Welcome to all of you looking for additional information about Silas and Andrew Chandler. I’ve been writing about the two for a few years now as part of my broader interest in how the presence of enslaved and free blacks in the Confederate army have been remembered in popular culture. What follows is everything I’ve [...]
Silas Chandler
The vast majority of black Confederate accounts on the Internet follow a well-worn narrative. First, we are somehow to believe that servants/slaves volunteered to accompany their owners to war and in doing so solidified a bond of friendship and a commitment to the achievement of Confederate independence. Many of these postwar accounts offer rich descriptions [...]
Like many of you, I am looking forward to tomorrow night’s History Detectives segment, which will investigate the story behind the famous tintype of Silas and Andrew Chandler. At various points during their investigation I offered advice on what I had learned about the story as well as my understanding of the mythology that has [...]
As I wait for my flight back to Boston I wanted to share a little bit about my experience this weekend in Richmond at the ASALH. First and foremost, I was self conscious throughout of the fact that for the first time I was in the racial minority at an academic conference. A good friend [...]
Next week PBS’s History Detectives will air an episode on the famous image of Andrew and Silas Chandler. We anticipate that this episode will help to correct some of the many myths that have revolved around these two individuals. The famous photograph of Andrew and Silas is arguably the most popular image on the Web [...]
Why African Americans will never accept the black Confederate myth: “If, for example, one managed to change the curriculum in all the schools so that Negroes learned more about themselves and their real contributions to this culture, you would be liberating not only Negroes, you’d be liberating white people who know nothing about their own [...]
This morning I learned that my co-authored essay on Silas Chandler with Myra Chandler Sampson will be published in the February 2012 issue of Civil War Times magazine. This just so happens to be the magazine’s 50th anniversary issue and I couldn’t be more pleased that we will be part of the celebration. This little [...]
This morning I learned that I will be speaking on the subject of black Confederates at the annual meeting of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, which will take place in Richmond in October. Thanks to National Park Service Ranger, Emmanuel Dabney, for putting together an excellent panel that will [...]
