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This is how I see it. I'm Black American. I am the descendant of slaves. For me, the Confederate generals will always be the enemy. The Confederate cause was all about keeping slavery. Say what you will about the Union being no friend of the Black man. The Confederates explicitly talked about keeping slavery and keeping Blacks enslaved. This is mentioned in the Confederate Constitution, the Articles of Secession, and other original documents from back then. For that reason, the Confederates will always be public enemy in my book.
This is how I see it. I'm Black American. I am the descendant of slaves. For me, the Confederate generals will always be the enemy. The Confederate cause was all about keeping slavery. Say what you will about the Union being no friend of the Black man. The Confederates explicitly talked about keeping slavery and keeping Blacks enslaved. This is mentioned in the Confederate Constitution, the Articles of Secession, and other original documents from back then. For that reason, the Confederates will always be public enemy in my book.
I'm white
How do you feel about those native African ancestors who sold your family to slave traders? One thing is for certain... it's a black eye (no pun intended) on the human race and specifically America. I have family roots in colonies that go back pre revolutionary war. Ancestor was captured by the British and enslaved in the Bahamas. Funny how that works.
Most of the brokering of human beings (Africans) was done in Rhode Island.
This is how I see it. I'm Black American. I am the descendant of slaves. For me, the Confederate generals will always be the enemy. The Confederate cause was all about keeping slavery. Say what you will about the Union being no friend of the Black man. The Confederates explicitly talked about keeping slavery and keeping Blacks enslaved. This is mentioned in the Confederate Constitution, the Articles of Secession, and other original documents from back then. For that reason, the Confederates will always be public enemy in my book.
but the Northern Generals and Lincoln aren't enemies in your book for killing and destroying lives in a tyranny? of course since most of the victims weren't blacks, you have no issues with that.
You don't have any issues that Lincoln and the North were willing to compromise black slaves in the Corwin Amendment to avoid splitting the nation and keep the nation as 1 to rape the West from the Natives.
You can't have it both ways, you can't call the South public enemy and turn a blind eye in how the same Union turned West and killed and stole land from the Natives and neighbors.
Maybe if the Confederates would have had their way, Blacks would be the majority today and running this nation. Think about it. The South would have brought massive blacks to the West for the jobs instead of white people and slavery would have died eventually and the blacks would be the majority and eventually taken power by their numbers. Instead they were kept in a box after the war since the North weren't no friends of the blacks and kept them in the bottom of the barrel.
Last edited by SanJuanStar; 12-17-2021 at 10:40 AM..
but the Northern Generals and Lincoln aren't enemies in your book for killing and destroying lives in a tyranny? of course since most of the victims weren't blacks, you have no issues with that.
You don't have any issues that Lincoln and the North were willing to compromise black slaves in the Corwin Amendment to avoid splitting the nation and keep the nation as 1 to rape the West from the Natives.
You can't have it both ways, you can't call the South public enemy and turn a blind eye in how the same Union turned West and killed and stole land from the Natives and neighbors.
Maybe if the Confederates would have had their way, Blacks would be the majority today and running this nation. Think about it. The South would have brought massive blacks to the West for the jobs instead of white people and slavery would have died eventually and the blacks would be the majority and eventually taken power by their numbers. Instead they were kept in a box after the war since the North weren't no friends of the blacks and kept them in the bottom of the barrel.
People who fight tyranny are always labeled 'enemy soldiers', that's just the way it is.
I try so hard to not get involved in these conversations. However, there are many things that people talk about that are simply not factual. I come by my knowledge of CW history by having had the opportunity to read original documents and letters from Confederates and Union soldiers, something which most have never done.
I have a friend that was the archivist of the Civil War Museum in Richmond. I spent years with her going over documents that most have never seen. Many of these documents are still being found tucked in attics and in walls of homes in both the North and the South.
Blacks fought on both sides during the CW from the beginning. Yes, the vast majority were "behind the lines" but, many more than most believe were on the front lines. Here is just one account, written by a Union officer of his encounter with black Confederate artillery soldiers. Note the date.
This is the Facebook account of the archivist I spoke about above. If one takes the time to look through her pictures of documents they would find that many of the things they once thought were true are indeed revisionist.
Were they actual soldiers, though? Issued arms and uniform, on the regimental roll as infantry or artillery, given veteran pensions or widow's pensions? Promoted, decorated? Armies keep good records of this sort of stuff, and no historians have so far brought forth anything to support it. We are, as you point out, using eyewitness accounts etc.
I've already mentioned the 1st Louisiana - 1,500 free blacks volunteering to fight for the Confederacy, and being told no, we don't need your services.
When the debate about officially enlisting black men in the Confederate armed forces grew hot in 1865, there was no mention of black soldiers or black units having done a good job fighting - and one has to wonder why that argument wasn't brought forth, because the counterarguments were twofold: A practical one, stating that black men just couldn't fight as soldiers - echoing the arguments of the pre-war fire-eaters, that the North would be sure to lose because they'd field black soldiers. Or the ideological one, that if the Confederacy would be dependent on those they deemed so incredibly inferior, what would even be the point in winning the war in the first place?
Neither argument would hold if the Confederacy was already fielding fighting forces comprised by black men in noteworthy numbers. The practicality would be shown, and the ideological debate already settled. Yet, no evidence exists of that point being made.
The attitude seems summed up by the Confederacy Secretary of State: "The day that the army of Virginia allows a negro regiment as soldiers, they will be degraded, ruined and disgraced." That was in 1865, when the Confederacy was desperate for troops. (And note the qualifier - "as soldiers".)
Camp followers, servants, teamsters are documented to have taken up arms when the fight grew hot. Human loyalty takes some weird forms, sometimes. But soldier is a word with a definition.
This is how I see it. I'm Black American. I am the descendant of slaves. For me, the Confederate generals will always be the enemy. The Confederate cause was all about keeping slavery. Say what you will about the Union being no friend of the Black man. The Confederates explicitly talked about keeping slavery and keeping Blacks enslaved. This is mentioned in the Confederate Constitution, the Articles of Secession, and other original documents from back then. For that reason, the Confederates will always be public enemy in my book.
I have no right to speak on any black person's behalf, but I 100% agree on the definition of the Confederacy's reason to come into being. They formed a nation specifically to preserve slavery. The Union - for all its faults in practicality - at least had nobler aspirations than that.
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