Melinda,
I read you post and what came to mind was what would be the
experiences with grandparents and parents who fought and endured the
aftermath of the Civil War in African-American families? How similar? How
different? Explaining the experience from the white perspective is
interesting but doesn't suggest what may have happened in families down the
road. African-Virginians are southerner too. How did they describe the
source of their devilry? What was the worse appellate to be applied? I can
guess, but I'd like to hear it from the lips of a "true southerner" from
their own experiences.
Anne
At 08:33 AM 2/11/02 -0500, you wrote:
>This rings all too true to me-- in my experiences with my own grandparents,
>whose parents had fought and endured the aftermath of the Civil War. My
>maternal grandmother-- who thought alcohol was evil and would not allow such
>words as "foot" mentioned at the dinner table because it was uncouth--
>considered
>"yankee" the worst curse-word one could utter. The humiliation and
>deprivation
>was all-consuming for more than one generation. When (at about 4 years of
>age)
>I mistakenly identified a statue of Jefferson Davis as Abraham Lincoln, my
>grandmother's
>face froze in horror. She said she had no regard for Davis but was
>horrified that I would
>think there would be a statue of that man in Richmond. In the 1950s
>feelings were still
>raw. Even then, I was taught very little about the Civil War in school. It
>was always
>skimmed over as "the war between the states" fought between the aggressive
>yankees
>and the noble confederates. Talk about biased reporting!
>-Melinda Skinner
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Deane [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
>Sent: Saturday, February 09, 2002 6:04 PM
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: eventual phasing out of slavery AND RE-UNIFICATION
>
>
>Dear Bill & Anne,
>At the risk of setting myself up for another online lynching, I would remind
>this list that last Fall I took a beating from some other members of this
>List for bringing up some of these
>"unpleasantries" regarding how southern old-timers feel toward 'damn
>Yankees'.
>I think it might have been my referring to William T. Sherman as an "old
>bastard" that set things off!
>I wrote why it was that some of my southern relatives/ancestors and their
>ilk felt such bitterness toward the North after the Civil War.
>At the end of the War and for years following the War, during the period
>that came to be known as
>Reconstruction (the period during which both sets of my grandparents were
>born: 3 of them in Tidewater Virginia; one of them in North Carolina; and
>all of whose parents had been involved in the War), there was no Marshall
>Plan for the South.
>After Sherman's rampage which left a swath of destruction that involved the
>burning of southerners' houses and dependencies, the
>salting/poisoning/burning of southerners' fields and the ring-barking or
>chopping down of their fruit and nut trees; the poisoning of their drinking
>water; the slaughter and theft of their live stock; some rape and lots of
>pillage, on the heels of that horror, came a type of 'peace' that brought
>another long-term, enduring nightmare called Reconstruction....which was
>really a form of passive vengeance and revenge.
>Two of my grandparents lived to be 100 and 102 years old; their bodies frail
>but their minds and memories sharp. My 20 first-cousins and I were blessed
>to have them until the oldest of us were nearly 40 years old. These lovely
>people were educated and refined and were not ignorant bigots.
>I vividly recall my grandmother washing my seven year brother's mouth out
>with soap and locking him up in the family library to "think about his ugly
>words" when he experimented with the N-Word.
>My grandfather did not smoke, or drink, or curse, but it was always "damn
>Yankees" when the subject arose.
>Anne, there seems to be little modern day literature on the subject of post
>bellum American history.
>In fact, when one of my daughters was in school at a fine all girls boarding
>school a few years back, her US History class brushed over the Civil War and
>ignored the Reconstruction period entirely. Her teacher allowed my daughter
>to "take the class" herself and tell her classmates about what her great
>grandparents had had to say about and remember about that period of our
>country's history.
>Except for the other Southern girls in the class, to a girl her classmates
>were shocked and flabberghasted at what my daughter taught that day. The
>girls rose up in horror and demanded that their teacher deny to them that
>what they were hearing was true. To his good credit (and he was a fabulous
>teacher) he backed up everything that my child had to say.
>What I am touching on here is a two-fold problem in the field of education
>in America today.
>1. A successful attempt to re-write or totally exclude aspects of history
>that are not politically expedient in today's arena of popular thinking.
>2. And, a la David Horowitz, the blackballing of and defaming of anyone
>who ventures from the track of what is deemed to be acceptable thought.
>What is so perplexing and full of irony when the Liberals start censuring,
>is that it is just SO
>illiberal of them to do that!
>The Civil War happened and it happened for a myriad of reasons.
>But no one wants to take the risk of thoroughly examining all those reasons
>and filtering through them to see what was worthwhile and worth salvaging
>from BOTH sides of the conflict.
>
>Deane Ferguson Mills
>York County, Virginia
>
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: Anne Pemberton <[log in to unmask]>
>To: <[log in to unmask]>
>Sent: Saturday, February 09, 2002 2:27 PM
>Subject: Re: eventual phasing out of slavery AND RE-UNIFICATION
>
>
> > Bill,
> >
> > As I said, I'm very ignorant of the problems during
>reconstruction
> > beyond the mention of carpetbaggers coming down and taking political jobs
> > from locals. Can you give me a "quick and dirty" summary of what else was
> > done? I'd love to read the books you mentioned but really don't have the
> > time around other responsibilities. But you have aroused my curiosity.
> >
> > Anne
> >
> > At 01:27 PM 2/9/02 -0500, you wrote:
> > >In a message dated 2/9/2002 11:38:01 AM Eastern Standard Time, Richard
>Dixon
> > >writes:
> > >
> > > > it is my
> > > > opinion the "damnyankee" came not from the war, but from the period of
> > > > Reconstruction, a somewhat unknown era of American history.
> > > >
> > >For many the period of reconstruction was probably a more difficult
> > >"humility" than military defeat. However, there have been some excellent
> > >works written on reconstruction. Two that I found useful in looking at
>the
> > >psychological impact as well as the more commonly addressed economic and
> > >political issues and that are pretty accessible are _Rehearsal for
> > >Reconstruction: The Port Royal Experiment_, Willie Lee Nichols Rose and
>_The
> > >Era of Reconstruction, 1865-1877_, Kenneth M. Stampp.
> > >
> > >Bill Russell
> > >
> > >To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions
> > >at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html
> >
> > Anne Pemberton
> > [log in to unmask]
> >
> > http://www.erols.com/stevepem
> > http://www.geocities.com/apembert45
> >
> > To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions
> > at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html
> >
>
>To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions
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>
>To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions
>at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html
Anne Pemberton
[log in to unmask]
http://www.erols.com/stevepem
http://www.geocities.com/apembert45
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