the huguenots of colonial south carolinaby arthur henry hirsch

North Carolina Office of Archives and History

The Huguenots of Colonial South Carolina by Arthur Henry HirschReview by: Francis B. SimkinsThe North Carolina Historical Review, Vol. 6, No. 1 (January, 1929), pp. 112-115Published by: North Carolina Office of Archives and HistoryStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/23514679 .

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112 The North Carolina Historical Review

The English merely continued the old contraband trade with re

newed vigor. Nor did the English have a monopoly of that com

merce; the Yankees came in for an important share. The account

of the second Venezuelan Crisis should have been modified in the

light of evidence available before the author published his book.

These inaccuracies should not be permitted, however, to obscure

the general accuracy and balance of the work or its other outstand

ing merits. The style is unusually clear, lively, and vigorous, if at

times almost too informal. The bibliography is extensive and valu

able, although the present reviewer would like to add a few more

works on the Latin-American side. The index is satisfactory. As

proof-reader the author has shown high capacity, and the student

will be grateful for his chronological table and his list of secretaries

of state. On the whole Professor Sears has presented an excellent

survey of an important subject.

J. Fred Rippy

Duke University

The Huguenots of Colonial South Carolina. By Arthur Henry Hirsch. (Dur ham: Duke University Press. 1928. Pp. 338. $5.00).

This book has the distinction of being perhaps the most exhaustive

investigation which has ever been made on a single phase of South Carolina history. The author truly says in the preface, "New

ground has been broken and much source material heretofore unused for this purpose has been examined and utilized." He has consult ed manuscript material as far afield as the Rawlinson papers in the Bodleian library and similar matter found in New York and Chica

go. But his principal sources are found in South Carolina. They consist of diaries and other private papers in the possession of the descendants of Huguenots, the Probate Court Records of Charleston, vestry minutes, the Council and Assembly Journals, and above all the thirty-six volumes of colonial documents of South Carolina found in the office of the state historical commission.

As the result of a thorough study of these sources the author has

produced a book which will likely long remain the standard treat ment of a very important element of Colonial South Carolina. He tells the story of the expulsion of a group of French Protestants



Book Reviews 113

from their homeland, of their finding a haven in England, and of

their subsequent migration to South Carolina in the late seventeenth

and early eighteenth centuries. Emphasis is laid on religious and

industrial phases of their experiences in America and on the bi

ography of individual leaders.

The key to an understanding of the South Carolina Huguenots is

that their migration to America was not the transmission of an old

culture to a new environment but a surrender of an old culture in

favor of that already established. All phases of their life illustrate

this fact. The French language was soon forgotten, names were

changed (Serrurier to Smith, ¿or example) or given such a curious

local pronunciation that they could be recognized by no Frenchman.

The Huguenots intermarried with persons of English extraction and

took the patriot side in the Revolution. There is no French culture

in South Carolina today. How this change was effected is illus

trated by their religious and industrial experiences. Their religious experiences were quite curious for an age which

took doctrinal differences seriously. Being forced to flee from

France for consciences' sake, these Calvanists, under the influence

of only a moderate degree of persuasion and compulsion, readily

abjured their old faith in order to join the next of kin to the papists, the Episcopalians. This change seems to have been induced by a

Gallic sense of accommodation to practical exigencies, before which

religious idealism or fanaticism stood as no barrier. Kind treat

ment made them favorable to Anglicanism; in South Carolina they

accepted clergymen who were trained in England, for the vary prac tical reason that their theological schools in France had been closed; since the law of 1706 compelled them to support an Episcopalian establishment in South Carolina, they preferred attending that

church to going to the extra expense of supporting private churches

of their own; and their economic and social interests were identical

with those of the Anglican aristocracy. They even joined the latter

in its struggle with the powerful Dissenter element, and the Hugue

not form of worship, except in one church in Charleston, soon be

came extinct.

The industrial experiences of this very practical people illustrate

even to a greater degree their power of adaptability. Sent over to

cultivate the grape, the olive, and the silk worm, they never carried

these pursuits beyond the experimental stage, but substituted com



114 The North Carolina Historical Review

mercial and agricultural activities in keeping with local tendencies.

They became growers of rice, indigo, and cotton, breeders of fine

horses, distillers, merchants, and brokers. Some were soon number

ed among the wealthiest citizens of the colony. Because of the facility with which they adapted themselves to

America, perhaps Professor Hirsch has made a mistake in trying to separate them from the English element of Colonial South Caro

lina society. The intermingling of these two elements was so thor

ough that such an attempt, even with the aid of the meticulous

scholarship of the author., seems well-nigh impossible. This has

led to the mistake of claiming French origin for many persons of

other nationalities, and has been responsible, perhaps to a greater degree than outright carelessness, for the many criticisms which the

secretary of the Historical Commission of South Carolina1 has

brought against his work.

But this facility with which the Huguenots adapted themselves to

their new environment was the reason why they as individuals ex

ercised an influence far out of proportion to their numbers. At no time were they more than a small proportion of the white population of the colony; yet as compared with the more numerous Germans, the other non-British element, their influence on the social and po litical life was much greater. Like the Germans they were frugal, but unlike the Germans they were more than

peasants. Springing from the French aristocracy and middle

class, they adopted all the devices of the progressive South Caro linian—his religion, his curious system of swamp plantations based on slave labor, and his social and political ideals. The Germans retained to a greater degree their European culture and above all the European idea of small farms, refusing to accommodate them selves to slavery. They remained uninfluential.

In spite of the merits of its scholarship, this book, because of the manner in which it is written, will be of little interest to those who have no technical interest in colonial history or in the Hugue nots of South Carolina. It follows the traditions of much of the best written on the Colonial period in being unimaginative and dull. Our author, except in three chapters (iv, ix, xii), makes few signifi cant generalizations or comparisons of a type which his wide schol

arship would seem to justify; he largely confines himself to details.

1 See the elaborate review of Mr. A. S. Salley, Jr., in The State: Columbia, South Carolina, March 18, 1928.



Book Reviews 115

The geneological data, catalogues of names, financial statements, and all the facts imaginable about certain churches, have all the

earmarks of the local history, lacking interest to anyone except the

patient scholar who cares to digest them. He seems to have lost

sight of the most significant fact of Colonial South Carolina history, the creation of new industries suitable to the new environment out

of which grew a thoroughly original civilization. More space is

given to the European industries which the Huguenots unsuccess

fully attempted to establish than to the American industries which

they did establish. Moreover, the social phases of their life—the

uses made of the wealth they accumulated, their display of fine man

sions and other luxuries, their contact with the negroes, etc.—are

almost altogether neglected. Francis B. Simkins.

State Teachers' College, Farmville, Va.

Varina Howell, Wife of Jefferson Davis. By Eron Rowland, Mrs. Dunbar Row land. Volume I (New York: the MacMillan Company. 1927. Pp. xi, 499. $4.00)

Volume one of Mrs. Rowland's life of Mrs. Jefferson Davis is

bound in black moire and lettered in gold. It will look well upon the library shelf. Unfortunately it will probably be found there in

the future. A well conceived biography of this important woman

would have been acceptable not only to scholars but also to the

sophisticated and inquiring. But this book fails to give the essence

of the pride and spirit of its subject. The comparison of Mrs. Da

vis to an imaginary heroine, one third Andromache, one third Eliza

beth and one third Victoria is a decorative artifice that is not linked

with the structure. Again the impression is blurred with a profu sion of adjectives such as are used to describe a new acquaintance in whom interest has been aroused but whose individual quality eludes discription, "handsome, light-hearted, kindly disposed,"

"popular," "witty," and "proud." A quotation from the Memoir is something of an oasis if one

thirsts to comprehend the real woman. The author has met her

and given her a high estimate; she does not know her. Had she felt

the Tantalus of psychological exploration and analysis she would not

have had room for the somewhat lengthy political explanations with



the huguenots of colonial south carolinaby arthur henry hirsch

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