Courtesy of
Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, LC-B8171-7890 DLWhen I was young, those tee-shirts of Malcolm looking out the window with a rifle were everywhere. They were, for black ghetto kids, what Che became for the urbanistas--replete with all the same problems. I had all kinds of Conscious tee-shirts back then decked out with all kinds of slogans--Black By Popular Demand, Black By Nature Proud By Choice, How Long Shall They Kill Our Prophets, While We Stand Aside And Look. My favorite was actually pink, and had the cover art from Bob Marley's Uprising. My Dad's response was to just hurl more Carter G. Woodson and copies of the Wall Street Journal at me. He didn't believe in announcing who you were. And while he suffered my tee-shirt collection, he specifically barred me from buying the Malcolm and the Rifle number.
You must understand that my Dad, in his time, actually carried guns, and from the time I fully knew what it meant to serve in Vietnam, to come home and become a Panther, to point a rifle at a cop, I was fascinated. I still am. I think part of it is knowing that while you may one day write for the Atlantic, you will never knuckle up on the streets of West Philly, fly off to Vietnam and take a lover, come home toting guns, talking Fanon, and then say, "Meh, I've got kids. Time to work at a library." Allow me my dumb, childish romance. We all have it, if we're lucky.
But the other part, and the reason I think those Malcolm shirts struck such a chord, was because so many of us were raised with this solemn, sepia-tinged, gospel-drenched, noble suffering view of black history. It's like our story is basically massacre, after defeat, after massacre, after more defeat, after massacre, after defeat and then white folks deciding they're tired of kicking the shit out of us. It's like our whole story is marching into billy-clubs, amazing facts about the peanut, and a few Old Negro Spirituals.
I stake no claim on an objective reality--this is how it feels to me. Knowing that, maybe my view of history says more about me and my time in West Baltimore, and the premium the neighborhood put on righteous violence, then it does about actual facts. Moreover, I'm not sure my perspective is any better--I come to my history prejudiced,and baggaged, halfway looking for the truth, but more so looking for heroes.
This weekend I started in on Drew Faust's This Republic Of Suffering and Natasha Trethewey's Native Guard. I was reading Faust's meditation on how soldiers prepared themselves to kill, and I came across this incredible passage about the reaction of black soldiers to the Fort Pillow massacre perpetrated by Nathan Forrest. It's written by one Cordellia Harvey, sent South from Wisconsin to help with the Union wounded:
Since the Fort Pillow tragedy, our colored troops and their officers are awaiting in breathless anxiety the action of the government...Our officers of Negro regiments declare they will take no more prisoners, and there is death to the rebel in every black man's eyes. They are still but terrible. They will fight...The Negroes know what they are doing.There's another passage in which an enslaved black woman comes upon her mistress weeping uncontrollably over the latest news--she's lost her only son. "Missus," says the slave woman. "We is even now." The "Missus" had, over the years, sold every one of this woman's children into slavery in the deep south--all ten of them.
I read those passages and got that old, stupid thrill again--Negroes with guns, Negroes fighting back. But more legitimately, I was, as I have been throughout all of this reading, simply stunned by the preservation of humanity--no, by the repeated assertions of humanity made by people who lived under a system specifically structured to destroy it.
All my romance aside, this picture you see, these beautiful brothers, still but terrible, were hell to Johnny Reb. The black soldier was human--sometimes cowardly, sometimes brave, sometimes laughing, sometimes crying, ill-led, ill-fed, ill-trained, ill-equipped. But goddamn, if he wasn't the spitting image of everything the South fought against, everything that slavery declared untrue. Howell Cobb put it best, "If slaves will make good soldiers, our whole theory of slavery is wrong."
That's the point. Black soldiers literally, and symbolically, assaulted the very foundations of the South. There were a living weapon of psychological warfare. I think back to the Blight lectures, where in one, a group of black soldiers come across a group of slave women, recently whipped by their master. The soldiers find the master, have him stripped and flogged--then they hand the whip over to each of the women, so as, in the words of one of the soldiers, the master will understand "that they are not his property anymore."
The Confederacy responded by denying their eyes and massacred black soldiers taken prisoner. They refused to let black soldier retrieve their dead. They basically did everything to rob them of any status as soldiers, as men. The most moving section of Battle Cry, for me, is when Lincoln and Grant suspend prisoner exchanges, because the Confederates refuse to treat black POWs with the dignity they treat white ones. This was more than mere talk--Lincoln and Grant, sacrificed white Union soldiers, wasting away in notorious Andersonville, on the insistence of equal treatment. Two months before the War ends, Lee relents. But by then he's come to an ironic reckoning--if the Confederacy was to survive it would need black troops, too.
But it was too late. History had passed him by.
I've been thinking so much about memory lately, and a letter I recieved from a woman trying to raise a statue of Ida Wells, in Memphis, really crystalized something in me. I've spent a lot of energy talking about the white South, about the lionization of Klansmen like Forrest, the statues of avowed white supremacists like Ben Tillman.
But to paraphrase Grant, I grow heartily weary of hearing of General Lee. I want to talk about us. How will we remember our heroes? What will those of us in Charleston, South Carolina have to say about Robert Smalls? About Robert Brown Elliot? In Holly Springs, Mississippi, who will raise a statue in memory of Ida Wells? Who will remember Hiram Revels and Daddy Cain? What does Baltimore have to say about Christian Fleetwood and New Market Heights? (Forgive me, but hyperlinks here are demeaning. These people deserve your own search.)
I am not so interested in dictating to others how they should remember their past. Let the Lost Cause find itself, our search lies within. And when it's over, we will put Ida Wells up against Nathan Forrest, on any day of the week, and leave the generations to judge. Sooner or later, in the words of Nas, we'll all see who the prophet is.
The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood 
...and there is death to the rebel in every black man's eyes.
I still feel it; every gyot-damn time I see that gyot-damn confederate battle flag. A rage still burns, deep in my soul.
Ahem. You are on fire, young brother; keep on preachin'.
Speaking of monuments, 45 years later, they've finally erected a monument (actually, I think it's just an historical marker) to Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney in Philadelphia, MS. As to who did it:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=105685393#commentBlock
"This weekend, Neshoba County Supervisor Obbie Riley, along with some volunteers, will start the work of installing a memorial marker for the three slain men on Mississippi 19 South, which has been renamed Goodman Chaney Schwerner Memorial Highway.
Riley is working alone because the county said it won't be responsible for installing the marker."
Amazing. This makes me want to go down there and just start slapping people.
No worries, death will slap them silent soon enough.
(because they are unrepentant old racists, for the record)
There's a small (very small) marker to them in NYC -- about 18" square, sits 10" off the ground, at the SE corner of W. 70th and Freedom Place. I wouldn't call it a monument exactly, but it's been there for more than 40 years.
If I remember correctly from the story on All Things Considered, the one they were installing in Mississippi is pretty small too. And it's off the highway. I don't know if there's a parking lot or anything to stop and pay your respects.
Let the Lost Cause find itself, our search lies within. And when it's over, we will put Ida Wells up against Nathan Forrest, on any day of the week, and leave the generations to judge. Sooner or later, in the words of Nas, we'll all see who the prophet is.
Amazing. As Ivan says, you are on fire. Preach.
Great post TNC, thanks for staying on this topic. I need to educate myself more on this era as my focus has largely been post-reconstruction.
It's like our whole story is marching into billy-clubs, amazing facts about the peanut, and a few Old Negro Spirituals.
I chuckled out loud at this. That's pretty much the sum total of "Black American History" that I got in high school.
By the way, I'm a relatively new reader here, so I just wanted to say thanks in advance for the interesting insights. Speaking as someone with zero sense of group identity, I find your perspective on this kind of thing fascinating. (To me, history and politics are intellectually and morally interesting, but not personal.) I'm not sure I agree with your views, necessarily, but I'm looking forward to understanding them better.
it's the amazing facts about the peanut that would bug the shit out of me. i'm like, Really?
"All my romance aside, this picture you see, these beautiful brothers, still but terrible, were hell to Johnny Reb. The black soldier was human--sometimes cowardly, sometimes brave, sometimes laughing, sometimes crying, ill-led, ill-fed, ill-trained, ill-equipped. But goddamn, if he wasn't the spitting image of everything the South fought against, everything that slavery declared untrue. Howell Cobb put it best, 'If slaves will make good soldiers, our whole theory of slavery is wrong.' "
Is it me, or do Cobb's words cast a shadow in the shape of Pat Buchanan? (As an aside, TNC, I'd just like to say that this paragraph is just amazing writing.)
Col. Mike: I had the same thought about PB, who fears that the disrespect, humiliation and ill-treatment that he and his type have visited on others, will be returned to them with interest. Imagine his greater humiliation if it is returned kindness and compassion. Then again, he might consider that condescension.
TNC: Part of your post reminded me of my best friend and his stories about his Pops. Brooklyn, not Baltimore. WWII not Viet Nam. NOI not the Panthers. Building super, not librarian.
I am just loving this series. Your meditations on history deserve an award. As a historian, they are incredibly humbling to me - I don't think I will ever be able to bring this power to my writing about the past. I can only hope that someone else can use my research as one brick in the construction of something as deep and rich as these essays.
Also, that photograph is powerful, and a perfect illustration of the title of the post. Where did you find it?
Which graph?
I think she is referring to the picture of the black union soldiers.
Right, she said photo. I put in the credit. I cropped it some here at home. I'll post the whole thing later, if I can fit it.
Thanks!
"It's like our story is basically massacre, after defeat, after massacre..."
Massacres are important to remember too. On the Jersey City waterfront, there's a statue of a soldier stabbed in the back with a bayonet. It commemorates the massacre of the Polish officer corps by the Soviets in the Katyn forest during World War II, which the Russians had denied responsibility for for decades. Polish Americans build the memorial as a way to remember. I think they built one in your old hometown as well.
I walk past this statue every day. It's a remarkable rendering.
MR DAVEINHACKENSACK
You are correct . There is a Katyn Forest memorial in the section of Baltimore called Inner Harbor East.It is near Fells Point which up till a few years ago was a heavily Polish-American neighborhood.
In regards to black history, especially as it's taught in high school and beforehand, I've always found there's an element of "can these white kids handle hearing this?" And it's so dumb. What the hell do people think is going to happen, all the white kids get all depressed and want to kill themselves?
Sometimes it's intentional, and sometimes it's not. But I will say that I wished I had learned a lot of the things I now know about Black history earlier on. Although, I will say that there'd be accusations that teaching them would give students a liberal bias. God forbid, right?
Dear Dan,
It might be worth remembering that depending upon where they are many of the white kids also are descendents of those who fought to bring death to the rebs and destroy the old south (and there were many southern regiments in the Union Army). White kids have been hearing about the role of Europeans in visiting genocide on or otherwise subjugating Native Americans (something that Buffalo soldiers helped with...) and all the other real and alleged crimes of Europeans before and after the Civil War for a very long time - indeed so much so that someone further down on this discussion can actually declare that it would have been better for the South to have won given what the U.S. has become. Surprisingly, your white fellow citizens can deal with a lot of things, and it might even be possible to teach this history without a liberal bias (I would recommend research into eugenics, scientific racism and the Progressive Movement as a good place to start to in demonstrating that no part of American politics is free of the taint of racism).
Sincerely,
David
May we have the photo credit please?
Yes.
for real
keep burnin brethren
And don't forget the part in Faust's book where she quotes a white commander as saying that he found his black troops to be excellent soldiers while acknowledging that most them enlisted to "settle accounts".
"Allow me my dumb, childish romance. We all have it, if we're lucky."
I'm old enough to remember the days when (white)boys played "cowboys and Indians" and making balsa wood models of the planes and ships of WWII. I wonder what kids of other eras and other ethnicities play and model?
Well I can tell you in Spain I / we / they played Moors vs Christians.
The Moors were of course, all brown and black.
Kinda makes you wonder about the persistence of racist thinking in Spain, huh?
It's bad there. They have some of the worst racism in Europe at soccer matches. It's strange though, I've never really thought of it as violent, but it's very prominent.
yeah, guns, it's understandable in both the contexts of growing up with bullies, comic books, blackbelt magazine, kungfu flicks, maybe that was just me, and as you have said the crushing injustices of history, but always with the reminder to beware of becoming a monster when fighting monsters, my Israeli friends who once dreamed of the righteous glories of being armed soldiers in the fight against oppressors now have the nightmares of having been armed soldiers with combat experience. So Amen to the unyielding humanity of those who sacrificed to get us here and let's hope that we do as much for those yet to come.
Have you seen Sojourner Truth's alternate lyrics for "Battle Hymn of the Republic" written for the black regiments.
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Valiant_Soldiers
The recording of this led and arranged by Harry Belafonte in "The Long Road to Freedom" anthology is positively spine-tingling.
They will have to pay us wages, the wages of their sin;
They will have to bow their foreheads to their colored kith and kin;
They will have to give us house-room, or the roof will tumble in,
As we go marching on.--Chorus.
This really points out how the awareness of kinship with slave owners shaped the discussion within the community. They are not just enslaving people, they are enslaving heir own family. There has been some discussion here on this topic, but this is rarely if ever discussed when learning this history.
wallyz: that's a great point. in my research into the violence of the Reconstruction era, I'm constantly struck by the fact that the Klan/"Regulators" are, without hesitation, persecuting and murdering people who share their names and, quite likely, their blood.
In alot of ways this post reminded me of the relationship between Jewish history and memory, and in particular the connections between what the historian Salo Baron referred to as "the lachrymose conception of Jewish history" and Zionism. In many ways 19th and 20th century Jews have viewed our history as one ass-whipping after another, moving from place to place, getting booted out or slaughtered, depending on the kindness of the locals. The way you felt about that Malcom X t-shirt is, in many ways, how Jews in 1967 felt when they saw photographs of Israeli paratroopers at the Western Wall.
Despite the feelings of self-worth that come from that, it's a pernicious sentiment. First of all, because it is untrue. Sure, Jewish history is full of defeats, of expulsions, of massacres. It is also full of works intellectual depth, artistic triumph, and moments of safety and security that out number, even if they don't outweigh, the moments of disaster. Second, because it is exactly that perception of history, the idea that we will not be expelled again, that we will not allow ourselves to be slaughtered, that this time will be different from every other moment in our history (as it is perceived, not as it was)that leads to the occupation and all of its many sins.
I'm not writing this because I think there's a straight intellectual equation between the black experience and the Jewish experience, that would just be silly, but because when I read about your reaction, "that old stupid thrill," I saw myself in that, saw the gut reaction I sometimes feel when I read about an Israeli victory, or see images of Israeli soldiers. There's a real resonance there, and I think that's interesting.
Not a straight one, but definitely an intellectual equation nonetheless.
From the call for a homeland (Garvey, Brandeis) to the concept of a Diaspora (Jewish, African) to the mutual commitment to a civil rights movement.
Amen. My wife and I (and a lot of other Jews, I imagine) have begun boycotting Holocaust books and movies because of exactly those sentiments of helpless victimization.
Second, because it is exactly that perception of history, the idea that we will not be expelled again, that we will not allow ourselves to be slaughtered, that this time will be different from every other moment in our history (as it is perceived, not as it was)that leads to the occupation and all of its many sins.
Nicely put, Jesse. That's the essence of why I've always been uncomfortable with group identities and perplexed by the way even (especially?) intelligent and moral individuals embrace them.
Beautifully, beautifully put. Back in February, when TNC wrote about the aggravations of Black History Month, I mentioned the visceral thrill I got from reading Rich Cohen's Tough Jews, about the Jewish gangsters who, essentially, invented organized crime. They were horrific people but, dammit, they were Jews who didn't let anyone push them around. My disgust was filled with a perverse pride.
But, yes, a better analogy would be the Six-Day War. My parents owned a book called So Sorry We Won!, which was a collection of political cartoons by Israeli editorial cartoonists Koshon and Dosh, depicting Israel as a boyish Sabra in kibbutznik gear taking on his Arab neighbors. There was such a powerful pride in having "finally" pushed back, despite the well-known joke about the basis for every Jewish holiday "They tried to kill us. We won. Let's eat."
But mid-20th century history onwards has been entirely about the Holocaust, and "Never Again!" as if that was the entirely defining event of our long history. It's as inescapable as civil rights marches during Black History Month. Last week I watched the film "The Pianist" for the first time; I nearly turned it off 15 minutes in. Why do Jews watch such films? Is there a masochistic aspect to it? It's not like we need to be educated about what the Nazis did.
So, Jesse's right--it's exhilarating to focus on when we triumphed, but that triumphalism underlies some very problematic actions. (Jesse's also absolutely right in saying that it's silly to draw equivalencies between the black and Jewish experiences--that's been covered here already, right?--but one can't help feeling some sparks of similarity.)
On a different note entirely, I'm not sure I've seen many photos more stirring than that LoC photo above, TNC.
It is incredible that you, Karen, try to ascribe the righteousness of the anti-slavery war to a racist,atavistic philosophy like the Zionism that created Israel. there are no paralles, so stop trying to usurp the obvious moral clarity of the anti-slavery fight for the Israelis. Jews were not enslaved in America.
There's power and majesty here in these words. Not much to say I'm still busy digesting, but I thought this was fitting.
Ein Feste Burg Ist Unser Gott
John Greenleaf Whittier
WE wait beneath the furnace-blast
The pangs of transformation;
Not painlessly doth God recast
And mould anew the nation.
Hot burns the fire
Where wrongs expire;
Nor spares the hand
That from the land
Uproots the ancient evil.
The hand-breadth cloud the sages feared
Its bloody rain is dropping;
The poison plant the fathers spared
All else is overtopping.
East, West, South, North,
It curses the earth;
All justice dies,
And fraud and lies
Live only in its shadow.
What gives the wheat-field blades of steel?
What points the rebel cannon?
What sets the roaring rabble's heel
On the old star-spangled pennon?
What breaks the oath
Of the men o' the South?
What whets the knife
For the Union's life?--
Hark to the answer: Slavery!
Then waste no blows on lesser foes
In strife unworthy freemen.
God lifts to-day the veil, and shows
The features of the demon
O North and South,
Its victims both,
Can ye not cry,
"Let slavery die!"
And union find in freedom?
What though the cast-out spirit tear
The nation in his going?
We who have shared the guilt must share
The pang of his o'erthrowing!
Whate'er the loss,
Whate'er the cross,
Shall they complain
Of present pain
Who trust in God's hereafter?
For who that leans on His right arm
Was ever yet forsaken?
What righteous cause can suffer harm
If He its part has taken?
Though wild and loud,
And dark the cloud,
Behind its folds
His hand upholds
The calm sky of to-morrow!
Above the maddening cry for blood,
Above the wild war-drumming,
Let Freedom's voice be heard, with good
The evil overcoming.
Give prayer and purse
To stay the Curse
Whose wrong we share,
Whose shame we bear,
Whose end shall gladden Heaven!
In vain the bells of war shall ring
Of triumphs and revenges,
While still is spared the evil thing
That severs and estranges.
But blest the ear
That yet shall hear
The jubilant bell
That rings the knell
Of Slavery forever!
Then let the selfish lip be dumb,
And hushed the breath of sighing;
Before the joy of peace must come
The pains of purifying.
God give us grace
Each in his place
To bear his lot,
And, murmuring not,
Endure and wait and labor!
1861.
if you can take more grist for the mill check out the book discussion from today on the DR show (http://wamu.org/programs/dr/) about the "John Brown" of the south, the story just gets deeper and more complex/richer, do you see a paralell here in this thread with AIM and all?
AIM?
The American Indian Movement, correct?
I thought that's what you meant acronyms are death on people. I don't know, yet, certain things are floating around in my brain and need time to crystalize. Maybe in reverse, as far as any bast-chee-la (on checking ma-ish-ta-schee-da is how it's spelled but I could swear that bast-chee-la is how I've heard it pronounced for most of my life) is qualified to speak on the subject.
I need time to think there's so much here, in this post it brings to mind in various parts Aurelius, The St. Crispin's day speech, A few cadences, images of pride, brotherhood, and yet more than that.
yes, sorry and thanks that's what I meant I can see how this brings up a lot of different references/repsponses but I was thinking of the specific theme of guns/armed-resistance and pictures of ancestral warriors with guns (much better than slingshots), this is not meant to rush you into a response, I can appreciate the mulling over/working through, just a clarification.
As with each of these posts regarding history, I'm left with a deep appreciation for the passion and pride you have in your own. All I can say, is that while I don't share the same ancestory as you, rest assured that your writing on this subject has given me a renewed appreciation, respect for the richness and importance of the past. As previously noted, you sir, have been on fire lately...
I live in Charleston, SC and regularly visit the "Robert Scott Smalls Library". Though more public recognition of the man and maybe even a statue would be nice.
A statue would be nice, wouldn't it? Perhaps one in that park on the battery in downtown with all the monuments to "The Loyal Defenders of the Confederacy" or whatever and various Confederate heroes. I always see lots of schoolchildren visiting there.
I wish I had something more clever to say here, but all I've got is this: this series of posts has been amazing. The writing and the quality of thought are remarkable, but it's the passion that makes it glow. Thank you.
As the proud proprietor of a t-shirt photo blog, I am BEGGING you to post pix of your conscious tees, if you've got any.
I'm all about fighting back, but the "now we is even, missus" story did not make me feel better about anything- it left a kind of sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. I understand the sentiment, certainly, but I honestly don't think anyone can do anything bad enough that it is something to celebrate when they are mourning a child.
I don't think she was celebrating, and you have to consider the context--this is a woman, who's watched another woman sell all ten of her kids. Consider how that might make you feel. Put yourself there for a moment, and think on it.
I get it, I really do, and I'm not judging her for having those feelings: I have no doubt I would have said the same thing. But to me, the story is sad on all sides (though obviously sadder for the enslaved woman), and it really doesn't strike me as an empowering anecdote. When someone has beaten you down so hard that you feel vindicated when their only child has died, you aren't in a good place. I'd say the same thing if the "missus" was a serial killer or a concentration camp guard. That story ended well for nobody.
Your looking for an objective reality--i.e. "Is this empowering or not?" But that isn't really an argument that anyone's making. So I'm not sure what, precisely, you're objecting to.
Respectfully, she was a slave who will likely never see any of her kids again. Someone sold them. Why would you expect someone who's gone through that to be in "a good place"?
I don't expect her to be in a good place. "Empowering" was my word and perhaps I misinterpreted you, but you described yourself as getting a "thrill" from this story and interpreted it as an example of a "preservation of humanity." I don't see it as any of those things. I can see that it could be considered a "preservation of humanity" on one level, in that she's asserting that her children were of equal worth to the white woman's. But on a deeper level, it sounds to me like somebody who has been dragged down and had all the humanity beaten out of her, where "humanity"= ability to take pity on and speak comforting words to a person who is "weeping inconsolably" over the recent news that their child is dead, however horrible that person is or has been to you. I sympathize with her, but to me it is profoundly sad and not at all thrilling.
I noticed you lopped the word "stupid" off of that thrill quote, as well as the "more legitimate" phrase that follows....Which I think is telling. If you're focusing on that story, without the context of the entire post, without the context of the previous story, without the context of my own history, which I laid out, without the ambivalence, you're going to miss the point.
Also, if you think "humanity," as in displaying the behaviors of a human being, is an unqualified good, or is incompatible with, say, vengeance, than you really won't get it at all.
One way to read things like this is to think about whether you feel they're right or wrong. Another way to read is to try to imagine how someone comes to that.
The point of these posts isn't what's right, or what's wrong, it's about how the reading strikes me. If it doesn't strike you that way, that's fair enough--no two people get it the same way. I don't expect, for instance, for you to get a "stupid thrill" from the story, any more than I expect you to wish you had been a Black Panther.
But to declare that you have no idea how anyone could feel that way, defeats the point. That approach is best saved for a debate about the public option for health care. There's no shortage of that out there. I'm trying for something different.
I'm really not trying to criticize you for feeling the way you do about the story. I hope my posts haven't come off that way. I'm just trying to explain why I feel the way I do about it. Hope I haven't offended you- your blog is one of the few things that keeps me sane at work. :)
I'm only offended that you think I might be offended :)
Seriously, we go hard here--but with respect. We just disagree. It happens. It ain't personal.
You think she was celebrating? i read the statement "now we is even, missus" as one of a woman who has lived in spite of loosing ten children, of being silenced her entire life as one of reclaiming her humanity, by telling that woman, "now, you know something of what you did to me (and others)." I was thrilled because I heard the words of a woman who has finally spoken up, told her truth (because you have to remember that she was a slave and I bet that if she had even cried when her children were stolen, she would've been punished).
So, I don't know how you could call it a celebratory statement unless on some level you found the loss of a wealthy weeping white woman's ONLY SON more tragic than the loss of a slave-woman's 10 children. When I read the words, "now we is even, missus" I see years of and years of grief preserved in a crystal of a sentence, finally spoken. There, there missus, now you know something of what YOU did to ME. And ain't it funny that I am probably the only person in this house who knows EXACTLY what you are feeling right now.
I became interested in black history in high school because of a black woman pioneer in our small Western town. She built the first brick building (it is still standing) and was the proprietor of a fashionable hotel. The museum always had a mannequin of her in their street scene, but the rumors persisted that she was a madam. Made me so mad. Also, the museum hired a storyteller to write a history of the town and he made a major portion of the play her story. I played a bit part, but was absolutely fascinated by the historical woman and the contemporary woman who played her.
Recently, a wealthy white couple paid to set up statues throughout the town representing the town's history (yes, it's a tourist town). The others are all types--prospector, vaquero, saloon girl and cowboy, etc. But Elizabeth Hudson Smith is there in all her glory, accompanied by a voice recording of her history (emphasizing once again that while many western women were in the oldest profession, she was not). I'll try to copy the picture I took of the statue.
Doesn't look like I can copy it. Google her name for more info (she has quite a story).
The image is a piece of the original photograph of the men and noncoms of Company E, 4th U.S. Colored Infantry, at Fort Lincoln, Washington D.C.
TC, I appreciate your writing. Very thoughtful and full of insight. It is in short supply.
I found it surprising no one has mentioned the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Regiment in this post?
http://712educators.about.com/library/graphics/afam5.jpg
I hope that somehow all this Civil War posting will be gathered in one place - I would like to re-read it all in one setting - commentors and all. It really is a remarkable conversation.
August, 1862, recruiting for, a colored regiment was commenced in Kansas, and over 600 men were soon mustered in. The regiment, however, was not mustered into the United States service until January 13, 1863. It was then designated the First Kansas Colored Volunteers, but its name was changed, in December, 1864, to the 79th United States Colored Infantry.
Recruiting for the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts commenced in February, 1863, and its ten companies were full by May. It was the first colored regiment raised in a Northern State, the First Kansas having been recruited largely in Missouri, and partly from enslaved blacks. The Fifty-fourth was composed mostly of free men, and its recruits came from all the Northern States, it being their first opportunity to enlist.
The first significant action in which colored troops were engaged was an affair at Island Mounds, Mo., October 28, 1862, in which a detachment of the First Kansas was attacked by a superior number of Confederates. Although outnumbered, they made a successful resistance and scored a victory. Their loss was 10 killed, including a Captain, and 12 wounded. The First Kansas, also, lost 16 men killed on May 18, 1863, in a minor engagement at Sherwood, Mo.
At Fort Wagner on July 18, 1863 the 54th Massachusetts Colored was assigned the honor of leading the attack, and after the troops were formed on the beach, ready for the assault, the order to advance was withheld until the Fifty-fourth could march by and take position at the head of the column.
The assault failed; but, not until the Colonel of the Fifty-fourth and many of his men had fallen dead on the parapet, or within the fort. The loss of the regiment in this affair was--3 officers and 31 men killed, 11 officers and 135 men wounded (including those mortally so), and 92 men missing; total, 279 -- out of 650 engaged.
An impression has gained ground that no quarter was given to black troops; and, that the 92 missing or captured men met their death in the fort, after they had surrendered. But the official records show that 49 of these men died of disease in Confederate prisons, and that others of the captured men returned at the close of the war, rejoining their regiment before its muster-out.
Upon the opening of the spring campaign in 1864, African-American troops were a common feature of the armies before Richmond. Ferrero's Division of the Ninth Corps, and Hinks' Division of the Eighteenth Corps, were composed entirely of black regiments.
The first opportunity to go into action granted Ferrero's Division, was at the Mine Explosion, or battle of The Crater, at Petersburg, July 30, 1864. This division was selected to lead the assault; but, at the last moment, the order was changed and it was sent in last. It was not ordered forward until the assault was a bloody failure, and although it did all that men could do, it was unable to retrieve the disaster. This change of plan relieved the colored regiments of all responsibilty for that defeat. Still, they fought bravely, and held their ground under the most discouraging circumstances. How well they stood is attested by their terrible losses.
CASUALTIES IN FERRERO'S DIVISION AT THE BATTLE OF THE MINE, JULY 30, 1864.
209 Killed
697 Wounded
421 Missing
Total Casualties 1,327
To any one familiar with the extent of regimental losses in action, these figures tell a heroic story.
Interesting piece, thank you! Needless to say, the institution of slavery was a great evil but saying that, I wish the Confederacy had won since the United States has turned out the way it has.
How do you think it would have turned out if they had won?
Even with slavery aside, how long was the South going to be an agrarian economy riding off of extremely cheap labor while a northern modern industrial economy right next to it was kicking butt?
We would essentially have had a third-world South and first-world North.
In case you hadn't noticed, we do.
http://mapscroll.blogspot.com/2009/05/human-development-index-by-state.html
http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/21/rich-country-within-a-poor-one-part-4/
Have you seen Spike Lee's " C.S.A."?
Thanks for referencing those David W. Blight lectures a couple of weeks near the beginning of your post series on all of this. I'm now about seven lectures in and just learning all the time.
Blight makes the point early on about people coming up to him all the time to share with him just how much they 'love' the Civil War. So, what exactly do you 'love'? - he wonders. Its certainly perverse, that's for sure. I'm a white guy from Canada experiencing my own 'stupid thrill' from finally learning about this stuff in detail for the first time. Read 'A. Lincoln' - by Donald C. Wright Jr. a couple of months ago.
All so tragic, brutal and bloody of course - but just so epic. I hope I don't sound like I'm making light of any of the collective human pain - but it is all truly awesome. And it has drawn me in.
Blight quotes Gertrude Stein: 'Is there anything more fascinating than the American Civil War'? (pretty sure that was it)
I get it. Great photo. Keep it up.
When I read the likes of this art from you, I am immensely proud and profoundly sad. I have no reason to be proud other than we are both black. No great depth in that and yeah, I said it.
I'm sad because the world is going to snatch you away for its own enjoyment and I'll be left wandering blog halls looking for words that take my breath away.
Excellent post. I have 2 comments.
In 1862, Lincoln, and most white Americans did not think blacks were equals. Thus, no way could there have been a 15th Amendment. Yes, the consensus that slavery was wrong was widespread, thus OK for the 13th Amendment, but not for the right to vote for blacks.
This changed completely by 1865, both for Lincoln and the rest of the nation. And this had a LOT to do with the bravery and competence of the Negro soldier on the battlefields of the Civil War.
2nd, there's a less noble reason for why Lincoln and Grant decided to stop the exchange of POWs. (This was probably a 2nd reason and not necessarily the REAL reason.) Released Confederate POWs nearly always returned to their units to fight again and the Civil War had turned into a war of attrition. By not exchanging POWs, less soldiers were available to the South.
This is not to minimize the revulsion felt in the North for the horrors inflicted on black POWs. (And some of that revulsion was also in no small part due to the exemplary performance on the Negro soldier on the battlefield. Northerners were coming to realize that not only were Negros not deserving of slavery, but they were deserving of those inalienable rights that our Constitution stood for. This was not a small change in Northern thought.)
TNC, profoundly moving. I hope I'm correct in understanding, but I feel total accord with you on this theme you have been exploring, about the myths about their history that protect people from their history... I think every people must have some kind similar view of themselves, what you call the "solemn, sepia-tinged, gospel-drenched, noble suffering view" (wow, just wow, way to give image and sound to that feeling). Trying to put my finger on my own personal parallel to that, shows me how much more I need to reflect on it.
I am a first-generation immigrant to this country, moved here as a little kid. But I grew the hell up in the South, and got the hose of bad history, which, even as a kid, I recognized as epic bullshit. You just can't clean something like the history of slavery in this country up, and it was crazy to watch them try. It was all of a piece - the Confederate pride, the hyper-religiosity, the good-old-boy networks that no outsider could ever penetrate, the genteel, declawed racism that still needed to get its manicure and hair did every week. That first taste of warped truth and the bleating of racial pride forced to me explore the untruths among my own community, set me for life as a student of history.
I could say the same of my Indian heritage, equally strong in me, try to verbalize the mythic psuedo-histories in my community, that live alongside the incompleteness of historical evidence and cultural growing pains. Reading you, I see the need for it, not to get it out there, but just, as you wrote earlier, for the work-out. Our wanker colonial past (word to the quote from Trainspotting, I CANNOT convey the depth of bitterness that rises in me) adds a painful wrench, and an irreparable loss to a communal process of truth/reconciliation that has, thus far, been haphazard and poisoned. But to take on history I suppose is partly to do it alone... thanks for sharing your journey TNC. It takes a measure of courage, for real.
Tremendous blogging, Mr. Coates. This fantastic thread reminds me of Frost's poem at Kennedy's inauguration, where he says, speaking of the US, that the deed of gift was many deeds of war. It seems to me that our history is based on two unspeakable deeds, the massacre and disenfranchisement of native Americans and slavery. We can never make those things right, but we can try to learn. I think we're learning, but it often seems a slow process.
I am all white and blue eyed Viking. I live back in the old country now, but I grew up in Texas from when it was segregated, and I miss my black friends in the USA. I am moved by this piece and all the comments.
It is ironic, however, that the black people I meet here, who come from Africa, I cannot, as I had hoped, have that kind of relationship with. I dare say that when black American soldiers encounter the Africans of, say, Somalia, they know what I mean.
The Afro-Americans have contributed so much to what America is, and at the same time, they have become something that they would not have become, I dare to say, had they not been put through it all.
Is there a higher guidance leading us a bit, after all?
Meaning that all the suffering was good for black folks? You can't be serious.