DEBUNKING THE YULE LOG MYTH

Investigating the historical accuracy of a Southern legend.

An enduring piece of antebellum folklore has claimed that enslavers allowed enslaved people a week or more of time off during Christmas to “do what they wished.” The actual length of time they were free from forced labor depended on how long it took for a water-soaked Yule log in their master’s fireplace to burn down. This story—which typically highlighted the tolerance of enslavers and the willingness of enslaved people doing whatever it took to keep logs burning for as long as possible—was so entrenched in Southern culture that the Southern tourist industry was still using it for Christmas travel publicity campaigns in 2012. To find the truth behind the story, May, a professor emeritus of history at Purdue University, examined a wide variety of sources, including newspapers, first-person accounts, novels, and historical documents. What he discovered suggested conscious efforts, begun during Reconstruction, at a cultural makeover. The Christmas Yule log tradition was an import from England that was traceable to colonial Virginia. But by the 1870s, and just as “ex-Confederates regained their mastery over southern politics,” May observes, reconciliationist narratives that peddled sentimental visions of the antebellum South began appearing in popular magazines like the Atlantic Monthly. The dark side of such stories was that they rarely denounced slavery because to do so would have implied a renunciation not just of the Confederacy but—perhaps even more importantly—white Southern values.

A thoughtful antidote to white Southern propaganda.