Southern History Series: Review: Disunion! The Coming of the American Civil War, 1789-1859
A book review of Elizabeth R. Varon’s Disunion! The Coming of the American Civil War, 1789-1859
American South
Southern History Series: Kentucky Unionism
Why was Kentucky so reluctant to secede from the Union?
Southern History Series: Review: Shifting Grounds: Nationalism & the American South, 1848-1865
A book review of Paul Quigley’s Shifting Grounds: Nationalism & the American South, 1848-1865
Southern History Series: The Birth of Whiteness
White identity was forged in the crucible of sugar and slavery in the British Caribbean
Southern History Series: Founding Greater Caribbean
The culture of the Deep South got its start as an extension of the older culture of the British West Indies
Southern History Series: Confessions of a Carpetbagger
Daniel Chamberlain, South Carolina’s Republican carpetbagger governor, repented of the folly of Reconstruction
Southern History Series: The White Man’s Revolution of 1876
South Carolina was redeemed in 1876 when its people united behind Wade Hampton III, the greatest of all planters, and his Red Shirt Army which brought down Reconstruction
Southern History Series: John C. Calhoun Opposed The “All of Mexico” Plan
Sen. John C. Calhoun opposed the Mexican War and the conquest and absorption of Mexicans into the United States
Southern History Series: John C. Calhoun’s Scots-Irish Ethnic Heritage
Sen. John C. Calhoun of South Carolina was the South’s most eloquent slaveowner. He was also Scots-Irish
Southern History Series: Calhoun’s Prophecy
In 1849, Sen. John C. Calhoun and other prominent Southern leaders predicted that one day Whites and Africans would change positions in the political and social scale
Southern History Series: The Strange Career of Solomon Blatt
In South Carolina, Solomon Blatt led the fight to preserve white supremacy and segregation. He was also Jewish
Southern History Series: Pellagra
The pellagra epidemic of the New South was one of the lowest points in our history. If we can bounce back from that, we can come back from anything
Southern History Series: March of the Deathless Dead
Father Abram Joseph Ryan was the poet priest of the Confederacy
Southern History Series: The Virginians of the Valley
The Virginia Cavaliers used to be more than a sports team. It actually meant something
Southern History Series: The Good Roads Movement
In the early 20th century, Southerners dramatically changed their tune on “internal improvements” to become zealous promoters of federal investment in infrastructure
Rebel Yell: American Nations, Spanish Caribbean
The plantation complex spread throughout the Caribbean, South America and the American South
Southern History Series: Tobacco Mentality
The economic and environmental roots of Old Virginia’s classical republicanism and social structure
Southern History Series: The Cotton Gin
How did the development of the cotton gin alter the economy and culture of the Deep South?
Southern History Series: John C. Calhoun on Liberty
An excessive amount of liberty leads to anarchy which is the greatest of all curses and ultimately destroys freedom
Southern History Series: The Deep South, South Atlantic System and the Plantation Complex
The Deep South was an atypical and late flowering extension of the Greater Caribbean plantation complex
Southern History Series: Review: The Rise and Fall of the Plantation Complex
A book review of Philip D. Curtin’s book The Rise and Fall of the Plantation Complex
Jeff Giesea: How To Defend America?
In order to defend Americanism, you have to be rooted in an American tradition
Southern History Series: A Southern Republic and a Northern Democracy (1863)
The Confederacy sought to create a Patrician Republic more congenial to the culture of the Cavalier
Southern History Series: The Southern Cross (1861)
From the shores of the Gulf to the Delaware’s slope
Southern History Series: Robert Lewis Dabney On Northern Conservatism (1897)
“Conservatism” in the United States is Northern conservatism. Southern conservatism was a very different animal. Unfortunately, it has all but vanished
Southern History Series: French Regrets
In the aftermath of the War Between the States, the French came to regret their decision not to intervene and save Western civilization from the excesses of liberalism
Southern History Series: A 1950s View of the Southern Plantation System
A less hysterical age looks back more objectively at the plantation system of the Old South
Southern History Series: Review: Rhett: The Turbulent Life and Times of a Fire-Eater
A book review of William C. Davis’s book Rhett: The Turbulent Life and Times of a Fire-Eater
Southern History Series: Jefferson Davis’s Farewell Speech To the U.S. Senate
Mississippi seceded from the Union because it disagreed with the position of the equality of the races
Southern History Series: Alexander Stephens’ Virginia Convention Speech
Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens addresses the Virginia convention to argue for secession
Southern History Series: Libertas: Identitarian Liberty
We should reject universalist conservative and lolbertarian conceptions of “liberty” in favor of a particular sense of liberty embedded in time, culture, identity, history and place
Southern History Series: Liberty: Its True Meaning In Tidewater
In Tidewater, the meaning of liberty was being “unbound,” or having the economic independence as a Southern gentleman to enjoy a life of leisure while cultivating virtue, refinement and engaging in public service