The Southern Soldier-Saint

A STRATIFIED SOCIETY can embody ideals in a hero of spiritual power.1 The model is human; men are led to identify with his virtues and weaknesses. He is also their representative before God, the character that calls men upward and restrains primitive impulses. A stable social pyramid maintains the visibility of the saint. Generations build up veneration, reinforced by the merits which the culture bestows upon those who follow his ways. Religion and culture agree upon common virtues to be sanctified. The saint embodies transcendent qualities, but he is the special patron of a region, trade, or race. His soul moves toward heaven, but his body rests in one place. The ante-bellum and Reconstruction South fulfilled the sociological requirements for the shaping of saints, and the saints performed a socializing function. Slavery, and the segregation that followed it, required violence for maintenance. The soldier-saint was the answer of a

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