Were the Huguenots instrumental in the demise of Feudalism in the United States?

The occasion of the ninetieth anniversary of WWI found me immensely reflective about the justification for, and the horrors of, war.

I remember as a young man working in London for Age Concern and helping to enhance the quality of older citizens lives. They were so peaceful until the outbreak of The Falklands War/Guerra das Malvinas, whereupon they transformed overnight through my eyes into a bunch of geriatric jingoists ready to fight yet another unjustified war.

Just as I later came to value Margaret Thatcher’s political philosophy, once it had positively transformed my homeland from a culture of dependency into the driving force of European capitalism, so too did I recognise that these rocks lying off the southern tip of South America were worth fighting for simply because of something called ‘principles.’

This year was the first time France had commemorated WWI without a single surviving soldier from that era – Les Poilus or ‘unshaven ones’ are sadly no more.
France Two transmitted some moving footage on the horrors of trench warfare at Verdun and The Somme. The British government had made a commitment to support Belgium if its sovereign territory were invaded, as invaded it was – and a million British soldiers died supporting that principle.

My mother, now eighty years of age, informed me that my grandfather fought in those trenches. I felt strangely guilty that I hadn’t been aware of this and sadness at having been denied the opportunity to speak to my recently-departed father about the matter. So much for conscience…

Living in the rugged and isolated Cévennes hills in south-central France, a refuge for political escapees since time immemorial, it reminded me of those seventeenth and eighteenth century Huguenots who also died for their beliefs and principles during the French religious wars in general, and the War in Cevennes in particular.

What manifested itself as a religious war between French Calvinist Protestants and their Catholic persecutors, was really a fight for economic and political power between two opposing ethnic groups and their corresponding worldviews and lifestyles. In many ways, then, it can be seen as a precursor to the American Civil War, for in each case The new ‘Spirit of Capitalism’ came into conflict with reactionary forces seeking to maintain a feudal way of life. This new flame was partially extinguished in France and has never truly been allowed to burn - a 2007 survey demonstrated that only one third of the French believed in Capitalism. This was not the case in the US, of course, where slavery and feudalism were soundly defeated in a Civil War that featured some of the bloodiest battles ever fought between neighbours – Bull Run, Gettysburg and so on.

As a young boy I recall how this bitter conflict marked my childhood as cards depicting the bloody conflict fell inanely out of my AB&C chewing gum packets. I still pride myself in having kept the full set intact as if to pass on the horrors of another principled war to my children lest they forget.

Yet for the moment I am keen to explore a thought that came to mind as part of my reflections – how prominent were the French Huguenots in The American Civil War? I am aware that many of these industrious Calvinists fled from France and took up residence in the UK; and I understand that the success of the British clothing trade owed much to their arrival.

As part of my research into The Regordane trail, the route along which The Reformation arrived in Cevennes, I am acutely aware of just how many of these proselytised artisans emigrated to the United States. I am assuming that such libertine spirits could never have sided with the ‘Grey coats,’ but I would be fascinated to learn of the role the French Huguenots played in the successful prosecution of that principled War.

American Civil War, Huguenots in America, Huguenots, War, WW1, the First World War, The Camisards, The Cevennes, The French Religious Wars, The Reformation, French Cal