One Homogeneous People: Narratives of White Southern Identity, 1890–1920

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One Homogeneous People One H o m o g e n e o u s People Narratives of White Southern Identity, 1890–1920 Trent Watts The University of Tennessee Press Knoxville l Copyright © 2010 by The University of Tennessee Press / Knoxville. All Rights Reserved. Manufactured in the United States of America. First Edition. Part of this book appeared previously in a different form as “Mississippi’s Giant House Party: Being White at the Neshoba County Fair” in Southern Cultures 8 (Summer 2002): 38–55. It is reprinted by permission. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Watts, Trent, 1965– One homogeneous people: narratives of white southern identity, 1890–1920 / Trent Watts. — 1st ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. eISBN-13: 978-1-57233-743-5 eISBN-10: 1-57233-743-5 1. Southern States—Civilization. 2. Whites—Race identity—Southern States—History. 3. Group identity—Southern States—History. 4. Race awareness—Southern States—History. 5. Southern States—Social conditions—1865–1945. 6. Whites—In literature. 7. American fiction—Southern States—History and criticism. 8. Page, Thomas Nelson, 1853–1922. Marse Chan. 9. Dixon, Thomas, 1864–1946. Leopard’s spots. I. Title. F209.W37 2010 305.800975—dc22 2010016563 For my mother, Rita Sue Gibson “What I have learned from my long affair with Mississippi is that America’s greatest strength, and its greatest weakness, is our belief that we can always start over, that things can be made better, transcended.” —Anthony Walton, Mississippi: An American Journey ...