Honor and Slavery [Paperback]

Kenneth S. Greenberg (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 13, 1997 | ISBN-10: 0691017190 | ISBN-13: 978-0691017198

The "honorable men" who ruled the Old South had a language all their own, one comprised of many apparently outlandish features yet revealing much about the lives of masters and the nature of slavery. When we examine Jefferson Davis's explanation as to why he was wearing women's clothing when caught by Union soldiers, or when we consider the story of Virginian statesman John Randolph, who stood on his doorstep declaring to an unwanted dinner guest that he was "not at home," we see that conveying empirical truths was not the goal of their speech. Kenneth Greenberg so skillfully demonstrates, the language of honor embraced a complex system of phrases, gestures, and behaviors that centered on deep-rooted values: asserting authority and maintaining respect. How these values were encoded in such acts as nose-pulling, outright lying, dueling, and gift-giving is a matter that Greenberg takes up in a fascinating and original way.

The author looks at a range of situations when the words and gestures of honor came into play, and he re-creates the contexts and associations that once made them comprehensible. We understand, for example, the insult a navy lieutenant leveled at President Andrew Jackson when he pulls his nose, once we understand how a gentleman valued his face, especially his nose, as the symbol of his public image. Greenberg probes the lieutenant's motivations by explaining what it meant to perceive oneself as dishonored and how such a perception seemed comparable to being treated as a slave. When John Randolph lavished gifts on his friends and enemies as he calmly faced the prospect of death in a duel with Secretary of State Henry Clay, his generosity had a paternalistic meaning echoed by the master-slave relationship and reflected in the pro-slavery argument. These acts, together with the way a gentleman chose to lend money, drink with strangers, go hunting, and die, all formed a language of control, a vision of what it meant to live as a courageous free man. In reconstructing the language of honor in the Old South, Greenberg reconstructs the world.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

"I hope that I have established enough associations to have created an elementary primer of the language of honor," says Greenberg, a Suffolk University professor of history and author of Masters and Statesmen, at the end of this study of the Southern chivalric code. That code was held by "Southern Men of Honor" whose values, beliefs and behaviors determined what most Northern readers will see as not just one but many "peculiar institutions" south of the Mason-Dixon line. Many of Greenberg's observations offer revealing contextualizations. Particularly interesting are chapters on death and on the duel and its rather less drastic variation, the tweaking of the nose, a symbol of masculine honor. Sometimes, he stretches his points, as with the issue of lying when John Randolph says to a would-be guest: "Sir, I am not at home." "This interaction illuminates one meaning embedded in the idea of 'giving the lie' in the culture of honor.... You did not own a lie until you were called a liar." (Greenberg also fails to make clear why he doesn't translate Randolph's "at home" in the 18th- and 19th-century sense in which it meant "accessible to strangers.") Greenberg argues that the slave-master relationship molded the conduct of Southern gentleman, conduct in which open confrontation, for example, by being associated with slaves was considered dishonorable. According to Greenberg, this same code caused baseball to be less popular in the South than in the North. "The act of running in baseball implied a change of position that seemed inappropriate to a man of honor." Gambling, on the other hand, was considered an appropriately elitist pastime and one, he says, that would inform Confederate strategists. "The Confederacy may well have lost the Civil War as a result of lessons learned at Southern card tables and racetracks."
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal

Greenberg (Masters and Statesmen, Johns Hopkins, 1988) provides an in-depth study of the language of honor in the Old South. He skillfully demonstrates how this language embraced a complex system of phrases, gestures, and behaviors that asserted authority or maintained respect. His examples portray a range of situations in which the works and gestures of honor came into play, for example, during heated arguments on the floor of the House of Representatives or when an impetuous gesture could easily lead to a duel, as it did between Henry Clay and John Randolph. Greenberg makes the situations comprehensible to the modern reader. His work gives a clear view of what it meant to live as a courageous free man in the Old South and should be required reading for anyone interested in its life and culture before the Civil War.
W. Walter Wicker, Louisiana Tech Univ., Ruston
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Princeton University Press (October 13, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0691017190
• ISBN-13: 978-0691017198
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #453,668 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent look at the importance of honor in the Old South., September 23, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Honor and Slavery (Paperback)

Greenberg has written an informative and entertaining book on the importance of honor among men of the Old South. He is able to link such diverse topics as P.T. Barnum and the Feejee Mermaid, duels, men dressed as women, nose-pulling, and baseball to the idea of honor. He theorizes that the emphasis of this idea is rooted slavery and the fact that slaves had no honor. While he accurately describes the playing out of honor in everyday white Southern life, the notion that this all found a basis in slavery is somewhat difficult to heartily agree to. Certainly other factors played a part of honor's development such as religion, heritage, politics, etc. Despite this, the book is very entertaining and would be enjoyed by both the serious student of Southern history and the average reader wanting to learn more about Southern life.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Filled with Greenberg's Misinformed Self Interpretations:, March 14, 2011

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Erika - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Honor and Slavery (Paperback)

Much of Greenberg's book "Honor and Slavery" is based on misinformed exaggerations. The South, while having its noted and obvious shortcomings, is characterized by Greenberg in unrealistic generalizations. In this book, he states dueling as the Southern way to defend one's honor, putting them in the light of being foolish (Though I particularly think duels are foolish as well). Yet, this was not, as he implies, an exclusively Southern tradition. This happened in the West, in the North, and even in England. In fact, the North passed a law banning duels when former Secretary of Treasury Alexander Hamilton was shot and killed by the Vice President (Burr) in 1804. Greenberg states that "Southern Men of Honor" would never live in towns because it was undignified. I suppose that would exclude the 2 million dollar townhouses in well known Downtown Charleston, South Carolina. He states that one would never call another man out for "dressing like a woman" because it would insult the cross dresser's honor and force the one in question to defend that honor, likely in a duel. That is not the case. It would have been more likely the case that a man dressing like a woman would have been attacked politically and socially--if not also physically. Greenberg's writing is very much based on his own interpretation of the South with little foundation for such remarks. I did not find the book to be a reliable source of information, mixing truth with fiction in a way to make it like rat poisoning (rat poisoning being 95% edible material, 5% poison, 100% deadly). The facts are so mixed together that it can not be deemed a credible source for my research. I do not recommend this book to anyone.

3 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent insight into the culture of Southern men of honor., September 19, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Honor and Slavery (Paperback)

Kenneth Greenberg describes the habits, lives, and culture of "Southern men of honor (i.e. rich white planter sristocrats)." He illustrates how these men viewed the world about them and how the culture they created was dependent on slavery. Without slavery Southern Men of Honor could not exist. Slaves served as a statement of wealth and also as a relationship for the aristocrats. They considered slaves to be their opposites. Slaves were afraid. Men of honor were brave. Slaves never stood up to challanges, Men of honor always did even if it meant losing their life in a duel.