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Secret and Sacred: The Diaries of James Henry Hammond, a Southern Slaveholder
This set of diaries (1841-1864) brings to light the journal notations of James Henry Hammond, a prominent South Carolina planter and slaveholder. They reveal a man whose fortune and intellect combined to make him an important leader, but whose flaws kept him from true greatness.
342 pages, Paperback
First published August 25, 1988
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About the author
James Henry Hammond
50 booksJames Henry Hammond (1807-1864) was an American attorney, politician and planter from South Carolina. He served as a United States Representative from 1835 to 1836, the 60th Governor of South Carolina from 1842 to 1844, and United States Senator from 1857 to 1860. He was considered one of the major spokesmen in favor of slavery in the years before the American Civil War.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
November 12, 2023
My sincerest thanks and highest praise to Carol Bleser, Editor, for bringing these diaries to light. They are an essential read for anyone interested in the antebellum South.
James Henry Hammond astonishes. Vain. Self-pitying. Self deluding. Morally blind. Self-destructive. Yet clearly of superior intellect and capable of penetrating analysis. Even his theological musings are quite striking (p260 and following.) He believes himself “head and shoulders” above all those around him, and he just might be right, mostly.
Irony abounds:
“It is a very great misfortune to be too keen and too clear sighted. All Happiness in this world is a delusion. The greatest source of it is self-delusion.”
(Is he deluding himself about his self-delusion…)
This sentence is…curious:
“… and in search of obliviousness, I toil, and when that fails I eke it out with the fragrant weed,…”
(I suppose he might just be talking about tobacco.)
In any case, JHH’s diary, like a visit to a musty museum (carnival funhouse of cracked and ancient mirrors) is a fascinating tour around the mind of one whose world we can never comprehend.
As an afterthought, I am surprised that in the diary/memoirs of Mary Boykin Chesnut, although she mentions JHH maybe half a dozen times, she makes no reference to his exploits with his four nieces, even though the knowledge seems to have been sufficiently widespread in South Carolina society so as to destroy his political career for about 10 years.
James Henry Hammond astonishes. Vain. Self-pitying. Self deluding. Morally blind. Self-destructive. Yet clearly of superior intellect and capable of penetrating analysis. Even his theological musings are quite striking (p260 and following.) He believes himself “head and shoulders” above all those around him, and he just might be right, mostly.
Irony abounds:
“It is a very great misfortune to be too keen and too clear sighted. All Happiness in this world is a delusion. The greatest source of it is self-delusion.”
(Is he deluding himself about his self-delusion…)
This sentence is…curious:
“… and in search of obliviousness, I toil, and when that fails I eke it out with the fragrant weed,…”
(I suppose he might just be talking about tobacco.)
In any case, JHH’s diary, like a visit to a musty museum (carnival funhouse of cracked and ancient mirrors) is a fascinating tour around the mind of one whose world we can never comprehend.
As an afterthought, I am surprised that in the diary/memoirs of Mary Boykin Chesnut, although she mentions JHH maybe half a dozen times, she makes no reference to his exploits with his four nieces, even though the knowledge seems to have been sufficiently widespread in South Carolina society so as to destroy his political career for about 10 years.
June 1, 2021
It is almost unprecedented to read a diary so frank and honest by a diarist. Most diaries convince you that they are written for posterity. Hammond, a 19th century plantation owner, Governor of South Carolina, and U.S. Senator, lays himself bare in these pages, warts and all. And there warts. A lot of them. You will likely never meet a more self-absorbed, narcissistic, and unlikeable person. In his eyes, he is greatness personified, while everyone around him are either incompetent or schemers, or both. His bad acts are fully justified in his mind. You will not end up with positive image of James Henry Hammond, but I can promise you as a reader, his diary is never dull. ReclusiveReader's Grade: A.
July 24, 2023
I suppose this book has historic value. The introduction is lengthy and informative. The diary is written in intellectual terms, well expressed. The writer was a highly respected politician, and who was a slave owner. His diary even tells of his sexual abuse of his four teenage nieces. He also had a slave mistress, who gave him children. He also took a 12 year old slave mistress, who gave him children. The children, of course, remained slaves. The more I read of this man the more disgusted I became.
June 23, 2024
This is easily the most fascinating book that I have read this year. Hammond was a Southern slaveholder and key political figure in South Carolina leading up to the Civil War. His political ascent was impacted by the inappropriate relationship he had with four nieces, while he was married, and then sexual relationships with a slave and the slave's own daughter. Tremendous insight into how a major slaveholder and planter viewed the world.
April 19, 2016
I was interested to learn more about James Henry Hammond when visiting one of his former plantations near Aiken, SC. Redcliffe is now a S.C. State Historical Site. I was returning from a funeral. It was a dry, hazy, scorching day. The only respite was on the front porch overlooking the Savannah River valley.
Hammond (Nov. 15, 1807 - Nov. 13, 1864) - Governor, Senator and Statesman of SC - did not reveal everything about himself in his diaries. Who would? Even though he professed his diaries were only for himself, he must've known others would read them. One can't scurry about the house moments before death to eliminate secrets. Indeed, many pages referring to another - possibly a son - were torn out after his death.
He was a tormented man, morose, always feeling ill, expecting his death to be near even in his 40s. He didn't say "I think my liver is diseased. However, I don't know beans about my disease, and I am not sure what is bothering me", but that was the gist of it. Yes, Hammond was a Scorpio as was Dostoevsky.
His wife's family widely advertised his sins. He acknowledged his peccadilloes - especially liaisons with his tempting nieces - but complained that other great men with more notorious histories were not so reviled. His wife separated from him for five years, but returned. (Her family had warned her about him, but she married anyway at the age of 17.) His indiscretions haunted him for the rest of his life because others begrudged him.
Hammond had political ambitions but refused to advance himself, refused to allow others to advance him, only allowing himself to be dragged into office by universal acclaim. In fact, many of his speeches and writings were widely applauded...according to him. Maybe they were.
Hammond had a love/hate relationship with his Maker. They were never close.
Nothing ever worked out to his satisfaction. Others wouldn't follow his advice. Most politicians were deplorable; a few were misguided. Family, friends, acquaintances were foolish, naive, duplicitous. None loved him entirely. His crops never flourished. His dams broke. Loans made in good faith to others were not repaid. Hundreds of souls depended upon his providence, but he couldn't make ends meet. Slaves got sick and died. During the War for Southern Independence, desperate Confederates took his stores and never paid enough. He expected his slaves to run away when they got the chance.
Near the end, his diaries referred to the deaths of friends, family and acquaintances in far-away battles. Union troops were advancing. Knowing his death was near, he wanted more than anything to hear music, so children were gathered around his bed to sing. Apparently, the performance didn't go well. He directed that he be buried near a couple of magnificent trees known to his family, with the proviso that if his property was taken his grave would be plowed.
If Southern history and politics - especially obscure and some ancient details about South Carolina and neighboring Georgia - interest you, this book might. If you expect nothing to go exactly right; if you think that political ambitions, passions, intrigues, subterfuges, out-right lies by public figures are worse now than ever, they are not. Believe James Henry Hammond and me.
Hammond (Nov. 15, 1807 - Nov. 13, 1864) - Governor, Senator and Statesman of SC - did not reveal everything about himself in his diaries. Who would? Even though he professed his diaries were only for himself, he must've known others would read them. One can't scurry about the house moments before death to eliminate secrets. Indeed, many pages referring to another - possibly a son - were torn out after his death.
He was a tormented man, morose, always feeling ill, expecting his death to be near even in his 40s. He didn't say "I think my liver is diseased. However, I don't know beans about my disease, and I am not sure what is bothering me", but that was the gist of it. Yes, Hammond was a Scorpio as was Dostoevsky.
His wife's family widely advertised his sins. He acknowledged his peccadilloes - especially liaisons with his tempting nieces - but complained that other great men with more notorious histories were not so reviled. His wife separated from him for five years, but returned. (Her family had warned her about him, but she married anyway at the age of 17.) His indiscretions haunted him for the rest of his life because others begrudged him.
Hammond had political ambitions but refused to advance himself, refused to allow others to advance him, only allowing himself to be dragged into office by universal acclaim. In fact, many of his speeches and writings were widely applauded...according to him. Maybe they were.
Hammond had a love/hate relationship with his Maker. They were never close.
Nothing ever worked out to his satisfaction. Others wouldn't follow his advice. Most politicians were deplorable; a few were misguided. Family, friends, acquaintances were foolish, naive, duplicitous. None loved him entirely. His crops never flourished. His dams broke. Loans made in good faith to others were not repaid. Hundreds of souls depended upon his providence, but he couldn't make ends meet. Slaves got sick and died. During the War for Southern Independence, desperate Confederates took his stores and never paid enough. He expected his slaves to run away when they got the chance.
Near the end, his diaries referred to the deaths of friends, family and acquaintances in far-away battles. Union troops were advancing. Knowing his death was near, he wanted more than anything to hear music, so children were gathered around his bed to sing. Apparently, the performance didn't go well. He directed that he be buried near a couple of magnificent trees known to his family, with the proviso that if his property was taken his grave would be plowed.
If Southern history and politics - especially obscure and some ancient details about South Carolina and neighboring Georgia - interest you, this book might. If you expect nothing to go exactly right; if you think that political ambitions, passions, intrigues, subterfuges, out-right lies by public figures are worse now than ever, they are not. Believe James Henry Hammond and me.
October 24, 2012
Amazing step back into the first half of the 19th century. Way too many similarities with South Carolina today. Federal issues with the state, getting money from the Feds, states rights and federal control. Reality of plantation life is a harsh reality.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews