tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8697060800242665861.post5319286168173862089..comments2023-11-07T10:47:56.941-05:00Comments on The Past isn't Past: Nothing to CelebrateMark Byrneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02022137257615203375noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8697060800242665861.post-34114545973300973062011-03-02T10:21:02.470-05:002011-03-02T10:21:02.470-05:00I think the best answer to your question I've ...I think the best answer to your question I've seen is in Edmund Morgan's book, _American Slavery, American Freedom_. He argues that the American idea of freedom developed in the colonies alongside the institution of slavery, and that in some respects, slavery helped define freedom for whites; i.e., to be free meant not being black and a slave. This helped unite whites behind the idea of freedom across socio-economic classes. I think that helps explain why, as you note, it was easy for the southern aristocracy to convince non-slaveowners that abolition threatened them too: it meant reducing them to the status of the freedmen.Mark Byrneshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02022137257615203375noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8697060800242665861.post-4096301779445785982011-03-02T07:54:07.400-05:002011-03-02T07:54:07.400-05:00I think you are correct on all points. The larger ...I think you are correct on all points. The larger question is why did so many families with young men, the overwhelming majority of whom held no slaves and many with little economic means give their lives to this cause. In my opinion, and this may help somewhat to explain the romanticism that exists,they were motivated by the memories of lost causes past; of their struggles with the English that brought them to America. There is an ethos that runs deep here and I think the aristocracy in the South understood that and used it to their advantage.Conrad Hunterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02431858159066209398noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8697060800242665861.post-79105139031705326382010-12-05T13:18:34.845-05:002010-12-05T13:18:34.845-05:00I saw your comment before reading the editorial an...I saw your comment before reading the editorial and thought it must be coincidence. But then I read the editorial and saw how closely it followed this argument and used some of the same evidence. So maybe.<br /><br />Either way, I was glad to see the H-J say what it did. Brace yourself for the letters to the editor that will follow.Mark Byrneshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02022137257615203375noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8697060800242665861.post-65207229253584317682010-12-05T09:19:56.620-05:002010-12-05T09:19:56.620-05:00I think you may be responsible for the excellent e...I think you may be responsible for the excellent editorial in the Herald Journal today. Thanks for that.Randyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00852055658738588495noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8697060800242665861.post-55463443536417209082010-12-04T08:43:02.362-05:002010-12-04T08:43:02.362-05:00This "celebration" reminds me of how a w...This "celebration" reminds me of how a well known fraternity (was it Kappa Sig?), in the 50s and 60s, and maybe even later, had as their major annual social event a Confederate Ball, complete with full dress uniforms, grand ball gowns, and even a few "slaves". I always felt this event had more to do with having an excuse to dress up in beautiful get-ups and re-enact a part of Gone with the Wind than politics, but like the SCV, it required going into complete denial about the facts so that everyone could have a good time. In the case of the fraternity, the national organization finally had to threaten the southern chapters with completer expulsion to get the practice stopped. Apparently there are no similar sanctions that can be brought against the SCV.Randyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00852055658738588495noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8697060800242665861.post-7423757500863200832010-12-03T09:35:17.440-05:002010-12-03T09:35:17.440-05:00I have lived in the south my entire life, and stil...I have lived in the south my entire life, and still cannot understand the romanticism of the civil war. I especially fail to comprehend the downplaying of slavery's importance to the infrastructure and culture of the south. That the economy had pinned its basis on agriculture and the slave labor used to keep it going is a matter of record and to downplay that is a discredit to factual history and to every descendant of a person who was held in slavery.<br /><br />True tariffs, a shift to a more industrialized economy in the north, played a part, but so did the expansion into the west, with slave states vying for more like themselves for a bigger influence in national politics. Ah wait, more slave states...slavery was an issue even there.<br /><br />Attempting to rewrite history by ignoring the ugliness it contains is sadly nothing new, as later generations don't want to admit to the "sins of their forefathers." However I am of a mind that we should remember the good the bad and the ugly of our past. How better to learn from it. People like the SCV should know better to expect everyone to buy their version. I just hope that few do.S, Gallowayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17701295302601651829noreply@blogger.com