I have enjoyed following the debate over at Richard Williams’s blog re: my handling of Earl Ijames’s research. Much of the give and take relates to my decision to publicly request Ijames’s presentation as well as my decision to Cc: the director at the North Carolina Office of Archives and History. I’m still not sure [...]
Earl Ijames
That includes the North Carolina Museum of History and the Office of Archives and History. Earl Ijames on Weary Clyburn: Weary Clyburn was one of thousands of slaves who served in the Confederate Army, Ijames said. There’s no way to quantify the number of slaves who served. “But it’s in the thousands, easy.” People today [...]
Earlier today fellow blogger and historian, Brooks Simpson, left a comment offering to host a debate between myself and Earl Ijames at Civil Warriors. Sounds to me as if Earl Ijames has challenged Kevin Levin to a duel, so to speak. Now, by the code duello, Mr. Levin has choice of weapons. I assume he’d [...]
One of the reasons why it is important for serious historians to publish in peer-reviewed journals is that it provides the community with stable reference points. Scholarly publications are intended to add to our knowledge of the past by providing rich interpretation along with supporting documents that can be verified. In this setting interpretation can [...]
I do not make it a practice of posting emails on this site, but given the circumstances I feel this is justified. Earlier today Earl Ijames responded to my request for copies of his public presentation on black Confederates, all of which are part of the public record. Mr. Ijames responded with his professional email [...]
Update: Well, it doesn’t look like Mr. Ijames is willing to share his presentation with me. He did, however, take the time to write me a lengthy letter in which he invited me to take part in one of his future presentations. That’s very kind of him. According to Mr. Ijames he has already shared [...]
Looks like Earl Ijames is taking his “black Confederate” roadshow out once again. We first met Mr. Ijames, who works as a curator at the North Carolina Museum of History, in the summer of 2008 in a series of posts I did on Weary Clyburn [and here]. In a comment contained in the second link [...]
I finally got my hands on a copy of Weary Clyburn’s pension application from the North Carolina Department of Archives and History in Raleigh. You may remember that over the summer I did a series of posts on this Confederate slave who was to be honored by a local SCV chapter for his “service” to [...]