Monday, December 14, 2009
News Emory prof's Abbeville Institute is secession fan's one-stop shop
Posted by Thomas Wheatley @thomaswheatley on Mon, Dec 14, 2009 at 9:34 PM
The Chronicle of Higher Education's Ben Terris has a thorough and excellent article today about the Abbeville Institute, an academic collective overseen by Emory University philosophy professor Donald Livingston that's, well, seen a recent uptick in interest.
The institute, which Livingston operates out of his home, is a virtually unheard of group of like-minded scholars who talk shop about Southern history and identity — as well as good-ole-fashioned secession. It's named after Abbeville, S.C., the birthplace of John Calhoun, the affable politico — and Sweeney Todd doppelganger — who wasn't shy about advocating states' rights and slavery.
Abbeville's membership includes academic scholars in various fields from colleges across the Southeast. Livingston won't disclose their names to save them from being ostracized by their peers (or needled by Creative Loafing bloggers). Members, the Chronicle writes:
... study the South in search of a history of piety, humility and manners. The scholars acknowledge a history of bigotry and slavery, but they focus primarily on what they say are the positive aspects of Southern history and culture.
And once a year, they pay their own way to conferences where, according to the article, they play banjos, light beach bonfires and eat group meals — and talk a lot about "The South©." Kind of like a Kappa Alpha beach weekend, but without the beer funnels.
On Feb. 7, the group will hold a conference in Charleston, S.C., on the topic of "secession and nullification." (No word if John Oxendine has RSVP'ed. Just a little jab there, Ox!)
Abbeville's scholars contend, for example, that the Civil War—or as they often refer to it, the War of Northern Aggression or the War to Prevent Southern Independence—was not about slavery (the system was on its way out anyway, they argue) and that the antebellum Southern states had every right to secede. They say they are not able to make these points to their campus colleagues, however, without being painted into a corner as racists. So instead of discussing them with professors down the hall, they turn to Abbeville.And though they offer many historical and philosophical justifications for secession, Abbeville's members say the argument boils down to two points. First, the United States was founded on the basis of secession (from Britain and then from the Articles of Confederation). Second, the best way to combat an unwieldy central government is to allow states the ultimate right: their independence.
The group's caught the attention of the Southern Poverty Law Center, which stops short of calling it a "hate group." Livingston was once a member of the League of the South, a secessionist organization. The professor told the Chronicle that he broke ties with the group because it was "avowedly secessionist."
Still, the outsiders who have heard of Abbeville tend not to like what they hear. One historian, whose research includes the cultural history of racism and white supremacy in the United States, and who asked for anonymity to avoid becoming a target of "Southern identity groups," says the lectures he has listened to on the Abbeville Web site (http://www.abbevilleinstitute.org) are dominated by racialism and are "ideological, through and through." There is the condemnation from the Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil-rights group. In 2005, Time magazine pegged Abbeville as a group of "Lincoln loathers." Mr. Livingston initially declined to be interviewed for this article, citing bad experiences with the news media. But he eventually agreed to talk, as did a handful of scholars and students involved with the institute.
Livingston's boss, it should be noted, says the professor enjoys high standing among peers and students and that his institute activities have never disrupted his university work.
Plucking bits from the Chronicle article neither does it nor Abbeville — or arguments for or against the institute's work — any justice. The Chronicle's comments section is populated by well-educated wonks who can use proper punctuation, which is a welcome reprieve from YouTube imbeciles and AJC numbskulls. Take a few minutes and give the Chronicle some clicks. They did an outstanding job with this piece.
Comments (4)
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Secession sounds like a natural, peaceful alternative to an overgrown regime that claims Constitutional constraints on illegal surveillance and detention can be ignored in the name of national security. And a regime that's elected itself to force the rest of the world to behave according to standards that don't apply to it ALWAYS has national security worries. Obama has proven beyond all doubt that elections cannot alter DC's imperial ambitions. Downsizing sounds like the only hope to me. And just curious -- if you did a story on La Raza (translation: Das Volk), would you pepper it with slams against Hispanics, or allow anonymous members of immigration control groups to take free shots at Hispanic culture?
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Mr. Tuggle, it makes you wonder, does it not, whether Creative Loafing has discovered the Middlebury Institute and the Second Vermont Republic? And about what kind of piece they'd write in response to *those* outfits? I'm going to keep my snark meter handy in case that happens.
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