Yuletide in Dixie

Yuletide in Dixie PDF Author: Robert E. May
Publisher: University of Virginia Press
ISBN: 0813942152
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 384

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Book Description
How did enslaved African Americans in the Old South really experience Christmas? Did Christmastime provide slaves with a lengthy and jubilant respite from labor and the whip, as is generally assumed, or is the story far more complex and troubling? In this provocative, revisionist, and sometimes chilling account, Robert E. May chides the conventional wisdom for simplifying black perspectives, uncritically accepting southern white literary tropes about the holiday, and overlooking evidence not only that countless southern whites passed Christmases fearful that their slaves would revolt but also that slavery’s most punitive features persisted at holiday time. In Yuletide in Dixie, May uncovers a dark reality that not only alters our understanding of that history but also sheds new light on the breakdown of slavery in the Civil War and how false assumptions about slave Christmases afterward became harnessed to myths undergirding white supremacy in the United States. By exposing the underside of slave Christmases, May helps us better understand the problematic stereotypes of modern southern historical tourism and why disputes over Confederate memory retain such staying power today. A major reinterpretation of human bondage, Yuletide in Dixie challenges disturbing myths embedded deeply in our culture.

Yuletide in Dixie

Yuletide in Dixie PDF Author: Robert E. May
Publisher: University of Virginia Press
ISBN: 0813942152
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 384

Get Book Here

Book Description
How did enslaved African Americans in the Old South really experience Christmas? Did Christmastime provide slaves with a lengthy and jubilant respite from labor and the whip, as is generally assumed, or is the story far more complex and troubling? In this provocative, revisionist, and sometimes chilling account, Robert E. May chides the conventional wisdom for simplifying black perspectives, uncritically accepting southern white literary tropes about the holiday, and overlooking evidence not only that countless southern whites passed Christmases fearful that their slaves would revolt but also that slavery’s most punitive features persisted at holiday time. In Yuletide in Dixie, May uncovers a dark reality that not only alters our understanding of that history but also sheds new light on the breakdown of slavery in the Civil War and how false assumptions about slave Christmases afterward became harnessed to myths undergirding white supremacy in the United States. By exposing the underside of slave Christmases, May helps us better understand the problematic stereotypes of modern southern historical tourism and why disputes over Confederate memory retain such staying power today. A major reinterpretation of human bondage, Yuletide in Dixie challenges disturbing myths embedded deeply in our culture.

Christmas in the Old South

Christmas in the Old South PDF Author: Mrs. Blake L. Woodson
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 10

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Book Description


Southern Christmas Book

Southern Christmas Book PDF Author: Harnett Thomas Kane
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Christmas
Languages : en
Pages : 337

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Book Description
Christmas as it is celebrated in the South.

Christmas in the Big House, Christmas in the Quarters

Christmas in the Big House, Christmas in the Quarters PDF Author: Patricia C. McKissack
Publisher: Turtleback Books
ISBN:
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 88

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Book Description
Describes the customs, recipes, poems, and songs used to celebrate Christmas in the big plantation houses and in the slave quarters just before the Civil War.

Christmas in America

Christmas in America PDF Author: Penne L. Restad
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199923582
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
The manger or Macy's? Americans might well wonder which is the real shrine of Christmas, as they take part each year in a mix of churchgoing, shopping, and family togetherness. But the history of Christmas cannot be summed up so easily as the commercialization of a sacred day. As Penne Restad reveals in this marvelous new book, it has always been an ambiguous meld of sacred thoughts and worldly actions-- as well as a fascinating reflection of our changing society. In Christmas in America, Restad brilliantly captures the rise and transformation of our most universal national holiday. In colonial times, it was celebrated either as an utterly solemn or a wildly social event--if it was celebrated at all. Virginians hunted, danced, and feasted. City dwellers flooded the streets in raucous demonstrations. Puritan New Englanders denounced the whole affair. Restad shows that as times changed, Christmas changed--and grew in popularity. In the early 1800s, New York served as an epicenter of the newly emerging holiday, drawing on its roots as a Dutch colony (St. Nicholas was particularly popular in the Netherlands, even after the Reformation), and aided by such men as Washington Irving. In 1822, another New Yorker named Clement Clarke Moore penned a poem now known as "'Twas the Night Before Christmas," virtually inventing the modern Santa Claus. Well-to-do townspeople displayed a German novelty, the decorated fir tree, in their parlors; an enterprising printer discovered the money to be made from Christmas cards; and a hodgepodge of year-end celebrations began to coalesce around December 25 and the figure of Santa. The homecoming significance of the holiday increased with the Civil War, and by the end of the nineteenth century a full- fledged national holiday had materialized, forged out of borrowed and invented custom alike, and driven by a passion for gift-giving. In the twentieth century, Christmas seeped into every niche of our conscious and unconscious lives to become a festival of epic proportions. Indeed, Restad carries the story through to our own time, unwrapping the messages hidden inside countless movies, books, and television shows, revealing the inescapable presence--and ambiguous meaning--of Christmas in contemporary culture. Filled with colorful detail and shining insight, Christmas in America reveals not only much about the emergence of the holiday, but also what our celebrations tell us about ourselves. From drunken revelry along colonial curbstones to family rituals around the tree, from Thomas Nast drawing the semiofficial portrait of St. Nick to the making of the film Home Alone, Restad's sparkling account offers much to amuse and ponder.

Tales from the Haunted South

Tales from the Haunted South PDF Author: Tiya Miles
Publisher: UNC Press Books
ISBN: 1469626349
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 175

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Book Description
In this book Tiya Miles explores the popular yet troubling phenomenon of "ghost tours," frequently promoted and experienced at plantations, urban manor homes, and cemeteries throughout the South. As a staple of the tours, guides entertain paying customers by routinely relying on stories of enslaved black specters. But who are these ghosts? Examining popular sites and stories from these tours, Miles shows that haunted tales routinely appropriate and skew African American history to produce representations of slavery for commercial gain. "Dark tourism" often highlights the most sensationalist and macabre aspects of slavery, from salacious sexual ties between white masters and black women slaves to the physical abuse and torture of black bodies to the supposedly exotic nature of African spiritual practices. Because the realities of slavery are largely absent from these tours, Miles reveals how they continue to feed problematic "Old South" narratives and erase the hard truths of the Civil War era. In an incisive and engaging work, Miles uses these troubling cases to shine light on how we feel about the Civil War and race, and how the ghosts of the past are still with us.

A Christmas City of the Old South

A Christmas City of the Old South PDF Author: Winifred Margaretta Kirkland
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Christmas
Languages : en
Pages : 804

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Book Description


Southern Living Christmas All Through The South

Southern Living Christmas All Through The South PDF Author: The Editors of Southern Living
Publisher: Southern Living
ISBN: 9780848742560
Category : Cooking
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Christmas All Through the South captures and celebrates the quintessential experience of Christmas in the South. Presented as a timeline of the Christmas season, each event depicted tells a highly visual story of local Southern traditions and classic holiday parties. Each event will captivate readers with an expansive collection of vibrant, full-page images, and festive, complimentary menus accompany many of the events. Combining all the elements for which Southern Living is known and revered - food, travel, and homes, this book is a journey of celebrations through the South, from the low country and the pan-handle to the Texas ranch and Williamsburg farmhouse. Kicking off the season is a reason to get outdoors with "A Tree-Cutting Outing" and "Mistletoe Hunt." "Open House" celebrations in stunningly decorated homes, a "Midnight Mass" in a charming Southern town, and a jubilant Christmas morning spread add to the bliss of the holiday euphoria. An "Oyster Roast" in a sleepy coastal town brings luck to the coming months, as it ties up the complete Christmas season with a ruby red bow.

An Old-Fashioned Southern Christmas

An Old-Fashioned Southern Christmas PDF Author: Leigh Greenwood
Publisher: Leisure Books
ISBN: 9780843946598
Category : Cooking
Languages : en
Pages : 452

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Book Description
Readers relive all the joy, warmth, and hospitality of Christmas in the Old South. This collection features stories by Leigh Greenwood, Connie Mason, Nelle McFather, and Susan Tanner. Reissue.

A Piggly Wiggly Christmas

A Piggly Wiggly Christmas PDF Author: Robert Dalby
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 110144536X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 179

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Book Description
In this novel in the Piggly Wiggly series, Robert Dalby “returns to Second Creek, Mississippi, for a reliably charming Christmas” (Publishers Weekly). When the new First Lady of Second Creek, Gaylie Girl Dunbar, approaches her new husband, Mayor Hale Dunbar, former owner of the local Piggly Wiggly market, with a civic project involving Christmas caroling around the historic town square, all the local church choirs quickly sign up for the big event. But when an electrical fire devastates the square’s beautiful old buildings just a week before Christmas, everything is thrown into chaos. It falls to the town’s indefatigable army of matrons—the Nitwitts—to find a way to revive the holiday spirit and raise money to rebuild. It will take a miracle...but it’s Christmas in Second Creek, where everyday miracles are a way of life.