SOURCE: Werner, Craig. “The Old South, 1815-1840.” In The History of Southern Literature, edited by Louis D. Rubin, Jr., pp. 81-91. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1985.

In the following essay, Werner presents an overview of early nineteenth-century Southern literature, arguing that the Old South played a crucial role in the cultural growth of the fledgling United States despite producing few writers of enduring significance during this time.

Literature written in the South around 1815 shared most of the basic concerns of that written in the North. By 1840 the increasing divergence of economic, political, and social conditions had created a specifically Southern literature reflecting the distinctive concerns and attitudes that were to survive as constituting elements of Southern literature in later eras. A complex concern with slavery generated numerous white defenses of Southern culture and sectional autonomy, distinctive Afro-American forms including slave narratives and a complex folk literature, and...