The Master Race

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Kenneth Almquist

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Apr 25, 2014
White Southerners sometimes referred to themselves as members of “the master race.” Obviously, this phrase was not associated with Nazism at the time because Nazism did not yet exist. I've identified two uses of the term in the Civil War period.

The first is to distinguish between whites and blacks, and thereby justify slavery. Whites are literally the master race, and blacks the slave race. For example, William Yancey, speaking at the 1860 Democratic Convention, says that if his side succeeds in bringing slavery to the territories,

“...we will give you good servants for life and enable you to live comfortably, and we will take your poor white man and elevate him from the office of boot-black and from the other menial offices which do not belong to the highest order of civilization--we will elevate him amongst the master race, and put the negro race to do his dirty work which God designed they should do.”​

It's unclear how poor white men are supposed to be able to afford slaves, but that practical problem aside, the ideology is clear.

The second use of the term is to distinguish between Southern and Northern whites. Needless to say, Southern whites are the “master race.” Here is a June 25, 1862, article from the Richmond Whig, as quoted in The Nashville Daily Union, July 12, 1862, pg. 2, column 4. I've reproduced it in its entirety because no summary would do it justice:

THE MASTER RACE​

Since the battle of Shiloh, and including it, we have had an almost uninterrupted series of victories. We have encountered the enemy generally with heavy odds against us, and frequently behind intrenchments, but in no single instance, unless it be the unexplained affair at Lewisburg, have Southern troops failed to exhibit superior manhood to the mongrel and many-tongued enemy.

Indeed, the whole experience of the war is an attestation of the truth long since discovered by impartial observers, that the master race of this continent is found in the Southern States. Of a better stock, originally, and habituated to manlier pursuits and exercises, they have ruled in affairs of State by force of the stronger will and larger wisdom that pertain to and distinguish superior races of men, while on the field of battle they have in every contest held a priority of place, conceded to them by their present adversaries.

This natural dominancy of the Southern people has much to do in bringing on the war. The inferior race, grown strong in numbers and ambitious from prosperity, have revolted against and now seek to overthrow and destroy those whose superiority was a constant source of envy and self-reproach. There is no fiercer malevolence than that of caste, and it is this which has so long stirred the Yankee bile. Always, in the presence of the Southern gentleman, he has felt a strong and painfully repressed impulse to take off his hat. The conscious inferiority has galled the jealous and malignant creature, until he has broken out in servile insurrection. He has vainly concluded that his numbers can overwhelm and exterminate the subjects of his envy, and that he, succeeding to the broad acres and liberal habitudes of the Southern gentry, will come to be looked upon as a gentleman too!

With us the contest is one for hereditary rights, for the sacred things of home, for the old repute of tho better blood — with the Yankee it is a rebellious and infatuated struggle for a place he is unworthy of, for privileges he would degrade, for property he would barter, and for institutions he could neither comprehend nor enjoy. It is the old and never ending strife between patrician and proletarian, between gentle and vile. It is the offer of battle on a new field of muscle against spirit — numbers against courage. It is not upon Southern soil and among the descendants of Cavaliers and Huguenots that this battle will go in favor of brute force.

It may be that the armies in front of this city are about to rush into mortal wrestle. When they meet it will not, perhaps, be upon such unequal terms as we have generally encountered. But should there be as great inequality of numbers as on other fields, it may and will be neutralized here as it ever has been, by the superior courage and constancy of our troops. True to their lineage, their fame, their pledges, their principles--true to the expectations and prayers of all who love them--true to the immeasurable interests that hang on the issue--the soldiers who fight for liberty and native land will never give back, never weary, never cease to strike till certain and glorious victory perches on their banners.​

It's interesting to note how this anticipates the later “lost cause” mythology.

The fact that the Whig mentions the affair at Lewisburg as an exception suggests that the writer sincerely believes in the superiority of the Confederate soldier.

(Note: The Whig article is also quoted in the Sacramento Daily Union, Volume 23, Number 3547, August 11, 1862, pg. 2, column 3, the Marysville Daily Appeal, volume VI, No. 38, August 17, 1862, pg. 1, column 6 and the Lowell Daily Citizen and News, August 6, 1862.)
 
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