Article Title
Between Religion and Honor: Charles Colcock Jones and a Discussion of Antebellum Southern Values
Abstract
The ethic of honor among Southern white men encouraged violence, excess, and public displays of manhood. Conversely, evangelical religion compelled Christians toward abstinence and self-control, ideas usually incompatible with the expectations of honor. An elite plantation owner and a prominent Presbyterian minister, Charles Colcock Jones, acted on both these opposite ideals during the Secession Crisis and Civil War. An examination and analysis of his and other Jones family letters and correspondence will demonstrate how Jones incorporated the ethic of honor as the threat of disunion materialized, only to turn back toward evangelical Christianity following the outbreak of war.