In 2012, the United States commemorated the Civil War sesquicentennial, the 150th anniversary of the start of the war. At the time, I was working at the Smithsonian Institute’s National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.
Needless to say, the sesquicentennial was a notable moment for our national history, and for the museum. Despite this, I never learned to properly spell “sesquicentennial,” but I did receive a grant to return to Atlanta to further study General William T. Sherman’s impact on modern Southern culture.
For this reason, or because of my previous work with Joel Chandler Harris’ historic home, The Wren’s Nest, and Harris’ friendship with Henry Grady, or perhaps because I was born and raised in Atlanta, I was drawn to Dr. E. Culpepper “Cully” Clark’s latest book, The Birth of a New South: Sherman, Grady, and the Making of Atlanta.
Dr. Clark writes, “No two names are more associated with [Atlanta’s Civil War era] than Willam Tecumseh Sherman and Henry W. Grady.”
His book, which is divided into three sections, brought Henry W. Grady to life for me. He reminded me that during a trip to New York for a speaking engagement, Grady referred to Sherman as a man who is very “careless with fire.”
That same speaking engagement led Sherman himself to contribute $2,000 (approximately $58,000 today), to the 1881 Cotton States Exposition, which was spearheaded by Grady to demonstrate to the North, the South’s aptitude for industry, as well as the potential to produce raw materials (agriculture) and to manufacture them into finished products.
Part 2, “The New South,” explores Grady’s rise to national prominence through the rhetoric of his speech. Through this narrative, Clark argues, Grady “seizes the Confederate narrative” and codifies it for generations, while simultaneously pushing for Atlanta’s industrialization from Northern financiers and industrialists. Here, Clark further “introduces Grady as an urbanist,” who championed “parks, green space, hygiene, and aesthetics,” of an industrial city on a par with New England and Europe.
Part 3, “Legacy,” is set in a post-Grady Atlanta and “describes how he inspired [and influenced] later New South spokespeople:” Booker T. Washington, Julian and Julia Harris (Joel Chandler Harris’ son and daughter-in-law), Ralph McGill, and Lillian Smith, while weaving throughout this 20th-century narrative the rise of Social Darwinism and eugenics “science” that inform Clark’s perspective on the foundation(s) of today’s race narrative.
In the final lines of the précis, Clark sets us on our reading journey by writing, “Despite latter-day aspersions about Grady’s [racial views], Grady energized progressive thought about the future. The New South rose out of the Old South and cannot be explained without an understanding of race and its influences on politics, economics, and culture.”
Dr. Clark will speak at the Georgia Writers Museum’s “Meet the Author” series on Tuesday, Aug. 2, at 7 p.m. (doors open at 6:30 p.m.). Admission is $10. He will be introduced by Mark Smith, owner, and CEO of Smith Communications.
To register, or for more information, visit Georgia Writers Museum at www.georgiawritersmuseum.org.
- Contributed