@ Ron Davies:

I think that '...Ol' Virginny' stands out as an exception and should be treated as such. It was/is a highly controversial tune. "Was he wrong to pander to the happy slave myth...?"

Well, if the discussion moves into the territory of making value judgements about compositional standards (which I think is appropriate and am happy to do here) then I'd venture to say Yes, it was wrong. The happy slave myth was a myth. Willfully engaging in promoting that myth within a for profit industry seems pretty gross to me.

I appreciate your assesment that it is perilously easy to oversimplify this topic. That's becoming more and more clear and I am going to be mindful of that as I go forward. It's so damn interesting though, and I hope I can make some of this stuff stick because I think there's a thread of truth to it.

@ doc.tom

For the purposes of my research right now I'll be looking at the Sentimental Songs/Ballads of the CW as representations of 19th values regarding death, loss and mourning. (*Then a miracle occurs*) After that I will posit that the Lost Cause/New South movement that cropped up during Reconstruction laid the ground work for a musical genre into which those values could be funneled to mourn the loss of the War and traditional southern values. ie: Country Music. I will argue that the trend of Confederate ideations expressed within Country Music can be viewed as a process of mourning in line with the 19th century standards of mourning which were popularly expressed in the songs of the period.