Degree Name
MA (Master of Arts)
Program
History
Date of Award
12-2011
Committee Chair or Co-Chairs
Steven Nash
Committee Members
Tommy D. Lee II, Stephen G Fritz, Andrew L. Slap
Abstract
After the Civil War individuals throughout the country erected monuments dedicated to the soldiers and events of the conflict. In East Tennessee these memorials allowed some citizens to promote their ideas by invoking both Union and Confederate Civil War sympathies. Initially, East Tennesseans endorsed the creation of a Unionist image to advertise the region's potential for industrialization. By 1910 this depiction waned as local and northern whites joined to promote reconciliation and Confederate sympathizers met less opposition to their ideas than in the past. After 1919 white East Tennesseans, enmeshed in the boom and bust cycles of the national economy, reasserted "traditional" values. Local women of the United Daughters of the Confederacy mythologized Confederate soldiers, antebellum white women, and humble slaves of the past to calm the tensions of the present. By 1931 they ensured that the region's history was unequivocally tied to a Confederate image despite its Unionist heritage.
Document Type
Thesis - unrestricted
Recommended Citation
Nelson, Kelli Brooke, "On the Imperishable Face of Granite: Civil War Monuments and the Evolution of Historical Memory in East Tennessee 1878-1931." (2011). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 1389. https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/1389
Copyright
Copyright by the authors.