The Despot’s Song!

 

"Their intent is the devastation and obliteration of the Southern people as the means of retaining power, and yet I doubt in the history of the world has ever, with the exception of the French reign of terror, shown so imbecile, so corrupt, so vindictive rulers over any people as those with which this country is now cursed." James A. Bayard on the Republican Party, 1861

Southern history contains many fine examples of literary and artistic merit long ignored by contemporary scholars and forgotten by the American public at large, both North and South. Much of this is due to the impact that the War had on the perception of the Southern people. Students in American literature will get a cursory understanding of Southern literature, primarily William Faulkner and Flannery O’Connor, but most are left believing that the South was a wasteland of intellectual material. Some scholars in the twentieth century took an interest in antebellum Southern literature and found it to be a delightfully refreshing contrast to the often banal works of their Northern counterparts. The South has always had a story to tell. Jay B. Hubbell’s The South in American Literature, 1607-1900 is an excellent primer for early Southern writing.

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