Amerykańskie Południe po wojnie secesyjnej w świetle prasy warszawskiej z lat 1865–1885

Abstract

The article shows the American South in the period of the twenty years following the Civil War, as presented in Warsaw press – both in dailies and periodicals – after the January Uprising. It is worth mentioning that historiography provides several definitions of the South. Some scholars limit it to the states which left the Union in 1861. Yet, according to a more popular view, this region includes all states where slavery existed. It refers to the area situated south of Pennsylvania, below the so-called Mason-Dixon line. In this article the latter definition of the South is used. In the first years after the Civil War information on difficult situation of the South was regularly provided by Warsaw press, mainly by daily newspapers. These were usually reprints of western, primarily German, but also Belgian, English or French columns. They informed both about destructions resulting from military actions that had been conducted mostly in this area and the difficult situation of people living in this region. However, they neither informed broadly about the South, about its particular states nor presented an insightful analysis of the problems the region had to cope with. Warsaw dailies paid a lot of attention to the American South right after the Civil War. When the situation in the region stabilized, the interest in the region diminished and the publications became rather sporadic. Periodicals, on the other hand, wrote about the South only occasionally, usually when they got reports from the travelers. Poles rarely visited this region, so the reports were not very numerous. It is to be admitted that the South of that time was attractive neither to foreign visitors nor settlers. Sygurd Wiśniowski, writing for the magazine for women “Tygodnik Mód i Powieści”, was the one who reported about the region in the most extensive way. He had the indispensable knowledge, as in the years 1975–1876 he had organized an expedition to the American South.