Walter Edgar's Journal - TopPodcast.com

Latest Episodes:

Captured Freeedom — **'Captured Freedom': A compelling photo tells a harrowing story of survival** Nov 03, 2023
Show notes

Group of Union officers who escaped from Confederate prison at Columbia, S.C., in the fall of '64 also three guides procured in the mountains of Tennessee.(Library of Congress )
In Captured Freedom (2023, Steve Procko), author Steve Procko tells the true story of nine Union prisoners-of-war who escaped from a Confederate prison in Columbia, South Carolina, in November 1864, and traveled north in brutal winter conditions more than 300 miles with search parties and bloodhounds hot on their trail. On the difficult journey they relied on the help of enslaved men and women, as well as Southerners who sympathized with the North, before finally reaching Union lines in Knoxville, Tennessee, on New Years Day 1865.
On that day, hoping to commemorate what they had accomplished, the nine officers and their three mountain guides found a local photographer and posed together for a photograph. The instant, frozen in time, showed twelve ragged men with determination strong on their faces – a compelling image that moved Steve Procko to search for their stories.

Mark Catesby: Nature's Messenger Oct 20, 2023

Show notes

In 1722, Mark Catesby stepped ashore in Charles Town in the Carolina colony. Over the next four years, this young naturalist made history as he explored America’s natural wonders, collecting and drawing plants and animals which had never been seen back in the Old World. Nine years later Catesby produced his magnificent and groundbreaking book, The Natural History of Carolina, the first-ever illustrated account of American flora and fauna.

In this episode of the Journal we talk with Patrick Dean, author of Nature's Messenger: Mark Catesby and His Adventures in a New World (2023, Simon & Schuster). As Dean will tell us, Catesby was a pioneer in many ways, with his careful attention to the knowledge of non-Europeans in America—the enslaved Africans and Native Americans who had their own sources of food and medicine from nature— which set him apart from other Europeans of his time.

**Walter Edgar's Journal: The Spingarn brothers - White privilege, Jewish heritage, and the struggle for racial equality** Oct 06, 2023
Show notes

Arthur and Joel Springarn( Arthur Springarn: Library of Congress; Joel Springarn: unknown)
In her book, The Spingarn Brothers: White Privilege, Jewish Heritage, and the Struggle for Racial Equality (2023, Johns Hopkins University), Katherine Reynolds Chaddock tells a story that many today might see as unlikely: two Jewish brothers in New York, privileged in some ways but considered “the other” by many in society, find common cause with African Americans suffering from racial discrimination. And, Joel and Arthur Spingarn become leaders in the struggle for racial equality and equality – even serving as presidents of the NAACP.
Joel and Arthur had very different personalities, interests, and professional goals. Yet together they would become essential leaders in the struggle for racial justice and equality, serving as presidents of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, exposing inequities, overseeing key court cases, and lobbying presidents from Theodore Roosevelt to John F. Kennedy.
Katherine Reynolds Chaddock joins us to tell the Springans’ story.

**Gullah culture in America** Sep 29, 2023
Show notes

Dr. Eric Crawford(Travis Bell / Courtesy of Dr. Crawford)
This week, Dr. Eric Crawford, a Gullah/Geechee scholar and Associate Professor of Musicology at Claflin University in Orangeburg, joins us to talk about Gullah culture and about editing a second edition of the late Dr. Wilbur Cross’ book, Gullah Culture in America (Blair, 2022).
The book chronicles the history and culture of the Gullah people, African Americans who live in the Lowcountry region of the American South, telling the story of the arrival of enslaved West Africans to the sea islands of South Carolina and Georgia; the melding of their African cultures, which created distinct creole language, cuisine, traditions, and arts; and the establishment of the Penn School, dedicated to education and support of the Gullah freedmen following the Civil War.
Musical recordings included in this episode: Claflin University Concert Choir directed by Dr. Charlie Toomer performing "Cum Ba Yuh;" arrangement by Dr. Eric Crawford and used with his permission.
"This May Be the Last Time," sung by Lucia Vasquez Valdez, was recorded by Windy Goodloe, and is used with her permission.

**Journalist Adam Parker’s look at the culture, conflict, and creativity of the South** Sep 15, 2023
Show notes

Adam Parker(Mark Stetler / Courtesy of Adam Parker)
Veteran journalist Adam Parker has covered just about everything for The Charleston Post and Courier, though he has spent most of his time writing about race, religion, and the arts. Us: A Journalist's Look at the Culture, Conflict and Creativity of the South (2022, Evening Post Books) is a collection of in-depth articles published over the course of nearly 20 years, and it reveals the breadth and scope of Parker's uncanny ability to pull back the scrim and take a hard look at ourselves and our community.
Adam joins us to talk about his life and work, and to share some of the stories that he has written.

**Andrew Jackson, the Creek Indians, and the epic war for the American South** Sep 01, 2023
Show notes

"Treaty with the Creeks"( NY Public Library Digital Collections - The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Picture Collection)
The Creek War is one of the most tragic episodes in American history, leading to the greatest loss of Native American life on what is now U.S. soil.
Peter Cozzens, author of A Brutal Reckoning: Andrew Jackson, the Creek Indians, and the Epic War for the American South, tells us the story of the war that shaped the American South, and which would likely not have been won by the fledgling republic without Andrew Jackson’s unbridled ambition, cruelty, and fraught sense of honor and duty.

**Film critic Ben Beard continues his journey through the South on screen** Aug 18, 2023
Show notes

Ben Beard(Courtesy of the author)
In his book, The South Never Plays Itself, author, and film critic Ben Beard explores the history of the Deep South on screen, beginning with silent cinema and ending in the streaming era, from President Wilson to President Trump, from musical to comedy to horror to crime to melodrama. Opinionated, obsessive, sweeping, often combative, sometimes funny―a wild narrative tumble into culture both high and low―Beard attempts to answer the haunting question: what do movies know about the South that we don’t?
This is a return visit for Ben – we had so much fun talking about movies last time, we asked him back!

**Charleston to Phnom Penh - A Cook's Journal** Aug 04, 2023
Show notes

John Martin Taylor( Courtesy of the author)
Charleston, South Carolina’s John Martin Taylor is a culinary historian and cookbook author. His first book, Hoppin' John's Lowcountry Cooking, has been continuously in print for thirty years, and his writing has appeared in publications including the New York Times, Washington Post, and Gastronomica.
With the release of his latest book, Charleston to Phnom Penh - A Cook's Journal, he joins us for a conversation about his career, his travels, and, of course, food.

Marions men crossing the Pee Dee — **Walter Edgar’s Journal: Legend - Francis Marion in the Pee Dee** Jul 21, 2023
Show notes

"Marion Crossing the Pedee"( William T. Ranney (1813 - 1857) / On loan from Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas, to the Florence County Museum, Florence, SC )
In this episode Ben Zeigler and Stephen Motte from the Florence County Museum in Florence, SC, talk with us about the legend of Revolutionary War hero Francis Marion. The current exhibition at the museum, Legend: Francis Marion in the Pee Dee, examines the early decades of American Independence, when poets and painters turned General Francis Marion into a mythical figure; part fact, part folk legend. Those efforts were so effective that the cultural impact of their words and images lingers today. Ben and Stephen will help us separate some of the facts from the fiction.

**Walter Edgar’s Journal: A photographic history of the Civil Rights era** Jul 07, 2023
Show notes

Cecil Williams( Cecil Williams South Carolina Civil Rights Museum )
Acclaimed civil rights photographer Cecil Williams, founder of the Cecil Williams South Carolina Civil Rights Museum talks with us this this time, along with Jannie Harriot, the museum’s Executive Director. Cecil began photographing the events and people of the Civil Rights era in the early 1950s and continued through the 1970s, eventually amassing nearly a million images. Now, in 2023, he and Jannie are committed to community engagement and are working to build a new home for the museum. We recently talked with them about the Civil Rights Movement, the importance of South Carolina in the movement, and their efforts to build a new home for the museum.

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Walter Edgar’s Journal

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Walter Edgar’s Journal

Related Podcasts

1

2

3

4

5

6