Resource person: Audra Bullard - office@clehighlands.com

Description:

Southern slaveholders went to great lengths to portray themselves as custodians of a backward-looking, noble society, one that drew its strength from the past and fought against the recklessness of the modern future of free wage labor and democracy. In their architecture, literature, and in the institution of slavery itself, they fashioned themselves as feudal lords, heirs to a past they admired and cherished. Beneath this facade, however, was a modern, highly exploitative system of labor, one that gave rise to one of the most “progressive” societies in the world in the first half of the nineteenth century. This lecture explores how, beneath the gloss of genteel aristocracy, the Old South pioneered some of the most modern, even capitalistic innovations in the world.

Presenter: Mark Smith is a Historian of American History, Director of the Institute for Southern Studies, and a Carolina Distinguished Professor of History at the University of South Carolina. He is a scholar of environmental disasters, southern history, and of sensory history, which he described to an interviewer as stressing “the role of the senses” – including sight and vision – in shaping people’s experience in the past.

Notes: Cancellation Policy Please let us know immediately if you are unable to attend a class. There is no refund for cancellations within two (2) weeks prior to a scheduled class. Programs that include food, beverage or art materials must be canceled within three (3) weeks prior to receive a refund. CLE reserves the right to cancel a program if the minimum enrollment has not been met or for circumstances beyond our control, and participants will be notified, a complete refund will be issued. All classes are held in the CLE Lecture Hall at the Peggy Crosby Center unless otherwise noted. In the event information has changed from the published brochure, it will be posted on our website and in our e-blasts. Addresses for “private home” venues will be provided to registrants within 2 days of the program date.

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