A South Carolina Upcountry Saga

A South Carolina Upcountry Saga
Author: A. Gibert Kennedy
Publisher: Univ of South Carolina Press
Total Pages: 280
Release: 2019-01-09
Genre: History
ISBN: 1643360221

Collected letters of a Confederate officer and his family detail daily life and loss on the battlefield Hope, sacrifice, and restoration: throughout the American Civil War and its aftermath, the Foster family endured all of these in no small measure. Drawing from dozens of public and privately owned letters, A. Gibert Kennedy recounts the story of his great-great-grandfather and his family in A South Carolina Upcountry Saga: The Civil War Letters of Barham Bobo Foster and His Family, 1860-1863. Barham Bobo Foster was a gentleman planter from the Piedmont who signed the South Carolina Ordinance of Secession and served as a lieutenant colonel in the Third South Carolina Volunteers alongside his two sons. Kennedy's primary sources are letters written by Foster and his sons, but he also references correspondence involving Foster's daughters and his wife, Mary Ann. The letters describe experiences on the battlefields of Virginia and South Carolina, vividly detailing camp life, movements, and battles along with stories of bravery, loss, and sacrifice. The Civil War cost Foster his health, all that he owned, and his two sons, though he was able to rebuild with the help of his wife and three daughters. Supplementing the correspondence with maps, illustrations, and genealogical information, Kennedy shows the full arc of the Foster family's struggle and endurance in the Civil War era.

From Yeoman to Redneck in the South Carolina Upcountry, 1850-1915

From Yeoman to Redneck in the South Carolina Upcountry, 1850-1915
Author: Stephen A. West
Publisher: University of Virginia Press
Total Pages: 286
Release: 2008
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780813926995

In From Yeoman to Redneck in the South Carolina Upcountry, Stephen A. West revises understandings of the American South by offering a new perspective on two iconic figures in the region's social landscape. "Yeoman," a term of praise for the small landowning farmer, was commonly used during the antebellum era but ultimately eclipsed by "redneck," an epithet that emerged at the end of the nineteenth century. In popular use, each served less as a precise class label than as a means to celebrate or denigrate the moral and civic worth of broad groups of white men. Viewing these richly evocative figures as ideological inventions rather than sociological realities, West examines the divisions they obscured and the conflicts that gave them such force. The setting for this impressively detailed study is the Upper Piedmont of South Carolina, the sort of upcountry region typically associated with the white "plain folk." West shows how the yeoman ideal played a vital role in proslavery discourse before the Civil War but poorly captured the realities of life, with important implications for how historians understand the politics of slavery and the drive for secession. After the Civil War, the South Carolina upcountry was convulsed by the economic transformations and political conflicts out of which the redneck was born. West reinterprets key developments in the history of the New South--such as the politics of lynching and the phenomenon of the "Southern demagogue"--and uncovers the historical roots of a stereotype that continues to loom large in popular understandings of the American South. Drawing together periods and topics often treated separately, West combines economic, social, and political history in an original and compelling account.

World War II and Upcountry South Carolina

World War II and Upcountry South Carolina
Author: Courtney L. Tollison PhD
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
Total Pages: 341
Release: 2009-11-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 1625843410

World War II changed America, and the history of Upcountry South Carolina during this era testifies to the wars deep impact. On the homefront, Upcountry residents grew victory gardens, supported recruits at local bases and soldiers abroad, and manufactured textile goods, including uniforms and parachutes, crucial for the war effort. As thousands of young men and women came into the Upcountry to train at Spartanburgs Camp Croft and Greenvilles Army Air Base, thousands more were sent to Europe, the Pacific, and beyond. More than 166,000 South Carolinians fought for the United States, including 5 Congressional Medal of Honor winners. The resulting import and export of culture through the war and long after reflects the modernization and diversification that occurred across the South. Using words and images from the men and women who lived through it all, Furman University professor and Upcountry History Museum historian Courtney Tollison examine the ways that Upcountry South Carolina affected World War II and how the war affected the region.

Upcountry South Carolina Goes to War

Upcountry South Carolina Goes to War
Author: Tom Moore Craig
Publisher: Univ of South Carolina Press
Total Pages: 229
Release: 2012-06-05
Genre: History
ISBN: 1611171105

This collection of Civil War correspondence chronicles the lives and concerns of three Confederate families in Piedmont, South Carolina. The letters in Upcountry South Carolina Goes to War provide valuable firsthand accounts of both battlefronts and the home front, sharing rich details about daily life as well as evolving attitudes toward the war. As the men of service age from each family join the Confederate ranks, they begin writing from military camps in Virginia and the Carolinas, describing combat in some of the war’s more significant battles. Though they remain staunch patriots to the Southern cause until the bitter end, the surviving combatants write candidly of their waning enthusiasm in the face of the realities of combat. The corresponding letters from the home front offer a more pragmatic assessment of the period and its hardships. Emblematic of the fates of many Southern families, the experiences of these representative South Carolinians are dramatically illustrated in their letters from the eve of the Civil War through its conclusion.

World War II and Upcountry South Carolina

World War II and Upcountry South Carolina
Author: Courtney L. Tollison
Publisher: Vintage Images
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2009
Genre: History
ISBN: 9781596298255

World War II changed America, and the history of Upcountry South Carolina during this era testifies to the war's deep impact. On the homefront, Upcountry residents grew victory gardens, supported recruits at local bases and soldiers abroad, and manufactured textile goods, including uniforms and parachutes, crucial for the war effort. As thousands of young men and women came into the Upcountry to train at Spartanburg's Camp Croft and Greenville's Army Air Base, thousands more were sent to Europe, the Pacific, and beyond. More than 166,000 South Carolinians fought for the United States, including 5 Congressional Medal of Honor winners. The resulting import and export of culture through the war and long after reflects the modernization and diversification that occurred across the South. Using words and images from the men and women who lived through it all, Furman University professor and Upcountry History Museum historian Courtney Tollison examine the ways that Upcountry South Carolina affected World War II and how the war affected the region.

Entrepreneurs in the Southern Upcountry

Entrepreneurs in the Southern Upcountry
Author: Bruce W. Eelman
Publisher: University of Georgia Press
Total Pages: 332
Release: 2010-01-25
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0820336580

In Entrepreneurs in the Southern Upcountry, Bruce W. Eelman follows the evolution of an entrepreneurial culture in a nineteenth-century southern community outside the plantation belt. Counter to the view that the Civil War and Reconstruction alone brought social and economic revolution to the South, Eelman finds that antebellum Spartanburg businessmen advocated a comprehensive vision for modernizing their region. Although their plans were forward looking, they still supported slavery and racial segregation. By the 1840s, Spartanburg merchants, manufacturers, lawyers, and other professionals were looking to capitalize on the area’s natural resources by promoting iron and textile mills and a network of rail lines. Recognizing that cultural change had to accompany material change, these businessmen also worked to reshape legal and educational institutions. Their prewar success was limited, largely due to lowcountry planters’ political power. However, their modernizing spirit would serve as an important foundation for postwar development. Although the Civil War brought unprecedented trauma to the Spartanburg community, the modernizing merchants, industrialists, and lawyers strengthened their political and social clout in the aftermath. As a result, much of the modernizing blueprint of the 1850s was realized in the 1870s. Eelman finds that Spartanburg’s modernizers slowed legal and educational reform only when its implementation seemed likely to empower African Americans.

Origins of Southern Radicalism

Origins of Southern Radicalism
Author: Lacy K. Ford
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 450
Release: 1988
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780195069617

In the sixty years before the American Civil War, the South Carolina Upcountry evolved from an isolated subsistence region that served as a stronghold of Jeffersonian Republicanism into a mature cotton-producing region with a burgeoning commercial sector that served as a hotbed of Southern radicalism. This groundbreaking study examines this startling evolution, tracing the growth, logic, and strategy of pro-slavery radicalism and the circumstances and values of white society and politics to analyze why the white majority of the Old South ultimately supported the secession movement that led to bloody civil war.

Waterfall Hikes of Upstate South Carolina

Waterfall Hikes of Upstate South Carolina
Author: Thomas E. King
Publisher: University of Georgia Press
Total Pages: 386
Release: 2023-04-15
Genre: Travel
ISBN: 188959640X

A waterfall is a perfect destination for a day hike. In this revised and updated guide, native South Carolinian, photographer, and hiker Thomas E. King lists 147 waterfall destinations in the mountains of Upstate South Carolina. Ranging from easy-to-access roadside locations to those that require a six-mile trek, these hikes feature some of the most famous, and some of the most remote, waterfalls in the region. The guide can be used by those of all levels of hiking ability, whether expert or novice. These easy-to-reach waterfalls of Upstate South Carolina are a fun and fascinating retreat for the entire family. Most of these falls are within the ability of the average hiker to reach on a day hike. Some sites are of particularly easy access, such as the pristine falls in the Blue Ridge Mountains, which families with young children and mature adults are encouraged to visit. King has provided the most recent trail directions and waterfall locations available to the public. He also lists and catalogs many remote or hard-to-find waterfalls and waterfalls that nature has reclaimed because the trails have ceased to be maintained. Each entry includes complete driving and hiking directions, trail length and estimated hiking time, a difficulty rating, and a detailed description of the waterfall itself, including a photograph.

South Carolina Scalawags

South Carolina Scalawags
Author: Hyman Rubin III
Publisher: Univ of South Carolina Press
Total Pages: 236
Release: 2021-09-14
Genre: History
ISBN: 164336250X

The first history of the efforts and fates of white Republicans during Reconstruction South Carolina Scalawags tells the familiar story of Reconstruction from a mostly unfamiliar vantage point, that of white southerners who broke ranks and supported the newly recognized rights and freedoms of their black neighbors. The end of the Civil War turned South Carolina's political hierarchy upside down by calling into existence what had not existed before, a South Carolina Republican Party, and putting its members at the helm of state government from 1868 to 1876. Composed primarily of former slaves, the burgeoning party also attracted the membership of newly arrived northern "carpetbaggers" and of white South Carolinians who had lived in the state prior to secession. Known as "scalawags," these South Carolinians numbered as many as ten thousand—fifteen percent of the state's white population—but have remained a maligned and largely misunderstood component of post-Civil War politics. In this first book-length exploration of their egalitarian objectives and short-lived ambitions, Hyman Rubin III resurrects the lives and careers of these individuals who took a leading role during Reconstruction. South Carolina Scalawags delves into the lives of representative white Republicans, exploring their backgrounds, political attitudes and actions, and post-Reconstruction fates. The Republicans succeeded in creating a much more representative and responsive government than the state had seen before or would see for generations. During its heyday the party began to attract wealthier white citizens, many of whom were moderates favoring cooperation between open-minded Democrats and responsible Republicans. In assessing the eventual Republican collapse, Rubin does not gloss over disturbing trends toward factionalism and corruption that increasingly characterized the party's governance. Rather he points to these failings in explaining the federal government's abandonment of the party in 1876 and the Democrats' reassertion of white supremacy.