“Secessionist hectoring and outrage would flame, then smolder in the face of Charleston’s unhurried pace and conservative nature. Charleston’s charms provided too many diversions from rebellious indignation. Charleston’s elite balanced their radical politics with an equally ardent taste for balls, regattas, horse races, and seasonal plantation parties. The disingenuous tactics if the Charleston secessionists, however, continued to apply pressure to the wedges they had so carefully placed into societal cracks.”
Will O’ the Wisp: Madness, War, and Recompense
