Honor and Slavery

by Kenneth S. Greenberg

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.

Genres: History, American History, Nonfiction, American

192 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1996

Reviews

[Hugh Heinsohn]

Fascinating topic but the book is written in a dense academic style. A bit of a slog. The author also makes big inferential leaps that aren’t always justified by his evidence. Having said that, it was enlightening and I learned a lot about antebellum society and culture that I was unaware of.

[Gary]

I heard Dinesh D'Souza mention this book and it intrigued me. I am a Northerner who has lived in the South for nearly half of my 68 years, so learning about Southern "men of honor" and slavery presented a challenge. Within the book Greenberg described men of so called honor who molested children, beat slaves to death, and bought and sold humans. I know Greenberg wrote with a sense if irony but he also seemed to provide cover for them in a way by making it a cultural issue rather than a moral failing. What good is honor and a good reputation without actual righteousness? What he described were Pharisees, not misunderstood saints. He did not excuse their actions, so I am not making that charge, but explaining their actions in a slightly sympathetic way was enough. Oddly enough,, I do see vestiges of this system at work in the South. We call it the "good old boy system" or it may simply be that established families get preferential treatment but there's still something of this going on. However, his thoughts on slavery were quite interesting. Here's a quote: "Men of honor believed that every slave had chosen a life of humiliation over an honorable death." To my way of thinking, those potential slaves that would fight to the death rather than submit were already dead. His reports of slave rebellions were enthralling and full of new information for me. Overall, a good book. I gave it three stars not because of lack of quality, interest, or accurate research but because it was a book without a point. I kept looking for it - Dinesh derived a point from it - but the author never made it. So, just disappointed.

[Jason]

Honor and Slavery: Lies, Duels, Noses, Masks, Dressing as a Woman, Gifts, Strangers, Humanitarianism, Death, Slave Rebellions, the Proslavery Argument, Baseball, Hunting, and Gambling in the Old South by Kenneth S. Greenberg examines how the language of honor functioned in the Old South. Greenberg's use of the term "language of honor" is expansive. He's not just looking at what southerners in the Old South were saying; he's also interested in how southern practices such as nose-pulling, gift-giving, gambling, and hunting reflected and reinforced southern opinions about honor and the relationships between masters and slaves. Greenberg's approach is probably a little unorthodox, but his writing is winsome, engaging, and thought-provoking.

[Dominick Alfano]

Very educational- an interesting insight on the "honorable" man in the south during pre-civil war times. A bit repetitive at times, but very informative.

[Hope]

I had to read this for class 😞

[Nicole C. (using StoryGraph more these days)]

I dozed off over a few pages, but some of it was interesting. The code of honor in the old South was very different and had a language all its own: in relation to slaves as well as to other "gentlemen."

[Emily]

Need a po-mo reading of the Southern police state? Look no further.