Confederate History Month

QueEx · Apr 10, 2010

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The controversy:</font size>

<font size="3">Last week, Virginia’s governor, Robert McDonnell, issued a proclamation recognizing April as Confederate History Month. </font size>

<font size="3">The Celebration: The idea is to celebrate those “who fought for their homes and communities and Commonwealth” and wrote of the importance of understanding “the sacrifices of the Confederate leaders, soldiers and citizens during the period of the Civil War.” </font size>

<font size="3">The governor chose not to mention slavery in the proclamation, saying he “focused on the ones I thought were most significant for Virginia.” Apparently, to the Governor of Virginia, the plight of Virginia’s slaves does not rank among the most significant aspects of the war.
- <font size="3">The Sons of Confederate Veterans, an organization that urged the Governor to issue the proclamation was ecstatic: ", "If the proclamation does anything, it hopefully will be a nail in the coffin of political correctness, an insidious disease affecting our nation." </font size>

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The Reaction:</font size>

<font size="3">President Barack Obama weighed in on Virginia's Confederate History Month, or more specifically Gov. Bob McDonnell's initial failure to include a mention of slavery in his April proclamation. Obama said: "I think that was an unacceptable omission, and I think the governor has now acknowledged that." "I don't think you can understand the Confederacy and the Civil War unless you understand slavery."

"I think it's just a reminder that when we talk about issues like slavery that are so fraught with pain and emotion, that, you know, we'd better do so thinking through how this is going to affect a lot of people. And their sense of whether they're part of a commonwealth or part of our broader society."</font size>

<font size="3">Frederick Douglas. At Gettysburg, Pa.: “I am no minister of hate,” wrote the black abolitionist Frederick Douglass in 1871. But as he watched Northerners in the years after the Civil War turn to teary-eyed embraces of their former Confederate enemies at postwar reunions and veterans’ meetings, he was appalled. “May my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth if I forget the difference between ... those who fought to save the Republic and those who fought to destroy it.” </font size>

<font size="3">Ben Jealous, President & CEO - NAACP “The NAACP is deeply disappointed with Governor Bob McDonnell’s decision to make April, Confederate History Month. This decision by the Governor disrespects history and the people of Virginia and is a tragic break from his Republican predecessors who acknowledged the painful legacy of slavery . . . [the] U.S. Congress has apologized for and we feel is crime against humanity. It is not only disingenuous to honor the confederacy, but at time when Congressmen and other elected officials are being attacked it is dangerous.” </font size>

<font size="3">The Virginia NAACP is seeking repeal of the proclamation, which, according to the governor's office, was issued at the request of the Sons of Confederate Veterans.</font size>

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The Governor Backtracks:</font size>

<font size="3">After a barrage of nationwide criticism for excluding slavery from his Confederate History Month proclamation, Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell (R) on Wednesday conceded that it was "a major omission" and amended the document to acknowledge the state's complicated past.

"The proclamation issued by this Office designating April as Confederate History Month contained a major omission," McDonnell said in a statement. "The failure to include any reference to slavery was a mistake, and for that I apologize to any fellow Virginian who has been offended or disappointed." </font size>
- <font size="3">The Sons of Confederate Veterans, were livid: "While we are pleased to see heightened media attention to Confederate History Month resulting from the proclamation, we are dismayed to see political implications or political correction zeal placed on it."</font size>

QueEx · Apr 10, 2010

H. K. Edgerton is a black Southern heritage activist and former president of the NAACP's Asheville, North Carolina, branch.

Edgerton runs a website, Southern Heritage 411, which provides Southern viewpoints such as that there was and remains a feeling of brotherhood between black Americans, slave and free, historically and at present, and research on Black Confederate participation in the American Civil War. Edgerton is a strong pro-Confederate advocate working against what he considers to be racially-divisive politics and historical misinterpretation. He continues as a popular public speaker at many pro-Southron heritage events.

In December 1998, Edgerton was suspended from the NAACP after he approached Kirk Lyons, an attorney who had represented Ku Klux Klan leader Louis Beam in a 1988 conspiracy trial, to assist the Asheville NAACP in a lawsuit over housing policy. According to the NAACP, his suspension was due to non-compliance with the organization's rules when the Asheville chapter fell into debt. In 1999, he was voted out of office.

Edgerton is noted for a march from North Carolina to Texas to build awareness of Southern culture and history.

Edgerton is now the chairman of the board of directors of the Southern Legal Resource Center. He is also an associate member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. Edgerton has received criticism because of his efforts to support a religious test requiring municipal officials to profess belief in God in order to hold public office in North Carolina, which critics claim would violate the no religious test clause in Article VI, section 3 of the Constitution.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._K._Edgerton

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<A HREF="http://www.southernheritage411.com/">link</A>

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Costanza · Apr 11, 2010

Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell's original Confederate History Month Proclamation
Wednesday, April 7, 2010; 7:15 PM

Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell issued a proclamation in April 2010 declaring it Confederate History Month in the commonwealth. The declaration, which had been refused under Democratic governors, was not well received by many Virginia residents, including Sheila Johson, a prominent African American backer from 2008. She described the proclamation as "academically flawed and personally offensive." McDonnell later issued a strongly worded apology and inserted a new paragraph into the original proclamation referring to the horrors and pains of slavery in the commonwealth. That proclamation can be seen by clicking this link.. The original follows.

WHEREAS, April is the month in which the people of Virginia joined the Confederate States of America in a four year war between the states for independence that concluded at Appomattox Courthouse; and

WHEREAS, Virginia has long recognized her Confederate history, the numerous civil war battlefields that mark every region of the state, the leaders and individuals in the Army, Navy and at home who fought for their homes and communities and Commonwealth in a time very different than ours today; and

WHEREAS, it is important for all Virginians to reflect upon our Commonwealth's shared history, to understand the sacrifices of the Confederate leaders, soldiers and citizens during the period of the Civil War, and to recognize how our history has led to our present; and

WHEREAS, Confederate historical sites such as the White House of the Confederacy are open for people to visit in Richmond today; and

WHEREAS, all Virginians can appreciate the fact that when ultimately overwhelmed by the insurmountable numbers and resources of the Union Army, the surviving, imprisoned and injured Confederate soldiers gave their word and allegiance to the United States of America, and returned to their homes and families to rebuild their communities in peace, following the instruction of General Robert E. Lee of Virginia, who wrote that, "...all should unite in honest efforts to obliterate the effects of war and to restore the blessings of peace."; and

WHEREAS, this defining chapter in Virginia's history should not be forgotten, but instead should be studied, understood and remembered by all Virginians, both in the context of the time in which it took place, but also in the context of the time in which we live, and this study and remembrance takes on particular importance as the Commonwealth prepares to welcome the nation and the world to visit Virginia for the Sesquicentennial Anniversary of the Civil War, a four-year period in which the exploration of our history can benefit all;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, Robert McDonnell, do hereby recognize April 2010 as CONFEDERATE HISTORY MONTH in our COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA, and I call this observance to the attention of all our citizens.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/07/AR2010040704411.html

QueEx · Apr 12, 2010

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Mississippi Governor Weighs In
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Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour on Sunday defended fellow Gov. Bob McDonnell for his decision to declare April "Confederate History Month" in Virginia without initially acknowledging the legacy of slavery, saying the controversy "doesn't amount to diddly." "To me, it's a sort of feeling that it's a nit, that it is not significant, that it's ... trying to make a big deal out of something doesn't amount to diddly," he said.

Barbour, a Republican, said his state for years has marked a Confederate Memorial Day, under the leadership of Democratic and Republican governors -- and a Democratic legislature.

"I'm unaware of them being criticized for it or them having their supporters feel uncomfortable with it," Barbour said Sunday.

Costanza · Apr 12, 2010

^^^

I just saw that on Yahoo... I learned something about Mississippi worth pointing out that I did not know, bolded below.

Miss. gov says Confederacy flap not worth 'diddly'
Sun Apr 11, 6:54 pm ET

NEW ORLEANS – The dustup over Virginia's proclamation for Confederate History Month seems like a lot of noise over something that "doesn't amount to diddly," Mississippi's governor said in an interview aired Sunday.

Virginia's Republican governor, Bob McDonnell, apologized for leaving out of his proclamation any reference to slavery. He added language to the decree calling slavery "evil and inhumane" after being criticized for reviving what many Virginians believe is an insensitive commemoration of its Confederate past.

Fellow GOP Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi said he doesn't think the proclamation was a mistake.

"To me, it's a sort of feeling that it's a nit, that it is not significant, that it's not a — it's trying to make a big deal out of something (that) doesn't amount to diddly," Barbour said in the interview aired on CNN's "State of the Union."

Last year, Barbour issued a similar proclamation in his state that did not mention slavery. He also noted that his state has a holiday, Confederate Memorial Day, that has been maintained by Democratic and Republican governors and the state's majority-Democrat legislature. The state also honors the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Confederate general Robert E. Lee on the same day in January.

Barbour said he was not aware of any complaints that the holiday was offensive.

"I don't really see what to say about slavery, but anybody that thinks that you have to explain to some people that slavery is a bad thing, I think that goes without saying," Barbour said.

Mississippi's events aren't embraced by everyone.

"I think it's unfortunate that the governor is so insensitive to the atrocities made against African-Americans in this country by the former Confederate States," said Derrick Johnson, president of the Mississippi NAACP. "As governor of the state with a higher percentage of African-Americans that any other, we would hope he would be more sensitive to them."

"We have always raised out opposition to any memorial day that would raise some type of positive light on the Confederacy that broke away from the United States," Johnson said. "We consider that treason."

McDonnell revised the proclamation after a day of scalding denunciations as the story became grist for cable news shows and caught fire on political blogs and in social media.

McDonnell had issued the Confederate History Month proclamation at the behest of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, descendants of rebel soldiers. McDonnell was the first Virginia governor to issue such a proclamation since fellow Republican Jim Gilmore in 2001. Democrats Mark Warner and Kaine, who succeeded Gilmore, refused.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100411/ap_on_re_us/us_confederate_history_flap

thoughtone · Apr 12, 2010

This HK Edgerton is the only so called black Confederate I can find. Typical media, giving voice to to an outlier making it seem he represents some significant amount of black people.

QueEx · Apr 12, 2010

thoughtone said:
This HK Edgerton is the only so called black Confederate I can find. Typical media, giving voice to to an outlier making it seem he represents some significant amount of black people.

T.O.,

Is the media outing HK, or is HK outing himself ???

Seems to me, right or wrong, Edgerton is trying to get his message, out.

QueEx

thoughtone · Apr 12, 2010

QueEx said:
T.O.,

Is the media outing HK, or is HK outing himself ???

Seems to me, right or wrong, Edgerton is trying to get his message, out.

QueEx

I suspect the later in the case of CNN. CNN has been losing ratings points over the last year and I think that their strategy to boost ratings is to try and appeal to the right wing, who under some strange mistaken assumption think CNN is a liberal news source.

This is not the first time I have heard of him. If my memory serves me correctly he first popped on the scene during the southern states flags controversies. When Atlanta won the Olympic games, their were calls by some to remove the stars and bars from the Georgia state flag. then it move from southern state to southern state. Edgerton was one of the individuals saying the Civil War legacy was not negative toward Black folk, thus concluding that the symbol of succession and resistance was not harmful.

Is he trying to get is message out? Of course. I have looked in to such claims of Blacks fighting for the Confederates and could not find no significant numbers or agreement that Black folk fought side by side with them. Their were records of slaves being used as supply workers with no evidence that they were doing so willingly.

QueEx · Apr 12, 2010

thoughtone said:
I suspect the later in the case of CNN. CNN has been losing ratings points over the last year and I think that their strategy to boost ratings is to try and appeal to the right wing, who under some strange mistaken assumption think CNN is a liberal news source.

This is not the first time I have heard of him. If my memory serves me correctly he first popped on the scene during the southern states flags controversies. When Atlanta won the Olympic games, their were calls by some to remove the stars and bars from the Georgia state flag. then it move from southern state to southern state. Edgerton was one of the individuals saying the Civil War legacy was not negative toward Black folk, thus concluding that the symbol of succession and resistance was not harmful.

Is he trying to get is message out? Of course. I have looked in to such claims of Blacks fighting for the Confederates and could not find no significant numbers or agreement that Black folk fought side by side with them. Their were records of slaves being used as supply workers with no evidence that they were doing so willingly.

Bruh,

Don Lemon

I saw HK's interview with CNN's Don Lemon and from what I saw, not only was Lemon not buying into HK's theory, Lemon actually lost a bit of his journalistic cool when HK insisted that celebrating the Confederacy without any mention of slavery was okay. I didn't see where CNN trying to boost its cred with the right. In fact, I thought just the opposite.

IRONICALLY. I came across an article yesterday that I started to post about how CNN has been losing market share big time to FOX etc., because CNN made a conscious decisions some years ago NOT to engage in the right-wing hype. I was going to post it, but thought otherwise. Perhaps I can put my hands on it again as I think it should make interesting analyzing-the-networks discussion.

QueEx

G-MO · Apr 17, 2010

Mr. H. K. Edgerton is a disturbed man.

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thoughtone · Apr 18, 2010

QueEx said:
Bruh,

Don Lemon

I saw HK's interview with CNN's Don Lemon and from what I saw, not only was Lemon not buying into HK's theory, Lemon actually lost a bit of his journalistic cool when HK insisted that celebrating the Confederacy without any mention of slavery was okay. I didn't see where CNN trying to boost its cred with the right. In fact, I thought just the opposite.

IRONICALLY. I came across an article yesterday that I started to post about how CNN has been losing market share big time to FOX etc., because CNN made a conscious decisions some years ago NOT to engage in the right-wing hype. I was going to post it, but thought otherwise. Perhaps I can put my hands on it again as I think it should make interesting analyzing-the-networks discussion.

QueEx

I came across an article yesterday that I started to post about how CNN has been losing market share big time to FOX etc., because CNN made a conscious decisions some years ago NOT to engage in the right-wing hype.

I wish you would have posted said article, because despite the claims of CNN being liberal or playing it straight down the middle, that is a fabrication and observation of the so called main stream media.

CNN has not been truly balanced since Time Inc. took it over. CNN has been riding the so called liberal label ever since Ted Turner own it and even then it wasn't liberal, but that type of innovative news broadcasting has long since been shed away.

For example, right wing CNN contributor Erick Erickson made the statement if a census worker carrying a longer American Community Survey form came by his house, he would "pull out my wife's shotgun and see how that little ACS twerp likes being scared at the door."

Of course, that wouldn't be so bad if CNN disavowed what he said, but they tried to deny the whole incident.

Next CNN continually gives voice to right wing fringe claims, such as airing Lynn Cheney's videos against the Obama administration. Wolf Blitzer had to apologize for this one.

Remember, Glenn Beck was a regular on CNN before Faux Snooze snapped him up. Where are the so called liberal commentators on CNN?

And then during the health care public debate, CNN refused to run an ad critical of the health care industry despite the fact they run ads by and for the health care industry as well as for products and services the individual consumer has no interest in ever purchasing such as Lockheed Martin, the energy lobby, etc.

CNN's problem is not that they have not gone right, their problem is that they don't take a point of view. Having a Black anchor offer his opinion to a fringe Confederate is not balanced, it is trolling for right wing viewers. Now if they had a respected middle of the road historian on that particular episode to set the story straight as far as this issue, then you could call them balanced.

You and I have gone back and forth over this during the 2008 Presidential campaign. I took the argument that Mc Cain was getting preferential treatment from the press and posted examples. And in another thread you made the comment of liberal media and I said post some examples. You have yet to respond.

In actuality, the so called main stream media has swung so far right over the last 25 years that anything to the left of it is misconstrued as left wing. Even the once true middle as middle can be in American media, NPR has taken on commercials from corporations and product placements and labeled them news stories.

Que EX, name the so called left main stream media?

QueEx · Apr 19, 2010

RBGrider · Apr 19, 2010

Whenever white people feel threatened or are made to feel so they find comfort in retreating to "those by gone years" "the good ole days".

In this case they are specifically being threatened by the U.S. having a Black president. By a Boriqua on the supreme court. By a woman speaker of the house.

The by gone years that they long for ... the days of brutal and savage terrorizing, murder, rape and enslavement of African people.

Fuck em. Fuck their flag. and if they cross my path waving it they betta be prepared to put it down or have it rammed up their dumb asses.

As far as the "brother" who is down with the confederacy....there have always been these types from the time they worked with yt to capture us and sell us into slavery, to headmen and overseers, to those that fought on the side of confederacy to those who shot Chairman Fred Hampton in his sleep...for these traitorous turncoat idiots I got nothin but heat.

thoughtone · Nov 14, 2010

Absolutely pure fiction. Could you imagine the southern confederate devils giving weapons to their "slaves." You thought Gettysburg was a slaughter

QueEx · Apr 13, 2011

BlackWolf · Jun 13, 2011

Scholars Debate Over Black Role In The Confederacy

RALEIGH, N.C. – As America embarks on four years of Civil War commemorations, it revives an unsettling debate that lingers 150 years after the conflict: how to view the role of African Americans in the Confederacy.

It arose last year when a Virginia textbook was yanked over protests that it inaccurately claimed thousands of blacks served as Confederate soldiers. More recently, a North Carolina community turned down an effort to erect a monument to 10 black men who served the Southern army and later collected Confederate pensions.

Confederate law prohibited slaves from serving as soldiers until March 1865, when it was changed in a last-gasp effort to strengthen troop numbers.

Yet the debate continues bubbling to the surface in many ways.

Gregory Perry of Monroe, N.C., who learned recently that an ancestor was awarded pension for Confederate service, says it’s hard to reconcile that fact with what he knows firsthand about being a black man in the South.

“I grew up in the era of Malcolm X and militancy, and would never have considered something like this possible,” said Perry, 46, reflecting on the life of his great-great-grandfather, Aaron Perry.

“I wonder: If Aaron Perry knew the Union Army was coming to free him, why did he join the other side?”

Most Civil War historians agree black slaves and even some free blacks contributed crucial manpower to the Southern war effort — but it was mostly menial work done under duress or for survival, not out of support for the secession movement.

John David Smith, professor of American history at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte and a member of North Carolina’s Sesquicentennial Academic Advisory Committee, said the South’s 11th-hour effort to recruit black soldiers was “too little, too late.”

“There’s no evidence of any real mobilization of slaves,” Smith said. At most, a company or two — including one of hospital workers — was ever organized.

Yet efforts to depict blacks as Confederates persist.

The Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond once sold black toy soldiers, clad in Confederate gray. They were pulled from shelves in fall 2010 after several complaints.

Historian and library director John Coski posted an explanation in the gift shop.

“There is much wartime and postwar evidence of African-Americans acting in ways that suggest loyalty to the Confederacy — staying `home’ even when there was an opportunity to run away, even burying the family silver,” Coski wrote. But as to whether significant numbers of black men enlisted as combat soldiers, Coski says “the answer is a resounding `no.’”

Smith says he believes painting African Americans as Confederate sympathizers plays down the real causes of the Civil War.

“What gets professional historians concerned is when certain people start calling these people soldiers. It all goes back to how you define soldier. And for me, the story of so-called black Confederates is not as important as the story of why it keeps coming back.”

He added, “I think it keeps coming up because there are certain people who resist the idea that slavery and white supremacy were the cause of the Civil War.”

One such group is the Sons of Confederate Veterans, a Southern heritage organization whose members say state’s rights, not slavery, was the primary motivation for succession. Through a steady stream of website commentaries, blog posts and printed articles, Sons of Confederate Veterans members frequently promote the idea of black support for the Southern Army.

The author of Virginia’s recalled textbook, Joy Masoff, said articles by Sons of Confederate Veterans members helped convince her to include information in the fourth-grade history book that said “thousands” of black Confederate soldiers fought in the war.

Slaves undoubtedly worked for the Confederate troops, especially in the early years before food and supplies were scarce.

Workers like Gregory Perry’s great-great grandfather were brought onto the battlefield to drive horses, cook and even serve as valets. Slaves also were occasionally conscripted from their owners to help work on roads and other infrastructure needed by the army, Smith said.

“African Americans built bridges, erected fortifications, worked on the docks — all kinds of support work to free whites up to go and fight,” he added. “That’s nothing new.”

In the 1920s, 2,807 Southern blacks were approved for pensions authorized for black Confederates. In most states, each applicant was required to report the nature of the work performed and to which unit his “master” had been assigned.

In North Carolina, Sons of Confederate Veterans member Tony Way researched historical records and found that 10 black men from Union County received Confederate pensions. All were listed as having served the Southern Army as guards, servants, cooks and in other supporting roles.

Way proposed a marker on the courthouse square to recognize their contributions. He said he wasn’t trying to make a political statement.

“There are no African American monuments in Monroe County, so, being a Civil War buff, I thought the marker might highlight a unique and un-talked-about part of this region’s history,” Way said.

Jerry Surratt, chairman of the Union County Historical Commission, said the commission voted against the marker mainly because of the existing Confederate veterans’ monument nearby. It bears the titles of local regiments — not individual names as Way wanted.

“If we were going to list the names of those who served from Union County, there could be 1,800 names up there, 500 of whom didn’t return living,” Surratt said.

Earl Ijames, curator of African American and community history at the North Carolina Museum of History in Raleigh, helped Way with his research.

Ijames, who is black, said it is unrealistic to maintain that no people of color took sides against the Union. A seventh-generation North Carolinian, Ijames said some blacks may have pledged allegiance to the Confederates as a means of self-preservation.

This is something Gregory Perry has begun to consider about his ancestor.

“I can only think there must have been something more about this war, something we don’t know about, for him to have had such a connection to the Southern people or to the land,” he said.

Meanwhile, Ed Smith, an American University professor who has spoken widely on the subject, says today’s audiences can’t really gauge the societal, economic and other pressures that played on blacks and whites during slavery.

He said that’s why it is so hard for anyone to imagine that a slave’s Southern identity could have been at odds with his ideas about freedom.

“In today’s world, it’s hard to look back on slavery with any kind of clarity,” Ed Smith says. “Frankly, I think it’s going to be quite messy for the next four years.”

www.newsone.com/nation/associatedpress3/scholars-debate-over-black-role-in-the-confederacy/

thoughtone · Jun 14, 2011

Re: Scholars Debate Over Black Role In The Confederacy

This topic has been covered before.

Confederate History Month

thoughtone · Sep 26, 2011

source: msnbc

6 Civil War Myths, Busted

One hundred and fifty years after the Civil War began, its echoes are still felt across the United States in lingering divisions between North and South, in debates over the flying of the Confederate flag, and even in arguments over the basic causes of the conflict. Myths both big and small persist about the bloodiest conflict in American history.

Here are a few:

Myth #1: The Civil War wasn't about slavery.

The most widespread myth is also the most basic. Across America, 60 percent to 75 percent of high-school history teachers believe and teach that the South seceded for state's rights, said Jim Loewen, author of "Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong" (Touchstone, 1996) and co-editor of "The Confederate and Neo-Confederate Reader: The 'Great Truth' about the 'Lost Cause'" (University Press of Mississippi, 2010).

"It's complete B.S.," Loewen told LiveScience. "And by B.S., I mean 'bad scholarship.'"

In fact, Loewen said, the original documents of the Confederacy show quite clearly that the war was based on one thing: slavery. For example, in its declaration of secession, Mississippi explained, "Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery — the greatest material interest of the world … a blow at slavery is a blow at commerce and civilization." In its declaration of secession, South Carolina actually comes out against the rights of states to make their own laws — at least when those laws conflict with slaveholding. "In the State of New York even the right of transit for a slave has been denied by her tribunals," the document reads. The right of transit, Loewen said, was the right of slaveholders to bring their slaves along with them on trips to non-slaveholding states.

In its justification of secession, Texas sums up its view of a union built upon slavery: "We hold as undeniable truths that the governments of the various States, and of the confederacy itself, were established exclusively by the white race, for themselves and their posterity; that the African race had no agency in their establishment; that they were rightfully held and regarded as an inferior and dependent race, and in that condition only could their existence in this country be rendered beneficial or tolerable."

The myth that the war was not about slavery seems to be a self-protective one for many people, said Stan Deaton, the senior historian at the Georgia Historical Society.

"People think that somehow it demonizes their ancestors," to have fought for slavery, Deaton told LiveScience. But the people fighting at the time were very much aware of what was at stake, Deaton said.

"[Defining the war] is our problem," he said. "I don't think it was theirs."

Myth #2: The Union went to war to end slavery.

Sometimes, Loewen said, the North is mythologized as going to war to free the slaves. That's more bad history, Loewen said: "The North went to war to hold the union together."

Pres. Abraham Lincoln was personally against slavery, but in his first inaugural, he made it clear that placating the Southern states was more important. Quoting himself in other speeches, he said, "I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so." [Read: The Best Inaugural Addresses Ever ]

Abolitionism grew in the Union army as soldiers saw slaves flocking to them for freedom, contradicting myths that slavery was the appropriate position for African-Americans, Loewen said. But it wasn't until the Emancipation Proclamation of 1963 — which left slavery intact in border states that hadn't seceded — that ending Confederate slavery became an official Union aim.

Myth #3: Blacks, both free and slave, fought for the Confederacy.

The argument over whether blacks took up arms to fight for the government that enslaved them is a bitter one, but historians have busted this myth, Deaton said.

"It's just balderdash," he said.

Loewen agreed.

"It's completely false," Loewen said. "One reason we know it's false was that the Confederacy by policy flatly did not allow blacks to be soldiers until March of 1865."

The idea had been brought up before, University of Tennessee historian Stephen Ash wrote in 2006 in the journal Reviews in American History. In January of 1864, Confederate Maj. Gen. Patrick R. Cleburne proposed enlisting slaves. When Confederate President Jefferson Davis heard the suggestion, Ash wrote, he "not only rejected the idea but also ordered that the subject be dropped and never discussed again in the army."

About three weeks before the Civil War ended, however, a desperate Davis changed his tune. By that point, the war was lost and few, if any, blacks signed up.

White officers did bring their slaves to the front, where they were pressed into service doing laundry and cooking, Loewen said.

Myth #4: The pre-Civil War era was the low point of U.S. race relations.

Slavery was a low point, no doubt, but the era between 1890 and 1940 was a "nadir of race relations," Loewen said. Tiny steps toward racial equality were reversed. For example, in the 1880s, decades before Jackie Robinson stepped onto a major league field, a few black baseball players faced down racism to play for the professional leagues. That all changed in the 1890s, Loewen said.

"It was in these decades that white ideology went more racist than at any other time," Loewen said. Eugenics flourished, as did segregation and "sundown towns," where blacks were either officially or unofficially not allowed.

"In that period the North is not going to correct Southern historians for claiming that slavery and race had nothing to do with the Civil War," Loewen said. "The North is being incredibly racist itself."

The race-relations nadir gave rise to myths 1-3, Loewen said. It also heralded the Dixie ties now heralded by Union states such as West Virginia and Kentucky, he said.

"Kentucky never seceded. They did send 35,000 troops to the Confederacy and 90,000 to the U.S." Loewen said. "Today Kentucky has 74 Civil War monuments. Two are for the U.S. and 72 are for the Confederacy."

Part of the re-casting of the Civil War may have been an attempt to smooth over North-South relations, Deaton said.

"One of the ways you bring the country back together in the wake of the Civil War is to stop talking about what caused it," Deaton said. "To do that, you have to stop talking about slavery, because it's a very ugly thing."

Myth #5: Civil War surgeons were butchers who hacked off limbs without anesthesia.

It's a Civil War cliché: The brave soldier taking a gulp of whiskey and biting down on a bullet while a surgeon takes off one of his limbs with a hacksaw. Fortunately for Civil War casualties, though, field surgery was not quite so brutal. According to the National Museum of Health and Medicine, anesthesia (mostly chloroform) was commonly used by both Union and Confederate field surgeons.

"Anesthesia, from what we can tell, was pretty commonly available," said George **********, the executive director of the National Museum of Civil War Medicine in Frederick, Md. "Confederate surgeons talk about using it all the way to the end of the war."

War dispatches from doctors clearly show that anesthesia was considered a crucial part of surgery, ********** said. When surgeons ran out of choloroform and ether, they would delay operating.

Civil War medicine was more advanced than many people believe, ********** said. Almost 30,000 amputations took place due to battlefield injuries, according to statistics kept by the Army Medical Museum. But these amputations weren't evidence of saw-happy doctors. Rather, the "minie ball" bullets used in the war were large-caliber and particularly good at shattering limbs. Amputation was often a safer option than trying to save the limb, which could lead to fatal infections in the days before antibiotics. Amputation was also very survivable: Below-the-elbow and below-the-knee amputations had survival rates of 75 percent to 85 percent, ********** said.

Myth #6: A Civil War bullet impregnated a young Virginia woman.

One of the stranger stories to come out of the Civil War is that of a young Virginia woman standing on a porch as a battle waged nearby. Allegedly, a stray bullet passed through the scrotum of a soldier and into the young woman's uterus. She survived, only to give birth to a baby boy with a bullet lodged in his scrotum nine months later.

If it sounds too incredible to be true, it is. The story first appeared in The American Medical Weekly in 1874, according to debunking website Snopes.com. Written by an "L.G. Capers," the article was clearly a joke, as the editor of the journal clarified two weeks later. Nevertheless, the story has spread via outlets as varied as "Dear Abby" and the Fox television show "House."

MASTERBAKER · Dec 2, 2011

Black college student sparks debate by hanging Confederate flag in dorm room, says 'I know it's kind of weird because I'm black'

Byron Thomas, 19, holds a Confederate battle flag in his dorm room at USCB.

COLUMBIA, S.C. — A black college student who drew complaints for displaying a Confederate flag in his dorm room window said he sees the banner as a symbol of Southern pride and not racism.

The 19-year-old student at the University of South Carolina Beaufort took the flag down at the university's request, but he said he's considering putting it back up after the officials relented. Byron Thomas has drawn nearly 70,000 views since he posted a video online in which he acknowledges: "I know it's kind of weird because I'm black."

In a telephone interview Thursday, Thomas said a class research project made him come to the belief that the flag's real meaning has been hijacked. He said he wants people to thoughtfully consider issues of race and not just knee-jerk reactions to such symbols.

"When I look at this flag, I don't see racism. I see respect, Southern pride," he said. "This flag was seen as a communication symbol" during the Civil War.

He said university officials asked him to take the banner down just before Thanksgiving after students and parents complained when it was seen by them on campus tours, but have since told him he can put it back up.

The freshman from North Augusta said his generation can eliminate the flag's negative power by adopting the banner as a symbol of Southern pride.

"I've been getting a lot of support from people. My generation is interested in freedom of speech," Thomas said.

But Thomas says his parents don't like the flag and he's concerned about their point of view, particularly since they pay his bills.

"I don't want to make my parents mad," he said. "I may wait until Monday to put it up."

He said he's unhappy about such things as labels, and he doesn't like the term "African-American," which makes him feel like "a half-citizen," since he wasn't born in Africa.

Thomas' roommate Blane Reed, who is white, said in a separate telephone interview that he never heard any complaints after Thomas put the flag up shortly after Labor Day. Each student has a separate bedroom and share living space with three others, the 18-year-old from Walhalla, S.C., said.

He said the flag was on the inside of Thomas' bedroom window and moved it later to the window in their common living area. But the week before Thanksgiving, Thomas was asked by his hall director to take it down from the window and put it anywhere inside the student apartment.

Thomas then posted a video on CNN's iReport website that has logged more than 69,000 viewings. An article in The Beaufort Gazette Thursday touched off dozens of comments, both pro and con.

"I think he's got a really good point. It's just a flag, and in and of itself, it doesn't have any racial meaning. It only has as much meaning as you put into it," said Reed.

He described his roommate as a hardworking student who attends church services regularly and hasn't let the incident interfere with his studies.

"Byron is really smart, very outgoing. He's one of the nicest people you would ever meet and he'd give you the shirt off his back," said Reed, a biology major.

University spokeswoman Candace Brasseur said Thursday in an email that about two-dozen students had raised the issue of the flag with the housing office or with a resident adviser. On Thursday, she forwarded an email the school had sent to its students and staff, informing them that officials had asked Thomas to remove the flag "out of respect for his fellow students' concerns."

However, the e-mail added, because of "USCB's firm belief in the First Amendment and its right of free speech, the University cannot and will not prohibit these flags or other symbols that our students choose to display."

Thomas is free to return it to his window if he wishes, Brasseur said.

USC Beaufort is one of eight campuses in the University of South Carolina system and has about 1,750 students, of which about 16.5 percent are African American, according to the school web site.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nat...nd-weird-black-article-1.985611#ixzz1fOPi5b9R

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MaximusBlaque · Dec 2, 2011

Re: Black college student sparks debate by hanging Confederate flag in dorm room, say

So young and so foolish. First of all, what the FUCK is southern pride anyway? And why does he need to fly the symbol of those who HATE his black ass to show that pride? You listen to the CAC long enough, he'll fool you into thinking that grass isn't green, water isn't wet and that flag isn't a symbol of racism.

Autobot8655 · Dec 2, 2011

Re: Black college student sparks debate by hanging Confederate flag in dorm room, say

that flag is a BIG deal in south carolina.

I lived there for a couple years.

The flag is everywhere....literally

Zero · Dec 2, 2011

Re: Black college student sparks debate by hanging Confederate flag in dorm room, say

However, the e-mail added, because of "USCB's firm belief in the First Amendment and its right of free speech, the University cannot and will not prohibit these flags or other symbols that our students choose to display."

Think they would adhere to the same policy if some kid had one of these in his window?

I mean, it's just a flag, it just symbolizes German pride. :rolleyes:

TheyCallMeBe · Dec 2, 2011

Re: Black college student sparks debate by hanging Confederate flag in dorm room, say

MaximusBlaque said:
So young and so foolish. First of all, what the FUCK is southern pride anyway? And why does he need to fly the symbol of those who HATE his black ass to show that pride? You listen to the CAC long enough, he'll fool you into thinking that grass isn't green, water isn't wet and that flag isn't a symbol of racism.

I saw nothing that you typed. Shorty in your sig had me like :rise:

Real2DaC0re · Dec 2, 2011

Re: Black college student sparks debate by hanging Confederate flag in dorm room, say

He come from a long line of Uncle Tom's....

Simply_Black · Dec 2, 2011

Re: Black college student sparks debate by hanging Confederate flag in dorm room, say

......and there's another example of a well trained house negro.

Lib_Chick · Dec 2, 2011

Re: Black college student sparks debate by hanging Confederate flag in dorm room, say

:angry:

LoneStar29 · Dec 2, 2011

Re: Black college student sparks debate by hanging Confederate flag in dorm room, say

He's coonin

probably thinks his "open mind" will get him some white pussy

MASTERBAKER · Dec 2, 2011

I'm black: hanging Confederate flag in dorm room,

Black college student sparks debate by hanging Confederate flag in dorm room, says 'I know it's kind of weird because I'm black'

see my thread on mainboard
http://www.bgol.us/board/showthread.php?t=635033

BenQ · Dec 2, 2011

I wonder whats his bgol screen name

jeanzy5342 · Dec 2, 2011

Re: Black college student sparks debate by hanging Confederate flag in dorm room, say

BenQ said:
I wonder whats his bgol screen name

Acur, Halo, retlaW , gunner ,..etc etc :hmm:

nubian · Dec 2, 2011

Re: Black college student sparks debate by hanging Confederate flag in dorm room, say

i want to paralyze this bitch's punani though

thoughtone · Aug 4, 2012

source: Boston.com

NC county to honor black Confederate Army veterans

MONROE, N.C. (AP) — A North Carolina county has finalized plans for a granite marker that will honor local slaves who served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War.

The Charlotte Observer reports (http://bit.ly/OOgDeh ) that the marker honoring 10 black men, including nine slaves, is believed to be one of the first of its kind in the country. The marker will go in a brick walkway at the Old County Courthouse in Monroe, in front of a Civil War monument.

The county’s historic preservation commission on Thursday unanimously approved the plan for a marker that reads, ‘‘In Memory of Union County’s Confederate Pensioners of Color.’’ It goes on to recognize all African Americans who served in ‘‘The War Between The States.’’

Historians say virtually no black men fought for the Confederacy, and that it’s difficult to say how many were forced into military service or followed their owners into battle.

thoughtone · May 1, 2013

MASTERBAKER · Oct 19, 2013

AlfonZo Rachel: The Confederate flag: An Instrument of Sabotage or Suicide for Conser

AlfonZo Rachel: The Confederate flag: An Instrument of Sabotage or Suicide for Conservatives.

The mainstream media doesn't care about how this administration has slapped our vets in the face. What they are interested in is the opportunity to exploit the rare presence of a Confederate flag among Tea Parties.

Zo warns conservative Republicans of people who are sabotaging their tent with Confederate sympathies, and that they're allowing party suicide if they don't clean house. Hear more in this ZoNation.

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QueEx · Jul 6, 2015

Re: AlfonZo Rachel: The Confederate flag: An Instrument of Sabotage or Suicide for Co

The Bodies Have Been Buried;
Now, the Debate Begins

South Carolina Legislators Gird for Confederate Flag Debate

COLUMBIA, S.C. — The South Carolina legislature is expected on Monday, July 6, 2015, to take up the fate of the Confederate battle flag that flies on the State House grounds, responding to demands that it be removed after the June 17 massacre of nine people at Emanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston.

The State Senate, encouraged by Gov. Nikki R. Haley and many other elected officials, is scheduled to consider a bipartisan proposal to move the battle flag, long viewed by African-Americans as a defiant tribute to South Carolina’s segregationist past, to the state’s Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum in Columbia.

If the Senate approves the measure, the debate will shift to the House; Republicans control both chambers. A survey of lawmakers by The Associated Press, the South Carolina Press Association, and The Post and Courier, a newspaper in Charleston, found last month that there was most likely enough support in the legislature to approve the plan.

Still, observers expect an emotional debate, particularly in the House. And in the Senate — where the church’s slain pastor, the Rev. Clementa C. Pinckney, served — one member, Lee Bright, has announced plans to seek a statewide referendum.

“This flag is a part of our heritage, so the people of this state should have the final say,” Mr. Bright, a Republican of Spartanburg County, told supporters on Facebook on Wednesday.

Mr. Bright, who sought the Republican nomination for a United States Senate seat last year, is also offering bumper stickers featuring the Confederate emblem and the message “Keep your hands off my flag” in exchange for campaign contributions.

But he and others who support the flag are facing harsh political headwinds, with many of South Carolina’s elected and business leaders becoming increasingly vocal in their backing of the push to remove it.

For instance, Ms. Haley, a Republican, was unequivocal last month when she called for the change in the wake of the killings, which the authorities have described as a hate crime.

“It’s time to move the flag from the Capitol grounds,” she said on June 22, adding that “150 years after the end of the Civil War, the time has come.”

Still, some of the debate in the legislature this week could focus on the speed with which it began. Many lawmakers had long believed the status of the battle flag was settled.

The flag flew atop the State House for nearly four decades before state lawmakers, pressured by an N.A.A.C.P.-organized boycott and large protests, agreed in 2000 to remove it from the dome and place it at a memorial on the grounds. That agreement, codified in a law known as the Heritage Act, required that two-thirds of the legislature agree on any subsequent changes to the flag’s status.

And for many years, lawmakers said they were reluctant to revisit the subject. But the massacre in Charleston, and photographs of the suspect, Dylann Roof, with the battle flag, prompted wide outrage about its display and led to a rapid debate.

“The South Carolina legislature doesn’t move rapidly on anything, so the fact that this has all come about is remarkable,” said Scott E. Buchanan, the executive director of the Citadel Symposium on Southern Politics. “I think we’ll look back on this in future years and just be astounded.”

The debate will take place amid tight security after episodes of vandalism and hostile altercations between the flag’s supporters and opponents. Separately, law enforcement officials have been investigating threats against certain legislators.

The revival of the flag issue has also led to lawmakers’ being besieged by calls and emails, many of them aggressive.

“I’ve been threatened (non-physically) more this week than my whole life combined,” Representative Neal A. Collins, a Republican of Pickens County, posted on Twitter on Wednesday. “Civil discourse anyone?”

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/06/u...rs-gird-for-confederate-flag-debate.html?_r=0

Confederate History Month

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