The Land We Love

The Land We Love was a magazine published monthly in Charlotte from May 1866 to March 1869. Founded and edited by ex-Confederate general Daniel H. Hill, it reflected his interests, tastes, and beliefs as a military man, a southerner, and an academician. The magazine had a distinct emphasis on the South. Included in its issues were essays on history, agriculture, literature, politics, and military topics. It also presented book reviews of literary and other publications on a regular basis and included new poetry and fiction (despite the fact that Hill did not like fiction). The magazine's creation by Hill and two partners (James P. Irwin and J. G. Morrison) was the first literary event of any magnitude in Charlotte, and the publication served as a literary catalyst there and across the South. In 1867 it claimed 12,000 subscribers in 32 states, including many northern readers. The variety of its interests are suggested by its ads for farm machinery and for Tiffany's (in both New York City and Paris). In March 1869 The Land We Love was absorbed by the New Eclectic of Baltimore. Some of its former printers went into business together, buying an old press and discarded typefaces to start their own newspaper and print shop. Their venture was the first incarnation of the Charlotte Observer.

Although its other subjects were important to many readers, The Land We Love's greatest significance was literary. Its contents and editorial positions highlighted the southern point of view and heritage, and its authors were primarily from the South. Nevertheless, the magazine did not totally ignore northern writers and past and contemporary English authors such as John Milton, William Cowper, Lord Tennyson, and Charles Dickens. Especially interesting are three long and informative essays about Dickens's 1867-68 American reading tour, written by southerner Thomas Cooper De Leon, who was then living in New York City.

The magazine especially encouraged southern writers. It reprinted poems by Edgar Allan Poe, Washington Allston, and Charlotte's Philo Henderson and published new poems by Paul Hamilton Hayne, Henry Timrod, and Charlotte's Fanny M. Downing. In addition to at least 22 poems by Downing, the magazine published her novel Perfect through Suffering, which was serialized over 15 months in 1867-68. She also provided the magazine some editorial and reviewing assistance. Her first published poem (July 1866) reflected Hill's theme of southern vindication. The poem, titled "The Land We Love" and dedicated to Hill, began:

The land we love—a queen of lands,
No prouder one the world has known,
Though now uncrowned, upon her throne
She sits with fetters on her hands.