Confederate History

With all the flapdoodle about the recent Confederate History Month proclamation in Virginia I want to point you to the preeminent work on the Antebellum South. 
The Road To Disunion by William W. Freehling. (two volumes; Oxford University Press)  

Professor Freehling masterfully shows that when you talk about the South you have to ask "Which one?". Upper South? Middle? Lower? Uplands? Coast? Tidewater? Piedmont? Old? New? The South before the Civil War was a decidedly inhomogeneous region.
 And South Carolina was an exception to them all! Mainly settled by planters from Barbados, the coastal earls summering in Charleston were decidedly superior (they thought!) to any of their neighbors, in state or out. The fire-eaters that came of age during Nullification, and after, were constantly pushing towards a government apart while every one else was trying to pull back from that precipice. 
Robert Barnwell Rhett ( almost named for the part) and his fellow secessionists were going to turn their vacillating brothers or die trying. No compromise. And NO John C. Calhouns need apply!