Ellis Merton Coulter (1890–1981) was an
American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
historian of the South, author, and a founding member of the
Southern Historical Association
The Southern Historical Association is a professional academic organization of historians focusing on the history of the Southern United States. It was organized on November 2, 1934. Its objectives are the promotion of interest and research in Sou ...
. For four decades, he was a professor at the
University of Georgia
, mottoeng = "To teach, to serve, and to inquire into the nature of things.""To serve" was later added to the motto without changing the seal; the Latin motto directly translates as "To teach and to inquire into the nature of things."
, establ ...
in
Athens, Georgia
Athens, officially Athens–Clarke County, is a consolidated city-county and college town in the U.S. state of Georgia. Athens lies about northeast of downtown Atlanta, and is a satellite city of the capital. The University of Georgia, the sta ...
, where he was chair of the History Department for 18 years. He was editor of the ''
Georgia Historical Quarterly
The Georgia Historical Society (GHS) is a statewide historical society in Georgia. Headquartered in Savannah, Georgia, GHS is one of the oldest historical organizations in the United States. Since 1839, the society has collected, examined, and ta ...
'' for 50 years, and published 26 books on the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...
and
Reconstruction
Reconstruction may refer to:
Politics, history, and sociology
*Reconstruction (law), the transfer of a company's (or several companies') business to a new company
*'' Perestroika'' (Russian for "reconstruction"), a late 20th century Soviet Unio ...
.
By the late 20th century, historians were generally describing Coulter's body of work as "historical
apologies justifying
Southern secession, defending the Confederate cause, and condemning Reconstruction." As historian
Eric Foner
Eric Foner (; born February 7, 1943) is an American historian. He writes extensively on American political history, the history of freedom, the early history of the Republican Party, African-American biography, the American Civil War, Reconstru ...
notes:
Foner also wrote that as late as 1968, Coulter was "the last wholly
antagonistic scholar of the era, describing Georgia's most prominent
Reconstruction black officials as swindlers and 'scamps' and suggesting that whatever positive qualities they possessed were
inherited from white ancestors."
[Foner, ''Freedom's Lawmakers'', p. xii][E. Merton Coulter, ''The South during Reconstruction, 1865-1877'', Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1947, pp. 141-44][Eric Foner, ''Black Legislators'', pp. 119-20, and 180]
Background and early life
Coulter was the son of the moderately wealthy John Ellis Coulter, a merchant and land speculator in the small town of
Connelly Springs, North Carolina
Connelly Springs is a town in Burke County, North Carolina, Burke County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 1,669 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Hickory, North Carolina, Hickory–Lenoir, North Carolina, Lenoir–Morg ...
, in the western
Piedmont
it, Piemontese
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. His father had hoped his son would go into the
Lutheran
Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched th ...
ministry, but Coulter chose history instead.
Both of Coulter's grandfathers served in the
Confederate States
The Confederate States of America (CSA), commonly referred to as the Confederate States or the Confederacy was an unrecognized breakaway republic in the Southern United States that existed from February 8, 1861, to May 9, 1865. The Confeder ...
Army. One fell in the Civil War while the other was a POW. During Reconstruction he was indicted for
Ku Klux Klan
The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan, is an American white supremacist, right-wing terrorist, and hate group whose primary targets are African Americans, Jews, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and ...
-related violence and acquitted by an all-white jury.
Coulter earned his undergraduate degree at the
University of North Carolina
The University of North Carolina is the multi-campus public university system for the state of North Carolina. Overseeing the state's 16 public universities and the NC School of Science and Mathematics, it is commonly referred to as the UNC Sy ...
(UNC), mentored by
J. G. de Roulhac Hamilton, a prominent historian who emphasized how Southern whites had suffered under Reconstruction and the lack of readiness of freedmen and blacks for suffrage. In 1914 Coulter entered the
University of Wisconsin–Madison
A university () is an educational institution, institution of higher education, higher (or Tertiary education, tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. Universities ty ...
for graduate doctoral work, where he studied under additional professors sympathetic to Southern thinking about the Civil War and Reconstruction.
Professional career
After teaching briefly at
Marietta College
Marietta College (MC) is a private liberal arts college in Marietta, Ohio. It offers more than 50 undergraduate majors across the arts, sciences, and engineering, as well as Physician Assistant, Psychology, Clinical Mental Health Counseling, an ...
in Ohio, Coulter was hired by Georgia's flagship University of Georgia, where he was a professor for six decades. In 1940 he was selected as chair of the History Department, a position he held for 18 years. As a professor and writer, he influenced generations of historians.
In addition, Coulter was editor of the ''Georgia Historical Quarterly'' for 50 years. A founding member of the ''Southern Historical Association'', he served as its first president in 1934. In both writing and teaching, he was influential. The
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...
lists 50 books written or edited by Dr. Coulter. He published more than 125 articles, and wrote what for decades was the standard textbook for Georgia history.
Coulter published books, often on forgotten and obscure people in Georgia history whose careers represented much about the state's development, such as his biographies of George Walton Williams, James Monroe Smith, Daniel Lee, Thomas Spalding, and many others. Similarly, works that he did on the now dead towns of Auraria and Petersburg discovers historical context within community. His work in professionally documenting historical truth behind local legend illustrated the scholarly value of legend shown in his work ''The Toombs Oak, the Tree that Owned Itself, and other Chapters of Georgia'' (1966).
According to the ''New Georgia Encyclopedia'', "Coulter emerged as a leader of that generation of white southern historians who viewed the South's past with pride and
defended its racist policies and practices. He framed his literary corpus to praise the
Old South
Geographically, the U.S. states known as the Old South are those in the Southern United States that were among the original Thirteen Colonies. The region term is differentiated from the Deep South and Upper South.
From a cultural and social s ...
, glorify
Confederate
Confederacy or confederate may refer to:
States or communities
* Confederate state or confederation, a union of sovereign groups or communities
* Confederate States of America, a confederation of secessionist American states that existed between 1 ...
heroes,
vilify northerners, and denigrate southern blacks."
Reassessment
In the late 20th century, historians described Coulter's books as "historical apologies justifying Southern secession, defending the Confederate cause, and condemning Reconstruction." In this, he had absorbed ideas of his professor
J. G. de Roulhac Hamilton at UNC, as well as views commonly shared by whites in the South. In the mid-20th century, people used Coulter's "intellectual paradigm" about Southern black failures as justification for maintaining
Jim Crow
The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws enforcing racial segregation in the Southern United States. Other areas of the United States were affected by formal and informal policies of segregation as well, but many states outside the Sout ...
segregation and opposing
civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life of ...
reform.
[Bailey, 2001]
Books
* ''A Short History of Georgia'' (1933, 1947, and 1960)
* ''History of Georgia'' (1954), a junior high school textbook
* ''The South During Reconstruction'' (1947)
* ''Confederate States of America'' (1952)
* ''William G. Brownlow: Fighting Parson of the Southern Highlands'' (1939)
* ''The Civil War and Readjustment in Kentucky'' (1926)
* ''Auraria: The Story of a Georgia Gold-Mining Town'' (1956)
* ''College Life in the Old South'' (1928, 1951)
Citations
References
* Fred A. Bailey, "E. Merton Coulter," in ''Reading Southern History: Essays on Interpreters and Interpretations'', ed. Glenn Feldman (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2001).
* "A Few Words about E. Merton Coulter," ''Georgia Historical Quarterly'' 58 (spring 1974): 6-24.
*
Foner, Eric. ''Freedom's Lawmakers: A Directory Of Black Officeholders During Reconstruction'', New York: Oxford University Press, 1993; Revised, Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1996.
External links
*
New Georgia Encyclopedia: E. Merton Coulter (1890-1981)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Coulter, E. Merton
1890 births
1981 deaths
20th-century American historians
20th-century American male writers
Dunning School
Historians of the United States
Historians of the American Civil War
People from Burke County, North Carolina
University of Georgia faculty
University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni
Writers from Athens, Georgia
Neo-Confederates
American male non-fiction writers
Historians from Georgia (U.S. state)