What is Southern identity? When
did people first consciously think of themselves as Southerners? These questions
were explored in the context of the culture of the Old South: its literature,
religion, architecture, and moral character. Special attention was given to
the way Southern identity was sharpened by its resistance to an aggressive
New England cultural imperialism that sought, after 1814, to define the whole
of America in terms of itself.
Beginning with the seventeenth
century contrasting Southern and New England character types were examined
to reveal the mind of these competing cultures: William Byrd vs. Cotton Mather;
Jefferson vs. Franklin; Randolph vs. Thoreau; Simms and Poe vs. Emerson. |
