Old to New

From Old to New

by

Nicole

An Old South was slowly disappearing as a New South was gaining life by 1865. This is evident in many situations but four southern people, all from different backgrounds, show this process. Cornelia McDonald, Louis Hughes, Samuel Agnew and John Robertson all were affected by this terrible event and their lives altered to accommodate to the direction the south was headed. Although there was change, many citizens hung onto their old way of reasoning not wanting to let go of what they were familiar with before and during the war.

The north and south lived relatively different lifestyles before the war. These differences caused tension between them. After Lincoln’s election in 1860 the fear and anxiety within the southern elite rose and succession occurred. The states of the Deep South formed a government and were referred to as the Confederacy led by Jefferson Davis. The south held many key aspects of life close to their heart for which they fought the war. It was important to fight with honor and protect the family name along with fulfilling their role as a paternalist. The white and African American people were also aware of the class distinctions and hierarchy that was in place throughout society. Slavery was the place of the African Americans and white citizens were supreme. Lastly, the south was not an industrial empire but rural and agricultural. The slave labor helped this thrive and brought content to the white people of the south. Within these categories is where the changes and continuity are held after the Civil War.

Cornelia McDonald’s life was changed drastically because of the war. Cornelia led the life of a wealthy elite lady of the southern culture. She did not have to work but was used as a symbol of her husband’s wealth. After the war began her husband left to defend his honor and the cause while she was left to care for the family. She was forced from her home and became a war refugee. Now she had to do work she never had to do before. She had to do the chores her slaves had to do. While doing these chores she also had to keep her class distinction. It was important to her that she did not lose her place in society. She did a very good job using her resources to keep her family clothed and fed. She was not prepared for what the Civil War brought to her family. She had help from people in her community to help her keep her lady-like appearance, especially people like the shoemaker. He let her take shoes for her children with the promise that she would pay him back. People in his position could have been hoping that the elite whites would rise up again and gain control of society, which in a since they did. In the book “A Year in the South 1865” the author Stephen Ash points out how early in the winter Cornelia was feeling the pressure of her situation, “Cornelia’s own situation as the winter began was undeniably grim, but she did not see it as hopeless. She had her older children to lean on she had her own considerable resources of strength and talent. Beyond that, she had a circle of friends and benefactors in Lexington who were rallying around her now in her time of need.” She kept pushing not for herself but for her children. She did not want to hurt her family honor. Her life style for the time being is changing but her place in the elite society will not change as long as she keeps pushing. She has more persistence than she has change. A paternalist as a husband she now does not have but her sons can take the place of him and be her protector as they had been by working all day and not receiving the chance of going to school. This does not change how she looks at herself and her family’s lives. Many women in 1865 are going through the same difficulties as Cornelia McDonald because so many lost their husbands, fathers, sons, and brothers to fighting and dying for the Confederacy. Her hatred towards the Yankees did not change. She still resented them because she still supported the Confederate cause because of her social status and rank of her husband in the army. Cornelia is proof that the Civil War presented material change to some of the southern elite but she also demonstrates how they were not willing to give up on the social distinctions and feeling for the cause of the war.

People that were extremely affected by the war and would definitely believe that they were leaving the Old South and moving into an era called the New South would be the slaves like Louis Hughes. His whole life all he knew about life was what was given to him on the plantation and at the salt factory. He didn’t know how to live a freedman’s life until the summer of 1865 when slaves in the south were declared free. Many slave owners at the time did not want to believe that their reign over the African Americans were over and continued to work them in the fields and plantations. This was true for Louis’s master. The only way for many of these slaves to gain their freedom was escaping from their masters. Louis had failed at this in the past but the dedication to his wife and young child pushed Louis to succeed. As concluded by Barbara Fields, Louis had to free himself. His feet