As the sectional crisis escalated in
the 1850s, one of the hallmarks of southern "nationalism" was an attempt
to create a continuity with the past. Nowhere was this more evident than
in South Carolina, and especially Charleston-the bellwether of secession
sentiment in the South. As tensions grew higher throughout the decade,
and loyalty came to be defined by sectional rather than national concerns,
southerners in general, and Charlestonians in particular, became increasingly
preoccupied with their revolutionary heritage. The reassurance that this
heritage offered was vital to a people who were convinced that they were
the true guardians of the republican legacy, even if that duty required
that they sever their ties to the Union. This preoccupation was evident
not only in the realm of politics, but throughout the activities of Charleston
society as well. For example, the rituals and ceremonies that accompanied
celebrations of this revolutionary heritage underwent a transformation
in the 1850s. As the South seemed to drift further apart from the rest
of the Union, the act of commemorating the Revolution took on a new meaning
and urgency, as public celebrations of the Revolution served to legitimize
the current course of actions for anxious southerners.
This paper analyzes the transformation
that took place in the meaning of Revolutionary commemorations by examining
the way Charlestonians of the period celebrated their Revolutionary heritage.The
battle of Fort Moultrie, which occurred on June 28, 1776, became the focus
of a ritualized form of southern nationalism for Charlestonians in the
1850s. Commemorated regularly-albeit fairly innocuously-throughout most
of the antebellum period, the June 28 anniversary took on new significance
as "Palmetto Day" in the decade before Civil War. The addition of a distinctly
sectional component to the celebration of revolutionary heritage mirrored
the southern belief that the republican heritage of the Revolution was
being subverted by the North, and that southerners-Carolinians (and especially
Charlestonians) in the lead-were its last true defenders. The "invented
tradition" of Palmetto Day had a specific function and pervasive relevance
to anxious Charlestonians. As Eric Hobsbawm illustrates, the "invention"
of tradition finds particularly fertile ground "when a rapid transformation
of society weakens or destroys the social patterns for which 'old' traditions
had been designed." South Carolina's political culture in the 1850s was
undergoing precisely this sort of transformation, an unsettling process
that required some sort of affirmation. The defense of what they saw as
true "republican" values in the face of severe social and political challenges
is what drove South Carolinians to embrace secession in 1860. Massive economic
and social changes built the foundation of Charlestonians' edginess. The
birth of the free labor ideology in the North, with its implicit critique
of the very nature of southern society, refined the already-existing edginess
to create the full-blown secessionist sentiment that defined South Carolina
nationalism. The development of Palmetto Day was South Carolina's answer
to both outside criticism and an inner need for reassurance that its was
the true republican course-in short, Palmetto Day became an important "invented
tradition." The anniversary of the battle of Fort Moultrie became the occasion
for much more than mere commemoration in the 1850s. By analyzing Palmetto
Day as an "invented" tradition for Charlestonians, this paper illustrates
how their increasingly sectional orientation rested upon the assumption
that Carolinians were acting firmly within the bounds of their revolutionary
heritage. It also reveals how this assumption's legitimacy depended upon,
and received, ritualized validation through the acts of celebration and
commemoration.