Is the US Re-fighting its Civil War?
“Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are.” - Benjamin Franklin
Officers under Gen. Lee are increasingly seen today as ‘traitors’ and ‘white supremacists,’ part of an unfolding narrative in the US that sees the current police brutality and racism as linked to the Civil War. Are Americans once again having a kind of Civil War over the history of this conflict? Part of an unfolding narrative presented by media in the US sees the current police brutality and racism as linked to the Civil War era. This is the wrong lesson to learn, it is not based on history or reality. The civil war settled the issue of slavery in America. It did not settle the issue of racial inequality.
The racial equality movement happening in the US continues to highlight anger over the reverence shown for Confederate soldiers and generals in many places around the country. After the Civil War, the South was briefly occupied by Federal soldiers, and there was reconstruction. However, when that era ended, the South rapidly reverted to an attempt to resurrect aspects of the pre-war period. Blacks were deprived of voting rights, segregation became a form of American-style apartheid, the KKK rose and lynching increased dramatically.
Alongside this racist system, the Confederate flag returned to adorn state institutions and a lobby pushed to see the Confederacy as quintessentially American. The “Lost Cause” narrative was born.
In many respects there was more reverence for Lee than Grant, the Union general sometimes portrayed as a corrupt, callous, and a drunkard. Other Union generals, such as William T. Sherman or Phil Sheridan squandered any high ground, they might have gained fighting to end slavery by the atrocities they committed and the racism they showed during the Indian wars. Sheridan is thought to have said that “the only good Indian is a dead Indian.” Sherman burned cities and invented total war that he carried into the wars in the West against native Americans.
While the Union generals suffered critique in US historiography, the Southerners received reverence in popular culture. Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson and others appeared honorable and pure in 20th-century films and documentaries. This of course started with the “Birth of a Nation” film. Called the most influential firm of the silent era, it was pure racist propaganda. It made heroes of the generals of the confederacy as well as the KKK. It was screened in the white house in 1915 by Woodrow Wilson, the first southern president since the civil war. Woodrow Wilson not only gave his stamp of approval to the film, but he also brought segregation to the federal government. Jim Crow was now in our nation’s capital.
It was during this period in American history that many of these statues and monuments to the confederacy went up. More would go up as a reaction to the civil rights movements of the ‘50s and ‘60s.
What we have today is a continued reaction to this, which has given over to the whole discussion on whether these men were decent or not, or supported slavery or not. But lost in this discussion is the intent of these monuments in the first place, the vast majority were clearly erected by racist to enforce racism.
But if we must have this conversation then let’s answer the question. Was the Confederacy a white-supremacist cause, and were its soldiers and generals’ traitors. On the first question, the answer is clearly yes. The secession of southern states was due to the issue of slavery, period.
The whole effort to create some cleansed higher ground of so-called states’ rights is a fraud. A survey conducted in 2011 by James W. Loewen, published by the Southern Poverty Law Center, found that 55% to 75% of American teachers— “regardless of region or race”—cite states’ rights as the chief reason for Southern secession. I have not found anyone that can agree on which specific Southern rights were in danger, but that’s really beside the point. The fact is, Southern states seceded in spite of states’ rights, and the Confederacy’s founding documents offer plenty of proof.
“In all such territory the institution of negro slavery, as it now exists in the Confederate States, shall be recognized and protected by Congress and by the Territorial government; and the inhabitants of the several Confederate States and Territories shall have the right to take to such Territory any slaves lawfully held by them in any of the States or Territories of the Confederate States.” – Confederate Constitution
“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.” – Articles of secession
As statues of the Confederates have been toppled – and calls to rename US military bases that are named after Confederate generals are pushed forward – US President Donald Trump waded in arguing that Fort Hood or Fort Bragg is part of America’s history and heritage. The President is still trying to use the playbook of Richard Nixon and George Wallace but I think he is going to find that America in 2020 is not America in 1968.
This isn’t just a reaction to Trump or the recent protests. There has been a rising crescendo to write off the Civil War as a war against traitors. Many commentators seem to agree. Joy Reid writes: “Name another country anywhere on earth, I challenge you, that has ever named military bases after and raised statues to traitors.”
Were the Confederacy’s soldiers and generals’ traitors? Regardless of whether their cause was slavery, most of these men articulated their views quite clearly at the time. They discussed slavery, so we have ample recourse to their own views on white supremacy or slavery. And the answer for many is yes, they were both racist and traitors. Doing the research on each monument is very easy to do.
What some in one era celebrate, others then and later often reject, hence the battles over statues of Confederates in the United States, most of which were put up long after the civil war to defend white supremacy. Yet statues also provide a record of a country’s past, and the desire to respect and understand that history of commemoration argues against dismantling them by some. It is these conflicting urges that make this area so tricky for some people, it’s really not. The confederate battle flag is clearly a symbol of white supremacy and has been since it’s a resurrection by the KKK. The Confederate monuments that were put up in celebration of white supremacy or in reaction to civil rights movements should come down.
What about the others? As a rule, someone whose failings were subordinate to their claim to greatness should stay, whereas someone whose main contribution to history was baleful should go.
America honors many people who were slave owners, as in the case of Washington and Jefferson, known chiefly for their contribution to their country despite their faults. But the pressure for change is forcing America to reassess its statuary. Many Confederate leaders have been removed in the past few years, and more should go, including Ben Tillman, a white supremacist still honored outside South Carolina’s statehouse; and Nathan Bedford Forrest, a slave trader and Klan founder whose bust is in the state capital in Tennessee. What about the military bases named after confederate generals? Most if not all of those names should change as well’
Many in America today appear to want to rip away the history of the period before 1860, perhaps even before 1965. They don’t want to explain or discuss this history. Democratic candidate Joe Biden was in his twenties when African-Americans and whites could not marry or vote in many US states. It is quite shocking that it was not until 1965 that most black Americans could vote and 1967 that people from different “races” could marry one another.
This history must finally be brought out into the open and discussed in order for change, restitution, and healing to finally happen. In order to ask for and be given forgiveness for our sins as a nation, we must first admit to them. In order to have racial equality, we must face up to racial inequality. In order to deal with racism within our communities and institutions, we must first admit it exists. It is no longer good enough to be non-racist, we must be anti-racist.
Of course, my favorite Civil War-era monuments are still the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments.
