Deane,
While I appreciate your tale of heritage, I am also a Virginian,
by choice not birth, and my heritage is absolutely void of any involvement
in the events called the Civil War (etc.) ... I hail from Yankee roots,
father from Ohio, and mother from a line of Pennsylvanians who were
eligible for membership in the DAR ... my Hessian ancestor married a local
native woman and started the material side of my family ... interesting
... if I trace my heritage thru men, I miss her totally ....
Expand your understanding of your heritage beyond the "Civil War
Era" values, and see what you are actually made of ... you had the chance
to explore than when your values were questioned in a New England college
(what did you expect??? southerners are not perceived to be princesses
outside the south! ) ..
As a "Yankee transplant" to the south, and especially as
a teacher, I've heard lots of justifications to continue hatreds into the
21st century, but not a one of them has ever held water. I don't care if
your second cousin was raped by a black man --- my sister my raped by a
white man ... is she justified in hating all white men? Should I be, for
her sake?
When you think of the deprivations of your ancestors (and be glad
you don't share them anymore!), you should remember that the losing side
has to suffer costs .... These costs would not have been as severe into the
20th century, if southerners hadn't tried to punish blacks for their gains
... if truth be said, the "Yankees" and perhaps all of civilized society,
has been waiting patiently for the South to get over the civil war ....
We tell the Native Americans, who lost much more than "The South"
did, to "get over it" .... is that appropriate to southerners who are still
hung up on the civil war or who define their "heritage" in those bloody
five years?
Anne
At 06:33 PM 8/15/01 -0400, you wrote:
>Well, let me just say this.
>I am a 54 year old housewife with nothing but Southern roots on each side of
>my family, so I admit to a strong bias.
>My paternal grandparents were born in North Carolina in the 1880's.
>My maternal grandparents were born in Tidewater Virginia in the 1880's.
>During my childhood and formative years in the 1950's, it was their
>reflections on their parents' lives that shaped my thinking and taught me to
>regard certain aspects of Southern American history the way I do.
>I certainly will not bore you folks with that.
>However, it was my beloved and dear and college degreed (i.e., not ignorant
>red neck) grandparents who taught me that men like Sherman were gross and
>vile.
>On the other hand, one of my grandfathers (whose name was Wade Hampton
>King) had a brother whose middle name was Grant......that brother was named
>after Ulysses Grant. The family legend has it that my great-grandfather
>named that son after the Union general out of gratitude for being able to
>take his horse home from Appomatox.
>In fairness, I think that it was the horrors of Reconstruction.... the
>salted fields that the Yankee troops had left behind them along with
>poisoned water wells, needlessly slaughtered live stock, the ring-barked
>fruit and nut trees and the resulting starvation that caused the deepest and
>most induring bitterness.
> I do not think that Margaret Mitchell's book created myths. I think that
>when many Southerners read GONE WITH THE WIND they were relieved that after
>so many decades someone had finally come close to putting it right and
>putting it down on paper.....and better yet, folks everywhere were reading
>it and, perhaps, coming to a better understanding, albeit a romanticized
>one, of what Southerners tended to be like.
>I could go on and on and on, but I won't.
>I could tell you about the teacher I had in college in the 1960's who asked
>me (the only southerner in that small Vermont college), "Is it true that you
>Southerners despise the blacks, the Jews and the Catholics. And if so, why?"
>I was so flabberghasted that I could not answer except to say, "Why no. We
>just hate Yankees!"
>I could try to describe to you the anguish on my own mother's face as she
>told me about her own grandmother's stories of eating insects and make 'tea'
>out of shoe leather after the "Wah".
>I can hear my mother now, telling me how her grandmother said over and over
>and over,
>"We were SO hungry."
>Deane Ferguson Mills
>a 13th generation Tidewater Virginian and proud of it.
>
>
> > I agree with your assessment of Margaret Mitchell's role in tarnishing any
> > understanding of Sherman. But no matter what is written, I'm afraid,
>some
> > Southerners, and nearly all Native Americans, will continue having a
> > difficult time believing Sherman had any noble purpose in waging all out
> > war, either against the Confederacy, or against the Sioux and other
>Western
> > peoples he subjugated in the Indian Wars.
> >
> > -Paul Shelton
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Jim Watkinson [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> > Sent: Wednesday, August 15, 2001 3:21 PM
> > To: [log in to unmask]
> > Subject: sherman
> >
> >
> > Harold is right. Total war is key. There was a review of a bio of
>Sherman
> > 2 or 3 weeks ago in the NYT Review of Books which strongly suggested that
> > the man who said "war is hell" believed he could end the war sooner -- and
> > stop the carnage -- by fighting the war in a differrent manner. This
>seems
> > to ring true. Margaret Mitchell (and David Selznick) probably did more to
> > set back the cause of understanding the war than anyone who has ever
>lived.
> >
> > Jim Watkinson
> >
> > To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions
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> >
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>
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Anne Pemberton
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http://www.erols.com/stevepem
http://www.geocities.com/apembert45
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