Monuments to the Lost Cause

Within just a few years of the Civil War’s end, supporters of the Confederacy were actively rewriting the history of the American South. Historians often describe this as the Lost Cause narrative. According to the Lost Cause narrative, slavery was good for enslaved people and the Civil War was fought over the issue of states’ rights. In the Lost Cause narrative, the South was morally superior, but the North won because it had more men and money. The Lost Cause narrative eventually gained popularity across the country (not just in the South), as many wanted to see the war as honorable and believe in the superiority of white people. 

Women played a critical role in establishing the Lost Cause narrative. Many women-led organizations that supported the Confederate Army worked on memorializing the sacrifice of their troops after the war. Groups like the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) raised money and pressured state and local governments into supporting the construction of monuments to the Confederacy and its leaders. By the 1950s at least 1,000 Confederate monuments and memorials blanketed the South. These memorials reinforced the Lost Cause narrative by honoring the people who fought to protect slavery.

Jefferson Davis was the president of the Confederacy during the US Civil War. He was considered a traitor by the United States government. Yet in 1907 a monument honoring Jefferson Davis was unveiled in Richmond, Virginia, the former capital of the Confederacy. The Jefferson Davis memorial was part of a collection of Confederate monuments on a prominent Richmond street called Monument Avenue. It was erected by the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC), who organized a multi-state association to oversee the completion of the monument. 

The second image is a drawing of the Jefferson Davis monument. Jefferson Davis is the male figure at the center. Towering above him is the Vindicatrix, a symbolic figure also known as “Miss Confederacy.”

The third source is a page from the souvenir booklet published to celebrate the monument’s unveiling. This page credits the women who led the fundraising efforts for the memorial. It is noteworthy that all the women are listed by their married names. Janet Randolph, for example, is listed as Mrs. Norman Randolph. 

• Confederacy: The name for the new country formed when the Southern states seceded from the United States during the Civil War.
• United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC): A group of white Southern women who had either lived through the Civil War or who had been raised in the era following it.
• US Civil War: A war fought in the United States over the issue of slavery from 1861 and 1865.

• Use this resource to introduce the concept of the Lost Cause narrative. Be sure to emphasize the role women played in promoting this false history of the US Civil War.
• Compare the figure of the Vindicatrix with Aunt Jemima to reinforce how public images can be critical in shaping impressions and perpetuating harmful stereotypes. Consider these resources in discussion with Life Story: Janet Randolph.
• After using this resource to start a discussion about the fraught history of memorials and monuments in the United States, ask students to conduct a close reading of a monument or memorial in their own communities. What story is the monument telling? What information is it leaving out? 
• To further explore the intertwining history of women and white supremacy, use any of the following resources:
  • Legislating Reproduction and Racial Difference in Virginia
  • Purity of Blood
  • Fashionable Rebellion
  • Propagating “American” Womanhood
  • No Place for Black Women
  • Life Story: Ella Gertrude Clanton Thomas
  • Backlash Against Black Workers
  • Women of the Ku Klux Klan
  • Loving v. Virginia

POLITICS AND SOCIETY