- Joined
- Jan 7, 2013
- Location
- Long Island, NY
Occasionally we see the claim that white Southerners were "Celts" and that this ethnic difference led to everything from adherence to slavery to the Confederate style of warfare to an ethnic conflict with the Anglo Saxons of the North. By Celtic, those who raise these claims usually mean people from the British Isles who were not English. Typically Irish, Scottish, and Welsh are described as the Celts. I don't want to argue about whether there is or is not such a being as a Celt. That goes way beyond the scope of this forum. Let us just use the description of who is a Celt for the purposes of this thread.
As I have posted elsewhere, most Celts lived in the North, but this is also not what I want to discuss. The question for me is whether white Southerners even considered themselves a Celtic people. I understand that there were many Southerners of Scottish origin or Scots-Irish origin. They typically were predominant in the mountain regions of the South, far from the centers of white power and wealth. While they made up a large number of people they were not culturally dominant even among whites.
I have repeatedly introduced evidence of Southern whites during and after the Civil War referring to themselves as English or Anglo Saxon. Today I was reading Reynolds' Dunning School Reconstruction in South Carolina from 1905 and found a further proof that at least in South Carolina, whites affirmed an Anglo Saxon consciousness.
According to Reynolds, whites in South Carolina organized a convention of delegates from around the state on November 6, 1867 in reaction to blacks being given the right to vote. This was not an ordinary indignation meeting. Its president was James Chestnut, former Confederate general, aide to President Davis, and husband of Mary Chestnut. One of the convention's vice presidents was Wade Hampton, Confederate general, one of the richest men in the South, and future governor and senator from South Carolina. Another vice president was former Gov. B.F. Perry.
As I have posted elsewhere, most Celts lived in the North, but this is also not what I want to discuss. The question for me is whether white Southerners even considered themselves a Celtic people. I understand that there were many Southerners of Scottish origin or Scots-Irish origin. They typically were predominant in the mountain regions of the South, far from the centers of white power and wealth. While they made up a large number of people they were not culturally dominant even among whites.
I have repeatedly introduced evidence of Southern whites during and after the Civil War referring to themselves as English or Anglo Saxon. Today I was reading Reynolds' Dunning School Reconstruction in South Carolina from 1905 and found a further proof that at least in South Carolina, whites affirmed an Anglo Saxon consciousness.
According to Reynolds, whites in South Carolina organized a convention of delegates from around the state on November 6, 1867 in reaction to blacks being given the right to vote. This was not an ordinary indignation meeting. Its president was James Chestnut, former Confederate general, aide to President Davis, and husband of Mary Chestnut. One of the convention's vice presidents was Wade Hampton, Confederate general, one of the richest men in the South, and future governor and senator from South Carolina. Another vice president was former Gov. B.F. Perry.