Christian Nationalism and White Supremacist Ideology: Beginnings

An excerpt from my book, Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory: Religion and the Politics of Race in the Civil War Era and Beyond

What follows is a brief excerpt from one of the chapters of my book. I develop this in greater detail tracing how the racist ideology of the Antebellum South and Confederacy in the book, but it is important to know some of Christian Nationalism’s long and dark history in our country. It began to take over the mainstream of the Republican Party through the efforts of men like Paul Weyrich and Jerry Falwell who realized that a fight over tax breaks for Christian private schools that were formed to help white parents avoid sending their kids to desegregated public school was worth the fight. So they turned the battle to focus on Roe v. Wade and eventually take control of the Supreme Court, it was a way to reestablish White Rule through the GOP. Also note the blatant appeals to “Biblical” patriarchy that are so common in MAGA and Christian Nationalist writings and speeches today. The text is not the final text of the book as it was done before the copy editing process.

“White Supremacy was a key tenet of the Southern Way of Life, and Southern ministers used the Lost Cause to reinforce it” [1] in the century following the war. During the war the South’s leading overseas propagandist, Henry Hotze wrote “The negro’s place in nature is in subordination to the white race” which he noted was due to the “intellectual inferiority” of blacks. [2]

Slavery divided the United States regarding the meaning of freedom and liberty. Southerners reserved freedom to Whites who occupied positions of economic power because slavery was key to their economy and social philosophy. Human equality, the heart of the Declaration of Independence was scorned. George Fitzhugh stated that equality was “practically impossible, and directly conflicts with all government, all separate property, and all social existence.” [3] Fitzhugh despised the founder’s views of liberty and human equality, he wrote:

“We must combat the doctrines of natural liberty and human equality, and the social contract as taught by Locke and the American sages of 1776. Under the spell of Locke and the Enlightenment Jefferson and other misguided patriots ruined the splendid political edifice they erected by espousing dangerous abstractions – the crazy notions of liberty and equality that they wrote into the Declaration of Independence and the Virginia Bill of Rights. No wonder the abolitionists loved to quote the Declaration of Independence! Its precepts are wholly at war with slavery and equally at war with all government, all subordination, all order. It is full if mendacity and error. Consider its verbose, newborn, false and unmeaning preamble…. There is… no such thing as inalienable rights. Life and liberty are not inalienable…. Jefferson… was the architect of ruin, the inaugurator of anarchy. As his Declaration of Independence Stands… it is “exuberantly false, and absurdly fallacious.”  [4]

Fitzhugh’s political philosophy was buttressed the belief that the South’s God ordained mission was to maintain and expand slavery. One Methodist preacher wrote, “God as he is infinitely wise, just and holy never could authorize the practice of moral evil. But God has authorized the practice of slavery, not only by bare permission of his providence, but by the express permission of his word.” [5] Southern Christians felt that they were true believers while Northern abolitionists and proponents of human equality were heretics. As such the “South’s ideological isolation within an increasingly antislavery world was not a stigma or a source of guilt but a badge of righteousness and a foundation for national identity and pride.” [6]

Fitzhugh believed that human beings were not equal based on race and gender: “but in relations of strict domination and subordination. Successful societies were those whose members acknowledged their places within that hierarchy.” [7] Fitzhugh was caustic when he discussed the implications of his beliefs:

“We conclude that about nineteen out of twenty individuals have “a natural and inalienable right” to be taken care of and protected, to have guardians, trustees, husbands or masters; in other words they have a natural and inalienable right to be slaves. The one in twenty are clearly born or educated in some way fitted for command and liberty.” [8]

Fitzhugh summarized his chilling beliefs as “Liberty for the few – slavery in every form, for the mass.” [9]

Most non-slave owning Southerners did not understand the institution of slavery restricted their rights. Most saw slavery as the guarantee of their social status. John C. Calhoun said to the Senate in 1848: “With us, the two great divisions of society are not the rich and poor, but white and black; and all of the former, the poor as well as the rich, belong to the upper class, and are respected and treated as equals.” [10] Calhoun’s distinction is important if we are to understand why poor Whites then and now fight for policies of no benefit to them. Abraham Lincoln cut to the heart of the matter:

“We all declare for liberty” but “in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing. With some the word liberty may mean for each man to do as he pleases with himself and the product of his labor; while with others the same word may mean for some men to do as they please with other men and the product of other men’s labor.” [11]

Notes

[1] Wilson, John Baptized in Blood: The Religion of the Lost Cause 1865-1920 p.100

[2] Hotze, Henry The Negro’s Place in Nature December 10, 1863 in The Confederate and Neo-Confederate reader: The Great Truth about the Lost Cause University of Mississippi Press, Jackson 2010 p.215

[3] Levine Half Slave and Half Free: The Roots of the Civil War Revised Edition p.140

[4] Fitzhugh, George. New Haven Lecture 1855, in The Approaching Fury: Voices From the Storm, 1820-1861 Stephen B. Oates, Editor, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln and London 1997 p.135

[5] Ibid. Daly When Slavery Was Called Freedom: Evangelicalism, Proslavery, and the Causes of the Civil War pp.63-64

[6] Faust, Drew The Creation of Confederate Nationalism, Ideology and Identity in the Civil War South p.61

[7] Levine Half Slave and Half Free p.140

[8] Levine Half Slave and Half Free p.140

[9] Levine Half Slave and Half Free p.141

[10] McPherson, James M. Drawn With the Sword: Reflections on the American Civil War Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York 1996 p.50

[11] Levine Half Slave and Half Free p.122

Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory is available through the publisher and many retail outlets including Barnes and Noble and Amazon. You can also get an inscribed copy if you become a founding member or upgrade your subscription to that. I humbly thank you for your support here and by purchasing the book if you can.