During the 1820s and 1830s Americans, with politicians in the vanguard, wept over the oppressed peoples of Europe and cheered on the swelling revolutions, especially the Greek. Governor George Troup of Georgia referred to “the Greek, in his glorious struggle with the Turk.” At the University of North Carolina, Representative William Shephard interpreted this “universal burst of indignant sympathy” as “a sincere tribute of deep-felt respect for her [Greece's] departed greatness.” In Charleston in 1824, Catholic Bishop John England made a deep impression with an address on the suffering of the Greeks. Two years later he complained that “Greece” had become a magic word, conjuring up classical civilization and firing sympathy for the cause of freedom among Americans who were ignoring the struggle in Ireland. Joel Poinsett of South Carolina, an experienced diplomat, cautioned against sentimentalism and opposed Daniel Webster's inclination to intervene.

Southern enthusiasm for Christian Greeks against Muslim Turks slowly diminished. Francis Lieber, who fought on the side of the revolutionaries, grew disillusioned with Greek character and objectives and with the revolutionaries' incompetence. Editing Southern Literary Messenger in Richmond, Edgar Allan Poe shared Lieber's disillusionment, but when he turned to Spanish tyranny in Latin America Poe reverted to formand ignored the revolutionaries' deficiencies. In an 1856 Southern Literary Messenger, “L.” tried to rekindle the sputtering pro-revolutionary fervor.