A couple of weeks ago I was asked by an editor at one of the Civil War journals to write an essay on the black Confederate controversy. I decided to reflect a bit on what the controversy tells us about the differences between academic and popular history as well as the rise of the Internet as a place where history is both consumed and created. While I am close to finishing I thought I would ask for your assistance with the title. I want to play off of Tony Horowitz’s classic, Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War
. Here is a suggestion from one of my friends on Twitter: “Black Confederates: Out of the Attic and into the Mainstream.” Not bad.
Let’s hear it.
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{ 28 comments… read them below or add one }
The problem I have w/ that title is it seems to validate the BCM by saying it is a “mainstream”idea.
Agreed. Need something that gets at its popularity.
We wouldn’t want people to think there were, say, 100,000 Black Confederate Soldiers…rather than the 30,000 there actually were.
May I throw down the same challenge I issue to anyone who makes that claim when I’m around? Show me – all the Confederate Soldier’s records are available at fold3.com. I personally have sifted through more than 500 records looking for BCSs for a book I’m working on, and I have found not a single one.
I found a woman soldier by chance – not statistically significant, but the fact that I found one but not a single black soldier – free or slave – is fairly telling, IMHO.
No one denies there were some (my gg-grandfather was one) but the claim that there were tens of thousands is subject to proof that no one has offered yet.
Hi Kate,
I believe Jeffry is just kidding.
Indeed. Just throwing around two of the commonly-used BCS numbers, for comic effect (hence the smiley face). But your points are excellent, Kate.
Okey – dokey. But I have heard that claim made so many times it’s hard to tell.
Out of curiosity, who was the woman? What unit?
How about playing off cotton, and in cotton candy — impressive to look at, sweet to consume, but ultimately with little substance or nutritional/educational value?
Meh, forget that. Simpler is better. “Out of the Attic,” period, full stop.
Short and sweet. Well done.
Did you ever play the memory game, popular in my family on roadtrips, called (among other things) “I looked inside Grandmother’s Trunk”? The game begins with one person stating “I looked inside Grandmother’s trunk and there I found…” and here they would insert something mundane, outrageous or highly forgettable. The next person would make the same opening statement, name their chosen thing and repeat all that had been previously named. Thus it would proceed. I almost feel that the black Confederate ‘controversy” more closely resembles such a game about what might be found in a trunk in the attic than what is claimed to been uncovered in some ancestral attics. The claims may or may not be seen as outrageous and often may be invented histories or embellished tales. It is nearly a Schrödinger’s Cat scenario at times, where the truth of the matter may be yea or nay depending on who opens the box, at what moment and before what audience. It will never do though to view it as the magician’s magic trunk – the one in which the subject is sawn in two. This is a controversy that will and should defy compromise. Let it be Grandmother’s trunk then. “I looked inside Grandmother’s trunk and there I found… Robert E. Lee & 3 Black Confederates.”
I’m sure you can vastly improve upon this.
Cheers!
Clark
Confederates Clean the Attic: Dispatches from the Search for the Southern Black Volunteer.
or
Confederates Search the Attic: Dispatches from the Hunt for “Silas Chandlers”.
Black Confederate Soldiers – Fact vs Fantasy !
I’m thinking something along the lines of “Confabulations in the Attic.” The idea of a nod to the Horwitz book is a terrific idea, whatever you end up choosing.
I love it.
Out of the Woodpile and Into the Attic: The Progression of An Ahistorical Conceit.
Hi Mark,
I think you picked just the right time to leave your first comment on this blog. Nice to hear from you and I hope all is well.
Another suggestion:
Concoctions in the Attic: Dispatches from the Black Confederate Factories
Hi Kevin,
How about a straightforward “Out of the attic and onto the battlefield ” . Or “Out of the shadows and out in the open”
I think a more factual title would be better.
Out of the Slave quarters and into a Myth.
might be better
What about “Blackwashing the Confederacy: Faithful slave to Black Confederate”
Or
“Making Whitey feel better: faithful slave to black confederate.”
“Making Whitey Feel Better”? Now that is hilarious.
Chattel in the Confederate Armies: From Servants to Soldiers
Mythical Relics: Searching for Black Confederates in the Attic
or
The Search for Mythical Relics: Black Confederates in the Attic
or simply
Mythical Relics: Black Confederates in the Attic
Convenient Fabrications: Black Confederates
Black confederates gone with the wind…
Black confederates revisited..
Black confederates into the light..
Black confederates exposed..
Reconsidered..
Revealed..