My perspective is that of a descendant of Free Persons of Color, from
Colonial Virginia. I have two direct ancestors who fought in the
Revolutionary War, and I am a member of the Daughters of the American
Revolution. The flag that my ancestors fought under was not one that
represented white supremacy (IMHO). They fought for freedom from Britain,
possibly in the hopes of ending slavery. Their descendants fought for the
union during the Civil War, and for the end of slavery. They were vested in
seeing slavery end, since the only thing that kept them free were fickle
laws.
In the town where I grew up many of the residents are hispanics, and fly
their countries flags. It is part of the freedoms we enjoy in this country,
something that many of our ancestors fought, and died for.
Anita Wills
>From: [log in to unmask]
>Reply-To: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history
> <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: Virginia History
>Date: Sun, 14 Mar 2004 13:58:18 -0500
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>
>This is a useful and important point. It is worthwhile,
>however, to ask why the current exchange developed the way
>that it did. Since I bear some of the burden of provoking
>this latest round of conversation, hopefully my perspective
>will have some usefulness to you.
>
>I am interested in the Confederate heritage groups because I
>teach Virginia history at a Virginia university. Many of my
>students are education majors who aspire to (and given JMU's
>success at placing them, it is safe to say will) teach in
>the Virginia state school system. Since quite a few of them
>come to my classes with assumptions about Virginia history
>derived from the public history of the state, it would be
>irresponsible of me not to know something about it. And
>much of the public history of the state is influenced by
>Confederate heritage groups.
>
>Moreover, as an historian whose salary is paid by the people
>of the State of Virginia, I feel considerable responsibility
>to them. When I write, I consider anyone interested in the
>larger issues of Virginia history to be my audience.
>Indeed, we are very fortunate in this state to have large
>numbers of people who care passionately about its history
>and heritage. For me to decide to exclude many of those
>people from my audience would be an act of arrogance--and
>too, I think, a civic mistake.
>
>Thus, the conversation about the flag in specific and
>heritage groups in general allowed me a chance to hone my
>thinking about the nature of the public history they
>symbolize and produce. Writing something permits me to
>develop my thoughts in a deeper and more sophisticated
>fashion--for me, anyway, the process of writing is very much
>implicated in the process of thinking. This strikes me as a
>very useful forum in which to begin that process.
>
>In my larger body of writing about Virginia, it seems to me
>that the organizing theme whiche best structures Virginia's
>disparate and lengthy history is "freedom." After all, this
>is a notion that speaks powerfully to Virginia's
>contribution to our country. To speak of freedom as a
>public value, however, necessarily requires us to talk about
>freedom's antithesis. And here the irony is especially
>rich, since not only were Virginians at the forefront of the
>political movement which embedded freedom as a primary value
>in our national public life, but they also were the largest
>and wealthiest of the U.S. slave-holding societies. As
>Edmund Morgan remarked some 30 years ago, this is the
>central paradox of Virginia history. (I should note that
>there are plenty of other potential organizing themes--this
>one makes most sense to me, but it is by no means the only
>master narrative available to us.)
>
>Seen this way, however, it is insufficient to tell the story
>of Virginia history as just the story of race or the story
>of slavery. Slavery, Jim Crow, and massive resistance are
>clearly an important part of the story, but surely not the
>only one.
>
>Virginia's academic historians, I should note, DO speak to a
>larger range of issues. I would offer up, as an excellent
>example, April Hatfield's fascinating new study of Virginia
>in the larger Atlantic world, or Ed Bond's terrific study of
>Virginia religion during the colonial period. There are a
>great many other similar examples. One book that I think
>strikes an excellent balance on these themes is Dalzell and
>Dalzell, BUILDING MOUNT VERNON (or something like that).
>Slavery is an important part of their story, but by no means
>the only thing they talk about.
>
>Warm regards,
>Kevin
>
>---- Original message ----
> >Date: Sun, 14 Mar 2004 09:53:17 -0500
> >From: John Cullom <[log in to unmask]>
> >Subject: Virginia History
> >To: [log in to unmask]
> >
> >I have subscribed to the VA-HIST forum for several months
>now. I have come to the conclusion, from reading the
>letters, that the essence of Virginia History is either
>slavery or racism. Surely there is more to Virginia History
>than that.
> >
> >John Cullom
> >Catonsville, MD
> >
> >To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see
>the instructions
> >at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html
>Kevin R. Hardwick, Ph.D.
>Department of History
>James Madison University
>
>To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions
>at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html
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