An examination of the rhetoric of two social movements in the United States--the proslavery movement of the pre-Civil War Period and the anti-feminist movement of the 1970s--reveals that both contain a common theme, paternalism, and that both use similar rhetorical strategies to explicate the theme through a familial metaphor, Father. Examples of the rhetoric show that the authority of the symbolic Father is situated in a society where all social relations are perceived as a family, with a paternalistic father as head of the household. The rhetoric springs from the precepts of the Puritan value system rooted in the colonization of America and based on Judeo-Christian principles. These principles, which define right and wrong, good and bad, are grounded within beliefs about the superiority of males that rationalize and justify paternalistic impositions on both blacks and females. The rhetorical strategies of the two movements reflect the traditional social values, such as dependence, obedience, punishment, and protective security, of a paternalistic society. The historical and religious precedents in which these values are grounded provide a link between the two movements that transcends the passage of time. Five pages of notes are provided. (FL)