SOUTH CAROLINA HALL OF FAME
Correlation with South Carolina Standards
Julia Mood Peterkin
South Carolina Social Studies Standards
Julia Mood Peterkin
Early 20th Century-The Twenties, The Depression
Topics include – Converse College, Teacher, Lang Syne Plantation, Writer, Carl Sandburg, WEB
DuBois, Harlem Renaissance, Green Thursday, Black April, Scarlet Sister Mary, Bright Skin, Roll
Jordan Roll
Standard 8-6: The student will demonstrate an understanding of the role of South Carolina in
the nation in the early twentieth century.
8-6.2 – Explain the causes and effects of changes in South Carolina and the nation as a whole in
the 1920s, including Prohibition, the destruction caused by the boll weevil, the rise of mass
media, improvements in daily life, increases in tourism and recreation, the revival of the Ku Klux
Klan, and the c0ontributions of South Carolinians to the Harlem Renaissance and the Southern
Literary Renaissance.
SC Language Arts Standards
Writing Standards 6-8 - Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events
using effect technique, relevant descriptive details, and well-structured event sequences.
Reading standards for informational text 6-12
Key Ideas and Details
1. Cite textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences
drawn from the text.
2. Determine the central idea of a text and how it is conveyed through particular details;
provide a summary of the text distinct from personal opinions or judgements.
3. Analyze in detail how an individual, event or idea is introduced, illustrated, and elaborated in
a text.
Craft and Structure
4. Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative,
connotative, and technical meanings.
5. Analyze how a particular sentence, paragraph, chapter, or section fits into the overall
structure of a text and contributes to the development of the ideas.
6. Determine an author's point of view or purpose in a text and explain how it is conveyed in the
text.
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S.C. Hall of Fame Biography
Julia Mood Peterkin
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1929, Julia Mood
Peterkin was the author of many novels depicting the Gullah
language and its people. Born Julia Mood in Laurens County,
South Carolina, she graduated from Converse College in 1896.
Moving to Calhoun County as a private tutor, she met and
married William Peterkin of Lang Syne Plantation at Fort
Motte. Her understanding and inspiration of the people on the
plantation came from her involvement with those who lived
there. Author of Black April, Scarlet Sister Mary, and many
other novels, she received an honorary degree from Converse
College in 1927.
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Transcript
Julia Mood Peterkin
My first encounter with Julia Peterkin…
The Peterkin story is fascinating…
How did she become a writer?
Julia Mood was born in Laurens County on Halloween 1880… She would be blessed, or cursed,
with the gift of second sight.
Her mother died when she was two years old.
Julia, as a teenager, attended Converse College and received a Masters degree at an early age.
Julia moved to Fort Motte in Calhoun County to become a teacher. In 1903, she married
William George “Willy” Peterkin, who was a rich cotton planter.
Lang Syne Plantation employed 400 mostly African-American workers.
Voice of Julia:
I became interested in the people who worked the stubborn fields and forced them to make
the good crops that provided my food and clothes and pleasures.
Julia began writing stories about life on the plantation, featuring realistic African-American
characters…
which she sent to H.L. Mencken and Carl Sandburg.
The result in 1924 was her first book, Green Thursday.
The first story was “Ashes,” about an attempt to remove an elderly woman from her home.
Man:
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I’m gonna build a house here. And you gotta move.
Maum Hannah:
Yes sir.
Reviews were favorable.
“She is a Southern white woman, but she has the eye and the ear to see beauty and to know
truth.” -W.E.B. Du Bois, The Crisis
The fledgling author made a visit to New York City.
Her next book, Black April, was the story of a plantation foreman, a powerful man taken down
by the system .
Everybody respects him, everybody fears him, everybody loves him, i.e. the women.
But Black April’s life ends sadly, and his last words are poignant.
Scarlet Sister Mary was her third published work, set on a rice plantation. It sold more than a
million copies.
In the spring of 1929, Scarlet Sister Mary won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction!
But at this high point, there was a growing disconnect between Julia’s celebrity as an author
and her life on the plantation.
On one hand, African Americans criticized her for writing about “people who can’t escape her
view,” for “living a life she had no right to live.”
A.J.:
She’s got the view, she’s got the paper and the pen. And she’s got the words, which is the real
wealth.
Bright Skin, in 1932, was Peterkin’s last work of fiction.
The desire of Cricket, the lead character, was to get away from the plantation.
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Unfortunately, there was no such escape for Julia Peterkin.
In her later years, Julia Peterkin collaborated with photographer Doris Ulmann in Roll, Jordan,
Roll.
Theodore:
It was a paean to the Old South, to a way that is no more.
The Depression years found Peterkin collecting stories and folklore for the WPA…
and courted by Eleanor Roosevelt to help popularize the New Deal in the South.
At Bennington College in Vermont, Peterkin met actress Katharine Hepburn who visited her in
South Carolina.
But these were long, silent years.
Julia Peterkin died in 1961…
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Credits
South Carolina Social Studies Standard Correlations were provided by Lisa Ray
The purpose of the South Carolina Hall of Fame is to recognize and honor both contemporary
and past citizens who have made outstanding contributions to South Carolina's heritage and
progress.
Funding for Knowitall.org was provided by the S. C. General Assembly through the K-12
Technology Initiative.
Visit scetv.org/education for more educational resources.
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