Henry Hotze, Confederate Propagandist

by Burnett, Lonnie A.

• ISBN13: 9780817316204
• ISBN10: 0817316205
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-07-06
• Publisher: Univ of Alabama Pr

Summary

The life of Henry Hotze encompasses the history of antebellum Mobile, Confederate military recruitment, Civil War diplomacy and international intrigue, and the development of a Darwinian-based effort to find scientific evidence for differences among human ;races. ; When civil war broke out in his adopted country, Hotze enthusiastically assumed the mindset of the young Southern secessionist, serving first as newspaper correspondent and Confederate soldier until the Confederate government selected him as an agent, with instructions to promote the Southern cause in London. There he founded, edited, and wrote most of the content for The Index, a pro-Southern paper, as a part of the effort to convince the British Government to extend recognition to the Confederacy. Among the arguments Hotze employed were adaptations of the scientific racism of the period, which attempted to establish a rational basis for assumptions of racial difference. After the collapse of the Confederacy in 1865, Hötze remained in Europe, where he became an active partisan and promoter of the ideas of Arthur de Gobineau (1816 ;1882) whose work Essai sur L'inégalité des Races Humaineswas a founding document in racism's struggle for intellectual respectability. This work consists of a biographical essay on Hotze; his contributions to Mobile newspapers during his military service in 1861; his correspondence with Confederate officials during his service in London; articles he published in London to influence British and European opinion; and his correspondence with, and published work in support of, Gobineau.

Author Biography

Lonnie A. Burnett is Associate Professor of History at the University of Mobile.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. vii
Introduction: Henry Hotze, Confederate Propagandist	p. 1
"A Consciousness of Doing Something Fine"
Three Months in the Confederate Army	p. 37
The cadet Letters to the Mobile Register	p. 86
"What Prevents the Recognition of the Confederate States?"
An "Apology" to the Tribune	p. 109
Henry Hotze's Commission	p. 111
The "Washington's Birthday" Leader	p. 113
"The Question of Recognition of the Confederate States"	p. 119
The Index on Recognition	p. 133
The Ebb and Flow of Recognition: Diplomatic and Personal Correspondence	p. 144
A Primer on Southern Society	p. 158
The Genius of the Editor	p. 161
A Plan to Take the Index to America	p. 165
"The Natural History of Man"
Excerpt from "Analytical Introduction and Copious Historical Notes"	p. 169
"The Position and Treatment of Women among the Various Races of Men as Proof of Their Moral and Intellectual Diversity"	p. 177
The Register Reviews Moral and Intellectual Diversity of Races	p. 181
Letters to Gobineau	p. 183
The Index on Racialism	p. 192
Original Descriptive Roll of the Mobile Cadets, Co. A, Third Alabama Regiment Infantry	p. 221
Notes	p. 225
Index	p. 243
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