A couple of years ago I tried to track the frequency of references to “black Confederates” on the Internet by using Google’s Ngram application. Unfortunately, it is no longer available, but I did recently come across Google’s Trend application, which functions along the same lines. It also includes more recent data. Back in September I discussed the possibility that this narrative has finally peaked.
The spike before 2010 corresponds to the Washington Post report on a Virginia textbook that included a reference to thousands of blacks fighting with Stonewall Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley. You will also notice a spike in the middle of 2011, which is when History Detectives aired its segment debunking the story of Silas Chandler.
Click here on how to interpret Google’s Trend Graphs.
How did y’all miss this-
http://wtkr.com/2014/01/19/school-gives-african-american-child-confederate-hat-as-auction-prize/
I didn’t.
Have you seen the comments on that article today, Kevin? When I emailed the link last night, there was 1 comment about Black Confederates. Now there are 8, all of them stating black Confederate soldiers as fact with no one (even black people) disputing the claim.
There are over 100 now, but I can’t bring myself to read the comments.
Kevin,
Thanks for using this excellent tool in evaluating a persistent myth.
Sincerely,
Unionblue
Ngrams can still be plotted https://books.google.com/ngrams
Thanks
I think Google moved its Ngram Viewer into its Books subdomain, but it’s still there.
(Thank goodness. You had me worried for a sec.)