Harry L. Watson - Southern Cultures: The Memory Issue

Harry L. Watson, director

Edward L. Ayers University of Richmond

E. M. Beck Sociology, Emeritus, University of Georgia

Catherine W. Bishir North Carolina State University Libraries

Merle Black Political Science, Emory University

James C. Cobb History, University of Georgia

Peter A. Coclanis History, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Thadious Davis English, University of Pennsylvania

Pam Durban English, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

William R. Ferris History, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Wayne Flynt History, Emeritus, Auburn University

Thavolia Glymph History, Duke University

Rayna Green National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution

Larry J. Griffin Sociology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Ferrel Guillory The Program on Public Life, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Jacquelyn Dowd Hall History, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Peggy Hargis Sociology, Georgia Southern University

Trudier Harris English, Emerita, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Fred Hobson English, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Lisa Howorth Square Books, Oxford, Mississippi

Anne Goodwyn Jones English, University of Florida

Michael Kreyling English, Vanderbilt University

Louis Kyriakoudes History, University of Southern Mississippi

Malinda Maynor Lowery History, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Michael OBrien History, University of Cambridge

Ted M. Ownby Center for the Study of Southern Culture, University of Mississippi

James L. Peacock Anthropology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Theda Perdue History, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

C. David Perry University of North Carolina Press

Tom Rankin Center for Documentary Studies, Duke University

John Shelton Reed Sociology, Emeritus, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Louis D. Rubin English, Emeritus, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Anne Firor Scott History, Emerita, Duke University

Bland Simpson English, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Vincas P. Steponaitis Anthropology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Steven Stowe History, Indiana University

John M. Vlach American Studies, George Washington University

David Wilkins American Indian Studies, University of Minnesota

Charles R. Wilson History, University of Mississippi

Southern Cultures Copyright 2011 Center for the Study of the American South
Indexed in Humanities International Complete. Back Issues (2000present) are available through www.SouthernCultures.org

Southern Cultures (ISSN: 1068-8218) is published quarterly (spring, summer, fall, winter) by the University of North Carolina Press. The journal is sponsored by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hills Center for the Study of the American South. Periodicals postage paid at Chapel Hill, NC, and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Southern Cultures, 116 South Boundary Street, Chapel Hill, NC 27514-3808.

Here at the Civil Wars Sesquicentennial, we have dedicated an issue of Southern Cultures to southern memory, both personal and historical. Charleston, the view through the porch of the Circular Church, 150 Meeting Street, 1865, courtesy of the Collections of the Library of Congress.

I got a childhood lesson in southern memory when my father asked if I knew what had happened in Reconstruction. I didnt, of course, but Dad left an indelible (though inaccurate) impression when he spat out the answer: Thats when white men couldnt vote! It would be many years before my formal education caught up with and eventually overcame this piece of family lore, surely passed on from my fathers own father, born when South Carolina was still under federal occupation. And I surely belong to the last generation of southern children to be warned against tardiness by the awful consequences of Longstreets delay at Gettysburg.

For nearly a century, it is likely that stories like my fathers taught white southerners the most powerful lessons they learned about the Civil War and Reconstruction. Memories of victimization and outrage were the bedrock of white southern identity, so much so that the cartoon image of a superannuated Rebel shouting Fergit, hell! became a serio-comic icon of the Wars Centennial. Black southerners had their own set of family stories and memories, radically different but much more painful. Memories have been so powerful and important in regional culture, it was no wonder that Dixie proclaimed that old times there are not forgotten. So here at the Wars Sesquicentennial, it is high time we dedicated an issue of Southern Cultures to southern memory, both personal and historical.

Our four years of remembrance are now underway. Of all the old times that Dixie was not supposed to forget, the War is the greatest, but forgetfulness now seems to be winning. The crowds at reenactments and commemorations are reportedly respectable but not huge, and there is nothing planned today that rivals the scale and intensity of the Centennial celebration of 1961-65. Among those who do remember, two dueling narratives seem to be in play, and the one I learned at home is retreating, though still putting up a fight. At the 100th anniversary of the bombardment of Fort Sumter, for example, thousands gathered on Charlestons Battery and bellowed approval with every faux shellburst. This time, the Secession Gala captured most of the headlines, but a solemn ceremony emphasizing the role of slavery in sparking the conflict won official recognition and far more participants. Today, so-called neo-Confederates proclaim loudly that the war was fought for states rights, not slavery. Fifty years ago, the like-minded had no need for loud proclamations because most white Americans apparently agreed with them. Those five decades have made a big difference. As the Soviets used to joke about their own politically driven histories, The present we know; the future is certain. Only the past is unpredictable.