Augustus Baldwin Longstreet
Augustus Baldwin Longstreet | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | September 22, 1790 Augusta, Georgia |
| Died | July 9, 1870 (aged 79) Oxford, Mississippi |
| Occupation | Lawyer, minister, educator, humorist |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | Yale University (AB) Litchfield Law School |
| Period | 1833 - 1864 |
| Genre | Southern humor |
| Notable works | Georgia Scenes |
| Children | Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar (son-in-law) Lara Parker (third-great granddaughter) |
Augustus Baldwin Longstreet (September 22, 1790 – July 9, 1870) was an American lawyer, minister, journalist, educator, and humorist, known for his book Georgia Scenes. He held strong pro-slavery and pro-secessionist views which he publicly advocated for in his various positions. He personally owned dozens of slaves throughout his life.[1] He held the presidency of several southern universities, including the University of Mississippi (twice), South Carolina College (now the University of South Carolina), and Emory College (now Emory University).
Longstreet was the uncle of the senior Confederate General James Longstreet, whom he helped raised, and to whom he was a mentor.
Life and career
[edit]Longstreet was born in Augusta, Georgia, a son of the inventor William Longstreet. He graduated from Yale University in 1813, studied law in Litchfield, Connecticut, and was admitted to the bar in Richmond County, Georgia. He soon moved and rose to eminence as a lawyer in Greensboro, Georgia. He represented Greene County in the state legislature in 1821, and in 1822 became a district judge in Ocmulgee. After several years as a judge, he declined re-election and resumed his legal practice in Augusta, did editorial work, and established the Augusta Sentinel, which soon merged with the The Augusta Chronicle (1838).
Longstreet had begun to write for the press at an early age, and his pen was never idle. His chief periodical contributions are to be found in The Methodist Quarterly, Southern Literary Messenger, The Southern Field and Fireside, The Magnolia, and The Orion, and include "Letters to Clergymen of the Northern Methodist Church" and "Letters from Georgia to Massachusetts." His literary fame is based, however, on his authorship of a single book, Georgia Scenes (1835), originally published in newspapers, then gathered into a volume in the South, and finally published in New York in 1840. It featured realistic sketches of Southern humor. It is said that he tried to destroy the first edition and disavowed the second, published in 1867.
In 1838, Longstreet became a Methodist minister. During the period of his ministry, the town was struck by yellow fever, and he ministered to the sick and dying.
During his years as a minister, Longstreet preached a doctrine of secession and defended slavery. He was conspicuous in the turmoil that led to the breakup of the Methodist Church into Northern and Southern branches.
In 1839, Longstreet was made president of Emory College. After nine years he accepted the presidency of Centenary College, Louisiana, then of the University of Mississippi, where he stayed for six years, after which he resigned, and became a planter. Four years later, in 1857, he became president of South Carolina College. Just before the Civil War, he returned to his old presidency in Mississippi.
In politics Longstreet belonged to the Jeffersonian school of strict construction and states rights. He made speeches on all occasions through his life. Scholar Lewis M. Purifoy notes that
[I]n a baccalaureate address to the University of South Carolina graduating class of 1859, [Longstreet] urged the young men of his audience to defend Southern rights to the utmost. While they should not strive to break up the Union, they should not 'make a dishonorable surrender of the thousandth part of the mill more to save it.' He defended slavery mainly on the ground that freeing [slaves] would be ruinous to Southern society; and the burden of his speech was that the South had suffered long and grievously at the hand of the North. Longstreet assured the class that secession would not lead to war, but, if it should, a united South would win.[2]
"I have heard him," writes a person who knew Longstreet, "respond to a serenade, preach a funeral sermon, deliver a college commencement address, and make a harangue over the pyrotechnic glorifications of seceding states. He could never be scared up without a speech."
Longstreet died in Oxford, Mississippi and is buried in section one of St. Peter's Cemetery.[3]
Longstreet was a long-time friend and associate of John C. Calhoun, who was his classmate at Yale.
Family
[edit]Longstreet was a mentor for his nephew James Longstreet, who lived with him from 1830 to 1838 in order to attend a nearby school.[4]
Longstreet's daughter Virginia married the future Supreme Court jurist Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar in Oxford, Georgia in 1847, while Augustus was president of Emory College. They were married in the "President's House" at Emory, which is today the Dean's residence for Oxford College of Emory University. The newlywed couple would later follow him to Mississippi when he became president of The University of Mississippi.
American actress Lara Parker is his third-great-granddaughter.
Legacy
[edit]Longstreet Theater on the University of South Carolina campus is named in his honor; in July 2021, the university's Presidential Commission on University History recommended removing his name from the building.[1]
References
[edit]Notes
- ^ a b "Appendix 11: Research Reports on Building Names: Longstreet Theater". Presidential Commission on University History. University of South Carolina. July 16, 2021. Retrieved October 25, 2021.
- ^ Purifoy, Lewis M. (August 1966). "The Southern Methodist Church and the Proslavery Argument". The Journal of Southern History. 32 (3). Southern Historical Association: 325–41. doi:10.2307/2204792. JSTOR 2204792. Quotation is from p. 337.
- ^ Bayne, John Soward. 2012 . Gravely Concerned: Southern Writers' Graves. "Augustus Baldwin Longstreet", p. 24, 25.Web access
- ^ Varon, Elizabeth R. (2024) Longstreet: The Confederate General Who Defied the South New York: Simon & Schuster. p.5. ISBN 978-19821-4827-0
Bibliography
- Wilson, J. G.; Fiske, J., eds. (1900). . Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. New York: D. Appleton.
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Gilman, D. C.; Peck, H. T.; Colby, F. M., eds. (1905). New International Encyclopedia (1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead.
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External links
[edit]
- Georgia Scenes, Characters, Incidents, &c. in the First Half Century of the Republic - digitalized at the University of North Carolina Website
- Master William Mitten, A Youth of Brilliant Talents Who was Ruined By Bad Luck - digitalized at the University of North Carolina Website.
- Works by or about Augustus Baldwin Longstreet at Internet Archive
- Works by Augustus Baldwin Longstreet at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
- Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library, Emory University: Augustus Baldwin Longstreet papers, 1844-1860
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
- 1790 births
- 1870 deaths
- American proslavery activists
- American humorists
- James Longstreet
- University of Mississippi faculty
- Yale University alumni
- Writers from Augusta, Georgia
- Presidents of the University of South Carolina
- Presidents of Centenary College of Louisiana
- American newspaper journalists
- American Methodist clergy
- 19th-century American planters
- Writers of American Southern literature
- Journalists from Mississippi