Posted on 06/25/2015 11:59:12 AM PDT by Citizen Zed
What happened to our beloved bombastic FReeper stand_watie?
Yes but I’ve not ever ever seen them worn by anyone anywhere. Nordstrom had a line of fashion called “Tokyo Rose” - they lasted just about a week before being pulled due to all the complaints.
I am not a big nut on ACW prisons, but here is a dirty little secret.
ALL prisons for wartime in that time period and earlier tended to be “brutal”, definitely negligent, and horrific. If nothing else, the conditions were just plain bad - they found a place to have a prison, and threw in captured soldiers. Done.
It was true in the Revolution. It is not shocking that mid-19th century was not so different.
So, I only take complaints about ancient soldiers’ prisons with a grain of salt.
A bit of perspective is needed.
Thanks for your point of view!
Who was the Indian General at Appomattox? Lee said to him: I see the only real American in the room. He was a Union officer, of course.
My father was a Brooklyn boy who was put in the Dixie Division during WWII. They taunted and mocked him for his accent and northern ways but protected his life in the jungles of Imperial Japan. He said he couldn’t have survived without those country boys. Perhaps that started my love for Dixie!!
Fact # 6: The treaty that ended the war in Virginia was drafted by a Native American.
The official copies of the surrender terms signed by Lee and Grant were drafted by Grant’s personal military secretary, Lt. Col. Ely S. Parker. Parker was a Seneca Indian Chief from New York who had studied law. He became friends with Grant after the Mexican-American War, and Grant secured an officer’s commission for him. He accompanied Grant to the McLean house on April 9 and witnessed the surrender. Parker would eventually rise to the rank of brigadier general.
That’s right! Thanks for reminding me.
There certainly were abuses--as in every system since the dawn of human interaction; but I seriously doubt that it was anything like you suggest. For one thing, every State but Louisiana had laws that criminalized mistreatment. Secondly, the Southern gentry had a bit of the noblesse oblisge culture, and would have experienced a bit of social ostracism for abusing their position.
You mention King George. That is interesting in this context, as it was King George who actually ended the chattel slavery of Brits in the northern English mines, in 1760. Of course, if you analyze the grievances in the bulk of the Declaration of Independence, the major American complaint against King George was for allowing the British Parliament to continually meddle in our local concerns.
Now anecdotes about abuses--because they have a stronger emotional aspect--are likely to survive far longer than anecdotes about friendly interaction in daily chores & contacts. However the summation of the feelings involved, referenced in many sources, but directly discussed in Booker T. Washington's Address in Atlanta, in 1895, as well as the general loyalty during the war, will suggest that those abuses were far less common than you indicate.
All of that said, of course, the present furor has very little, if anything to do about slavery; but a very great deal to do with efforts to stifle resistance to the pursuit of a monolithic egalitarian value system. Does anyone in discussing classical Grecian civilization, get hung up on the fact that a large percentage of the population were technically slaves?
The promise of America in her fromulation was not really something now labeled as the "American Dream." It is true that many came here wanting to obtain their own real property; but others came here to have communities that shared their value systems, at a time when Europe & Great Britain, itself, were being torn apart socially with attempts to force each others cultural values, etc.
What America offered was the possibility of resettling in a community with like-minded people. The South is full of people who do not want to have to be forced to live according to other people's artificial values. The same used to be true of New England--and hence, Massachusetts & Virginia & Maryland (despite their different social values) could come together under a Constitutional framework, which left social value determination to the States & local communities. When the mutual respect, growing out of the grand alliance in the Revolution broke down, there arose groups, first in the North, but then in the South, who tried to mind the other's local business; and we headed for dissolution & chaos.
Ultimately the enemy of liberty--for liberty in all its manifestations--is a Compulsion For Uniformity. The current attack on Southern culture--actually a war on eccentricity, a deliberate attack on those who reject the forces of egalitarian/collectivism--is but one of a recurring effort to compel uniformity in human value systems.
These things always end badly.
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