Rhetorics of the Lost Cause Myth and Its Lingering Hegemony in the South

Author

• Frances ChapmanFollow

Date of Award

8-2026

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Rhetorics, Communication, and Information Design

Committee Chair/Advisor

Vernon Burton

Committee Member

Abel Bartley

Committee Member

David Blakeslay

Committee Member

Nic Brown

Committee Member

Michael LeMahieu

Abstract

The Lost Cause of the Confederacy is a myth that is steeped in the consciousness of many white Southerners. For about one hundred years, it was taught in public schools in the South using curricula devised by the United Daughters of the Confederacy with the goal of keeping the Confederate cause alive and visible. The myth dates back to the end of the Civil War in 1865. Basically, it says that the Civil War was not fought about slavery but about states’ rights, and that the South’s cause was just. It believes wholeheartedly in white supremacy.

Generations of people have been brought to up believe in the Lost Cause through education, media, and Jim Crow rhetorics. Most people who believe in the Lost Cause do not even realize that they have been brainwashed their entire lives in multiple different ways. Gone With the Wind and The Birth of a Nation, for example, have very successfully painted pictures of the romanticized South that many viewers accept without questioning.

This dissertation goes back to the roots of the Lost Cause. It examines when the Lost Cause was born, what powerful rhetorics were in play at the time, and why they were effective. This examination is done through the lens of a family who lived in the Edgefield District of South Carolina. Through this family, we see exactly what was going on historically and culturally and what the impacts were. This family are my ancestors.

This dissertation also looks at the other side of the coin, at the African Americans who also inhabited this place and time and their significant successes when they were elected to political offices during the Reconstruction era. The Lost Cause myth insists that Reconstruction was a failure. This project joins the voices who show conclusively that it was not.

Finally, this dissertation examines how the rhetorics of the Lost Cause myth are still very much alive and are extremely hurtful and impactful even now, in the twenty-first century. I show how this situation might be remedied by reverse engineering the educational push made by the Daughters of the Confederacy in the twentieth century and establishing a required course in Southern colleges and universities that teaches all aspects of Reconstruction, not just the white Southern perspective. This approach would generate a trickle-down effect that would include teaching the teachers of middle and high school history classes.

This work is written with the perspective of my ancestors—who lived in the Edgefield District before, during and after Reconstruction—and my own experience, as I have lived my whole life under the influence of Lost Cause rhetorics. I show the importance of listening to other perspectives and keeping your mind open. Or, as I put it in my dissertation, not being afraid to have your boat rocked.

Recommended Citation

Chapman, Frances, "Rhetorics of the Lost Cause Myth and Its Lingering Hegemony in the South" (2026). All Dissertations. 4390.
https://open.clemson.edu/all_dissertations/4390