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The Cavalier In The Mind Of The South, 1876-1916, Adam Jeffrey Pratt

LSU Master's Theses

The cavalier image in the antebellum South represented the pinnacle of white southern manhood. Defined by their chivalry, honor, bravery, and skills as horsemen and fighters—characteristics found valuable by southerners. Cavaliers, however, also embodied the white South’s control over a large enslaved black population, and many southern planters fashioned themselves according to this image. Over time, the image became more aristocratic as cavalier became synonymous with slaveholders, and slaveholders, most believed, provided social order. After the Civil War, the cavalier did not completely disappear. Instead, southerners slowly began a transformation of the cavalier. By applying the title of cavalier to …