Walter Lynwood Fleming
Encyclopedia
Walter Lynwood Fleming was an American
historian
of the South and Reconstruction. He was a leader of the Dunning School
of scholars which rewrote Reconstruction history using modern historiographical techniques in the early 20th century, but was later criticized by neoabolitionist
historians for being too favorable to slave owners.
, on April 8, 1874, the son of William LeRoy and Mary Love (Edwards) Fleming. His parents on both sides were Georgians who migrated to Alabama
in the ante-bellum period. His father, a well-to-do planter and slave owner, served in the Civil War
as a cavalryman. He was not politically prominent during Reconstruction. Fleming attended Alabama Polytechnic Institute, now known as Auburn University
, taking the B.S. degree, with honors, in 1896, and the M.S. degree in 1897. He taught in the public schools of Alabama in 1894-1896 and became an instructor in History and English at his alma mater in 1896-1897. He was assistant librarian from 1897 to 1898, and an instructor in English from 1899 to 1900.
In 1898 Fleming enlisted in the Second Alabama Volunteers as a private; was promoted to lieutenant, and fought in the Spanish-American War
. He began graduate work in history at Columbia University
in New York in 1900, taking the PhD in 1904. He was influenced especially by Professor George Petrie of Alabama Polytechnic Institute and Professor William Archibald Dunning
of Columbia. From 1903 to 1907 he taught history at West Virginia University
, and from 1907 to 1917, at Louisiana State University
.
In 1917, he was called to a chair in history at Vanderbilt University
in Nashville, Tennessee
, where he was taught undergraduate and graduate students, mentoring numerous PhD's, who in turn created history programs at colleges across the South. He became Dean of the Vanderbilt College of Arts and Sciences in 1923 and later Director of the Graduate School. Fleming was close to the Nashville Agrarians who dedicated to him their influential manifesto I'll Take My Stand: The South and the Agrarian Tradition (1930). Woodrow Wilson
while president of Princeton University
offered him a professorship, which Fleming declined.
, 20 volumes (1928–36).
He was among the Dunning School
historians who argued the victorious northerners spoiled Reconstruction by trampling the rights of Southern whites. Fleming rooted his studies of Reconstruction in his knowledge of the ante-bellum period, and gave much more attention that other historians to the writings and activities of African Americans. He wrote that "The negro is the central figure in the reconstruction of the South. Without the negro there would have been no Civil War. Granting a war fought for any other cause, the task of reconstruction would, without him, have been comparatively simple." Along with Frederick Jackson Turner
he was one of a few historians to publish in sociology journals. More than any white historian of Reconstruction before the 1960s, he gave extensive attention to the roles of the Blacks, including economic and social conditions. Fleming was the first scholar to examine the Black exodus to Kansas, in "'Pap' Singleton, the Moses of the Colored Exodus" (1909) His study of the The Freedmen's Savings Bank: A Chapter in the Economic History of the Negro Race, (1927) was reprinted by Negro Universities Press in 1970.
Fleming stressed the multiple dimensions and complexity of Reconstruction, and was among the first to emphasize the social, religious and economic dimensions. He tried to balance all viewpoints. Thus in his highly influential Documentary History of Reconstruction (vol 1) he included 64 documents from the white South's viewpoint, 118 from that of their opponents (including 12 blacks), and 70 he considered neutral. In terms of documents, 25 were state laws, 17 were federal laws, 148 were accounts by Northerners, 62 were by ex-Confederates, 22 from Southern Unionists, and 12 from Blacks. W.E.B DuBois denounced Fleming and all the Dunning school, while admitting his works have "a certain fairness and sense of historic honesty." The reviewer for the American Historical Review said that Fleming's "sympathies are decidedly with the South, but the work is free from bitterness or prejudice, and is on the whole as impartial an account as one can expect from any writer on this subject."
, he surveyed the state archives of West Virginia and Louisiana. He represented the AHA on the National Board of Historical Service and also served on the committee on appointments and the general and program committees. He was a member of the Executive Council of the AHA for two terms and served twice as chairman of the John H. Dunning Prize Committee. Fleming appeared on the program of both these associations as well as that of the Alabama Historical Society.
pointed to an inaccuracy in Fleming's work, focusing on his treatment of black Alabama Congressman James T. Rapier
.
Rapier was born in Alabama but left as a small child; his father—a free black—sent him to Canada for an education. Rapier was a school teacher in Canada until 1864; he returned to Alabama in 1866.
Franklin said:
Franklin explained:
Franklin said Fleming knew the truth about Rapier's Canadian status and misrepresented it. Franklin asserted: "In 1905 Fleming made Rapier a Canadian because it suited his purposes to have a bold, aggressive, "impertinent" Negro in Alabama Reconstruction come from some non-Southern, contaminating environment like Canada. But it did not suit his purposes to call Yancey, who was a graduate of Williams College, a "Massachusetts Man." Fleming described Yancey (a white Confederate) as, simply, the "leader of the States Rights men." Franklin is critical of Fleming for stating that Rapier, and others, were "carpetbaggers." Franklin said, "...Fleming, should have been able to see that some of the people that Fleming called carpetbaggers had lived in Alabama for years and were, therefore, entitled to at least as much presumption of assimilation in moving from some other state to Alabama decades before the war as the Irish were in moving from their native land to some community in the United States. ...Whether they had lived in Alabama for decades before the Civil War or had settled there after the war, these "carpetbaggers" were apparently not to be regarded as models for Northern investors or settlers in the early years of the 20th century. 20th-century investors from the North were welcome provided they accepted the established arrangements in race relations and the like. Fleming served his Alabama friends well by ridiculing carpetbaggers, even if in the process he had to distort and misrepresent."
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
historian
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
of the South and Reconstruction. He was a leader of the Dunning School
Dunning School
The Dunning School refers to a group of historians who shared a historiographical school of thought regarding the Reconstruction period of American history .-About:...
of scholars which rewrote Reconstruction history using modern historiographical techniques in the early 20th century, but was later criticized by neoabolitionist
Neoabolitionist
Neoabolitionist is a term used by some historians to refer to the heightened activity of the civil rights movement in the late 1950s and early 1960s...
historians for being too favorable to slave owners.
Biography
He was born on a farm at Brundidge, AlabamaBrundidge, Alabama
Brundidge is a city in Pike County, Alabama, USA. As of the 2000 census, the population of the city is 2,341.-Geography:Brundidge is located at .According to the U.S...
, on April 8, 1874, the son of William LeRoy and Mary Love (Edwards) Fleming. His parents on both sides were Georgians who migrated to Alabama
History of Alabama
Alabama became a state of the United States of America on December 14, 1819. After the Indian Wars and removals of the early 19th century forced most Native Americans out of the state, white settlers arrived in large numbers....
in the ante-bellum period. His father, a well-to-do planter and slave owner, served in the Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
as a cavalryman. He was not politically prominent during Reconstruction. Fleming attended Alabama Polytechnic Institute, now known as Auburn University
Auburn University
Auburn University is a public university located in Auburn, Alabama, United States. With more than 25,000 students and 1,200 faculty members, it is one of the largest universities in the state. Auburn was chartered on February 7, 1856, as the East Alabama Male College, a private liberal arts...
, taking the B.S. degree, with honors, in 1896, and the M.S. degree in 1897. He taught in the public schools of Alabama in 1894-1896 and became an instructor in History and English at his alma mater in 1896-1897. He was assistant librarian from 1897 to 1898, and an instructor in English from 1899 to 1900.
In 1898 Fleming enlisted in the Second Alabama Volunteers as a private; was promoted to lieutenant, and fought in the Spanish-American War
Spanish-American War
The Spanish–American War was a conflict in 1898 between Spain and the United States, effectively the result of American intervention in the ongoing Cuban War of Independence...
. He began graduate work in history at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
in New York in 1900, taking the PhD in 1904. He was influenced especially by Professor George Petrie of Alabama Polytechnic Institute and Professor William Archibald Dunning
William Archibald Dunning
William Archibald Dunning was an American historian who founded the Dunning School of Reconstruction historiography at Columbia University, where he had graduated in 1881. Between 1886 and 1903 he taught history at Columbia, and was named a professor in 1904. Born in Plainfield, N...
of Columbia. From 1903 to 1907 he taught history at West Virginia University
West Virginia University
West Virginia University is a public research university in Morgantown, West Virginia, USA. Other campuses include: West Virginia University at Parkersburg in Parkersburg; West Virginia University Institute of Technology in Montgomery; Potomac State College of West Virginia University in Keyser;...
, and from 1907 to 1917, at Louisiana State University
Louisiana State University
Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, most often referred to as Louisiana State University, or LSU, is a public coeducational university located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The University was founded in 1853 in what is now known as Pineville, Louisiana, under the name...
.
In 1917, he was called to a chair in history at Vanderbilt University
Vanderbilt University
Vanderbilt University is a private research university located in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1873, the university is named for shipping and rail magnate "Commodore" Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided Vanderbilt its initial $1 million endowment despite having never been to the...
in Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...
, where he was taught undergraduate and graduate students, mentoring numerous PhD's, who in turn created history programs at colleges across the South. He became Dean of the Vanderbilt College of Arts and Sciences in 1923 and later Director of the Graduate School. Fleming was close to the Nashville Agrarians who dedicated to him their influential manifesto I'll Take My Stand: The South and the Agrarian Tradition (1930). Woodrow Wilson
Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921. A leader of the Progressive Movement, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...
while president of Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
offered him a professorship, which Fleming declined.
Historical research
Fleming helped edit and contributed to numerous reference works, including The Historians' History of the World, 25 volumes (1904); volumes XI and XII of The South in the Building of the Nation, (1909); The Photographic History of the Civil War, 10 volumes (1911); the Encyclopaedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, (1911) and 14th edition (1929); and the Dictionary of American BiographyDictionary of American Biography
The Dictionary of American Biography was published in New York City by Charles Scribner's Sons under the auspices of the American Council of Learned Societies. The first edition was published in 20 volumes from 1928 to 1936. These 20 volumes contained 15,000 biographies...
, 20 volumes (1928–36).
He was among the Dunning School
Dunning School
The Dunning School refers to a group of historians who shared a historiographical school of thought regarding the Reconstruction period of American history .-About:...
historians who argued the victorious northerners spoiled Reconstruction by trampling the rights of Southern whites. Fleming rooted his studies of Reconstruction in his knowledge of the ante-bellum period, and gave much more attention that other historians to the writings and activities of African Americans. He wrote that "The negro is the central figure in the reconstruction of the South. Without the negro there would have been no Civil War. Granting a war fought for any other cause, the task of reconstruction would, without him, have been comparatively simple." Along with Frederick Jackson Turner
Frederick Jackson Turner
Frederick Jackson Turner was an American historian in the early 20th century. He is best known for his essay "The Significance of the Frontier in American History", whose ideas are referred to as the Frontier Thesis. He is also known for his theories of geographical sectionalism...
he was one of a few historians to publish in sociology journals. More than any white historian of Reconstruction before the 1960s, he gave extensive attention to the roles of the Blacks, including economic and social conditions. Fleming was the first scholar to examine the Black exodus to Kansas, in "'Pap' Singleton, the Moses of the Colored Exodus" (1909) His study of the The Freedmen's Savings Bank: A Chapter in the Economic History of the Negro Race, (1927) was reprinted by Negro Universities Press in 1970.
Fleming stressed the multiple dimensions and complexity of Reconstruction, and was among the first to emphasize the social, religious and economic dimensions. He tried to balance all viewpoints. Thus in his highly influential Documentary History of Reconstruction (vol 1) he included 64 documents from the white South's viewpoint, 118 from that of their opponents (including 12 blacks), and 70 he considered neutral. In terms of documents, 25 were state laws, 17 were federal laws, 148 were accounts by Northerners, 62 were by ex-Confederates, 22 from Southern Unionists, and 12 from Blacks. W.E.B DuBois denounced Fleming and all the Dunning school, while admitting his works have "a certain fairness and sense of historic honesty." The reviewer for the American Historical Review said that Fleming's "sympathies are decidedly with the South, but the work is free from bitterness or prejudice, and is on the whole as impartial an account as one can expect from any writer on this subject."
Professional Activities
Fleming was highly active in professional historical and archival associations. He was a member of the Board of Editors of the Mississippi Valley Historical Review from 1914 to 1922 and served on the Committee for State Historical Museums and the program and nominating committees of the Mississippi Valley Historical Association. As a member of the Public Archives Commission of the American Historical AssociationAmerican Historical Association
The American Historical Association is the oldest and largest society of historians and professors of history in the United States. Founded in 1884, the association promotes historical studies, the teaching of history, and the preservation of and access to historical materials...
, he surveyed the state archives of West Virginia and Louisiana. He represented the AHA on the National Board of Historical Service and also served on the committee on appointments and the general and program committees. He was a member of the Executive Council of the AHA for two terms and served twice as chairman of the John H. Dunning Prize Committee. Fleming appeared on the program of both these associations as well as that of the Alabama Historical Society.
Criticisms by J.H. Franklin
African American historian John Hope FranklinJohn Hope Franklin
John Hope Franklin was a United States historian and past president of Phi Beta Kappa, the Organization of American Historians, the American Historical Association, and the Southern Historical Association. Franklin is best known for his work From Slavery to Freedom, first published in 1947, and...
pointed to an inaccuracy in Fleming's work, focusing on his treatment of black Alabama Congressman James T. Rapier
James T. Rapier
James Thomas Rapier was a United States Representative from 1873 until 1875. He was one of Alabama's three black congressmen during Reconstruction....
.
Rapier was born in Alabama but left as a small child; his father—a free black—sent him to Canada for an education. Rapier was a school teacher in Canada until 1864; he returned to Alabama in 1866.
Franklin said:
- Writing in 1905 Walter L. Fleming referred to James T. Rapier, a Negro member of the Alabama constitutional convention of 1867, as "Rapier of Canada." He then quoted Rapier as saying that the manner in which "colored gentlemen and ladies were treated in America was beyond his comprehension."
Franklin explained:
- Born in Alabama in 1837, Rapier, like many of his white contemporaries, went North for an education. The difference was that instead of stopping in the northern part of the United States, as, for example, (the pro-slavery advocate) William L. Yancey did, Rapier went on to Canada. Rapier's contemporaries did not regard him as a Canadian; and, if some were not precisely clear about where he was born (as was the Alabama State Journal, which referred to his birthplace as MontgomeryMontgomery, AlabamaMontgomery is the capital of the U.S. state of Alabama, and is the county seat of Montgomery County. It is located on the Alabama River southeast of the center of the state, in the Gulf Coastal Plain. As of the 2010 census, Montgomery had a population of 205,764 making it the second-largest city...
rather than Florence), they did not misplace him altogether.
Franklin said Fleming knew the truth about Rapier's Canadian status and misrepresented it. Franklin asserted: "In 1905 Fleming made Rapier a Canadian because it suited his purposes to have a bold, aggressive, "impertinent" Negro in Alabama Reconstruction come from some non-Southern, contaminating environment like Canada. But it did not suit his purposes to call Yancey, who was a graduate of Williams College, a "Massachusetts Man." Fleming described Yancey (a white Confederate) as, simply, the "leader of the States Rights men." Franklin is critical of Fleming for stating that Rapier, and others, were "carpetbaggers." Franklin said, "...Fleming, should have been able to see that some of the people that Fleming called carpetbaggers had lived in Alabama for years and were, therefore, entitled to at least as much presumption of assimilation in moving from some other state to Alabama decades before the war as the Irish were in moving from their native land to some community in the United States. ...Whether they had lived in Alabama for decades before the Civil War or had settled there after the war, these "carpetbaggers" were apparently not to be regarded as models for Northern investors or settlers in the early years of the 20th century. 20th-century investors from the North were welcome provided they accepted the established arrangements in race relations and the like. Fleming served his Alabama friends well by ridiculing carpetbaggers, even if in the process he had to distort and misrepresent."
Honors
His memory is honored by the many historians who have given the annual Walter Lynwood Fleming Lectures in Southern History at Louisiana State University.Publications
- "The Buford Expedition to Kansas," American Historical Review, VI (1901), 38-48.
- "Documentary History of Reconstruction" Volume I (1906) and Volume II (1907).
- Documentary History of Reconstruction: Political, Military, Social, Religious, Educational & Industrial: 1865 to 1906 (reprinted 1966 with introduction by David DonaldDavid DonaldDavid Donald may refer to:*David Donald , Scottish footballer for Peterhead*David Herbert Donald , American historian* David Grahame Donald, RAF officer...
) 2 vols., xviii, 493 and xiv, 480 pp.
- Documentary History of Reconstruction: Political, Military, Social, Religious, Educational & Industrial: 1865 to 1906 (reprinted 1966 with introduction by David Donald
- Fleming, Walter L. Civil War and Reconstruction in Alabama 1905. the most detailed study; Dunning SchoolDunning SchoolThe Dunning School refers to a group of historians who shared a historiographical school of thought regarding the Reconstruction period of American history .-About:...
full text online, 805 pp - "Immigration to the Southern States," in the Political Science Quarterly, XX (1905), 276-97. in JSTOR
- "Blockade Running and Trade Through the Lines into Alabama, 1861-1865," South Atlantic Quarterly, IV (1905), 256-72.
- "Reorganization of the Industrial System in Alabama after the Civil War," American Journal of Sociology, X (1905), 473-99. in JSTOR
- "The Freedmen's Savings Bank," Yale Review, XV (1906), 40-67, 134-46.
- "'Pap' Singleton, The Moses of the Colored Exodus," American Journal of Sociology, XV (1910), 61-82 in JSTOR
- General W.T. Sherman as college president; a collection of letters, documents, and other material, chiefly from private sources, relating to the life and activities of General William Tecumseh Sherman, to the early years of Louisiana State University (1912)
- "A Ku Klux Document," in the Mississippi Valley Historical Review, (1915), 1:575-78. in JSTOR
- The Sequel of Appomattox: A Chronicle of the Reunion of the States (Yale University Press: Chronicles of America series; vol. 32) (1919) online version
- The Freedmen's Savings Bank: A Chapter in the Economic History of the Negro Race, x, 170 pp. (University of North Carolina Press: 1927; reprinted by Negro Universities Press, 1970)
- Louisiana State University, 1860-1896 (1936), 499pp
- The Religious and Hospitable Rite of Feet Washing (Sewanee, TN, University Press, 1908). 15 pp. Reprinted from The Sewanee Review, XVI (January, 1908), 1-13.
Further reading
- William C. Binkley. "The Contribution of Walter Lynwood Fleming to Southern Scholarship," The Journal of Southern History, Vol. 5, No. 2 (May, 1939), pp. 143–154 in JSTOR
- John Hope FranklinJohn Hope FranklinJohn Hope Franklin was a United States historian and past president of Phi Beta Kappa, the Organization of American Historians, the American Historical Association, and the Southern Historical Association. Franklin is best known for his work From Slavery to Freedom, first published in 1947, and...
. Race and History: Selected Essays, 1938-1988(Louisiana State University Press: 1989) pp. 65, 411.(from essay first published in The Southerner as American, ed. Charles G. Sellers (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1960). - Fletcher M. Green. "Walter Lynwood Fleming: Historian of Reconstruction," The Journal of Southern History, Vol. 2, No. 4. (Nov., 1936), pp. 497–521. in JSTOR