The Spectre of Savagery: Interpreting Racial Violence at Civil War State Parks (2013-2014)
Files
Description
Boyd R. Harris hails from the foothills of North Carolina and is currently a doctoral candidate in History at the University of Mississippi. He attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and graduated with a double major in Peace, War, and Defense and History in 2003. Harris received his Masters of Arts in History from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in 2010. His research interests include nineteenth and twentieth-century American history, with an emphasis on public history and memory. His dissertation will examine the creation and development of Civil War battlefield state parks and their role in perpetuating Lost Cause memory into the twenty-first century. During the summer he works as a seasonal park ranger at Appomattox Court House National Historic Park.
The legacy of the Lost Cause influenced the development of Civil War battlefield state parks throughout the South during the Twentieth Century. Focusing on battlefields which demonstrated racial violence between white Confederate soldiers and black Union soldiers provides clarity on this ubiquitous narrative in white southern society. The history of the battles of Olustee, Poison Spring, Jenkins' Ferry, and Fort Pillow provided a direct contrast to white southern accounts of the war and emphasized the role of slavery and racial hatred. The success of the Civil Rights Movement during the 1960s prompted many state parks to include more of the African American narrative at these sites. Self-proclaimed defenders of the Lost Cause urged state park officials and legislators to repute new interpretations as inconsistent from the original purpose of the site, which brings into focus the changing purpose of these sites in a changing southern society. The resulting controversies created by these changes offers an insight into how the shared authority of state historic sites, between state officials, heritage organizations, academia, and the public, controlled the interpretation presented at historic sites. The advancements in historical scholarship, state park operations, and public history constantly challenge traditional narratives, but the shared authority and local nature of the state park often provided a substantial barrier toward presenting new scholarship to the public. At the heart of this debate lay the uncomfortable realities of racial violence and the inability of either side to express a shared vision of the past.
Publication Date
4-15-2014
Relational Format
dissertation/thesis
Recommended Citation
Harris, Boyd, "The Spectre of Savagery: Interpreting Racial Violence at Civil War State Parks (2013-2014)" (2014). McMinn Fellowship. 4.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/mcminn_fellow/4
Comments
Dissertation is available via ProQuest for authenticated UM users via WebID