SOUTH CAROLINA HALL OF FAME
Teacher Guide
William Gilmore Simms
South Carolina Social Studies Standards
William Gilmore Simms
The New Nation - A New Nation and State
The Civil War - Forces of Unity and Division
Topics include - Antebellum South, Southern literature, genres (Southern Gothic, Epic Poetry, 30
Fictional Novels-the Colonial, Revolutionary, & Border Series, Sectional Southern literature),
sectionalism, "Woodcraft"-Simms' answer to Uncle Tom's Cabin
Standard 4-6: The student will demonstrate an understanding of the causes, the
course, and the effects of the American Civil War.
4-6.1 - Explain the significant economic and geographic differences between the North and
South.
4-6.2 - Explain the contributions of abolitionists to the mounting tensions between the North
and South over slavery, including William Lloyd Garrison, Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass,
Harriet Tubman, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and John Brown.
Standard 8-4: The student will demonstrate an understanding of the multiple
events that led to the Civil War.
8-4.2 - Analyze how sectionalism arose from racial tension, including the Denmark Vesey plot,
slave codes and the growth of the abolitionist movement.
Reading Standards for Literature - grade 8
1.
Cite the textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what the text says
explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
2.
Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of
the text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including its relationship
to the characters, setting, and plot, provide an objective summary of the text.
3.
Analyze how particular lines of dialogue or incidents in a story or drama propel the action,
reveal aspects of a character, or provoke a decision.
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4.
Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including
figurative and connotative meanings, analyze the impact of specific word choices on
meaning and tone, including analogies or allusions to other texts.
5.
Compare and contrast the structure of two or more texts and analyze how the differing
structure of each text contributes to its meaning and style.
6.
Analyze how differences in the points of view of the characters and the audience or reader
(e.g. created through the use of dramatic irony) create such effects as suspense or humor.
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S.C. Hall of Fame Biography
William Gilmore Simms
William Gilmore Simms was a poet, novelist, and
historian whose work was a major force in antebellum
Southern literature, with one of his historical texts
serving as the standard textbook on South Carolina’s
history for many generations. He was greatly in
support of slavery and secession and was called one of
America’s best novelists by Edgar Allen Poe.
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Outline
William Gilmore Simms
Intro
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Born April 17, 1806
Died June 11, 1970
Writer & editor, cultural journalist, “literary son of the South, ”poet and “romancer”
(novelist)
James Fennimore Cooper (1789-1851) was a few years older; Edgar Allen Poe (1809-1849),
and Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) were contemporaries; Melville, Mark Twain a little
later
Contemporary esteem and attention
Prolific
Background
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Scots-Irish, English ancestry
Lived in antebellum Charleston—wealthy port city, cotton, rice, many nationalities, sailors,
slaves
Interested in history—American frontier (Alabama and Mississippi), the “West” (how far
west?), Indians, Revolutionary War, ghost stories, backcountry of SC
Read Bunyan, Goldsmith, Sir Walter Scott, Cooper
Personal Life
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Studied law, married Anna Malcolm Giles (she died in 1832), one daughter
Married Chevillette Eliza Roach in 1836, 14 children, moved to Woodlands Plantation near
Bamberg—Simms’ study is separate building did not burn
Woodlands burned by Sherman, 1865
How did he influence his granddaughter Mary C. Simms Oliphant?
Mary Simms Furman, Felicia Furman, “Shared History” 2005
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Career
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Spent time on “frontier” in Alabama and Mississippi
1825 Album periodical devoted to Southern literature
Lived in Summerville, bought The City Gazette in Charleston, unpopular Unionist stance
during nullification (1832)
Made a living writing
Wrote fiction, literary criticism, “culture journals,” newspapers, periodicals, poetry,
historical romance, serials, orations, biographies, histories, geographies, collections,
dramas, reviews, op-ed pieces, columns, Southern and American humor, fables
Colonial, Revolutionary, and border romances
“Father” of American short story
“Grayling” ghost story admired by Poe
The Yemassee 1835 defines romance genre, more realistic portrayal of Indians than Cooper
Copyright issues, panic of 1837, switch to biography and history, Life of Francis Marion
1838 Southern Passages and Pictures poetry
Atlantis, Martin Faber, Guy Rivers—What are the best representative works?
State legislature 1840s
Supported secession, career began to wane 1859
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Transcript
William Gilmore Simms
William Gilmore Simms was born April 17, 1806 in Charleston, South Carolina. Born to a ScotsIrish family, his mother died when he was still an infant, and his father, facing economic
difficulty, joined Coffee’s Indian Fighters, leaving Simms to be raised by his grandmother. Simms
began to study law at the age of 18, however he quickly dropped this pursuit in order to
become a writer. Simms had always had a love for poetry and literature; he wrote his first
poems at the age of eight. In 1828, he began his career as a journalist and as the editor of the
City Gazette. It was after the failure of this venture, that Simms began actively writing poems,
short stories, and novels.
Many of Simms’s early works focused on the pre-colonial and colonial history of the South. The
sentiments of the American Revolution were very important to Simms. For example, he greatly
admired the founders’ desire to build a new nation distinctly different England and the rest of
Europe. Many of Simms’s works focus on South Carolina’s role in the American Revolution,
including The Partisan in 1835, and Katherine Walton in 1851.
Borrowing from those themes from the American Revolution, Simms sought to create a
Southern identity and culture that was markedly different from the rest of America. Having
spent time on the western frontier with his father, Simms embraced the idea of Manifest
Destiny and admired the many developments occurring along the nation’s border. On the
frontier, Simms spent much time among the Native Americans. From these experiences, Simms
wrote some of the most accurate portrayals of the Native Americans during his time. Although
Simms had great respect for the Native Americans, he supported Indian Removal because he
felt it benefitted the greater good of the American people.
In an effort to build a vibrant image of the South in his works, Simms often wrote in dialect. He
was one of the first authors to do so, but this style was picked up by other authors and made
famous, most notably by Mark Twain.
Simms was also a member of the Young America movement. This patriotic movement was led
by many famous authors, artists, and politicians and advocated the rise of a great American
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state and its expansion westward. Another prominent member of Young America was Walt
Whitman.
Later as the Nullification Crisis raged and the Civil War drew near, Simms wrote adamantly in
favor of slavery and Southern rights. Simms was enraged by Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel
Uncle Tom’s Cabin and in response wrote his own pro-slavery novel The Sword and the Distaff a
few months later.
It was these controversial views that lost Simms his readers and supporters in the North. When
Sherman’s troops marched through South Carolina, Simms fled his home and took refuge in
Columbia, however his beloved family estate The Woodlands in Bamberg, was burned to the
ground. The details of the fire are unclear: many historians blame the Union troops for burning
Woodlands, however at the time one of Simms’s slaves was accused of starting the fire. Simms,
however, defended his slave and refused to believe he started the fire.
After the Civil War, Simms saw his popularity decline sharply. This was partly due to his loss of
Northern supporters but also because the style of literature had changed. Simms wrote of an
ever-evolving, dynamic South, whereas post-Civil War authors portrayed the South as a land
frozen in time, whose glory had been destroyed during the war, much like the South of
Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind. Consequently Simms fell out of readership and study, and only
recently have scholars revisited his work.
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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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