Picturing Same-Sex Marriage in the Antebellum United States: The Union of "Two Most Excellent Men" in Longstreet's "A Sage Conversation"

Abstract

Au g u s t u s b a l d w i n l o n g s t r e e t ’ s s h o r t s t o r y “A Sage Conversation” appears at first glance to be an astonishingly modern tale. It assembles an elaborate social tableau that has at its center “George Scott and David Snow; two most excellent men, who became so much attached to each other that they actually got married.” The story was included in the author’s 1835 collection Georgia Scenes, Characters, Incidents c indeed, David Rachels, editor of the Georgia edition, has complained that the story, even though it “may be the best of the Georgia Scenes,” nonetheless “is certainly the most misunderstood because critics have been unwilling to