Have you guys heard about this?
Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell issued a proclamation to reinstate Confederate History Month without mentioning slavery at all! It was only after President Obama declared this "unacceptable" that the Governor apologized and added a statement portraying slavery as a cause of the Civil War and a "hateful" institution.
I have followed a couple of news reports on CNN interviewing Confederate reenactors and their opinions that the Confederate History Month should be seen as an educational component that recounts the history of the South. But are people forgetting the root cause of the Civil War? Slavery was not ONE of the factors for the Civil War, it was THE factor for conflict.
President Obama said it perfectly in that you cannot understand the Confederacy or the Civil War unless you understand slavery. We live in the 21st century, and we have government officials such as this Governor who do not wish to acknowledge slavery in reinstating a Confederate History Month proclamation? I really don't know what to think right now. It makes me question a lot of things.
Any thoughts?
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I haven't heard this--wow!
ReplyDeleteOne thing however...it is my understanding that slavery was not the cause of the civil war. Certain states decided that they would not allow slavery anymore and they were in the north mainly because of Industrialization. The farms and huge fields in need of labor were in the south (better climate for farming etc) and they needed slaves in order to be productive.
Lincoln himself actually owned slaves, and he was not necessarily against the idea. Some southern states wanted to secede from the Union because of disagreements about government/not approving Lincoln, etc. Lincoln passed the emancipation proclimation because he knew it would be a great war tactic. He knew how much the South needed slaves in order to be prosperous (and many rich slave owners would send a slave to fight in their place), and as long as they were still a part of the Union, they had to oblige. With all the slaves freed, they lost not only soldiers but their main income. War = expensive
This is just my understanding of the war and events. I am not a history major and if I am off here, please someone correct me!! I don't agree with having a confederate month or anything, but I just wanted to add some clarity on the history. Confederates today are viewed as racist however (I don't know any to know for sure).
I would agree with your assessment of the Civil War as a war of economics. It was about northern manufacturing and southern agricultural production, in my understanding of the events the slavery component was mostly an economic factor; granted there were plenty of abolitionists involved in the process. The Emancipation Proclamation was a brilliant tactic by Lincoln, because without it the North most assuredly would have lost. According to many Civil War books I have read, the South would've won the war swiftly if it had not held back or made a few late tactical errors (this might have something to do with me being from Virginia).
ReplyDeleteI think that the main problem is the factor of political correctness. So many people call slavery THE cause of the civil war and thus consider the Confederate flag, any mention of the South rising again, or the Confederacy to be racist. Therefore, it is not surprising that Obama had to come out and say something. There is also the issue of him being portrayed as "not black enough" to take into consideration (even if it is a very small part of his action).
Virginia lies south of the Mason Dixon line, in a region that is conscious of state's rights and willing to defend them. While the governor erred in his political correctness, we would be teaching our children to bow to a federal government if we rule out a month teaching them the history of the state they grew up in. I wish I had a Confederate history month instead of learning about the tidewater and piedmont regions of Virginia. In fact, this could lead to dialogue about institutional racism if handled correctly.
In Virginia, this will be interpreted as the federal government once again, meddling in a state's affairs and threatening its sovereignty. This is why the Civil War is often referred to as the War of Northern Aggression in states throughout the South.
As wrong as it may sound to many of you. I will stand by my governor, the First Amendment, and a well rounded education (he should've used better judgement and been politically correct at the onset), in the face of federal government reaching into any state's rights, preconceived and biased notions about the Civil War that chalk it all up to slavery, and the demonizing of the Confederacy as a solely racist institution. This does not mean that I support all that happened in the Confederacy or all of their beliefs (e.g. slavery). Rather, it means that some things really aren't just black and white.
I agree with the two posts before me by Miranda and Max. Lincoln dived into the Civil War with one main intention: to keep the Union as one nation. He resented the idea of the south declaring their independence. In fact, the Emancipation of Proclamation was one of his tactics to weaken the south. Many people believe the EP freed the slaves, but, when it was first issued, it really freed no one. The document states that the slaves of the seceded states are free. Of course the seceded state wouldn’t follow that order since it has declared its independent and the document has no effect on the slave states that stayed with the Union. Lincoln’s tactic was mainly to get the slaves of the Confederate to revolt so that there would be more aid for the north and more distraction for the south. Granted, the Civil War ended up being a great progress for the abolition of slavery, but that was not its main intention.
ReplyDeleteI think the incentive to recount the history of the South is interesting because people often forget that there is more to the South than slavery. I would like to learn more about the way of life of the South. Although I would disagree that there should be a Confederate History Month because it reinforces that boundaries and barriers between the southern and northern states that still resonate today. If you drive through the South today, chances are there are still people out there who still believe in the Confederate and proclaim that they are independent from the U.S.
In any cases, I don’t like the fact that the ugly part of our history is always being hushed up. We should discuss about it and learn from it. Text-book history, through which most of us learn about our past, are often watered down and over-simplified. From what we learn in grade school, Civil War seems like a good guy vs bad guy thing. I think an incentive to dive deeper into our history would enlighten us to the gray areas.
I think the concept of a "Southern History" week or month is not something to be condemned, however, the term "Confederate" is completely linked (perhaps unfairly) with slavery. While the causes of the Civil War may not have been slavery, it was so interlinked that I do not believe the two can be separated in a way that can make a Confederate History Month healthy for this country. While there are plenty of rich southern traditions that people in the south should be proud of, ignoring that slavery was one of them is not ok. If the governor would have phrased this differently, who knows if everyone would have gotten upset. Confederate is completely connected to the concept of slavery, and we as educated college students have to realize that the majority of the population will not research to analyze the real cause of the Civil War- it is assumed to be slavery. Middle school history courses teach it as slavery, not an economic cause. Obama's response was necessary, and I appreciate the fact that he did his part to clear it up. The governor probably did not mean it to be a celebration of slavery... but isn that the entire problem?? White people completely ignoring issue of racism?? Pretending colors dont exist? The idea of celebrating southern history is a good one, but people need to pay close attention to how they phrase it. Ignoring history is not healthy and will not help anything by acting like its ok to pretend it didnt exist. Time may not heal everything.
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