Class issues in 1890s America (Essay Sample)

Name: Instructor: Task: Date: Class issues in 1890s America A person's background enables one to acclimate to unexpected and different situations no matter how rapid and far-reaching the transformation might be. This is affirmed by the book "A Year in the South, 1865" by Stephen V. Ash. The author focuses on four people who included: Cornelia McDonald, a wife to a Confederate army officer and also a mother, who lived in Lexington; Louis Hughes, a learned slave in the Deep South, Tombigbee in Alabama; Samuel Agnew, an exempted priest from the Army, who lived in the County of Tippah in Mississippi. Finally, there was John Robertson, an ex-confederate enthusiast who sought to settle down and lead devout life after giving in to defeat, and who lived in the eastern parts of Tennessee. They belonged to entirely different backgrounds and the events that had happened altered their lives to adapt to the direction that the South was headed. The South and the North were used to quite different lifestyles before the Civil War broke out. These lifestyle differences caused much tension between these two factions of the community. Upon Abraham Lincoln's election to office in 1860, the tension, anxiety and fear amongst the Southern elites heightened but the succession occurred without a hitch. The Deep Southern states formed a "Confederacy government”, and Davis Jefferson headed it. The Southerners kept so many fundamental life facets in their hearts, the ones for which they went to war to defend. During that period, it was imperative for a man to fight for honor and protection of the family's name, alongside fulfilling the South's paternalist culture. The whites, as well as the African Americans people, were much aware of the hierarchy, class and social distinctions that were in place in the society. Slavery was the place reserved for the African Americans in the society dominated by the white citizens (Ryan 65). The author describes how Cornelia McDonald's life took a drastic change due to the Civil War. She had previously led a wealthy and classy lifestyle of an elite woman of the Southern culture. She was not supposed to work on since her husband, according to the Southern culture, was keeping her as a symbol of his wealth. When the war commenced, her husband left to join the fight to defend his family name and honor following the Southern cultural beliefs. Cornelia was left to take care of her family as she had seven children to look after. At the heat of the war, she was forced out of her home, and she became a war refugee. Being a refugee, the writer notes that "She now had to perform chores that she had never imagined doing." Cornelia now had to attend to tasks that, previously, her slaves used to do. Cornelia struggled so much to keep her social class distinction even as she was reduced to attending to household duties. According to the author, it was essential to her that she maintained her elite class in the society, even after things had changed for the worse. Cornelia did better in keeping her family fed and clothed using the resources she possessed. However, she was not psychologically prepared at all for what the Civil War had caused her family. The writer goes ahead to talk of the shoemaker who assisted Cornelia to keep maintain an elite female look. The cobbler could permit Cornelia to take shoes for her children from him having pledged to pay later. This was something she was not used to being an elite. The writer points out how Cornelia was feeling the stresses of her situation in winter as he states, "Cornelia's situation at the beginning of winter was indisputably bad, but she never viewed it as despairing. She had her elder kids to whom she could lean on; she also possessed significant resources of talent and strength.” The author goes further to note that Cornelia had a ring of benefactors as well as friends who kept encouraging her during her traumatizing moments. She was full of persistence as she could not accept the change. Being without his husband, a paternalist, she knew her sons would take his place in protecting her by working hard the whole day without a chance to attend school due to the prevailing situation at that time (Rose 90). This, however, did little to change her perception about herself and how her family lives. Many women in 1865, just like her, were going through the same problems because most of them had lost their husbands during the war. People had lost their sons, brothers, husbands and fathers who had decided to fight for the Confederacy. The writer describes how Cornelia, just like many other elites, had developed a deep hatred towards the Yankees. She kept on resenting them because she deeply believed in the Confederate cause due to her husband's rank in the army and also her social class. Cornelia is a proof that the post-Civil War occurrences presented a significant change to most of the Southern elites. On the other hand, she demonstrates how difficult it was for people of her kind to adapt to the social change brought about by the war. Most of the elite members of the society were unwilling relent on the belief in social distinctions and their attitudes towards the cause of the Civil War. A good number of people that were immensely affected by the war and believed that they were transitioning from the Old South to the New South included Louis Hughes. The author describes him as being a slave whose whole life, knew nothing more than the life given to him at the plantations and also at the salt factory where he used to work. Louis had no idea on what to do with the freedom he got. He had not known any other life than working for the elite. At the summer of 1865, the South was declared free, and all the slaves were freed. Most of them, Louis being one, had not known how to live a freedman's way of life until that summer. However, many slave owners during that time found it hard to come to terms with the reality that their reign over the African Americans was long over as they continued to make them work in the plantations and fields. Louis' master was amongst the elites who held on to the slaves even after they were declared free. The writer explains that the only way that the slaves working under such masters could free themselves was to escape. Louis had previously attempted to escape unsuccessfully, but his dedication to his young child and wife finally pushed him to succeed finally. As concluded by the author, the slaves knew that if they kept staying at the plantations while waiting to be rescued, they would have been there for a very long time. Louis' conversation with a friend, George, concluded his urge and willingness to escape from his master. He told George, "I mean that right now, today is the time to make a run for our freedom." Hughes clearly understood that this was the appropriate time to break free. After succeeding, he later returned with several officers of the Union to emancipate his family and all the other Africa Americans who were willing to be free. The author affirms that gaining freedom was a great beginning for Louis, who had never had any freedom to make personal decisions or even to decide how he wants to live his life. As Louis and his family reunited with their extended families and embarked on building a life for themselves, it should be noted that the 1865 was an important year to the slaves' lives. The year 1865 meant a lot to the slaves, and it encouraged them that the South was changing finally as they were struggling to adapt to their new free world (Ash 89). The emancipation of the African American slaves also hugely affected the farm and plantation owners. One such a family was Sam Agnew's, who experienced the whole history of slavery from its rise and fall. Such families were distraught over the significant change of attitude by the slaves. Seeing the slaves become free did not augur well with the slave-owning cla...