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====== Honor and Slavery By: Kenneth S. Greenberg ======

In his introduction, Greenburg identifies three ways that Southern men distinguished themselves as men of honor:
  - They wouldn't allow others to call them a liar
  - They gave gifts
  - They refused to fear death (Cameron Spivy)

===== Chapter 1 - The Nose, the Lie, and the Duel =====
Chapter one discusses how public appearance, reputation, and respect contribute to the operation of white southern manhood and honor. Greenberg expresses how words, gestures, and behaviors hold symbolic weight, especially in regards to the construction of these men’s identity. Their identity is further cultivated through how they behave in society and how they are recognized by society. The author seems to relate a man’s identity to a culture of honor, which showcases the lack of depth in which society used to identify honor. Their definition and practice of honor culture uses appearances, deception, and fabrications of the truth to gain profit and positive reputations. (Reiley Gibson)

In the Southern culture of honor, pulling a man's nose was seen as one of the greatest insults imaginable. Since the nose was such a prominent physical feature that was highly visible, it was seen as essentially an extension of a man's character (or, at least, his projection of his character). To pull his nose would be to accuse his appearance of being false, which was a very serious accusation for men of honor. (Noah Rutkowski)
==== The Importance of Appearances ====

Southern men attributed great importance to appearances in their attempts to understand the world and others. This could both mean the appearance of a "mermaid" or how the appearance of a man of honor was meant to represent his character. To question a man's appearance was to imply that a man was presenting himself falsely and to call him a liar. Certain parts of a man's appearance were also understood as more important. The nose was understood as best representing a man's character and honor as it was a very distinct feature that stood out on the face. Southern men provoked and insulted one another by grabbing each other's noses, attacking the supposed representation of their honor and truth. (Cameron Spivy)

"Giving the lie" to another man was not simply a matter of calling him a liar outright (though that was often the form it took). To "give the lie" to someone meant to suggest that any facet of their outward appearance to the world was a false construction. This is why it was such an offense to call honorable men cowards or ruffians - honorable men constructed themselves as brave and civilized, so to suggest otherwise could not be forgiven. Furthermore, this is why honorable men could lie if it suited them. Being a liar was not the problem, being called a liar was. (Nick Thodal)
==== Dueling and Racial Hierarchy ====

{{ :southern_chivalry.png?300|}}

The reading claims that unlike northern merchants, southerners held honor to the highest regard and unlike in the north where the practice was dying out, southerners dueled if their honor was challenged. One of the worst insults one could direct towards another man of honor was giving someone the lie which in more modern terms was an allegation directed towards an opponent about their less honorable nature and how they had been lying about it. Additionally, this appraisal of honor in the south among slave owners was reinforced by their racial assumptions about enslaved people who they perceived as dishonest and therefore dishonorable, making this culture around honor a thing that existed only within white society. (Henry Prior)

===== Chapter 2 - Masks and Slavery =====
Slaves were denied literacy, arms, and the right to participate risking one’s life in the name of honor making it impossible for these individuals to participate in cultural honor. In addition, slaves were controlled by their masters and could not practice autonomy, nor have their own identity promoted publicly unlike white men. Slaves experienced forms of humiliation through inspection and public stripping, which is something that Southern white honor culture heavily fears. This relationship shows that the degradation and humiliation of enslaved individuals helped reinforce the social status that Southern white men held, even against each other. In other words, Southern white men are able to duel and humiliate each other, however, they would never be able to be humiliated or challenged by slaves. (Reiley Gibson)

==== Being "Unmasked" ====

Southern men did not view wearing a mask, or presenting oneself in a certain way, as dishonorable, rather their fear of being unmasked was related to who had the power to define truth. Rather than lying itself being bad, it was the act of another exerting power over a man by exposing his dishonesty that threatened a man's honor. In the text, Greenberg describes how Sims didn't think himself dishonorable for dressing as a woman for a prank, but feared how his "unmasking" or exposure of his dress to others would tarnish his honor. To hold power was to hold the ability to prevent someone from unmasking you. Being caught in a blatant lie could still show someone's power if it was accompanied by the refusal of the witness to call them a liar. The act of lying itself was not dishonorable, but the experience of having been "given the lie to" challenged a man's power as a man of honor. (Cameron Spivy)

K. Greenberg's narrative identifies the concept of "unmasking" as one of the crucial elements of Southern honor culture. According to him, the mask was a particular "face" displayed to the public world. Thus, a person's power was measured not so much by his ability to maintain his mask as by his ability to prevent it from being removed. In this sense, slaveowners did not regard enslaved people as men of honor, because they were subject to being unmasked through sale, distrust, and similar practices. However, K. Greenberg's account also includes an instance of the internalization of these values. For example, he argues that the duel of F. Douglass should be viewed in this way, since the insult against Douglass had the potential to unmask him. This example indicates that enslaved people were both active and passive participants in the Southern discourse of honor and public appearances. - Nikolai Kotkov
==== Slavery and the Power to Define Truth ====

A particularly striking story Greenberg provides comes from James Curry, who had witnessed white slaveholders forcing their slaves to confess to the master's idea of the "truth," then forcing them to lie about it, then repeating the process over and over again. To these slaveholders, whether or not the enslaved person was actually telling the truth was not important. What actually mattered was the master having control over the truth and having the power to assert their truth over that of their slaves'. This is an element of the culture of honor, which cared only for surface level observations and appearances and not about deeper realities. Men of honor had the power to assert that their perceptions of the world were the truth, while enslaved people were not allowed to hold such power. (Noah Rutkowski)
===== Chapter 3 - Gifts, Strangers, Duels, and Humanitarianism =====

==== The Illusion of Generosity ====

{{ :men_sitting_down.png?400}}

Chapter 3 focused on gift exchanges and exemplified the underlying mechanisms of performative generosity. For example, Greenberg discussed how many white men who owned people, in the antebellum South, used employed public acts of kindness to gain status and reinforce a social hierarchy within their social group. Despite participating in human trafficking for economic gain, a lot of slaveholding men used gifts to define intention and cultivate reciprocated emotions such as love, power, status, prestige, or other gifts in return. Overall, Greenberg analyzed widespread gift exchanges among powerful slaveholding men as an orbit of power and status, similar to transactions made at auctions for enslaved people. Greenberg made a compelling comparison between the acquisition of status through gift exchanges and owning people, both were ways slaveholding white men achieved and maintained economic wealth and high social status. (Allisya Smith)

K. Greenberg's analysis of white Southern masculinity includes the theme of gift-giving as one of the central components of antebellum Southern society. According to him, the processes of gift exchange were closely tied to the language of honor and slavery. In particular, K. Greenberg demonstrates that the mechanism of gift-giving produces a certain degree of dependency, as the receiver is always obliged to the initial sender. For this reason, every gift could be perceived as a potential insult for the Southern man of honor. However, this possibility was usually averted through reciprocal gifts. In this sense, K. Greenberg argues that the framework of gift exchange can be used to explain dueling, the master–slave relationship characterized by dependence without reciprocity, and a broader discourse of Southern generosity. - Nikolai Kotkov


Disputes of honor were so dangerous because they upset the balance between two men of ostensibly equal status. The offending party, in causing offense, implied (either directly or implicitly) that the offended man was beneath him socially. In the heavily stratified society of the South, any inequality in the relationship between men suggested a master-slave dynamic that honorable men - who defined themselves through their mastery of their own fate - could not abide. (Nick Thodal)
===== Chapter 4 - Death =====
Greenberg introduces death as another way to reflect social status and identity. He explains that the way in which someone dies reveals whether or not they were honorable and masculine, and where someone falls within the social hierarchy. Greenberg defines an honorable death as something that is self-induced and calmly controlled, like soldiers. This version of death is very performative and works to preserve the honor, and reduce submission of the white man before his death. On the contrary, the death of slaves was way more submissive and less about the slave’s feats, identity, or masks, and more about the master and their allowance of death to occur. In addition, the death of women was seen as slow, quiet, and peaceful; the complete opposite of the death Southern white men idealized. This chapter helps to identify how death, race, and gender reflect honor status. (Reiley Gibson)

This chapter claims that ones ability to control their fear of death made one a more honorable man in southern society, therefore, when John Brown raided Harper's Fairy southern men despite their disgust, still awarded him some honor based on his bravery. An example that the chapter provides is the case of Edmund Ruffin who saw John Brown as evidence for northern partisan aggression. However, he claimed with great condemnation that "he was a brave & able man," thereby, giving Brown honor despite how Ruffin saw him more widely. (Henry Prior)

Greenberg claims that enslaved people were perceived as lacking the ability to die with fear or submission, therefore, justifying their bondage. Furthermore, these ideas were reinforced by more common acts of slave rebellion like slowing work or pretending to be sick which was seen as not honorable behavior, therefore, further justifying their enslavement. However, if a enslaved man had died without fear or submission, then he was considered free and honorable in a spiritual sense rather than in a legal one. (Henry Prior)

K. Greenberg situates the perception of and attitude toward “death” at the core of the Southern system of honor. He argues that the ability to stoically and calmly accept one’s death was celebrated across Southern society, as it embodied the principle of ultimate ownership over life. K. Greenberg provides a wide range of sources to substantiate this thesis. For example, he analyzes the case of John Brown, Civil War narratives, and personal ego-documents of multiple Southern intellectuals. Besides, the author suggests that this death-centered cultural logic permeated various social contexts of white Southern society, including dueling, gambling, and hunting. These examples allow K. Greenberg to conclude that the grammar of death was central to the language of Southern honor. - Nikolai Kotkov

===== Chapter 5 - Baseball, Hunting, and Gambling =====
Despite myths that baseball has always been the "national game," the sport actually has purposefully concealed roots in the English game rounders. Furthermore, in the US specifically, baseball only became popular in the South after their defeat in the Civil War. Previously to then, Southern men of honor much preferred hunting as a way to prove their honor and bravery. Unlike hunting, baseball had no fixed privileged position and explicitly denied its players a confrontation with death. (Noah Rutkowski)

Hunting as a leisure sport was one only possible for upper-class Southerners. Baseball appealed to Northern men due to the busy schedules many of them had; most baseball-playing men were working-class or middle-class men who worked full hours and enjoyed a game of baseball in their free time before dark. They could not devote massive amounts of time to a single leisure activity, contributing to the end of cricket's popularity in America. Southern planters, however, had plenty of leisure time that allowed them to engage in time intensive leisure activities such as hunting and horse racing. (Nick Thodal)

Southern perception of baseball was deemed negative due to a cavalcade of reasons, however prominent among them is the loss of control inherent to the mechanics of baseball. compared to other popular leisure activities, baseball prevented the participant from always being in control of their impact on the game. Running the bases after hitting the ball places the runner in a scenario in which they have lost their power in the game. ( J.D.J. )