“Everybody is Centennializing:” White Southerners and the 1876 Centennial

The one hundredth anniversary of American independence was celebrated with a huge world’s fair or ‘International Exhibition’ in Philadelphia, commonly referred to as ‘The Centennial,’ a central theme of which was post-bellum reconciliation. This article argues that the Centennial served as a catalyst for reflection about sectional distinctiveness. It examines the highly politicized discourse around the commemoration, the ways in which white Southerners’ self- definition was bound up in perceived differences from their Northern counterparts and the extent to which exaggerated or re-affirmed Southerness in reaction to the Centennial detracted from post-war affirmations of renewed American nationalism.