Fear And Faith: Ideological Distinctiveness Of The American South In The Era Of Reconstruction

What has come to be known as the American South is not simply a geographical unit. Actually, the South's mystery is derived not only from its unique geographical location, but also in its distinctive culture. This paper is intended to explore southern cultural distinctiveness from the perspective of white southerners' attitude to the blacks in the years of Reconstruction. The paper argues that fear and faith made up the southern ideological distinctiveness, one aspect of southern culture in that period.Southern history was greatly marked by the delicate racial relationship between the Whites and Blacks. Reconstruction, as an important, even controversial and turbulent era in southern history, also involved itself in the issue of racial relationship. White southerners' attitude towards the newly freed blacks in political life showed their fears of losing absolute authority and self-identity. White southerners refused to face the reality that the Civil War and the Reconstruction greatly changed the south. They demonstrated their faith in white superiority and southern honor; they struggled to retain the southern identity and southern past intact.Based on the research, the paper draws a conclusion that fear and faith constituted the southern cultural distinctiveness in that peculiar period, which inevitably led to the fact that the task of re-establishing the racial relations between people of both parties remained unfinished. The paper further concludes that the real solution to the black problem depends to a large extent on the white people's mind and value-orientation.