As for me, to all the black members of this list, don't blame me, and
don't blame the south, but in whatever way I can apologize for myself
and my family, I apologize for what my people did to your people. It
was wrong.
Nancy
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I agree completely with what Nancy has said here and I am descended, on both
sides of my family, from slave owners. I, personally, do not have any guilt
associated with that fact but I can tell you that I deeply regret and am
extremely sorry that my ancestors bought into that depraved system of
thinking and behaving and living.
I have quite a few African-American friends and although we only rarely
discuss the subject of slavery, they know how I feel and I am glad that they
know how I feel. I want them to know that I fully agree that slavery was an
evil institution. I want them to know that I KNOW that their people were
badly treated and that I find that fact totally reprehensible.
Oral histories still abound and some of the blacks living today have their
own set of family stories that got passed down. Those stories are starting
to die out as the black family has become so, so, so badly fractured by
wretched 20th century political and policy decisions that have done nothing
more than wreck and undermine the structure of the black family but, even
so, some of those stories are still out there and these folks KNOW what
happened to their families. They know. Just like I know certain things about
my ancestors who lived in Virginia and North Carolina in the 18th and 19th
centuries.....one was killed by Indians when he was watering his horse.
Another one hanged his own nephew when he deserted from the Confederate army
(the one doing the hanging was Captain of the Home Guard....a la Cold
Mountain).
As long as a particular family exists, if there are oral histories for that
family, they will usually get passed around and down one way or another.
The point I wish to make is that some African-Americans today, especially
the older ones who grew up intact families (intact families being an anomaly
for African-Americans today, obviously), still have these stories stored up
in their hearts and minds.
Frankly, I think it is an awesome tribute to American black people (I'm
getting REALLY politically incorrect here and that's too damn bad but I mean
this) that they are as forgiving and as gracious and as kindly toward white
people as they are. I mean, hell, The War is long over and I still hate
those damn Yankees! (Just kidding).
I don't know how exactly to word this but if an institution, like a state,
has not just condoned but actively participated in and built up a system
that was as enduring and as atrocious as the act of owning another human
being, then I see nothing wrong with, indeed, I see it as only helpful and
healthy to officially repent and even plead for forgiveness. Doing so would
be a giant step toward bringing Freedom to everyone involved.
Deane Mills
York County, VA
----- Original Message -----
From: "Sunshine49" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, January 19, 2007 9:40 AM
Subject: Re: VIRGINIA LEGISLATURE
>I must disagree. I do agree that the PC movement has become too extreme,
>and it does nothing but create over-sensitivity, victimization, stifled
>communication, and resentment, depending on which side you're on. But,
>bottom line, what an apology for slavery deals with is human psychology.
>In a relationship, a person who has been wronged needs that sense of
>acknowledgment and validation of the wrongs done to them, even if it is
>decades later. It's stupid for an abuser to say oh, I knocked your teeth
>out 30 years ago, it's over and done, why don't you just get over it? As
>long as the wounds and resentment still fester, and the abuser refuses to
>say they did anything wrong, the issue will still exist. I think too many
>whites, in an attempt to protect themselves from being blamed for slavery,
>have created a bubble of insularity around themselves concerning the
>issue, and they have refused to see it anymore, other than in the
>abstract. I agree, neither I nor any other white today [with the exception
>of the ravening racists who still exist] should be "blamed" for slavery.
>But it did exist, it was a vile institution [but not one that should be
>blamed solely on the south, at had existed all over the colonies and has
>existed throughout man's history]. Read some of the original papers in
>courthouses and bring it to life for yourselves. How would you feel if it
>was your great- great grandfather's brothers, two little boys aged 8 and
>11, who were sold away from a farm in Amelia County? Ask yourselves how
>your gr-gr-gr- grandmother must have felt, to have her children torn away
>from her, probably never to be seen again? I think you'd be pretty
>resentful. Or if you read that, say, a Native American in Charlotte County
>in the 1850s was selling off a piece of land so he could establish
>himself in a slave business buying and selling your white ancestors, as if
>they were cattle or sheep. Herd 'em in, sell 'em off, make money. It would
>be pretty sickening. Or how about, perhaps, my own ancestor, maybe a
>Thomas Cardwell, stolen from his family back in Lancashire by slave
>raiders, chained in the hold of a fetid slave ship, groaning, sick,
>hungry, thirsty, listening to his fellow Englishmen around him dying, and
>emerging to a life where he could nevermore take a free step. I'd be
>pretty damned mad, let me tell you. It was abhorrent. We should apologize
>for it. But then both races need to move forward, I think of blacks and
>whites in this country as two people stuck in a bad marriage. So many
>issues, so many wounds, so much repressed anger. And they've stopped
>talking to each other about it. One lashes out, the other lashes back.
>Both only half-listen to the other, if that much, and they are no longer
>talking issues and problems, they are talking wounds. That's never good.
>We need a mediator, a third party, so we can all sit down and have a
>civilized airing of our collective pasts, work thru the wounds, apologize
>for wrongs, and MOVE FOWARD. Will it ever happen? You can get so busy
>looking over your shoulder at where you've been, you can no longer see
>where it is you are going. History as we here love is a wonderful thing,
>but I see it as a groundwork on which to understand ourselves through our
>pasts, and on which to build for the future.
>
> As for me, to all the black members of this list, don't blame me, and
> don't blame the south, but in whatever way I can apologize for myself and
> my family, I apologize for what my people did to your people. It was
> wrong. I cannot begin to "understand" your experience any more than I can
> "understand" what happened to the Jews in Nazi Germany, since I am not
> Jewish, but don't sell me short [or insult me]. I am still a human being
> and I can be horrified at cruelty done to other human beings. I have
> empathy.
>
> Nancy
>
> -------
> I was never lost, but I was bewildered once for three days.
>
> --Daniel Boone
>
>
>
> On Jan 19, 2007, at 5:28 AM, Clara Callahan wrote:
>
>> Forced and/or litigated apologies mean nothing. Apologies on behalf of
>> people long dead who cannot speak for themselves mean nothing and are
>> totally ridiculous 300 years on, and those asking for them know it. It
>> would be interesting to know how many times these politically correct
>> public apologies have been publicly accepted by those demanding the
>> apologies. The travesty will be if this gentleman is forced to
>> apologize for not apologizing. The whole thing is bogus and everyone
>> knows it.
>>
>> Excalibur131 <[log in to unmask]> wrote: ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "John Frederick Fausz"
>> To:
>> Sent: Thursday, January 18, 2007 2:18 PM
>> Subject: VIRGINIA LEGISLATURE
>>
>>
>>
>>> When the legislature moved back to regular session in Richmond,
>>> however, that warm and cozy feeling quickly vanished. As I read
>>> in the St. Louis Post Dispatch on 1/17, Delegate Frank Harmon
>>> spoke against a "measure that would apologize on the state's
>>> behalf to the descendants of slaves." He allegedly told a
>>> Charlottesville reporter that "our black citizens should get over
>>> slavery" and then added: "are we going to force the Jews to
>>> apologize for killing Christ?" Needless to say, his comments
>>> "drew denunciations from stunned colleagues."
>>
>>>
>>> Fred Fausz
>>> St. Louis
>>
>>
>> In these times of political correctness, I wonder what Delegate Frank
>> Harmon's "stunned colleagues" were whispering behind closed doors? Do
>> you
>> think that, in secrecy, some of his "stunned colleagues" weren't so
>> stunned
>> after all and agreed with what he said in part or in whole? Would they
>> have
>> denounced Delegate Frank Harmon if his words were spoken in private? It
>> is
>> so hard to tell fact from fiction when political correctness is the name
>> of
>> the game.
>>
>> Tom
>> Eastern Shore & More Forum
>> http://www.easternshoremore.com/forum/
>>
>> 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
>> at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html
>
> 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
at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html
|
