The Abbeville Institute 2007 Scholars' Conference

"The Origin of Southern Identity and the Culture of the Old South"

University of Virginia, February 1-4, 2007

The fifth annual Scholars' Conference was held February 1 - 4 at the University of Virginia. We met at The Colonnade Club, one of the oldest Jeffersonian buildings on campus, located on the Lawn of the University - the site where Jefferson, Monroe, and Madison laid the corner stone in Monroe's cornfield for what was to become Jefferson's university.

The topic of the conference was "The Origin of Southern Identity and the Culture of the Old South." What constitutes "American identity" has always been a contested question, and is even more so today. Samuel Huntington of Harvard University recently wrote an anguished book titled Who Are We?, The Challenges to America's National Identity. America was not founded in a national identity, but in a federation having strong regional identities. From the very beginning there was a division between North and South. The questions for discussion were: When did Southern identity first appear? What was its character and how did it change? The discussion was limited to the ante-bellum period, although we sometimes wandered beyond it.

A book of reading running some 200 page was the basis for the discussion, which occurred in six sessions. To gain a concrete picture of Southern identity we often contrasted a representative New England thinker with a Southerner engaged in the same activity. In Session I the Diary of the New England Puritan Cotton Mather was contrasted with the diary of the Virginian William Byrd. Session II explored the relation between the "first South" (17th and 18th century) and the :Old South" framed from a post bellum 19th and 20th century perspective.

Session III compared two "Enlightenment" thinkers: the Virginian Thomas Jefferson and New England raised Benjamin Franklin". The Southern "Enlightenment" does not look like its New England counterpart. In this session we also examined two types of individualism: John Randolph of Virginia and David Thoreau of New England.

Session IV compared the oratory in Congress of Robert Hayne of South Carolina with that of Daniel Webster of New England. Session V examined two visions of American identity and culture through two literary figures: the South Carolinian William Gilmore Simms and the New Englander Ralph Waldo Emerson. Finally, Session VI explored Southern identity in the religion and literature of the Old South.

Professor Bill Wilson, Dean of Honors Students, gave us a tour of what Mr. Jefferson called his "Academical Village," pointing our interesting facts about its history, architecture and mission. After lunch on Saturday we visited Monticello and found it a delight even in its winter aspect.

Professor Clyde Wilson, M. E. Bradford Distinguished Fellow of the Institute was to give an opening lecture, "Southern Culture from Jamestown to Walker Percy." A winter storm that caused confusion and delays for a number of us grounded his plane for two days, so he was unable to attend. Fortunately he sent a copy by e-mail, which was read to the conference by Institute President Donald Livingston after the last Session on Saturday evening.