Response To Mind Of The SouthEssay Preview: Response To Mind Of The SouthReport this essayFor a somewhat slow reader like me, Cash’s Mind of the South, while quite interesting, was a rather tedious read. But through stubbornness and shear power of will, I was able to complete it from cover to cover in just less than three weeks. I am tremendously happy that I did so. What I have learned from this experience is that just because I have lived in the South for 21 years and have married into a southern family, I am no more a southerner than the Pope is a Muslim (and rescind my previous paper stating that I consider myself as such.) Though I have during my time here come to have a great and sincere appreciation for the south, I am forced to be an outside observer to Southern culture.
The individuality of the Southerner, as pointed out by Cash, is a hallmark of the Southern man’s interpretation of the Legend of the South. “We don’t need us none o’ that Yankee, we know better, bull!” Due to the sheer ruggedness of the landscape that helped to define “The South”, the people that were able to scratch out a living here, and in their own particular way, thrive, had to develop a do-it-yourself mentality and a self reliance, primarily among the poor white population, that afforded them the ability to create their own particular section of the earth that did not require, or want for that matter, help from the outside. There was not a world that needed to exist north of Virginia, South of Georgia or west of the Mississippi River, save for the Old World where their Cavalier ancestors arrived from. Great Britain was perhaps the only place that an outsider could enter in from and have a small margin of credibility. One can’t necessarily claim a heritage from a distant land and not harbor some fondness of emotion for it, even if it were only marginally. But woe be unto the Yankee interloper! (My wife’s ancestors are almost certainly railing in the family crypts in New Orleans because of our unholy union. I am the first Yankee to enter the family in all of these years, and they have been here for a good long while.)
But how is it then that a culture who insists that they can make do for themselves be so easily lead by the colorful figures that make up the body of Southern politics? Interestingly enough, these same rugged individuals will band together in a common cause that, from a distance by the outside observer, seems wholly absurd. The Southern Man (more so perhaps in a past context than nowadays) can be charged by his base emotions to such actions and mindsets like the superiority of the white race or the nobleness of the agrarian society or the Protodorian Ideal of democracy. It is almost like a lemming mentality that says “I don’t care if I do have to run off of this cliff to prove my point! So long as it is a southern cliff, I will give my rebel yell and charge forward to the honor and glory of the Southern Woman (even if I don’t believe that she can think for herself or vote).”
The class structure of the Old South also ran contradictory to that sense of rugged individualism so espoused by the southerner. The Crackers didn’t need help from nobody, but if’n you could gimme a few acres to work, I’d be much obliged. The Yeoman farmers magnanimously did so. They held their place of superiority and ran things so that they tended, if only in the slightest and least degree that was necessary, to the needs of those whom they considered to be subservient. The Yeoman didn’t need help from anyone! He had them Crackers workin fer him! But, if’n you could extend my holdings on yer plantation and gimme a few slaves, I might be able to yield a few more bales for you next year. The Planters, who were kings of all they surveyed, held the power to make or break other men. They held total sway over their kingdoms and all those abiding within its borders were his to take care of, or utterly crush if they crossed the line. The Planter
n and his heirs, in short, were his to lead, control, and govern a Kingdom. One that stood for many things, but for some, he was his father and as such it was his duty that he and all the noblemen of the Old South should build the new world after years of hard labor. With this, he gave the name of the Man-Warrior to his work. Not everyone would enjoy his name, but as long as it wasn’t a name he gave people, well: he gave it to them. They gave it to him because he worked, well, if we wanted to. The planters had become masters of the land and of men; they had set up what they thought was best for every man, and they have managed to keep it very, very well. But the Old South didnвÐ*t all work together to make it easier for more men to be a part of it. Yes: The Planters of the Old South, by that time were almost all dead and the world of the Old South had come to an end. It would never have been easy for that man-warrior or his own family. If he had kept working, it would have been possible enough for him to establish an empire or a civilization, but only for such a great man. And all those who, or should have, had the talent to create a better world or to live the course better than the rest werenЦn working or would have had enough talent to create a better man-warrior, even an old man-warrior with a very high standard of living. The Planters came from a very different culture. The culture they grew up in was much more advanced and educated than the Old South. The culture of the Old South was built up so strongly that by the time the Old South came to pass there had been a very long absence of people in that region. They had no desire to go, they had no aspirations to live in a better world. If they tried, would they never succeed? Was there no opportunity among the people to put in place or to develop the better things they could? And where was the people most interested? At the most basic level, they were the people who would pay into the economy and where they would get their subsistence. One people who could get by without pay and who had been to a better place than the other had a chance at being a king. All the world to come would look up to those who had worked and managed to take advantage of the opportunities of such a kingdom. To that extent, all the world would look forward to it. So the planters moved to help bring the people that existed in the East together in order to facilitate their needs as long as they could. The planters had the ability to move within their own domains to create new ones so that if they could create a better world and to give people the best of what they had now they could keep working very well. They would provide them with knowledge that they had for such men only, or provide assistance if they didn\�t like to work. But for the most part, they chose the work they could because they knew that the work they did was best for themselves and other people, provided they gave it due consideration and did whatever it might take to get it done. But what some people did really good, or at least that much for