Strangers in the Land: the Southern Clergy and the Economic Mind of the Old South
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Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses Graduate School 1983 Strangers in the Land: the Southern Clergy and the Economic Mind of the Old South. Kenneth Moore Startup Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses Recommended Citation Startup, Kenneth Moore, "Strangers in the Land: the Southern Clergy and the Economic Mind of the Old South." (1983). LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. 3940. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses/3940 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 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University Microfilms International 300 N. Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, Ml 48106 r 8409596 Startup, Kenneth Moore STRANGERS IN THE LAND: THE SOUTHERN CLERGY AND THE ECONOMIC MIND OF THE OLD SOUTH The Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical Ph.D. Col. 1983 University Microfilms International300 N. Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Ml 48106 Copyright 1984 by Startup, Kenneth Moore All Rights Reserved STRANGERS IN THE LAND: THE SOUTHERN CLERGY AND THE ECONOMIC MIND OF THE OLD SOUTH A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Department of History by Kenneth Moore Startup B.A.* West Georgia College, 1975 M.A., Virginia Polytechnic Institute, 1977 December 1983 © 1984 KENNETH MOORE STARTUP All Rights Reserved ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I was truly fortunate to have Dean William J. Cooper as an advisor. His bountiful, eclectic store of knowledge, his astute, critical sense, and his enthusiastic manner were all crucial factors in the successful completion of my study. I am also deeply indebted to Professor Anne C. Loveland who painstakingly read and criticized my manu script. Her insightful observations were uniformly valu able to me. Dr. Ralph Eckert was ever willing to lay aside his own research and writing and assist me in my labors. His good natured patience and generosity never failed, even sustaining him through several marathon proof reading ses sions. Dr. Bill Robison graciously read several portions of the manuscript as did Dr. Ron Fritze. In random con versations about my topic, Dr. Gaines Foster offered use ful suggestions which I believe substantially improved the final product. I must also thank the L. S. U. History Department, principally Professor John Loos, for naming me the T. Harry Williams Fellow for 1982-1983. Without this award, my dissertation would as yet be incomplete. During my four years at L. S. U., Professor Karl Roider consistently pro vided inspiration and encouragement. Professor Burl Noggle, Professor Robert Holtman, and Dean Henry Snyder each en hanced my understanding of, and appreciation for, the ii historian's craft. Professor Sam Hilliard, a close and sensitive student of things southern, stimulated my in terest in the southern mind and challenged me to attempt a more rigorous definition of that elusive phenomenon. Mrs. Sue Roider ably prepared my typescript; her superlative typing skills were complemented by her patience and generosity. Mrs. Emily Robison rendered valuable bibliographic assistance. Mr. Greg Startup accompanied me on several research trips and proved himself an able re search assistant. Mrs. Maurine Startup, always willing to support my academic endeavors, freely devoted her time and energy to the preparation of my manuscript. And my wife, Alice, was a constant source of aid and encouragement. I am truly grateful to each individual cited above. TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. • • TABLE OF CONTENTS . ABSTRACT ...... INTRODUCTION ..................... CHAPTER I: THE SPIRIT OF THE TIMES CHAPTER II: THE LAW OF LABOR . CHAPTER III: HOW DREADFUL TO BE RICH CHAPTER IV: BLESSED ARE THE POOR . CHAPTER V: GOD'S STOREHOUSE . CHAPTER VI: A NATIONAL MATERIALISM. BIBLIOGRAPHIC ESSAY .... VITA ................................ iv ABSTRACT The antebellum southern clergy has often been charac terized as narrow-minded and reactionary with little or no social vision and with little or no commitment to social reformation. My study, which is based upon an expansive survey of the sermons and religious writings of protestant slave state ministers, reveals instead an insightful, crit ical, and outspoken clergy determined to change southern society; principally to turn southerners from materialism and greed to spirituality and altruism. In their attempt to reform southern society, they condemned explicitly what they considered the ostentation, arrogance, and selfish ness of the upper classes and called for a more equitable distribution of the South's wealth. They championed the cause of public education and struggled for the reformation of slavery. The clerics were anything but static or narrow minded. Their interests ranged well beyond camp meetings, the mode of baptism, and sectarian sniping. My study reveals more than a critical and socially aware clergy, however. For in the condemnations and criti cisms of the divines one is able to discern a southern mind and character that was fully as commercial, entrepreneurial, and materialistic as the "Yankee mentality." Indeed the image of the Old South presented by the ministers was thoroughly at odds with the South portrayed by notable southern apologists like George Fitzhugh and John C. Cal- houn. The southern mind, in clerical perspective, was scarcely distinguishable from the northern mind as dis cussed by northern divines and southern apologists. The Southern ministers' testimony necessarily carries great weight, as clerics were a pervasive presence in southern society and were intense observers of that society. Recognizing the validity of clerical testimony forces the conclusion that the southern mind was perhaps far less unique or distinct than has often been assumed and argued — particularly in regard to things economic. The idea of dominant agrarian mentality in the Old South is clearly undermined by clerical testimony. vi INTRODUCTION Since the 1830s the antebellum South has generally been regarded as a pastoral culture wedded to an agrarian lifestyle and mentality. Journalists, novelists, poli ticians, historians have all contributed to the develop ment and maintenance of this view. Antebellum northerners, as William Taylor observed, believed and propounded this view as forcefully as southerners.^ And what was true of the antebellum era was true for the decades following Appo mattox. It is not surprising that such a view of the South should have arisen and been sustained. Certainly the Old South was, in its economic structure, almost entirely agri cultural. Staple agriculture was the life's blood of the southern economy. Slavery, the most visible and distinc tive feature of the South's economic and cultural land scape, was chiefly an agricultural institution. The slave picking cotton was the most striking symbol of southern society. Whereas the antebellum North bore the imprint of the burgeoning American industrial revolution, the South, after the advent of the cotton boom in the second decade of the nineteenth century, was all the more committed to staple agriculture. Signs of an emerging industrial establish- ^William R. Taylor, Cavalier and Yankee,