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Research Article 320 American Archivist / Vol. 52 / Summer 1989 Research Article Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/american-archivist/article-pdf/52/3/320/2747824/aarc_52_3_375110x333r21123.pdf by guest on 01 October 2021 The Historian as Archival Advocate: Ulrich Bonnell Phillips and the Records of Georgia and the South BY JOHN DAVID SMITH Abstract: Historian Ulrich Bonnell Phillips (1877-1934) is best known as the author of two of the most influential works in the field of Southern history, American Negro Slavery (1918) and Life and Labor in the Old South (1929). This article underscores Phillips's efforts to promote the location, appraisal, arrangement, description, and conservation of the historical documents, especially plantation manuscripts and local records, of the Old South. In 1903 Phillips prepared an important report for the American Historical Asso- ciation surveying Georgia's archives. Two years later he summarized the state of archival affairs for the entire South. Phillips's advocacy of systematic archival practice in the South furthered his career, enhanced his private collection of manuscripts and documents, and encouraged the establishment of state and university archival programs in his native region. About the author: John David Smith is associate professor of history and director of the M.A. in Archival Management Program at North Carolina State University. Professor Smith earned his Ph.D. in Southern history from the University of Kentucky in 1977. He has written, edited, or co- edited five books, including Window on the War: Frances Dallam Peter's Lexington Civil War Diary (1976), Black Slavery in the Americas (2 vols., 1982), An Old Creed for the New South (1985), The Dictionary of Afro-American Slavery (1988), and Ulrich Bonnell Phillips: A Southern Historian and His Critics (1990). He delivered an earlier version of this paper at the annual meeting of the Society of American Archivists, Atlanta, Georgia, in October 1988. Historian as Archival Advocate 321 STUDENTS OF AMERICAN ARCHIVAL his- can, Lynn R. Meekins, urged historian tory recognize that in the early twentieth Herbert Baxter Adams of The Johns Hop- century the South led the way in the estab- kins University to begin a study of South- lishment of state-sponsored archival insti- ern blacks. "I earnestly hope that you will," tutions.1 Writing in 1905, Mississippi Meekins explained, because "this is an im- archivist Dunbar Rowland remarked that portant dividing line between generations Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/american-archivist/article-pdf/52/3/320/2747824/aarc_52_3_375110x333r21123.pdf by guest on 01 October 2021 "the work of the archivist, in preserving and valuable material will soon be slipping the sources of truth, is fast becoming one away."5 Too often manuscripts pertaining of the most important activities in which to the South were either lost, hoarded in historical agencies can engage." "Progres- attics, or rotted away in corncribs or other sive States," Rowland explained, espe- outbuildings. And many valuable historical cially in the South, had already established manuscripts disappeared because few per- "special departments for the care, classi- sons in the region recognized their value as fication, and publication of official ar- historical evidence. Writing in 1903, John chives" to provide historians with primary Franklin Jameson, editor of the American source materials.2 Led by Thomas M. Owen, Historical Review, cautioned scholars to in 1901 Alabama founded its Department identify and preserve primary materials on of Archives and History. Following Owen's Afro-American slavery. Jameson predicted lead, Rowland campaigned for the estab- that "a hundred years from now inquiring lishment of the Mississippi Department of minds will be eagerly seeking knowledge Archives and History, which was estab- of American slavery . [and] now is the lished in 1902. A year later North Carolina golden time to collect the data, before it is chartered its Historical Commission di- too late."6 In the same year an expert in rected by Robert D. W. Connor. Despite the field remarked that only three reposi- the South's national leadership in docu- tories in the entire country—the Library of mentary preservation, pioneer Southern Congress, the Wisconsin State Historical historians nevertheless labored under seri- Society, and the Alabama Department of ous problems as they sought evidence to Archives and History—held sufficient pri- document the history of their region.3 mary materials for the writing of Southern history.7 Indeed, locating the South's his- As early as 1892 a writer in the Sewanee torical manuscripts posed serious problems Review implored historians to write "a true for the new generation of "scientific" his- history" of the South before the materials torians at work writing the institutional his- for that history had vanished.4 A year later tory of their section. the literary editor of the Baltimore Ameri- As a result of these archival deficiencies, and decades before the appearance of re- pository guides and union manuscript cat- 'Scc Robert Reynolds Simpson, "The Origin of State Departments of Archives and History in the South" (Ph.D. diss., University of Mississippi, 1971). 2Dunbar Rowland, "The Importance of Preserving Local Records, Illustrated by the Spanish Archives of 5Meckins to Adams, 10 April 1893, Herbert Baxter the Natchez District," Annual Report of the American Adams Papers, The Johns Hopkins University Li- Historical Association for the Year 1905 (2 vols., brary. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1906), '"Charles H. Haskins, "Report of the Proceedings 1:205. of the Nineteenth Annual Meeting of the American 3Scc John David Smith, "The Formative Period of Historical Association," Annual Report of the Amer- American Slave Historiography, 1890-1920" (Ph.D. ican Historical Association for the Year 1903 (2 vols., diss., University of Kentucky, 1977), 5-11. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1904), 1:29. "•Review of Thomas Nelson Page, The Old South: 7Ulrich B. Phillips to Yatcs Snowden, 13 January Essays Social and Political, in Sewanee Review 1 1903, Yatcs Snowden Papers, South Caroliniana Li- (November 1892): 90. brary, University of South Carolina. 322 American Archivist / Summer 1989 Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/american-archivist/article-pdf/52/3/320/2747824/aarc_52_3_375110x333r21123.pdf by guest on 01 October 2021 Ulrich B. Phillips (Courtesy of the Louis A. Warren Lincoln Library and Museum, Fort Wayne, Indiana) alogs, historians were forced to scour the conservation. In 1905, for example, Jame- South in what amounted to self-archival son began a systematic search for historical work, including acquisition, appraisal, ar- manuscripts throughout the South. Profes- rangement, description, and, in some cases, sor Albert Bushnell Hart of Harvard Uni- Historian as Archival Advocate 323 versity advised him to seek the assistance interpretations lost favor with historians in of those with the necessary personal con- the 1950s, his contributions as a pioneer nections in the region—the descendants of historian and advocate of systematic archi- the South's plantation gentry.8 Mississippi val practice deserve careful analysis. planter and historian Alfred Holt Stone cast Significantly, Phillips uncovered vast his net widely in tracking down historical riches of Southern manuscripts—plantation Downloaded from http://meridian.allenpress.com/american-archivist/article-pdf/52/3/320/2747824/aarc_52_3_375110x333r21123.pdf by guest on 01 October 2021 materials on the plantation system. In 1907 records as well as those pertaining to other Stone told historian William E. Dodd that aspects of Southern history. Well ahead of "I am in search of all forms of sugar, rice, his time, he underscored the precarious, tobacco, indigo and cotton plantation rec- neglected condition of the South's widely- ords,—such as journals, diaries, account dispersed private papers and official doc- books, account sales, cotton picking rec- uments. Phillips emphasized the impor- ords, instructions to overseers. ... I want tance of arranging and preserving these anything which will throw the least light records. In 1903, for instance, he com- upon the economic side of the institution plained that Northerners had dominated the of slavery."9 writing of American history. "It must be Among historians of these years, Geor- written anew before it reaches its final form gia native Ulrich Bonnell Phillips (1877- of truth, and for that work the South must 1934) proved most successful in locating, do its part in preparation." Regrettably, utilizing, and promoting the importance of Phillips added, Southern history lagged be- antebellum Southern historical records. hind other research topics principally be- Phillips identified—and urged the preser- cause "most of the [region's documentary] vation of—manuscripts, especially those material is inaccessible." Three years later pertaining to slavery and the plantation sys- Phillips admonished Yates Snowden of the tem. Phillips employed these sources in University of South Carolina to take pains writing or editing eight books, most nota- to conserve the plantation records in his bly American Negro Slavery (1918) and Life care. "For God's sake," commanded Phil- and Labor in the Old South (1929). These lips, "keep 'em in a fire-proof vault."11 works, though by today's standards meth- Indeed, Phillips took advantage of every odologically backward, racist, paternalis- opportunity to encourage
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