Date of Award

Spring 2000

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

History

First Advisor

Gaines M. Foster

Abstract

The United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) organized in 1894 and became one of the largest and most popular patriotic societies among white southern women. The Louisiana Division of the UDC formed in 1899 and joined the national organization in its educational, memorial, literary, social, and benevolent pursuits. The women of the UDC studied history and created memories of the Confederacy and of the southern past in order to shape their identity and fulfill their needs in the present. In response to changing times, Louisiana's Daughters of the Confederacy forged an identity that encompassed three facets -- their status as southern ladies, as patriotic Americans, and as southerners.

The process through which the women of the UDC shaped their identity provides insight into the ways in which people use the past in response to the needs of the present. When the UDC organized, its members focused on Confederate women as an example of active southern womanhood, which enabled the Daughters to expand their influence in their own society. In the process, the UDC helped to redefine what it meant to be a proper southern lady. The Daughters also promoted a memory of the Civil War and the Confederacy that omitted controversial subjects like slavery and emphasized the harmony of southern and American ideals. As they shaped their identity as patriotic Americans, the UDC worked to claim a place for the South within the nation and contributed to an integration of southern and American history. At the same time, the Daughters attempted to define what it meant to be southern, using memory and tradition to preserve traditional aspects of southern society, including honor, self-sacrifice, patriotism, and white supremacy.

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