Why was there a reference to the Battle of Hastings in Harper Lee's novel?
score:13
Southerners are renowned for the recorded depth of their family trees. This statement is making the point, with tongue solidly in cheek, that the family had no ancestors worthy of the name to trace genealogy to.
In practice it was much more common for Southern families to trace lineage to Civil War heroes, Revolutionary War heroes, or notable early immigrant communities such as the Pilgrims of Mayflower fame. However, the further back the better, so to have no-one of note in one's lineage, all the back to 1066, was a significant hole in one's community standing.
Upvote:3
This character would have been a contemporary of Alabama's Governor George Wallace who (in) famously said, "segregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever." This meant, "Your social status of today is your status of tomorrow, and forever." A person who shared that mindset would care deeply about whether their family had or didn't have ancestors going back "forever," (e.g. to the Battle of Hastings).
The Battle of Hastings was arguably the most important event in (modern) English history. Most prominent English families had men engaged in it on one side or the other. Not being "represented" in what as arguably the "creation" of modern England was a source of concern to lineage conscious English families.
After he won, William the Conqueror compiled a list of major landholders in the so-called Domesday Book. Most of these landowners, by definition, had some family member fight at Hastings because of the feudal system. Not having anyone in the family represented there after so many generations of intermarriage signified a lack of feudal ancestors with status, at least to some.
A commenter reasonably observed that "not everyone considers 950 years ago to be 'modern.'" That's the way that most people on Stack Exchange would feel. But the question was why did the author depict a character from the middle of the 20th century Alabama as using the Battle of Hastings as a "frame of reference." Put another way, the Battle of Hastings (almost 1000 years in the past) had relevance to Alabamans in the 1960s because those Alabamans believed that it had such relevance.
Southerners were more likely to feel this way than Northerners because a larger percentage of (white) Southerners were of English descent. Also, a larger percentage of English Southerners were "gentlemen" settlers, as opposed to e.g. Puritans, and therefore even more class conscious than other Englishmen.
More post
- 📝 Did Belgian detectives wear special shoes in 1939?
- 📝 How much money did the participating nations spend in the Napoleonic Wars?
- 📝 Why didn't the US produce stamped weapons like the Germans during WW2?
- 📝 Were U.S. ships attacked in Tokyo Bay?
- 📝 What happened to Israel when Persia attacked Egypt?
- 📝 Roman consuls under Roman rex
- 📝 Has ramming ever been considered a viable tanking tactic?
- 📝 What are the modern names of the nations mentioned in Ystoria Mongalorum?
- 📝 How and why was the boundary between West and East Berlin decided to be where it was?
- 📝 How did archers judge distance before range finders?
- 📝 Who was Woodburn Heron?
- 📝 Did slaves have slaves?
- 📝 Before the use of Anno Domini dating (BCE/CE), how were years numbered?
- 📝 What were an American soldier's chances of being wounded on the front lines of Vietnam?
- 📝 How many times did the the sacred fire of Vesta die?
- 📝 Did starvation or malnutrition occur in indigenous American societies?
- 📝 Which historical figure is attributed with the most death of his people?
- 📝 What does King Henry III have on his lap in this illustration from a Matthew Paris chronicle?
- 📝 1972 textbook by Charles University professor on Thirty Years War
- 📝 Has any U.S. Vice President cast a tie-breaking vote against their own administration?
- 📝 Why did Stalin exile Trotsky instead of killing or imprisoning him?
- 📝 Who has dated Mahabharata around 1800BC?
- 📝 Where would the first nuke have been dropped in Germany?
- 📝 Were people of Third Estate rich?
- 📝 Are the English Celts?
- 📝 What did the end of the western front look like at the Swiss Border?
- 📝 How do we know that prostitutes were very common/popular in Corinth around Jesus' time?
- 📝 Did contemporary scholars draw a connection between Great Schism and Crab Nebula Supernova (1054 A.D.)?
- 📝 Mass distribution of the Macedonian Sarissa pike
- 📝 When is the Cumaean Temple to Apollo dated?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Why was there a reference to the Battle of Hastings in Harper Lee's novel?
- 📝 Why was there a surge in the US incarceration rate during the 1990s?
- 📝 Was there an assassination attempt against Xerxes in the battle of Thermopylae?
- 📝 Was there really a navy officer named Picard at the Battle of Trafalgar?
- 📝 Why was there lack of food during WW2 in the UK?
- 📝 Why was the last battle of the War of 1812 fought fully half a year after the official end of the war?
- 📝 Why was there little nonwhite migration to Europe in the 19th century?
- 📝 Why was there no concerted effort to end the Barbary pirate raids until the 1800's?
- 📝 Why was there a 2nd version of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact that gave Lithuania to USSR?
- 📝 Why are there shields present on the sides of Henry VIII ships, did they serve any function or was it pure decoration?
- 📝 Was there Western tactical air support during the Battle for Berlin?
- 📝 Why was there a surge of writings about the Illuminati in America in the late 1910's?
- 📝 Why was the battle of Bouvines that incredible?
- 📝 Why was there no "Atlantic Wall" equivalent on the Mediterranean coast of France?
- 📝 Were there attempts to rename the French language Prussian order Pour le Mérite, why was it never Germanised?
- 📝 Why was Luodian important in the Battle of Shanghai?
- 📝 Why was there calm in Indian-held Kashmir until 1989? What happened in 1989 that triggered the public unrest that still continues to this day?
- 📝 Why was the Battle of Noryang fought?
- 📝 Why was there an increase in literature regarding fire safety in America during the 1970s?
- 📝 Why was there a sharp decline in the number of municipalities in West Germany in the 1970s?
- 📝 Why was there such tension between the Ottoman Empire and Russia during the Armenian genocide?
- 📝 Why was there a "workers' militia" in Eastern Europe but not in the USSR?
- 📝 Why was air support not provided during the Battle of Mogadishu, 1993 (Black Hawk Down)?
- 📝 Why did Hitler attack the Soviet Union when he was still busy fighting the United Kingdom?
- 📝 Why did archery not make a comeback when armor was phased out in the 18th century?
- 📝 Why was Poland spared from the Black Death?
- 📝 Is there any evidence to support the claim that the United States was "suckered into WW1" by Zionists, made by Benjamin Freedman in his 1961 speech?
- 📝 Why was Africa colonized last of the continents in the Age of Discovery?
- 📝 Why was the Scout movement so successful?
- 📝 Why was the Council of Nicea held in Nicea rather than Rome or Constantinople?