Yet more nonsense about slavery and the Confederacy:
Black Confederates: exploding America’s most persistent myth
Set up a straw man, fail even to burn that down, then proclaim the New History.
“For many people, that is evidence of black Confederate soldiers,” Kevin Levin told an audience at the National Archives in Washington last month. “But it’s not. In fact, no one was confused during the dedication that this was in fact a body servant.”
In other words, an enslaved man.
The American civil war has never been in short supply of myths, but Levin describes black Confederates as the “most persistent”. Hundreds of articles, organisations and websites rewrite history by asserting that between 500 and 100,000 free and enslaved African Americans volunteered as soldiers in an army fighting to preserve slavery.
Just because it is counterintuitive does not make it true. In the wake of Donald Trump’s election and the white nationalist protest in Charlottesville, Virginia, where a statue of the Confederate general Robert E Lee still stands, the issue resonates beyond the halls of academia.
Levin, a historian, educator and author of the blog civil war memory, has been writing on the subject since 2008.
The straw man – that there were black confederate soldiers shows that the South was right.
The supposed disproof – there were slaves that whities brought along to take care of them in camp.
The disproof has the obvious merit of being correct, in that there were camp slaves.
But that there were camp slaves does not mean there were no black volunteers who fought for the Confederacy. It’s not a disproof that is.
The matter wasn’t so, err, black and white. Not all blacks in the South were slaves. Rather more importantly, not all slave owners in the South were white. There were indeed black slave owners. Actually, the first person to actually own a full on chattel slave in the US was black.
That slaves fought for slavery may or may not be true. That some blacks fought for the Confederacy – voluntarily – is true. Just as it’s also true that some blacks owned black slaves.
Agreed that the issue is not black-and-white. While “fighting against slavery” was the theme that motivated Northerners, what the war was about was, from the North’s point of view, that some states were in insurrection; and from the South’s point of view, that a new nation was being invaded (to end its self-governance and drag it back into a Union where its farming interests were continually outvoted in Congress). I am sure that blacks and whites fought to defend the Confederate States of America against “foreign” invasion and forcible imposition of policy from without. The possibility that I might make out better if my nation loses the war had to be set against seeing familiar black and white faces become casualties of battle.
‘free and enslaved African Americans volunteered as soldiers in an army fighting to preserve slavery.’
Professor Levin is a dick. They fought for Southern independence from the Union. A history professor must know that. Hence, Levin is liar. Lincoln didn’t introduce the slavery schtick until two years into the war.
“While “fighting against slavery” was the theme that motivated Northerners”
They weren’t motivated. The New York Draft Riots were because they DIDN’T want to fight against slavery. Not that they were for it; they just didn’t care to risk dying to fight against it. It wasn’t important to them.
Amongst the Confederate government, there was discussion in 1864 about arming blacks. The idea was that those blacks who volunteered would be granted their freedom upon victory and that they could earn the freedom of their wives and children. At this stage of the war, there was a severe shortage of manpower.
The idea was firmly rejected when initially proposed but in 1865, when Robert E Lee asked again it was accepted but I don’t know if any troops were raised nor whether they fought. By then Sherman’s march to the sea had happened, the confederacy was divided in three, and Grants troops lay siege to Richmond deep into Virginia. Every black would have known that a Union victory meant an end to slavery, so I doubt many (if any) volunteered.
Whilst it’s true that free blacks could and did own slaves, they were not equal citizens to white southerners. Free blacks were allowed to join certain local militia (Louisiana AFAIK) but I have a vague recollection that none of them saw service
Gamecock,
Unless you can provide some decent links I’m going with Levin’s view of history:
This whole podcast series is a good listen but you can here Levin and other’s discuss the topic in this episode where they discuss the case of Silas Chandler whose portrait appeared on the US Antiques Roadshow:
And in this episode they discuss the idea that it was really about secession and not slavery:
”The matter wasn’t so, err, black and white.”
When it comes to some issues we are no longer allowed a nuanced debate. American South confederates were all evil slave owning monsters and their descendants should hang their heads in shame for the rest of time and anything associated with them is racist etc.
As an aside would recommend the album White Mansions from 1978 a series of songs about the war from the confederate side.
BiND, the victors get to write the history books.
“Victors get to write the history books”
> Lost Cause the title of an 1866 book by the Virginian author and journalist Edward A. Pollard.
> 1881 publication of The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government by Jefferson Davis,
> United Daughters of the Confederacy is an American association of Southern women established in 1894 which promoted the creation of the vast majority of monuments to southern “heroes”. Other activities include spreading the “truth” such as providing textbooks for schools.
> Birth of a Nation by D. W. Griffith was a landmark film depicting events during and after the civil war. It was shown in the White House and much praised by President Wilson
> Thomas Dixon novels from which the above sprang
> Gone With The Wind – probably one of the top ten best known films ever
From a cultural aspect the South has clearly been blessed with rather more than it’s fair share of sympathetic coverage during the first 100 years post the civil war. Even Buster Keaton’s most famous film, The General 1926 shows him as a Confederate sympathiser. Isn’t it odd that he picked the plucky south. That doesn’t sound like being pro-Confederate was frowned upon in that era.
In the modern era we get a handful of pro Union films such as Glory, but the most famous civil war film of all Gettysburg (and it’s prequel) go out of their way to try be even handed. As does the well regarded multipart history series by Ken Burns.
I’m left wondering what merit-worthy films or books showed the Union side point of view during the same era as Birth of a Nation to Gone With The Wind. I can only think of the Red Badge of Courage.
The “victor writes the history books” is rather unconvincing