Formation of Modern America Essay

        History, Defined

        “But the future holds a problem… on the outcome of which her [the South’s] very existence depends (Grady, 411).” Poised upon a platform at the Texas state fair on October 26, 1887, the “Spokesman of the New South” Henry W. Grady delivered these words before thousands of willing and attentive ears. To him, they must have been just that - words- but to African Americans across the South such as Booker T. Washington, his words defined the very boundaries of their lives. Though the contrast between these two men was truly a matter of black and white, together their lives and the lives of many others like them constructed a moment of Southern “change.” No one knew of its consequences, but all knew of its existence, and many, including Washington and Grady, scrambled to make sense of it all. The way they each choose to tell their stories, however, and the stories themselves are very different. Through the choice of language and the portrayal of the different forces within the South following the War, Grady and Washington attempt to define history not only for those in their time, but for those in generations to come.

        Is is generally understood that the end of an altercation comes when a victim is determined, for to do so is to unleash the power of justice. In the case of the Civil War and the trouble-ridden society that rose out of its ashes, Grady and Washington pin two very different entities as the victims, and in doing so, they put forth two very different versions of history. Grady chooses to open his speech with the portrayal of his victim: “But the future holds a problem, in solving which the South must stand alone… She must carry these races in peace—for discord means ruin… She must carry them in equal justice… Without precedent or companionship, the South must bear this problem, the awful responsibility of which should win the sympathy of all human kind (Grady, 411).” The personification of the South as a “she” gives birth to a strategically powerful image. The region, forced to bear the economic and social impact of the Civil War upon “her” weak and delicate shoulders, becomes a damsel in distress in the eyes of readers and listeners. Oh, what is she to “do to be saved (Grady, 411)?” Grady continuously leeches onto this elicitation of raw empathy towards the South throughout the piece by emphasizing the idea that anything and everything to be done about the South must be done by the South, and the South alone; after all it is “The South and Her Problems.” “Amid this universal conflict, where stands the South? …the South must make a decision (Grady 413, 416).” But while the South becomes human under Grady’s masterful use of language, the people of the South, in turn, become dehumanized. Readers and listeners are led to forget the truth that it was people who caused the Civil War and that therefore, only people can quell its aftermath. The victimization of the South as a region shifts the national focus away from the plights of the thousands of African Americans still dwelling in the South and instead towards Grady’s vision of a “New South,” one that can rise from the ashes of war and become a land of “gold (Grady 416).” Washington, on the other hand, places people in the forefront as the overall victims, stating that “my mother… She was simply a victim of the system of slavery.”^[1]