Joseph Catron wrote:
>
> You are confusing historical roles. To borrow Michael's terms, the English
> Cavaliers were, in broad strokes, the slaveholders, not the Scotch-Irish
> borderers, who were always more prevalent in Appalachia and other regions
> poorly suited for plantation-scale agriculture.
This is correct but in speaking of the whole south can we exclude either 'role' as formative. Faulkner might be the best historian here: Absalom, Absalom locates the violence in _both- 'classes' or 'roles' and in their interactions. Moreover, he always (in his core works) sees any 'tradition' or past practice in terms of its reworking in terms of immediate concerrns of his characters. _As I Lay Dying_ is one of the wrold's really great novels.
Carrol