Southern Hospitality in the Past
Southern history is often tainted by racism, and the history of southern hospitality is no exception. Anthony Szczesiul dives head first into the controversial emersion of the South’s long lasting attribute in The Southern Hospitality Myth: Ethics, Politics, Race, and American Memory. The origin of southern hospitality can be traced back to the colonization of the United States. Living on large, isolated plantations, southern planters would travel great distances to see others. In anticipation of visitors, hosts prepared a welcoming environment for their guests to make guests feel at home. The hospitality was not always to welcome visitors, but to showcase personal wealth and sophistication. By the end of the 18th century southern hospitality became a representation of the time periods racist reputation. For plantation owners welcoming guests was a simple way to show off to others, because they weren’t preparing their estate themselves. The task was delegated to slaves, who worked tirelessly to impress guests they sometimes never met. Since then “the southern hospitality myth has been used to create and promote a sense of transregional white community, solidarity, and privilege.”(Szczesiul 14). Slavery at the time could be seen around the growing colonies, but while other states began to make strides toward equality the south did not. Even thought it’s a cultural attribute that’s based on inclusion, the history of southern hospitality is shrouded in maintaining a social, and incidentally racial, hierarchy. A rocky past doesn't keep the region from using it as a trademark aspect of the area. Szczesiul explains that “the myth of southern hospitality persisted even as social and political conditions underwent drastic changes”(Szczesiul 12), regarding closing racial gaps, war and and reconstruction of the region. He validates southern hospitality’s contribution to making the region unique, explaining that it’s a “foundational narrative within the larger national project of southern exceptionalism”(Szczesiul 2). From the construction of southern ideals, hospitality has separated the South’s culture from others.