New (and New to Us) Materials, December 2023 - February 14, 2024

Here's the lowdown on recently cataloged materials for the permanent local history collection. There's a fairly broad range of topics on hand. We have biographies, a memoir, other non-fiction works, and several novels. Time periods covered go from the age of exploration in the 16th century up through the early 21st century. Most were gifts from authors or via the Friends of the Beaufort Library's donations. 

Menéndez: Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, Captain of the Ocean Sea by Albert C. Manucy (Sarasota, FL: Pineapple Press, 1992, c1983 is a short biography of one of the Spanish founders of Santa Elena. It is written for the general reader. 

Gullah Culture in America by Wilbur Cross is the latest revision of what has become a classic. We have the original hardback from Praeger published in 2007; the trade paperback versions published by Blair in 2008 and 2012; and now the 2nd edition with Wilbur Cross and Eric Crawford credited as co-authors from Blair Publishing (2023). Gullah culture is so critical to Beaufort District's long and storied history that we had to purchase a copy for the permanent collection. 

Some may wonder why I accepted Carolyn, A Most Remarkable Lady: A Memoir of Carolyn Corley Clark written by her loving husband, Buddy Clark (Beaufort, SC: Old Well Press, 2018). There were several reasons, not the least of which were Mrs. Clark was a resident for more than a decade in Beaufort County, used to give historic tours around town, and the item was locally published which means that the odds of it being found in a public library outside of our own are slim. I do try to acquire copies of locally published works when reasonable to do so.  

Black Flags, Blue Waters: The Epic History of America's Most Notorious Pirates by Eric Jay Dolin New York : Liveright Publishing Corporation, a division of W.W. Norton & Company, (2018)was a gift. I kept it to provide context for the swashbuckling and violent era because "Best-selling author Eric Jay Dolin illustrates how American colonists at first supported these outrageous pirates in an early display of solidarity against the Crown, and then violently opposed them." If you'd rather watch videos about pirates rather than read about them, then watch Dr. Rowland's Beaufort History Moment segment. 

The Palmetto State: The Making of Modern South Carolina by Jack Bass and W. Scott Poole (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2009) was another gift and also kept to provide context. From the catalog blurb: "Bass and Poole focus on three central themes-divisions of race and class, adherence to historical memory, and the interconnected strands of economic, social, and political flux-as they illustrate how these threads manifest themselves time and again across the rich tapestry of the South Carolina experience. The authors explore the centrality of race relations, both subtle and direct, in the state's development from the first settlement of Charles Towne to the contemporary political and economic landscape." 

The Sea Island's Secret by Susan Diamond Riley (A Delta & Jax Mystery) (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2019) came to us via the Friends of the Beaufort Library's donation bin. The author of this novel for youth is based on Hilton Head Island and uses our local area for its setting. I choose this one for permanent retention as part of the literary history of Beaufort County for the future. 

My Work Among the Freedmen: The Civil War and Reconstruction Letters of Harriet M. Buss edited by Jonathan W. White and Lydia J. Davis (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2021) joins other works by and about the Missionary Teachers to the Freedmen. She lived at the Mission House in Beaufort and taught in the town from March - July 1863, went back to Philadelphia via New York City where she saw damage left in the wake of its riots, and returned South to Joe Pope Plantation on Hilton Head for the period November 1863 to August 1864 but left on account of poor health.  

Growing up on the Combahee River: An American Story by Charlotte Murray Taylor (Parker, CO: Outskirts Press, 2023) is a very personal memoir of a Black girl who was raised near the river after her young mother died shortly after giving birth. Murray Taylor grew up in the upper reaches of rural Beaufort County on Hobonny and Sugar Hill plantations. She shares reminiscences of her daily life until she went away to college.

We added The Red Bird and the Devil by Robert E. Lanham to the BDC's small novels section. As you may be aware, the author did a presentation about his book in November 2023 and is doing a reprise of his book talk in April at the St. Helena Branch Library for the Beaufort History Museum/Beaufort County Library local history series.   

Home Guard: A Novel of the Civil War by John Warley (Evening Post Books, 2019) is a coming of age story set in Beaufort during the Union occupation. Local resident John Warley is the author of seven works of fiction, one history of his undergraduate alma mater: Stand Forever, Yielding Never, The Citadel in the 21st Century and is currently working on a biography of his seventh great grandfather, John Barnwell.  John lives in Beaufort and currently serves as vice-president of the Beaufort History Museum. 

“Celebrating 150 Years of Education, Leadership and Service” Penn Center’s 1862 Circle Gala program for April 28, 2012 is a copy 2 – because I want to make very sure that one survives for 2124.  At present we have only one other Penn Center 1862 Circle Gala program (2004) but I am always on the lookout for additional years. 

A Gullah Psalm: The Musical Life & Work of Luke Peeples by Estella Saussy Nussbaum and Jeanne Saussy Wright (Savannah, GA: LP Collections, 2014) is a collection of spirituals that Luke Peeples arranged from listening to them being sung in the churches and praise houses of Bluffton, SC and the surrounding Lowcountry. He also left behind some original compositions that are included in this loving tribute to a bachelor uncle. Vintage photographs enhance the story of his life and show a Bluffton community forever changed by development over the past decade. (I relocated this title to Jalen’s Black History Month display case.)

River of Words 2021 joins the series of eight years we already have of this student publication sponsored by the Beaufort County School District and the Port Royal Sound Foundation. I’m keeping my eyes open for 2023, 2019, 2014, and 2012.

The 1895 Segregation Fight in South Carolina by Damon L. Fordham (History Press, 2022) discusses how stalwart six Black leaders were in trying to defeat the White Supremacists converging in Columbia in 1895 to overturn the state’s Reconstruction era Constitution adopted in 1868. Five of the six were from representatives from Beaufort County: Isaiah Reed, Robert Smalls, William J. Whipper, James Wigg and Thomas E. Miller. The author, an adjunct professor at the Citadel, includes texts of the speeches these men gave before the convention from contemporary newspaper coverage. The men said what they had to say and en masse refused to sign the document upon its adoption by the convention. For additional information about William J. Whipper and Isaiah Reed, I recommend All for Civil Rights: African American Lawyers in South Carolina, 1868- 1878 by Lewis Burke (2017).  

I am not a fan of the "Wicked" series published by History Press but I have no doubt that they sell the beejezus out of the titles. The latest relevant entry is Wicked Hampton County by Michael DeWitt, Jr. (Charleston, SC: History Press, 2023), a Hampton County Guardian journalist, a native son with deep family roots in Hampton County, and a storyteller who finds the complexity of human behavior incredibly interesting. The book is only about 150 pages long and 40 of those are devoted to the trials, tribulations, and unsavory deeds of some members of the Murdaugh family There are plenty of other scoundrels to explore. Copies also circulate from other SCLENDS consortium libraries. If you'd prefer, our Hoopla service offers the title as an e-book.  (While you're on the subject of wicked, Hoopla has an e-book version of Wicked Beaufort by Alexia Helsely too. In fact, Hoopla has a lot of the History Press' Wicked series of books.) 

I bought Shrill Hurrahs: Women, Gender, and Racial Violence in South Carolina, 1865 - 1900 by Kate Côté Gillin (Columbia : University of South Carolina Press, 2013) for the author's unique perspective about the tumultuous days of political and social tensions of the post-Civil War period as demonstrated by the assertion of independence by Black women and the role of white women in racial violence during the period. This is more to provide context to what was happening in other parts of the state even as Beaufort County was more progressive during this time.