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CHARLESTON

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The story of Charleston's literary scene during the period between 1820 and 1870 is the story of William Gilmore Simms (1806–1870), advocate for slavery, native of the city, and the South's preeminent man of letters at that time. Although Simms is best known for such historical fiction about South Carolina as Woodcraft (1854), a Revolutionary War romance, and The Cassique of Kiawah (1859), set in the colonial period, he had his hand in every aspect of literary life imaginable in Charleston, from the theater scene to the compilation of a miscellany of the writings of prominent citizens to the publication of several notable periodicals. Moreover, Simms's career serves as a reflection of important changes in the identity of Charleston as the city's attention shifted from national to sectional matters due to developments on the political scene and population shifts during the half century.

CHARLESTON THEATER

Charleston began the nineteenth century more aligned with cities in the North and even Europe than with other cities in the South. It served as one of the four major theater centers in America along with New York, Philadelphia, and Boston in the first quarter of the century, and in 1821 it was the fifth-largest city in America. The theater scene in Charleston peaked before 1825. Although citizens were still interested in attending performances after that date, the quality of management and productions suffered as the city experienced several periods of depression during the decade. While Charleston struggled to maintain its reputation as one of the dominant cultural centers in the nation, sectional issues arose with the Vesey Slave Rebellion in 1822, after a free black was accused of organizing a conspiracy to murder whites in Charleston, and the dominance of the nullification question between 1828 and 1834, with the South Carolinian and U.S. vice president John C. Calhoun (1782–1850) taking the position that states have the right to nullify laws enacted by the federal government to which they object. Moreover, population growth in Charleston began to slow around 1830 as more people moved west and other cotton states developed. The Old Charleston Theatre was sold to the Medical College of South Carolina in 1833. What followed was the low point in the city's theatrical history as pantomime, circuses, and musical performances overshadowed dramatic productions for four years before the company found a new permanent home. Despite another bout of economic depression, the New Charleston Theater opened in 1837 with William Gilmore Simms giving the dedicatory address.

Simms was a prolific playwright, but much of his involvement in the theater scene was as a spokesperson. Only one of his plays, Michael Bonham, was ever produced in Charleston. The play, which encouraged the annexation of Texas as a slave state, was performed at a benefit for Calhoun's memorial in 1855, twelve years after it was written. Simms wrote an ode to Calhoun, which was read on the occasion. Norman Maurice, often considered Simms's best play, which was written in 1851 and deals favorably with the admission of new slave states, was never performed. His dramas fit the general political movement from national to sectional interests that took place in Charleston between 1825 and the beginning of the war. Perhaps Simms's dramatic work was not readily received because it ran counter to a general decrease of the performance of political plays in the city during this period. In addition, with the exception of the years 1842–1847, when William C. Forbes managed the theater, more emphasis was placed on importing talent than performing original plays by residents. The theater continued to operate until the verge of war in 1861.

THE CHARLESTON BOOK

In the late 1830s a trend of anthologies from individual American cities began to emerge. Not to be outdone by Boston, New York, Philadelphia, or Baltimore, the Charleston bookseller and Reform Jewish leader Samuel Hart Sr. decided in 1841 that his city needed an anthology of its own. Charleston was at a pivotal moment, concerned with sectional issues but still attempting to maintain its reputation as a dominant city on the national scene, having slipped that year to the position of sixth-largest city in the country. Despite a period of growth for the city as international markets began to rise, Charleston, still preoccupied with agricultural pursuits, struggled economically: only 2.5 percent of the population engaged in indus-try, and strife over the extension of slavery kept Charleston ideologically separate from most other major cities.

Hart chose Simms at the age of thirty-five to be the editor of his project, although his name never actually appears within its pages. As a professional writer, he did not contribute to a collection of work intended for amateurs. Participants were limited to Simms's contemporaries. They include such notables as Hugh Swinton Legaré, acting secretary of state under President Tyler; the popular playwright John Blake White; and J. D. B. De Bow, who would soon leave for New Orleans to edit the proslavery De Bow's Review. Sectional interests are most readily apparent in an essay titled "The Necessity of a Southern Literature" by Daniel K. Whitaker, from whom Simms would later take over the helm of the Southern Quarterly Review. Ultimately the anthology was not the success that Hart and Simms had hoped. With less consistent growth rates, a smaller middle class, lower literacy rates, a less densely populated area, and a general lack of accessibility when compared to other major cities, it is not surprising that Charleston's anthology failed to attract enough subscribers when it was published in 1845 to issue subsequent volumes.

CHARLESTON PERIODICALS

Despite any disappointment that The Charleston Book may have brought, Simms pressed forward with his plans to forge a strong literary community. He began his own magazine, the Southern and Western Monthly Magazine and Review, often simply called "Simms's magazine," in January 1845. His stated plan was to explore the natural political and industrial alliance between the South and the West. The rush westward continued throughout the 1840s, and by the next decade 41 percent of South Carolinians were living out of state. Meanwhile, sectionalism continued to thrive as Charleston was outpaced by Southern and Northern rivals and citizens faced the reality that Charleston would not be considered a major American city much longer. Many of the articles in "Simms's magazine," written by Simms himself, are focused on the issue of slavery. He could not keep up the dual role of editor and primary contributor for very long, and in December 1845 the magazine merged with the Southern Literary Messenger, published in Richmond, Virginia. Although Simms had his hand in many of the periodicals emanating from Charleston during this decade, his next major venture was assuming the editorship in 1849 of the Southern Quarterly Review, which had relocated to Charleston from New Orleans shortly after its creation. The periodical was devoted to the defense of slavery and advocacy of states' rights. The 1850 crisis in the slavery debate and Simms's own proslavery convictions kept sectional issues central to the magazine. He maintained the role of editor through 1855 of what is often considered the best Southern review before the war due to its accurate portrayal of Southern beliefs and values.

Two years later Simms found himself at the center of the group of intellectuals that met regularly at John Russell's bookstore. Russell agreed to finance a publication created by the group that would bear his own name. Along with the younger poets Henry Timrod (1828–1867) and Paul Hayne (1830–1886), who would edit the periodical, Simms wrote the majority of Russell's Magazine. In many ways the publication was specific to life in Charleston and could be considered a local magazine. However, Hayne's first editorial stated the publication's aim to be the "expression of Southern thought and feeling" (Mott, p. 489). By the time the last number was issued in 1860, Charleston was twenty-second in population and eighty-fifth in manufacturing in the nation. Despite its per capita wealth of 3.5 times the Northern mean, the city was expanding at a much slower rate than Boston or New York and could no longer compete. Its intellectual population was less diverse, less cosmopolitan, and less representative of the population of the United States than it had been at the beginning of the century. However, the city had earned its title as the "Capital of Southern Civilization," and it is only fitting that the secessionist movement and the first shots of the Civil War would originate in Charleston. Russell's Magazine is considered the best of the Charleston monthlies and would have likely continued to thrive if it were not for the sectional crisis that distracted the already small reading public and diverted the attention of the contributors. It would not be until the 1910s or 1920s that such a collection of talent would assemble again in the South.

What followed in the five years after the end of Russell's Magazine was as devastating to Simms personally as it was to others in Charleston and the South. Despite having his plantation gutted, library burned, and slaves freed by the end of the Civil War, Simms set out for New York in late 1865 to salvage the only thing he had left, his literary reputation. Simms's younger friend Paul Hayne gave tribute to his mentor on his passing in 1870. Simms's death marked the end of an era in the literary history of Charleston.

See also Periodicals; Proslavery Writing; Slave Rebellions; Slavery

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Primary Work

Simms, William Gilmore, ed. The Charleston Book: A Miscellany in Prose and Verse. 1845. Spartanburg, S.C.: Reprint Co., 1983.

Secondary Works

Guilds, John Caldwell, ed. "Long Years of Neglect": The Work and Reputation of William Gilmore Simms. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 1988.

Mott, Frank Luther. A History of American Magazines. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1938–1968.

O'Brien, Michael, and David Moltke-Hansen, eds. Intellectual Life in Antebellum Charleston. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1986.

Watson, Charles S. Antebellum Charleston Dramatists. University: University of Alabama Press, 1976.

Wimsatt, Mary Ann. "William Gilmore Simms." In The History of Southern Literature, edited by Louis D. Rubin Jr. et al., pp. 108–117. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1985.

Natalie Collins Trice