Plain Folk of the South Revisited

by Hyde, Samuel C., Jr.

• ISBN13: 9780807122006
• ISBN10: 0807122009
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1997-11-01
• Publisher: Louisiana State Univ Pr

Summary

In 1949, Frank Owsley's seminal work, PLAIN FOLK IN THE OLD SOUTH, argued that a thriving middle class represented the majority of southerners and was integral to the region's development. In the spirit of Owsley's effort to expand understanding of the south, the selections included here provide fresh perspectives on the complexities of the plain folk culture. 4 line drawings.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	vii	(2)
John B. Boles
Foreword: Revisiting the Plain Folk of the South	ix
SAMUEL C. HYDE, JR.
Introduction: Perspectives on the Common South	1	(20)
I Home, Labor, and Leisure	21	(108)
BILL C. MALONE
Neither Anglo-Saxon nor Celtic: The Music of the Southern Plain Folk	21	(25)
JERAH JOHNSON
The Vernacular Architecture of the South: Log Buildings, Dog-Trot Houses, and English Barns	46	(27)
BRADLEY G. BOND
Herders, Farmers, and Markets on the Inner Frontier: The Mississippi Piney Woods, 1850-1860	73	(27)
J. WILLIAM HARRIS
The Question of Peonage in the History of the New South	100	(29)
II Social Groups and Attitudes	129	(76)
SALLY G. MCMILLEN
Southern Women and the Sunday-School Movement, 1865-1915	129	(32)
GARY B. MILLS
Shades of Ambiguity: Comparing Antebellum Free People of Color in "Anglo" Alabama and "Latin" Louisiana	161	(26)
GRADY MCWHINEY
Crackers and Cavaliers: Shared Courage	187	(18)
III Plain-Folk Democracy and Its Limits	205	(68)
LACY K. FORD
Popular Ideology of the Old South's Plain Folk: The Limits of Egalitarianism in a Slaveholding Society	205	(23)
SAMUEL C. HYDE, JR.
Backcountry Justice in the Piney-Woods South	228	(22)
MICHAEL L. KURTZ
New South Demagoguery	250	(23)
Contributors	273	(2)
Index	275