Writing Reconstruction: Race, Gender, and Citizenship in the Postwar South

429 Pages·2015·5.322 MB·English

by  Sharon D. Kennedy-Nolle

Writing Reconstruction
gender and american culture
Coeditors
Thadious M. Davis
Mary Kelley
Editorial Advisory Board
Nancy Cott
Jane Sherron De Hart
John D’Emilio
Linda K. Kerber
Annelise Orleck
Nell Irvin Painter
Janice Radway
Robert Reid-Pharr
Noliwe Rooks
Barbara Sicherman
Cheryl Wall
Emerita Board Members
Cathy N. Davidson
Sara Evans
Annette Kolodny
Wendy Martin
Guided by feminist and antiracist perspectives, this series examines
the construction and influence of gender and sexuality within the full range of
America’s cultures. Investigating in deep context the ways in which gender works with
and against such markers as race, class, and region, the series presents outstanding
interdisciplinary scholarship, including works in history, literary studies, religion,
folklore, and the visual arts. In so doing, Gender and American Culture seeks to
reveal how identity and community are shaped by gender and sexuality.
A complete list of books published in Gender and American Culture
is available at www.uncpress.unc.edu.
Writing
Reconstruction
Race, GendeR, and citizenship
in the postwaR south
sharon d. Kennedy-nolle
�
The University of North Carolina Press
Chapel Hill
This book was published with the assistance of the
Authors Fund of the University of North Carolina Press.
© 2015 The University of North Carolina Press
All rights reserved
Designed by Michelle C. Wallen
Set in Miller by codeMantra, Inc.
Manufactured in the United States of America
The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence
and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for
Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources.
The University of North Carolina Press has been a member of the
Green Press Initiative since 2003.
Cover illustration: Octave Thanet, “The Great Southern Problem,” from
An Adventure in Photography (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1893), 155.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kennedy-Nolle, Sharon D., author.
Writing reconstruction : race, gender, and citizenship in the postwar south /
Sharon D. Kennedy-Nolle.
pages cm. — (Gender and American culture)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978-1-4696-2107-4 (pbk : alk. paper)
isbn 978-1-4696-2108-1 (ebook)
1. American literature—Southern States—History and criticism.
2. Reconstruction (U.S. history, 1865–1877) in literature. 3. Race awareness in
literature. 4. Gender identity in literature. 5. Southern States—In literature. I. Title.
ps261.k38 2015
810.9'975—dc23
2014032687
For My Family
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contents
Acknowledgments xi
introduction. Owning Up to Citizenship 1
chapter 1. Constance Fenimore Woolson and the
Tourist Outback of Florida 25
chapter 2. Sewing on the Badges of Servitude:
Albion Tourgée v. North Carolina 76
chapter 3. African American Literary Activism in a Divided District:
Storer College and the Pioneer Press of West Virginia 123
chapter 4. George Washington Cable and the Wages of
Ventriloquized Performance in New Orleans, Louisiana 178
chapter 5. Iowa’s American Gothic in Arkansas:
The Plantation Fiction of Octave Thanet 230
conclusion. The Strange Career of Reconstruction Writing 281
Notes 303
Bibliography 343
Index 377
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illustRations
figure 1. William Gilmore Simms, title page,
War Poetry of the South (1867) 6
figure 2. Map of Military Reconstruction: 1865–77 8
figure 3. “What Are You Going to Do About It?,” Oliver Marvin Crosby,
Florida Facts Both Bright and Blue (1887) 26
figure 4. “Confederate Monument,” Harper’s New Monthly,
December 1874 40
figure 5. “Uncle Jack,” Harper’s New Monthly, January 1875 42
figure 6. “A Split among the Truly Loyal Radicals!,”
Greensboro Patriot, 24 September 1868 91
figure 7. “The Brand,” A Royal Gentleman (1881; 1967) 119
figure 8. “Storer College, Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia” 140
figure 9. “Group Portrait of the 46 Members of the Niagara Movement
[Second Meeting] Held at Storer College, August 15–19, 1906” 154
figure 10. Joseph Pennell, “A Crevasse,”
Creoles of Louisiana (1884) 188
figure 11. “ ‘Mark Twain’–Cable Readings,” programme,
Brooklyn Academy of Music, 21 February 1885 212
figure 12. Octave Thanet, “The Great Southern Problem,”
An Adventure in Photography (1893) 261