Charleston Syllabus Prompts Discussions on Race

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Following the tragedy at Emanuel AME Church in downtown Charleston June 17, 2015, scholars around the world began compiling a #charlestonsyllabus to provide context for the attack, especially in regards to race relations, racially-inspired violence, and the history of race in South Carolina and the United States. This syllabus was conceived and coordinated by Chad Williams, associate professor of African and Afro-American Studies at Brandeis University, and it follows the creation of separate syllabi created in the aftermath of other violent incidents that have occurred in the U.S., such as the fatal civilian confrontations with police in Baltimore, Md., and Ferguson, Mo.

In the wake of the Emanuel AME Church shooting, and in the spirit of these syllabi, the College of Charleston has compiled its own Charleston Syllabus featuring campus and Lowcountry events that focus on the issues of race relations, black culture in the U.S. and civil rights.

This Charleston Syllabus, compiled by Simon Lewis, professor of English at the College, is not meant to be an exhaustive account of all events at the College related to these themes. But participation in any of these events, Lewis believes, can help our community transcend existing narratives of “division, separation, and hatred.”

http://today.cofc.edu/2015/08/27/charleston-syllabus/

Statement from CLAW Director on the Emanuel AME Massacre

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Dear Colleagues All,

In her most recent commentary on the Emanuel AME Massacre and Charleston’s response, Julia Eichelberger writes,  “It’s starting to seem possible that we could begin to accord our grief its proper weight. Grief could spur us to make things better, to undertake the much more confusing, much more uncertain work of justice and fairness, of a social infrastructure worthy of the name “community.” We’re succeeding, in this moment, at expressing our wish for that, and that is a start.”  Using Julia’s beautifully eloquent words as a starting point I want to set out some of my own thoughts both as an individual and specifically as the director of the Carolina Lowcountry and Atlantic World (CLAW) program here at the College. Like everyone else I’ve had great difficulty articulating my response—I’ve made more false starts on this statement than I care to count—and I expect that this one too will fail to express what I want it to, and will hit false notes both in my ears and some of yours. So my apologies in advance for inevitably falling short.

Last week’s mass-murder at Mother Emanuel left us in shock and tears. The subsequent response at the prayer vigils at Morris Brown AME, at the TD Arena, and elsewhere, and the resumption of services at Emanuel, including last night’s prayer meeting, has shown a more defiant joy than any of us could have imagined.  Is it right to be proud of this city on such an occasion? Maybe it really is. We are not an integrated city, but we are one city, sharing in grief and outrage, and asserting a common desire for love and unity to overcome this latest manifestation of hatred and division that, though centuries old, still lingers. And all who live here now, today, are part of this beautiful city’s troubled, troubling, and often brutal history.

For the past 20 years or so the CLAW program has been exploring the nature of this shared history and the radically uneven ways in which different groups have experienced the “same” events. I’d like to think we have been working in exactly the same spirit and with the same ultimate end as set out in Julia’s words above: undertaking that confusing  and complicated work that leads to justice and fairness, and a social infrastructure worthy of the name “community.” This is why on a recent Facebook post I wrote that our work begins again.

Less than two weeks ago, but still days before our most recent end of innocence and complacency, Stephanie Yuhl, a historian whose book, A Golden Haze of Memory: The Making of Historic Charleston, takes Charleston to task for glossing over its history in the manner of the beguilingly beautiful watercolors of Alice Ravenel Huger Smith, gave the final presentation at the CLAW-sponsored Southern Association of Women’s Historians conference. Although she still remains critical of Charleston’s history and its white elite’s narcissistic self-representation, she clearly also still loves this place, and her love is encouraged by the strides the city has made in the last few years to present a more comprehensive and inclusive story. In conversation after the presentation, Stephanie was light-hearted and upbeat.  No less harsh on past failures she told us that she thought “Charleston’s going to be all right.”  It was heartening and validating to hear her say so.

Four days later Dylann Roof vented his violent hatred in the basement of Emanuel AME, taking the lives of nine—nine—of our fellow citizens, including one of this community’s finest spiritual and political leaders.

I do not claim Clementa Pinckney as a personal friend, but we had worked together on a number of CLAW programs. At the end of 2012 he had allowed us to promote Emanuel AME as the go-to church for the “Watch Night” service on the eve of the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation’s coming into effect on January 1st 1863.  He had twice allowed me to apply (unsuccessfully, alas, on both occasions) to the BBC to have the producers of their weekly television show “Songs of Praise come to Charleston” as part of the Jubilee Project or as part of our commemoration of the sesquicentennial of the end of the Civil War.  Most recently he had stepped in at the very last minute to give the homily at our memorial service on Hampton Park in honor of all of the dead of the Civil War. You can see that thoughtful, wise and generous address on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6T6OxSVkrU, and read an account of it by Yale University historian David Blight at http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/06/pinckney-charleston-civil-war-150-years/396455/ (Blight was actually anxious that Pinckney had been too generous in his comments). Immediately after the memorial service, Pinckney had had to go to another event at 4pm (I believe in response to the Walter Scott shooting), before ending the day at the Nat Fuller’s Feast reenactment that brought together an eclectic array of community leaders in the spirit of reconciliation—literally breaking bread at the same table (and partaking of a fabulous feast, too!). For Chef Kevin Mitchell’s account of that event in the form of his “Letter to Nat Fuller,” please check out https://jubileeprojectsc.wordpress.com/2015/04/28/chef-kevin-mitchells-letter-to-nat-fuller/, and for context on the original feast in 1865, take some time to explore the Lowcountry Digital History Initiative (LDHI) online exhibition at http://ldhi.library.cofc.edu/exhibits/show/nat_fuller.

All of this is to show not just what a terrible terrible loss we have suffered as a community as a result of the murder of Reverend Clementa Pinckney and his eight parishioners, but also to show how intentionally the CLAW program has been working toward Julia’s “social infrastructure worthy of the name of community.” But where do we go from here, and how do we continue? Mercifully, the public response so far has been overwhelmingly positive, so much so that a number of commentators have become wary that we will again retreat into the complacent belief that the love and unity of the bridge demonstration, for instance, really means that Charleston is going to be “all right,” already is “all right” without any further structural change or any further self-scrutiny.  The CLAW program is absolutely committed to facilitating that further self-scrutiny as a means to effecting structural change. Indeed, for me, Roof’s attack reasserts for me the vital—life-and-death—importance of this work. I hope all at the College will join me in rededicating ourselves to our fundamental mission as educators in inculcating the wisdom (not technical knowledge) that is itself liberty. For all.

Part of that self-scrutiny must include the uncomfortable truth that for most of its history the College, as an exclusively white institution, has been part of the problem, and that without appropriate action and leadership we can still be—or at least be painted as—part of the problem. Today, however, and in the coming months, I believe we as a faculty have a unique opportunity to be part of the solution. Kevin Keenan circulated an e-mail yesterday indicating one way in which our choice of Freedom Summer as a common read enables us to hold the necessary dialogues. If you have suggestions for additional events or additional steps that we need to take, please share them with us so that come August we can set out an appropriate program that honors the memory of the men and women killed last week, and that lets us do our part in trying to ensure that no such event happens again.

Simon

Director of the Program in the Carolina Lowcountry and Atlantic World

SAWH Triennial Conference at the College of Charleston, June 11-14, 2015

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From Thursday, June 11th to Sunday, June 14th, 2015, the College of Charleston will host the Southern Association of Women Historians’ (SAWH) Tenth Southern Conference on Women’s History. This year’s theme is “Re-membering/Gendering: Women, Historical Tourism, and Public History.” The conference is co-sponsored by Clemson University, The Citadel: Military College of South Carolina, and the College of Charleston.

This four-day conference will bring scholars from across the US South and the nation to Charleston to present on a wide range of topics. SAWH President, Lorri Glover, notes, “the research on the conference program is innovative and interdisciplinary, offering fresh insight into virtually every dimension of southern and gender history. The professional panels are as rich, speaking to the teaching, research, and career needs of our members.” Glover adds, “We come to SAWH for the intellectual stimulation and professional networking.”

SAWH was founded in 1970 and its membership includes over seven hundred women and men from around the world. The organization has several purposes: to stimulate interest in the study of southern history and women’s history, to advance the status of women in the historical profession in the US South, to provide a forum for women historians to discuss issues of professional concern, and to publicize and promote issues of concern to SAWH members.

Through funding support from the Carolina Lowcountry and Atlantic World Program’s (CLAW) Wells Fargo Distinguished Public Lecture series, this year’s conference will feature three plenary sessions with distinguished scholars that are free and open to the public.

 

JUNE 11, 5:00 pm, Alumni House at The Citadel
Keynote Lecture: “The Limits of Commemoration: Civil Rights Memory and the Enduring Challenge of Innocence,” Renee Romano, PhD, Oberlin College
Overview: Recent decades have witnessed a flurry of commemorative activity about the black freedom struggle and the history of racial violence in the United States, from the building of museums and monuments to the marking of anniversaries and the celebration of holidays. At the same time, racial inequalities remain deep and pervasive, as does ra­cial violence in the form of police harassment and killing of people of color. In this keynote address, Renee Romano will bring togeth­er her work on historical memory and on civil rights-era violence to explore the relationship between commemoration and racial justice and to ask what role commemoration can play in helping achieve what James Baldwin described as one of the most powerful barriers to change: the willful ignorance of white Americans of the depth and extent of racism and racial violence in the nation’s history.

 

JUNE 12, 5:00 pm, Stern Center Ballroom at the College of Charleston

Plenary Lecture: “Making Public the Most Private: Children, Families, and Household as a Challenge to Historians,” Susan J. Pearson, PhD, Northwestern University; James D. Schmidt, PhD, Northern Illinois University; Marcia Chatelain, PhD, Georgetown University.

Overview: “Children, Families, Household as a Challenge to Historians” presents the experiences of historians uncovering the seemingly private spheres of home and family in various archives. By examining how the state and its institutions shape the inner lives of citizens, the panelists will engage the audience in strategies for uncovering these private stories.

 

JUNE 13, 5:00 pm, Stern Center Ballroom at the College of Charleston

Plenary Lecture: “Women, Historical Tourism, and Public History in the Lowcountry,” Katherine Mellen Charron, PhD, North Carolina State University; Leslie M. Harris, PhD, Emory University; Stephanie Yuhl, PhD, College of the Holy Cross.

Overview: In this plenary session, prominent scholars consider the role of gender, race, and class in representations of the Lowcountry region throughout a range of public history contexts. This discussion draws from each panelist’s research on Lowcountry history, from the colonial period to the twentieth century civil rights movement.

 

Registration to attend all panel sessions and presentations for the SAWH conference will be available onsite, at $100 for SAWH members, $150 for nonmembers, and $60 for graduate students. Please bring a check or exact change to the registration desk on the first floor of the Stern Center.

For a complete listing of SAWH 2015 Conference sessions and registration times, check out the program here. (http://thesawh.org/sawh-conferences/sawh-triennial-conference/)

For more information about SAWH, check out their website here. (http://thesawh.org/)

Questions? Contact Megan Taylor Shockley, mshockl@clemson.edu

 

“The Dead of the Civil War Remembered: 150 Years Later”

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On Sunday, April 19th, at 3pm, a brief but solemn service was held in Hampton Park, Charleston SC. A small crowd gathered in the park to honor the memory of all who died in the American Civil War, both Union and Confederate, black and white, enslaved and free, men, women, and children. After the Citadel Chamber Choir led the attendees in the singing of “God Bless America,” Lieutenant Colonel Joel Harris, Chaplain to the Corps of Cadets at the Citadel, began the service with an invocation. Then historian David Blight, the Class of 1954 Professor of History at Yale University, spoke to the audience about the historical significance of Hampton Park. He described what may have been America’s first Memorial Days, May 1, 1865—a ceremony at which African-American citizens of Charleston reinterred more than 200 Union prisoners-of-war previously buried in a mass-grave at the site. The day consisted of a parade, which included African-American troops of the 54th Massachusetts, the construction of a monument to the dead, sermons and readings from Scripture, and feasting and games. Blight thought it well that almost 150 years later we were gathered in that same space to honor and commemorate the dead of the Civil War. Following a singing of “America the Beautiful,” led by the Choir, Rev. Clementa Pinckney, pastor of Emanuel A.M.E. in Charleston, gave a homily. He read from the nineteenth chapter of Second Samuel, in which King David mourns the death of Absalom, the son who rebelled against him. Pinckney urged the audience not only to remember the ultimate sacrifice of so many but also to honor their sacrifice by continuing to work for the ideals presented by Lincoln in the Gettysburg Address. The Choir then led the attendees in the singing of the “Navy-hymn” “Eternal Father, Strong to Save,” and this was followed by a moment of silence, so that all could in their own way ponder and pray over all those who gave their lives in the war. A member of the Choir then played “Taps” as the audience continued to think and reflect. Rev. Harris brought the service to a close with a final prayer that reflected the solemn and conciliatory tone of the ceremony.

We would like to express our thanks to all who came out to join in the commemoration of the end of America’s bloodiest war and the honoring of all who paid the ultimate price in that terrible time of our national history.

Lessons on the Sesquicentennial

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Last weekend, the sesquicentennial commemoration of the end of the American Civil War continued with “A Just and Lasting Peace Amongst Ourselves”?: Lessons on the 150th Anniversary of the End of the American Civil War. Held in the historic Dock Street Theater in Charleston, South Carolina on April 18th, the event consisted of two panel discussions that featured a number of respected scholars and fostered some interesting discussions.

The 10:00 am session was focused on the impact of the Civil War on American history, which its three panelists discussed at length. The first to speak was Annette Gordon-Reed, the Charles Warren Professor of American Legal History at the Harvard School of Law, Professor of History in the History Department, and Carol K. Pforzheimer Professor at the Radcliffe Institute. In her remarks she noted the importance of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, and how these amendments sought to achieve the ideals of the Declaration of Independence. After her came Eric Foner, the DeWitt Clinton Professor of History at Columbia University. Professor Foner spoke about Reconstruction as an inseparable part of Civil War history, and he pointed out that such concerns as black equality are still with us today. Last to speak in the first panel was Emory Thomas, Regents Professor of History Emeritus at the University of Georgia. Thomas focused on the Confederate experience and the different meanings the war had for southerners, and he illustrated the viewpoints using Flannery O’Connor’s short story “A Late Encounter with the Enemy.” After the remarks, audience members were invited to ask questions and create discussion. The panelists fielded such questions as what Lincoln’s Reconstruction might have looked like and the importance of the Dred Scott case leading up to the Civil War before the panel concluded at noon.

At 1:30 the second session was held, this one focusing on public memory of the Civil War, particularly as it related to South Carolina. David Blight, The Class of 1954 Professor of History and Director of the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition at Yale University, spoke first. His talk was concerned with the Civil War’s end and the war’s legacies that remain with us today, and he noted several examples such as the use of passages from the Confederate Constitution on some Tea Party websites. Blight was followed by Thomas Brown, Professor of History at the University of South Carolina. In his remarks Brown discussed some of the histories of Confederate memory in South Carolina, using case studies like the changing memory of the H.L. Hunley. The final panelists were Ethan Kytle and Blain Roberts, both Associate Professors of History at California State University, Fresno. Kytle and Roberts have collaborated in the study of memory in Charleston, SC, and thus they presented jointly on that topic. Kytle discussed the history of the John C. Calhoun monument that stands in Marion Square along with its conflicted history, while Roberts talked about the Denmark Vesey monument in Hampton Park as well as the effort to have it constructed and how it commemorates ideals very far from those of the Calhoun monument. As with the first session, this panel was concluded by questions from those in attendance. Audience members asked about the numbers of Civil War commemoration sites as well as whether or not the Calhoun monument should remain standing. To the latter question the panelists pointed out that such actions tend to draw enormous controversy and that the monument is an important piece of evidence for studying memory.

Thanks to the panelists and the many people who attended, the event proved to be an interesting and thought-provoking commemoration of America’s Civil War.

“Now He Belongs to the Ages”

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150 years ago this morning, as the Civil War was drawing to a close, America suffered one of its greatest national tragedies. In the early hours of April 15th, 1865, Abraham Lincoln died in the Petersen House across the street from Ford’s Theater in Washington, DC. The night before, while viewing Our American Cousin from his box seat, Lincoln was shot in the head by John Wilkes Booth. The president was taken to the red-brick townhome of William A. Petersen, a German tailor, where he spent his final hours before passing away in the early morning of the 15th.

Mourning of Lincoln’s death began almost immediately. In Milwaukee, for instance, the mayor proclaimed “that all the dwellings and business places of our City forthwith be clad in mourning, as a token of the deep and common sorrow that prevails; and that the people, abstaining from all excitement improper for such solemn occasion, postpone their ordinary business duties to-day, and that in all the Churches to-morrow such services be performed as will duly express the great and general grief.” In Buffalo, NY, it was reported that once the news had spread, “from the dwelling of the humblest colored family to the mansion of the most opulent citizen, fluttered the half-mast flag, and there were few localities where some manifestations of sorrow were not apparent.” As the Civil War drew to its end, grief over the loss of Lincoln cut across racial lines. Martin R. Delaney, a high-ranking black officer in the United States Colored Troops, wrote a letter to the Anglo-African paper in New York. He described Lincoln’s assassination as “a calamity such as the world never before witnessed” and he recommended that a massive monument be built, one that would be made possible by the contributions of all black people in the United States. For blacks across the North and South, the untimely death of Lincoln, the President whom Delaney described as “the Father of American Liberty,” was deeply saddening.

When Lincoln passed away that April morning, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton reportedly remarked, “Now he belongs to the ages.” Indeed, Lincoln entered history as one of America’s greatest presidents, with the memorial in Washington D.C. serving as just one reminder of his tireless work for the Union. Now, 150 years after his death, his legacy remains as we work to honor his pledge that “this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

Anderson Raises the Stars and Stripes over Fort Sumter

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150 years ago today, Charleston harbor found itself abuzz with activity. On April 14th 1865, four years to the day after Major Robert Anderson surrendered Fort Sumter to Confederate forces, a ceremony was held to celebrate the fort’s recapture and the coming end of the Civil War. Writing for the April 18th issue, a correspondent for the New York Daily Tribune noted how the whole morning of the 14th saw many steamers traveling to the fort. Included among these steamers was the Planter, piloted by Robert Smalls, a former slave who had commandeered the ship and escaped to the Union blockade and to freedom in 1862. The correspondent wrote that the ships were “all crowded with passengers—the Planter being black with the colored population of Charleston.” At the fort, he writes that “detachments of marines and sailors from the different vessels under command of Lieut. Commander Williams, survivors of the assault on Sumter, together with the 127th New York and 35th Massachusetts were drawn up in line on either side, and presented a fine appearance. These men had all distinguished themselves in the naval and military operations against Sumter, and were consequently assigned to a position of honor in the programme of the day.” While most of the spectators were visitors from the North, there were several hundred of the citizens of Charleston, including the black citizens who came on the Planter. After songs and prayers, Major Anderson was presented with the flag that he had hauled down four years before. After a short address, Anderson hoisted the flag to the top of the flagpole amid loud cheers. “The Star-Spangled Banner” was sung, and followed by a salute from Fort Sumter’s guns and guns from the forts around the harbor. In these moments, the ceremony announced the end of the war at the same place in which it had begun four years earlier.

After the salute, the abolitionist Rev. Henry Ward Beecher stepped forward to give an oration. In his speech he proclaimed that “on this solemn and joyful day, we again lift to the breeze our fathers’ flag, now again the banner of the United States, with the fervent prayer that God would crown it with honor, protect it from treason, and send it down to our children, with all the blessings of civilization, liberty, and religion.” He spoke at length about secession, the horrors of war, and the system of slavery which in his mind caused both of them. Nonetheless, he concluded on a more conciliatory note by invoking peace on the North, the West, and the South, and by declaring that “in the name of God, we lift up our banner, and dedicate it to Peace, Union, and Liberty, now and forevermore.” In his oration, Beecher also offered his congratulations that God had sustained President Lincoln through the burdens and sufferings of those four years. Tragically, on the very same day as the flag-raising ceremony, Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth in Ford’s Theater. Thus he would not live to lead the nation in the arriving period of reunion and reconstruction.

Lee Raises the White Flag!

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“The contrast between the two commanders was striking, and it could not fail to attract marked attention they sat ten feet apart facing each other.” So wrote General Horace Porter when he recalled the moment 150 years ago today when General Ulysses S. Grant and General Robert E. Lee faced each other inside the McLean house at Appomattox. Grant’s army had pursued Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia since the fall of Petersburg and Richmond at the beginning of April 1865. Soon Lee found his army surrounded, and thus he consented to Grant’s demand for surrender. On April 9th, at the Appomattox Court House, the two adversaries met and the terms of Lee’s surrender were laid out. Grant, in a magnanimous gesture, was generous in his demands of Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia, allowing the officers the dignity of keeping their swords. With this meeting the Civil War was brought much closer to its end.

News of Lee’s surrender was sent to Washington, and Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton sent Grant a message of congratulations which read: “Thanks be to Almighty God for the great victory with which He has this day crowned you and the gallant army under your command. The thanks of this Department, and the Government of the U. States, their reverence and honor have been deserved, and will be rendered to you and the brave and gallant officers and soldiers of your army, for all time.” Stanton further ordered a two hundred-gun salute to be fired in every post and headquarters in commemoration of the surrender. Word quickly spread, and celebrations broke out throughout the Union.

Among the white citizens of the Confederacy, the reaction to the surrender was one of sadness and disappointment. As Mary Chesnut recorded in her diary, “Just now Mr. Clay dashed up the stairs, pale as a sheet. ‘General Lee has capitulated.’ I saw the news reflected in Mary Darby’s face before I heard him. She staggered to the table, sat down, and wept aloud. Mr. Clay’s eyes were not dry.” Many Southerners tried to console themselves with the notion that Lee had been overwhelmed by numbers, rather than conquered, and that he commanded Grant’s immense respect. Black southerners, especially former slaves, rejoiced at the victory, knowing that the promise of freedom would come to pass. Fanny Berry, a former slave, remembers that when slaves in Pamplin, Virginia learned of Lee’s surrender, they burst into spontaneous song, for they at that moment “knew dat dey were free.” For people like Berry, that moment 150 years ago carried a deep significance.

CLAW Commemorates Lincoln’s Second Inaugural

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On March 11, 2015, the Carolina Lowcountry and Atlantic World Program joined with the Bully Pulpit Series and Friends of the Addlestone Library to present, through the generous support of Wells Fargo, the Wells Fargo Distinguished Public Lecture for this semester. In commemoration of the 150th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address, Dr. Richard Carwardine presented a lecture entitled “The Religion and Politics of Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address.” Carwardine is the President of Corpus Christi College, Oxford University, where he studied as an undergraduate. He has written prolifically on American political and religious life in the nineteenth century, and his work includes a biography of Lincoln that won the Lincoln Book Prize in 2004 and was published in the U.S. as Lincoln: A Life of Purpose and Power (2006). Carwardine was introduced by the Dr. Orville Vernon Burton, the executive director of the CLAW program. Burton is Creativity Professor of Humanities, Professor of History and Computer Science at Clemson University, and he is also the director of the Clemson Cyber Institute. Burton is also a prolific scholar, having authored and edited twenty books, including The Age of Lincoln (2007), which won the Chicago Tribune Heartland Literary Award for Nonfiction and was nominated for a Pulitzer.

In his lecture, Carwardine argued that the address provides a view into the connected world of politics and religion in nineteenth-century America. While the opening paragraph of the speech is rather matter-of-fact about the war situation, the remaining paragraphs are amazingly nuanced. Carwardine pointed out that Lincoln chose to be even-handed, as he did not lay the blame for the fighting on one side or the other. Lincoln continued by stating that it was American slavery, allowed by both North and South to continue, that was the cause of the war. Then Lincoln’s address took a turn towards the religious. Scholars have long debated Lincoln’s exact religious beliefs, beginning shortly after his death. Carwardine believes while Lincoln exhibited what could be termed “rational religion” in his earlier life, it seems that during his presidency he turned toward a more spiritual piety. This shift is evident in the second inaugural, for Lincoln states that a living God may be using the war as a judgment on North and South for perpetuating slavery so long. Carwardine noted that Lincoln’s intensely religious language shows how interconnected religion and politics could be in the period. The last paragraph, beginning with the famous lines “With malice toward none, with charity for all,” made clear the political purpose of Lincoln’s address. He asked for an end to the war that would put aside bitterness and focus on a reconciliation that would be just. In his conclusion Carwardine pointed out that Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address was clearly a masterpiece of rhetoric and even American writing.

Following the lecture there was just enough time for Carwardine to answer a few questions. When quizzed about Lincoln’s view of American exceptionalism, Carwardine pointed out that at the time the United States was indeed a special case among nations. He added that Lincoln indeed saw the American struggle in international terms as a major part of the international struggle for freedom and human dignity. On a more hypothetical note, one audience member asked Carwardine what Lincoln’s reconstruction would have been like had he lived to carry it out. While there is no way to say for sure, Carwardine himself believes that while it would have been much different from Andrew Johnson’s, Lincoln’s effort would still have run against opposition in Congress. Thanks to all who came for making this commemorative event a rousing success!

Tomorrow, March 11, 2015: “The Religion and Politics of Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address”

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The Bully Pulpit Series, the Carolina Lowcountry and Atlantic World Program, and the Friends of the Library present a commemorative lecture of Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address as a part of the Wells Fargo Distinguished Public Lecture Series. On March 11 2015, at 2 PM in room 202 of the College of Charleston’s Tate Center, Dr. Richard Carwardine, the president of Corpus Christi College, Oxford University, will give a lecture on the politics and religion of the famous 1865 address. Carwardine specializes in American politics and religion in the nineteenth century, and one of his many works is an analytical biography of Abraham Lincoln that won the Lincoln Prize in 2004 and was republished in the U.S. as Lincoln: A Life of Purpose and Power (2006). He will be introduced by CLAW Executive Director and Lincoln scholar Dr. O. Vernon Burton, Creativity Professor of Humanities, Professor of History and Computer Science at Clemson University, and the Director of the Clemson CyberInstitute. Burton is also a prolific writer, and his book The Age of Lincoln (2007) won the Chicago Tribune Heartland Literary Award for Nonfiction. All are invited to join us as we commemorate the 150th anniversary of Lincoln’s historic address.