I was once discussing this with an LPC originally from up north, and
he remarked on the 'phoniness' of southerners [we was referring to
whites], of their excess manner that covered up so much and I told
him my thesis. It has been pointed out that the extreme manners in
Japan are a societal attempt to grease the wheels, so to speak; there
is an underlying violence to Japanese culture, and their evolution of
seemingly excess manners preserves peace, for the most part, between
the people. I think it is something similar in the south; that there
is an underlying strain of violence in white southern culture, going
back a long, long way, and our emphasis on manners helped us to
interact more peaceably, for the most part. But like the Keltic
strain in southern culture, we still love a good row. "The great Gael
of Ireland are men that God made mad; for all their wars are merry,
and all their songs are sad." Listen to the laments of "country
music." There's also the tale told by Joseph Campbell of the Irishman
who came upon a bar fight and asked "Is this a private fight, or can
anyone join in?" The link between Keltic and Southern culture was one
recognized even in colonial times, and leading up to the Civil War,
and I think it is far overlooked by most historians. There are so
many parallels; the oral rather than written culture, love of story
telling, love of family, roots, music and the land, love of outdoor
sports like horses, hunting, etc., independent spirits [Lee's comment
to a visiting British officer that his soldiers may look slovenly and
undisciplined but he'd put them up against any army in the world- Lee
understood his men and they rewarded him with their devotion], well-
known hospitality, love of alcoholic spirits,a superstitious side,
even in their religion, love of a good fight, which manifests in the
culture as well as their determination in many Civil War battles.
Running out of ammo and using their rifles as clubs can be paralleled
in many Keltic battles against the Romans, when they'd pull spears
out of their own bodies and use them to continue the fight, and face
certain death in wild charges. Declarations of liberty from many in
the Keltic culture, from the warlord Calgacus in Scotland to
Vercingetorix in Gaul to The Bruce before Bannockburn are all echoed
in statements from those of Keltic heritage leading up to the
American Revolution, "Give me Liberty..." etc. For those who look, it
explains a lot about southern culture. Pickett's charge, and the
charge of The Black Douglas who was taking the heart of Robert Bruce
to be buried in the Holy Land, as Bruce had requested. He came upon a
group of Saracens and was completely outnumbered. So he threw the
silver casket with the heart into the melee of enemies and charged
forward, fighting his way toward it and, of course, to his death. But
what a death! Even in WW II, the toughest fighting units the British
would send in for the worst problems were Highlanders or Ghurkas.
There was one entrenched Nazi position in North Africa and several
attempts to dislodge them met with failure and heavy casualties, so
the British sent in their Highlanders. A fierce battle ensued and
finally a small tattered group of the Scots came back, many deaths,
many injures, but they'd got the job done.
But I am sure, to a former slave, the last face he'd sit down and
talk openly and honestly to would be a white face.
Dinesh D'Souza is a crackpot whose book has been denounced even by
many on the right. We have to make nice to bin Laden by not offending
his Wahabist cultural sensibilities? Oh please...
Nancy
-------
Believe those who seek the truth;
Doubt those who find it.
-Andre Gide
On Mar 1, 2007, at 10:02 AM, Henry Wiencek wrote:
> In "The End of Racism" (1995), Dinesh D'Souza extracted what he
> wanted to
> extract from the documents and advanced a notion similar to
> "slavery in fact
> was not all that dehumanizing or cruel." Indeed, D'Souza painted a
> portrait
> of slavery that was so benign I found myself asking, "Why don't we
> bring it
> back?"
>
> Before coming to conclusions from the slave narratives, one must weigh
> statements of ex-slaves such as these two:
>
> "Lots of old slaves closes the door before they tell the truth
> about their
> days of slavery. When the door is open, they tell how kind their
> masters was
> and how rosy it all was." (Paul Escott, "Slavery Remembered," p. 8.)
>
> Another ex-slave, interviewed in Petersburg by a black interviewer,
> said he
> was still afraid to tell the truth about what he had seen, and he was
> speaking in 1937. "Lord chile, ef ya start me I kin tell ya a mess
> 'bout
> reb times, but I ain't tellin' white folks nuthin' 'cause I'm
> skeer'd to
> make enemies." (Narrative of Rev. Ishrael Massie, Perdue, "Weevils
> in the
> Wheat," p. 205.)
>
> Yes, many ex-slaves spoke favorably of their former masters, and I
> believe
> them--sometimes. Mainly I take this as evidence not of the universal
> kindness of masters and the benign nature of slavery, but of the
> nobility of
> the African-American people, whose history since Emancipation has
> consistently been one of forgiveness.
>
> In 1990 I began work on my book "The Hairstons: An American Family
> in Black
> and White" because I was struck by the cordial relations I saw
> between black
> and white Hairstons which seemed to indicate that, in that extended
> family,
> slavery and its aftermath had not been so bad at all. That's the
> story I
> set out to tell--but little did I know then of the southerner's
> (both black
> and white) capacity to put on a good front for outsiders such as
> myself.
> Once I got into the documents and deeply into the interviews, all my
> assumptions were shattered.
>
> Henry Wiencek
> Charlottesville
>
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