Debunking the Yule Log Myth is popular PDF and ePub book, written by Robert E. May in 2024-12-01, it is a fantastic choice for those who relish reading online the History genre. Let's immerse ourselves in this engaging History book by exploring the summary and details provided below. Remember, Debunking the Yule Log Myth can be Read Online from any device for your convenience.
Debunking the Yule Log Myth Book PDF Summary
According to an oft repeated legend, during Christmas before the Civil War, all enslaved people in the American South enjoyed lengthy vacations of a week or more depending on how long an oversized “Yule log” burned in their master’s fireplace. As long as the log held out, slaves escaped heavy labor and their masters’ whips and enjoyed a rare freedom of movement to go and do what they wished as well as gorge themselves on food and drink they never got the rest of the year. No wonder they soaked those logs in swamps to make them burn even longer. But is it true? In this book historian Robert May takes readers on a detective caper as he investigates a story that reaches back to colonial America and continues today. May finds no evidence of the Yule log tradition in the historical record, instead showing that it originated with pro-Confederate Lost Cause propagandists attempting to present the South’s prewar system of human bondage in as soft tones as possible. Tales about good-natured masters and unresentful slaves jovially sharing Christmases played to this impulse beautifully. Debunking the Yule Log Myth does more than correct the historical record. It serves as a highly instructive case study in the process of historical mythmaking. This captivating tale will appeal to all readers interested in African American history and the long struggle to support white supremacy by creating a mythical antebellum American South.
Detail Book of Debunking the Yule Log Myth PDF
- Author : Robert E. May
- Release : 01 December 2024
- Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
- ISBN : 9798881801793
- Genre : History
- Total Page : 205 pages
- Language : English
- PDF File Size : 18,7 Mb
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