I just put the finishing touches on my paper and accompanying visual presentation for the George Tyler Moore Center – Pamplin Park Conference that begins tomorrow afternoon. Back in 2007 I took part in this conference, but this is the first year that Mark Snell and the rest of the gang at Shepherd University have [...]
Slavery
Black Confederate Soldiers has more of a professional look to it, but the information and commentary provided is as misleading as anything you will find online. You will find all of the standard accounts on the “History Facts” page as if to assume that serious history involves a simple listing of facts without any attempt [...]
I remember the disappointment on the faces of some of my students when I revealed that many of the images used by Ken Burns in his documentary to accompany his narrative about slavery were actually from the postwar period. As horrified as we are by the harsh reality of slavery we still seek a connection [...]
Yesterday I briefly touched on a story out of Valdese, North Carolina involving Reverend Herman White, who was asked to address a group of students as part of the area’s Founders Day Festival. Rev. White shared his own version of the region’s history that included stories of loyal and happy slaves and other scenes out [...]
Looks like the Sons of Confederate Veterans is amending their Constitution. You can read the proposed amendments here, but one in particular struck me as kind of funny: Proposed Constitutional Amendment – 2010-3 Proposed by Charles Kelly Barrow John McIntosh Kell Camp 107 2.1. The Sons of Confederate Veterans, in furtherance of the Charge of [...]
A group of historians and other concerned citizens recently lobbied the commissioners of Union County to “recogniz[e] the contributions of 10 black Confederate pensioners, known as colored troops during the Civil War.” We’ve seen all this before and it doesn’t look like anything will steer certain folks away from making this all too common mistake [...]
I am slowly gathering materials for my next book project on “black Confederates” that I agreed to write for Westholme Publishing. A few weeks ago I ordered the two volumes on the subject published by Pelican Press, which includes Black Southerners in Confederate Armies and Black Confederates – both edited by Charles Kelly and J.H. [...]
I have been thinking a bit more about yesterday’s post and specifically about the problem that I have in considering counterfactuals that end with a Confederate victory. As I pointed out my difficulty with such scenarios center on the belief that slavery would have continued with a Confederate victory and that the United States would [...]