Bid ‘Em In
[Hat-Tip to Jubilo! The Emancipation Century]
This video could easily be shared in the classroom to generate an interesting discussion. For me its the cadence of the auctioneers voice and the constant refrain of Bid ‘Em In that helps to bring home the horror of the slave trade. It’s incredibly powerful.
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I just read Andy’s post about the African-American woman who supports the SCV and then I see this video. I wonder sometimes if the black supporters of the SCV-Black Confederate myth do so because they can’t deal with the horror that their ancestors lived through, at least as one factor….
It’s very dicey trying to figure out why people (historical or otherwise) do and say the things they do, absent an explicit acknowledgment from them. Probably better left alone altogether when it comes to individuals. But blogger lunchcountersitin had what seems to me to be a perceptive take on it, that’s part of the picture.
you’re right, that’s a very thoughtful reply. thanks for pointing it out…..
Holy shit, that is powerful. What documentary used a clip of this song? I have heard it before.
The writer and singer is Oscar Brown Jr.: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_Brown
A brilliant piece of interpretation. What a public program or class you could build around this.
My memory class is going to analyze this afternoon.
Andy,
Thank you for your comments and agree that distress and guilt shoud be separate things here. I have no guilt over my Confederate ancestors as I have no control over their past actions or feelings. What’s the saying? “Loyalty to our ancestors does not mean loyalty to their mistakes.”
But in no way will I permit history to be twisted so far out of shape to deny their actions in that time.
Until our next post,
Neil
Neil, I have to tip my hat to you for posting that on civilwartalk.com, which is where I first saw it.
Much obliged, Alan
Kevin,
Found this little clip a while back and found it quite disturbing, because it reminded me of my direct Confederate ancestor, who I found out had fought bravely at Gettysburg, was captured at the angle, and owned seven slaves, from six months old on up.
When my wife, doing research on our family history, found this fact out during a computer search, she called me into our den with such a distressed voice I thought she had just found out about a family death or something as bad. When she showed me the print-out that showed Jacob Lee Hambleton’s slaves, I honestly felt a bit of distress myself. And I think that’s a good thing.
Perhaps viewing such reminders as your short clip above should make us all feel a bit of distress and rethink what the war was about, what caused it, and what the results of it were.
Sincerely,
Neil
Neil, I think sensing a little distress at such a discovery is a good thing, too. Not guilt personally, but certainly it’s something that one would really not have been the case. But it’s an opportunity, too, to see Jacob Lee Hambleton a little more as his contemporaries saw him, in all the complexities and contradictions he had. The best way to honor our ancestors is to see and remember them as they really were.
You summed that up beautifully, Andy.
I also think it has to do with seeing the world from the slave’s shoes. This piece does that viscerally, at least for me. I tried to do a semi full deconstruction last week on our blog. This video had entranced me for weeks.
For me its the cadence of the auctioneers voice and the constant refrain of Bid ‘Em In. It’s incredibly powerful.
Kevin,
I agree that the cadence and the constant refrain evoke the horror of it, but his description of her as if she were livestock: Look at her teeth if you’ve a mind. Check her flanks. She’ll be a good breeder. I may not have quoted exactly, but it made me sick. Powerful indeed.