The Sanctuary and the Schoolhouse: Forming and Re-forming a Confederate National Identity

Abstract

The contemporary culture of the United States is the consequence of delicate national tensions that have existed for the vast majority of its history. Though certainly not a universal position, the state that today espouses a seemingly natural story of divine progress has long entertained a national project that seeks to absolve the country of its past sins, while actively advancing the notion of a “great American melting pot,” where all are welcome and can achieve the American Dream. Central to this project is the US public school system, an intensely local structure that is nonetheless shaped and formed through national discourse. Alongside the schooling mission, a helpful ally has been the church sanctuaries that have offered a theological and spiritual component to the current endeavor. The current project has gone to great lengths to diminish an extraordinary reality: the United States’ deadliest war was the one fought among its own states . Moreover, this curricular culture has often understated the reality that the process of “Reconstruction” was a literal military occupation of conquered states that lasted for nearly a decade. During this reconstructive process, the US Congress oversaw a radical reorientation of the relationship between the federal government, the several states, and the understanding of who could be citizens of the republic. In classrooms and textbooks, all of this work is neatly wrapped and presented as part of the great story of the re-United States. Nonetheless, as this paper will demonstrate, that work masks a deeper truth: although the Confederate States of America was defeated on the battlefield, its most ardent and committed thought leaders employed the power of the sanctuary and the schoolhouse to extend its values and ideals well into the 20th century. Those values and ideals continue to impact the US in the 21st century as well. The Confederate nation was formed and re-formed through the intentional efforts of key church leaders and schoolteachers. Their work is instructive not only in providing a lens through which to better understand the national identity of the Confederate States but also in exploring recent battles in the US culture war related to school curricula and religion.