Honors Theses
Date of Award
2009
Document Type
Undergraduate Thesis
Department
Southern Studies
First Advisor
John Neff
Relational Format
Dissertation/Thesis
Abstract
This project explores the accepted historical narrative of white male Southern identity based upon L.Q.C. Lamar's public memory. My objective is to reinterpret some long held beliefs about Lamar s life, career, and politics, while analyzing the effect of those interpretations in fostering and challenging white male Southern identity. I found that Lamar was never fully reconstructed from his Confederate views and many of his pre-war principles made him popular and garnered loyalty among his constituency. In reinventing himself as a reconstructed politician, he used the death of Charles Sumner to offer a reconciliatory version of Southern masculinity in an attempt to appease Northern aggression toward the south while upholding and creating the Southern ideals of honor and white manhood. In order to maintain popularity and power, Lamar understood the importance of balancing national power with loyalty to Southern, and most importantly Mississippi, interests. Lamar served dual interests and eventually this caused his popularity to wane in Washington as well as in Mississippi. Lamar could longer use reconciliation as a platform for popularity and progress, and he adopted other issues like money and agriculture to maintain his political Thus Lamar was more of an adept politician than the hero that he was remembered as through historical accounts.
Recommended Citation
Hopper, James Matthew, "Reconciling Southern Identity: Revising the Public Memory of Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar" (2009). Honors Theses. 2031.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/hon_thesis/2031
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