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July 1, 2007
Facts the Historians Leave Out: A Youth's Confederate Primer
I'm sure that title got your attention. I'm at Inman Park in order to get some work done, but I can't help but procrastinate a bit, so I thought I'd do it in a semi-productive way. The above title is an actual book written by John S. Tilley in 1951. My friend Jay found it and gave it to me. It was likely used by the Children of the Confederacy (my Dad was a member in his youth). The book is interesting. It makes some very good points about those damn Yankees: 1) they were pretty bigoted themselves 2) the North profited from slavery immensely, including some abolitionists through the ivory trade, I might add (see Complicity: How the North Promoted, Prolonged and Profited from Slavery) 3) the Emancipation Proclamation did not abolish slavery. Now, having said that, I've never been a fan of the "well you're side was just as bad argument," it generally misses the point--slavery was evil, to say the least; however, the North's role in the slave trade is often obfuscated and this is a real problem. Especially when you consider that much of the wealth of this nation was built on the back of slaves. I believe that the South must remain the sole site of shame in order to keep the rest of the nation free of stain. People can point to the South as the place where racism happens/ed and then pat themselves on the back for not participating. This is not to deny that the South was a site of extreme racial violence, oppression and brutality. I guess simply put, I would argue that no one's hands are clean and we would do well to remember this. The yoke of slavery still affects blacks today and we need to start recognizing this.
Now, to get back to the book, despite these good points, he also writes:
“Beyond question, some masters cruelly whipped and abused their slaves. Every right-thinking Southerner is ashamed of that record.
Has it occurred to you that, even today, some husbands and fathers brutally beat their wives and children? That, however, doesn’t prove that all husbands and fathers are brutes, does it?
And, at times, unruly children have to be punished. It was so with the slaves. Most of them were childlike, good-natured, well-behaved. But not all! There were those who were treacherous and dangerous and who could be controlled only by the use of force.”
Okay, I guess I should save this for something else—sorry for the lecture. Although I must add that my inner feminist loves that he uses an analogy in which wives are compared to slaves. Wow. Back to work.
Posted by sara at July 1, 2007 7:46 AM