Truthful Pictures Slavery Ordained by God in the Domestic, Sentimental Novel of the Nineteenth Century South

by Capitani, Diane N.

• ISBN13: 9780739112328
• ISBN10: 0739112325
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-03-16
• Publisher: Lexington Books

Summary

Truthful Pictures examines novels and sermons written in the antebellum South, in particular those written after the 1851 publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin. It begins with a historical overview of the function of women writers in American literature in order to help locate sentimental fiction within its historical context by analyzing the works of Southern female authors such as Caroline Hentz and Mary H. Eastman. Though they followed in Harriet Beecher Stowe's footsteps, authors like Hentz and Eastman used their voices in conjunction with Christian ideology to support slavery. The text then explores how Holy Scripture was perverted in Southern sermons by pulpit leaders such as Thorton Stringfellow and Alexander McCaine in order to allow the continued enslavement of one group by another, using religion to defend white partriarchy as the normal human way of life. By examining antebellum sermons and writings and their influence on sentimental novels, Truthful Pictures shows how religious texts reinforced political ideologies in the wake of increasing racial tensions between the North and the South. Book jacket.

Author Biography

Diane N. Capitani is lecturer in English and comparative literature at Northwestern University. She teaches theological research and writing and is the supervisor of the writing center at the Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. 1
The Function of Women Writers in American History	p. 9
The Cult of True Womanhood and the Southern Domestic Novel	p. 15
The Nineteenth-Century Southern Woman and the Domestic Novel	p. 23
Slavery Defended from Scripture: Influences in the Southern Novel	p. 31
Southern Women Writers: Refuting the "Northern Hussy" and Defending Slavery from Scriptures	p. 57
Male Voices in Southern Domestic Fiction: Politics as Usual	p. 95
Enlightening Blighted Africa	p. 117
Conclusion: A Monstrous System	p. 129
Bibliography	p. 141
Index	p. 145
About the Author	p. 147
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