Wednesday, April 28, 2004

What are Southerners actually celebrating?

Those celebrating Confederate Memorial Day and others expressing acceptance and understanding for the Confederacy and Southern heritage appear to have their collective heads stuck in the sand. They would hope to convince the man in the street that the Southern cause was noble and righteous. Perhaps a revisionist historical account sympathetic to the Southern cause has, over the past century, obscured their minds of the culpability of those Southerners that dared secede from the United States.

The stain of the black man’s blood on the steps of the lily-white mansion can not be washed away with the passage of time or the revisionist pen. A review of the historical record reveals a Southern heritage diametrically opposed to the one promulgated by the modern-day Southern apologist and revisionist.

Subsequent to the outbreak of hostilities, the Southern ruling class feared the loss of power, prestige, and status by the overpowering economic and political might of the Northern states. The rise of the Northern abolitionist movement struck deep into the heart of the Southern social order. Ultimately the Southern elite would revert to war in a futile struggle to preserve that erstwhile culture of ill-gained wealth, power and status.

The Southern United States basically had three social classes: The aristocracy, the enslaved blacks, and ignorant poor whites. The greatest threat to the ruling class was the possibility of the poor white man realizing his lot in life would improve immensely if he and the slaves joined together to demand economic justice.

The poor whites (the majority of white Southerners) were poor simply due to the fact that the aristocracy did not need their services or labor. Chattel slavery provided virtually free labor and most essential services.

With the demands of the abolitionists becoming overwhelming and slavery’s demise seemingly inevitable, an overshadowing desperation forced the Southern elite to surmise only war would preserve their cherished way of life. What remained to be solved was how could the elite convince the poor ignorant Southern white man that war was the righteous path to follow.

A deceptively simple solution was offered. Playing on the ignorance and prejudices of the poor white, the aristocracy disingenuously convinced their brothers that by freeing the slaves he (the poor white man) would be no better than a manumitted black man. They were told that the blacks would be able to purchase their own land and be allowed to compete freely in the market place for jobs, political power and social recognition. Miscegenation and interracial marriage would become commonplace. Surely an alarming scenario for a poor dirt farmer barely able to keep his family fed.

It was agreed the poor whites would take up arms against the North and regardless of the outcome, the aristocracy would always treat the poor whites with respect and dignity and surely as a better class of people than the blacks. (Some of you more mature readers may remember years ago when poor white folks occasionally said, “I may be poor, but I’m proud.” This somewhat tacit agreement evolved into the Jim Crow South many decades later.) The pact was sealed when shots rang out at Fort Sumter.

Is this a Southern heritage one should be proud of, a heritage of subjugation and of one class of whites taking advantage of their ignorant brothers?

Seems more like a shameful heritage that should be tossed into the dustbin of history rather than to be glorified. That poor ignorant Southern Rebel was not put into his earthly grave by a Yankee bullet. No, the men that occupied those lily-white mansions sacrificed their brothers’ lives on the altar of greed and power. Assuredly, this pact with the devil is a shameful heritage.

r. j. desprez

Tyrone, Ga.

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