Slavery And Southern Honor Essay -- Slavery Essays

ParallelsTo southern men, value was e rattlingthing. I dictated their standing in friendship, whether or not they could own slaves it basically was a secret caste system. A man held in the highest keep an eye on experienced a good livelihood from a social stance in the south. The honor system utilise in the south was related to the language utilise by southern gentlemen. awarding and Slavery by Kenneth S. Greenburg attempts to explain the vernacular and customs used by men in the antebellum south. It would be hard for a person in todays society to date the way honor was shown it would take up even been a challenge for men living in the Federal United States to understand at that time. As Greenburg states, Since the language of honor was the predominant language of the men who ruled the slave southeast, we will never understand masters, the nature of slavery, or the Civil war without first understanding that language. To be a powerful man in the south, society als o had to recall you to be an honorable man. Honor and power in the South were collimate to each other a man with a high honor ranking was usually a prominent member of society. The white gentlemen of the South used honor as a means for running society and it slightly resembled a monarchic society, as if a person was innate(p) into honor whether or not they chose so. It was very important to a southerly man the family name he carried because it would prove his honor in somewhat situations.The biggest insult that could be given in the antebellum South was criminate an honorable man of lying. It could be over something trivial or something serious. every way, if a man was accused of lying, his very livelihood was being challenged. If a certain person fell out of societies favor an... ... high honor holdings were usually wealthy also. Today, money is not necessary to achieve honor. Honor is not dictated by social standings exclusively by the actions and decisions that t hrong make on a daily basis. Most consider religious figures, soldiers, doctors, firefighters, etc. to be honorable positions because they make a helpful contribution to society. Honorable people help others even if they cannot gain anything from the situation. An small recitation of honor would be taking an hour out of your busy memorandum to help brighten someones day. This clashes greatly with the perception of honor in the grey South. We consider slavery to be an illegal act and something bad but the Old South considered most slave masters to be very honorable people. If honor has changed so significantly over the past cl years just imagine what it will be like in the next years to come.