox, Jefferson in his cell, and stonewall on his death bed. All of these heroes died for the moral lessons that The Lost Cause fought for. This also showing how the Confederate southerners made a religion out of their History. …show more content…
However, a good representation of this was in Baptized in Blood when Wilson talks about a ceremony in Richmond after the Civil War in remembrance to those who died The American Flags on the streets were all new, with deep, rich colors, while the confederate flags were torn and faded, were authentic ones used in the civil war. This is a perfect illustration of the Southerners determination to not loose what they stood for and those who died fighting for The Lost Cause. Which makes agree with what these authors are saying. Religion on the South became so intertwined with the culture and politics in the