Abstract:
This article examines failed attempts by North Carolina antebellum schoolbook publishers to convince public schools of the need for textbooks that had a Southern point of view. Calvin Henderson Wiley, North Carolina's state superintendent of common schools from 1853 to 1865, was a leading voice on this subject and wrote the 'North Carolina Reader' from a Southern point of view. The book did not sell well because of the under developed book distribution network of the South and the extra cost special textbooks required.