Building the Old South Plantation in the Hudson River Valley: Middle-Class Idylls of Service and Status, 1875-1900

Presented by local historian, Reynolds “Rennie” Scott-Childress

Middle class Americans did a strange thing after destroying slavery in the Civil War. Instead of creating a national culture that celebrated the Union victory, they invented an "old South" plantation myth, replete with loyal mammies, benevolent masters, and banjo orchestras. This talk will describe the development of the myth in the Hudson River Valley and offer an explanation for its popularity.

This presentation discusses why this image is not a picture of a plantation mammy—and why that is important for understanding how Americans reframed their understanding of race in the post-Civil War decades.

Reynolds Scott-Childress teaches history at SUNY New Paltz and the Inter-University Centre, Dubrovnik, Croatia. His work focuses on the categories and practices of race and class in US history.