William Alexander Caruthers

Background

William Caruthers was born in Virginia, United States in about 1800.

Education

The only record of his youth is that he attended Washington College (Washington and Lee University) in 1819-20 and that during that time he witnessed a much heralded ascent of the Natural Bridge, an event of some importance as the basis of an article he later wrote for the Knickerbocker Magazine.

Career

The Kentuckian in New York, which he published in 1834, is a romance set forth in a series of letters between two Virginia students, one visiting in New York, the other, in Georgia and the Carolinas. In an epilogue, the Kentuckian himself is frankly apologized for as a humorous character introduced only for the sake of popularity; the writer's true interest lay elsewhere, specifically in an historical romance, The Cavaliers of Virginia, which he had already nearly completed. This book, published in 1837, describes with considerable accuracy the circumstances of Bacon's Rebellion. Like all its author's work, it touches at times on humor and aphorism, but remains on the whole too voluble and stilted to be of lasting interest. The Knights of the Horseshoe, a Traditionary Tale of the Cocked Hat Gentry in the Old Dominion (1845) deals with the rule of Gov. Spottswood. At some unknown date Caruthers became a physician. He is referred to in a Savannah newspaper of his time as being highly respected in his profession, and in 1842 he attacked a current vogue of mesmerism.

In 1837 he moved to Savannah, Georgia, where he resided until his death in 1846.

Achievements

• Caruthers' major work was "The Kentuckian In New York" , published in 1834. It was an important for expressing skepticism about slavery, as well as arguing that termination was impractical at that point.

Personality

Caruthers was universally esteemed for his kindliness and his elegance of manner. He read widely and learned much, and he maintained always, even in the troubled realm of sectional disputes, an outlook which was to a degree clear and impartial.

Connections

Uncle:

Archibald Alexander