Edited by Orville Vernon Burton (NHC Fellow, 1994–95) and Judith N. McArthur In 1861, James B. Griffin left Edgefield, South Carolina, and rode off to Virginia to take up duty with the Confederate Army. He was thirty-five years old, a wealthy planter, and the owner of sixty-one slaves when he joined Wade Hampton's elite Legion … Continued
By Linda S. Kauffman (NHC Fellow, 1983–84) Kauffman looks at a neglected genre–the love letter written by literary heroines. Tracing the development of the genre from Ovid to the twentieth-century novel, she explores the important implications of these amatory discourses for an understanding of fictive representation in general.
Edited by Patricia Sullivan (NHC Fellow, 2001–02) Virginia Foster Durr was a monumental champion for civil rights. A white southerner who returned to Alabama in 1951 after twenty years in Washington, she was horrified to revisit the racism of her childhood. She wrote hundreds of letters – humorous, sharp and observant – to her friends … Continued
By Lorenzo de’ MediciEdited by Melissa Meriam Bullard (NHC Fellow, 1998–99)
Edited by Charles Royster (NHC Fellow, 1984–85) Hailed as a prophet of modern war and condemned as a harbinger of modern barbarism, William Tecumseh Sherman is the most controversial general of the American Civil War. Written with the propulsive energy and intelligence that marked his campaigns, Memoirs of General W. T. Sherman describes striking incidents and anecdotes … Continued
Edited by Gavin Kelly (NHC Fellow, 2010–11) and Johannes A. van Waarden Sidonius Apollinaris is a central figure in the literature and history of fifth-century Gaul. But he still awaits sustained debate in modern scholarship. This integrated and international collection of essays explores the potential for a complete commentary on his works, starting with a … Continued
In this study of the letters of John Adams and John Quincy Adams from 1774 to 1793, two central themes are highlighted — how Adams unfolded his “curriculum” for citizen leadership, and how his point of view changed from parent-teacher to mentor-guide as John Quincy entered the realm of American political life. To Adams, a … Continued
In correspondence with her husband John as he and other leaders were framing a government for the United States, Abigail Adams (1744–1818) argued that the laws of the new nation should recognize women as something more than property and protect them from the arbitrary and unrestrained power men held over them.
Political, economic, social, and moral issues molded the antebellum fugitive slave crisis in the US and in turn the Underground Railroad (UGRR). A metaphor for an interracial collaboration — at times formal, informal, visible, and invisible — the Underground Railroad helped direct thousands of fugitives toward freedom in the face of such ever-present challenges as … Continued
Shays’ Rebellion (1786–1787) and its aftermath reflected more than just problems within the Articles of Confederation government. Reaction to Massachusetts’ treatment of the rebels following the insurrection served as a reminder to those in power of the republican nature of the American government. It emphasized the importance of the right to vote as a key … Continued