The Week in Review at the Abbeville Institute, Dec 12-16, 2022 Topics: Southern Culture, Christmas, Thomas Jefferson, Southern History, the War, Cancel Culture https://soundcloud.com/the-abbeville-institute/ep-337
Brion McClanahanDecember 17, 2022
The ever-widening chasm that separates the North and the South today has a long history with many fissures, but one would hardly consider the celebration of Christmas to be one of them. However, in the years prior to the founding of America’s first English colonies in Virginia and Massachusetts, Christmas was a highly controversial subject in Great Britain, and that…
John MarquardtDecember 16, 2022
If you're like my family, you probably start playing Christmas music as soon as the calendar hits November 1, and you keep it on rotation through the 12 Days of Christmas in January. The classics from the Big Band and post World War II era are staples, but most are written for a distinctively Northern audience. Traditional Christian hymns also…
Brion McClanahanDecember 15, 2022
In response to an article about the Southern holocaust that occurred during the so-called “Civil War,” I wish to bring forth testimony from a Southern hero who was shunned by the South—or most of it—after he went with Grant in 1872 and Hayes in 1876, finally becoming a member of the Republican Party in that year. Previously, Col. John Singleton…
Valerie ProtopapasDecember 14, 2022
Both parties, says Jefferson to Abigail Adams (11 Sept. 1804), agree that the proper object of governing is the public good, yet they disagree concerning how it is best to promote that good. One fears most the ignorance of the people; the other, the selfishness of rulers independent of them. Which is right, time and experience will prove. We think…
M. Andrew HolowchakDecember 13, 2022
My obsession with the South often has me wishing that I had been born there or that I could find at least one ancestor that served the Confederacy, but I have had to content myself with loving it from afar and luxuriating in its wealth through the usual channels available to outsiders. My family is very accommodating of my passion…
Julie PaineDecember 12, 2022
The Week in Review at the Abbeville Institute, Dec 5-9, 2022 Topics: Southern tradition, the War, Yankees, Northern Studies, Southern Culture https://soundcloud.com/the-abbeville-institute/ep-336?si=2ea5e698490948b6a592c9852c49a0d3&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing
Brion McClanahanDecember 10, 2022
William S. Plumer, born in 1802 in Pennsylvania, was a renowned Presbyterian pastor and theologian. Though he was raised and spent many years in the North, he held the pulpit of several Southern churches before the war between the states broke out. It was during his time in the South that many people, including some within his own church, accused…
David CrumDecember 9, 2022
In North Carolina and South Carolina native observers have noticed a phenomenon frequent enough to have a label--Halfbacks. This does not refer to football. It refers to well-to-do Northerners who have moved to Florida, become discontented, and moved halfway back. The coastal areas of the two States are full of gated communities of mini-mansions already occupied by Northerners who the…
Clyde WilsonDecember 8, 2022
I’ll Take My Stand contains a vivid description of rural Southern life by Andrew Lytle: “The Hind Tit,” which I always associate with my Thanksgiving memories, despite its not being specifically about Thanksgiving. (The title refers to the poor nourishment left to the “runt” Southern States by the American empire after the War Between the States.) The farm life that…
Terry HulseyDecember 7, 2022
While attending a talk at Poplar Forest on Thomas Jefferson and the Missouri Crisis in the summer of 2019, the speaker, a historian at one of the local universities in Lynchburg, broached Jefferson’s letter to Congressman John Holmes (22 Apr. 1820) about eradication of the institution of slavery by diffusion. This historian called the argument, without further commentary, pure poppycock.…
M. Andrew HolowchakDecember 6, 2022
Inglis Clarke (20 October 1879 – 30 May 1969) grew up in Edwardsville, Illinois, a small town populated by many displaced Southerners. She had deep ancestral roots in northeastern North Carolina and, particularly, the Albemarle region. Young Inglis’ grandfather, who described the Tar Heel State as “that valley of Humiliation, between two mountains of Conceit,” sparked her interest in North…
Jeff WolvertonDecember 5, 2022
The Week in Review at the Abbeville Institute, November 28 - December 2, 2022 Topics: Southern women, Slavery, Southern History, Louisa McCord, Southern politics, Southern tradition https://soundcloud.com/the-abbeville-institute/ep-335?si=f0100d99aecc4ea8add54e59a78bb624&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing
Brion McClanahanDecember 3, 2022
XIII. The Dilemma of the Southern Liberals Originally published in The American Mercury, 1934 “The Dilemma of the Southern Liberals” Back when wild-eyed suffragettes were on the losing end of Oklahoma Drills with King George V’s horse, Vanderbilt and Sewanee were Southern football giants, and the Bull Moose Party was hawking the square new deal, Southern liberals—all hopped up on…
Chase SteelyDecember 2, 2022
It was a perfect day to spend outside. Tree leaves were riding the gentle currents of a fall breeze like giant snowflakes, reflecting the orange, red and gold of a warm autumn sun. Being of African, Native American and European descent, I was attending a Civil War Re-enactment, the only place where I can enthusiastically share the history of my…
Barbara MarthalDecember 1, 2022
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