Department
History and Philosophy
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2005
Abstract
Historian Francis Butler Simkins's 1932 book 'South Carolina during Reconstruction' presented one of the earliest revisionist examinations of Reconstruction. Simkins suggested Reconstruction failed because it was not radical enough, and carpetbaggers could have succeeded had they confiscated land and destroyed the South's caste system. Simkins elaborated his views in his 1939 essay in the 'Journal of Southern History,' his paper "The Everlasting South" delivered to the 1946 meeting of the Southern Historical Association, and his 1954 presidential address to the Southern Historical Association. Simkins corresponded with novelist Marian McCamy Sims, who wrote seven novels set among the upper- and middle-class South using the revisionist view. Both were pioneers taking a new look at Reconstruction in South Carolina, but they were limited in how far they were willing to criticize the South.
Journal Title
Journal of the Georgia Association of Historians
Journal ISSN
0275-3863
Volume
26
First Page
17
Last Page
38