ABSTRACT
Scholars tend to oversimplify the antebellum Southern mind, assuming a predictability and monotony of thought that is not always the case. One might anticipate such an editorial focus given the time of its publication, 1857-1860, and its place, secession-obsessed Charleston, South Carolina. In view of the highly charged political and social atmosphere in which magazine was conceived, it comes as no surprise that Russell’s began operations firmly committed to a “Southernist” policy and to discussion of the political aspects of the sectional controversy. Because several of the contributors often defended slavery and touched on sectional matters in the pages of Russell’s, Mott and other critics have accused Hayne of inconsistency, or at best, of unrealism. After Carlisle’s withdrawal from the magazine in its early days, things were left in Hayne’s hands. In conclusion, if Russell’s, was in fact something other than a journal of narrow sectional interests, the reason is not that Hayne had deeper understanding of South’s great dilemma.
