[Dixielandjazz] Civil War & Slavery

[Bigbuttbnd@aol.com]

Listmates:

I'm a son of the South, born and raised in Georgia. My father (now deceased) 
took me aside at a very young age and told me what fathers throughout the 
South have told their children since 1864, to be cautious of the history 
taught in the school. Writers of history in our modern age have done their 
work with an agenda in mind, they are not afraid to change the facts to fit 
the fantasy. 

My father grew up in a small town in central Georgia called Fitzgerald. 
Fitzgrald was formed after the Civil War with the intent of being a town of 
reconcilliation. The town was laid out in streets running north and south and 
east and west. One side of the town featured streets named after Southern 
generals, the other had streets named after Northern generals. Land was 
offered at discount prices for veterans of the Civil War and thousands of 
union vets moved to the heart of Georgia to live there side by side with 
Confederate veterans.

As a young boy my dad sat on the porches of countless vets and listened to 
war stories, not from a writer of history, but in first person from the men 
who were there. These men fought throughout the campaigns and represented all 
of thes states of the Union at that time. They told their stories and they 
talked about their motivations. His opinions, expressed to me years later, 
were that the issue of slavery was not even an issue for the soldiers who 
fought.

There is a difference between slavery and racism. Slavery represented an 
economic method for aquiring labor. While it was not cheaper in the short run 
than hiring labor, the long-term represented a potential return on 
investment... the slave could be sold whereas the laborer could not. The 
slave, however, had to be maintained while the laborer could, when business 
was bad, simply be laid off. From the several hundreds of years of slavery in 
the United States an attitude of racism developed. This attitude extended 
beyond the South to every portion of the country and pervaded our collective 
social fabric long beyond the freeing of the slaves. My father often told me 
of black men who left his employ in the early 50's to move North because of 
Jim Crow laws in the South who later moved back and went to work for him. 
When he inquired why he was always told that in the South a black man 
couldn't go to the same restaurant or use the same bathroom as whites but if 
he had a problem he could always get a little help (a little job, a little 
meal, etc.) but in the North, although he had more freedom, he was 
"invisible" to the white population. 

I abhor slavery and racism. I think salvery was the worst thing that happened 
to this country and the repercussions will stay with us for many years to 
come. But I think that much that is taught in school today and much that is 
presented by Ken Burns in "The Civil War" is a fantasy view of the issues. 
Being a Southerner and growing up here I know the pride, spirit, grace, anger 
and stubborness of Southerners. New Yorkers responded to the 9/11 attacks 
with intense pride and braggadaccio while hiding the intense wound and hurt 
they felt. Southerners are just the same. 

To think that poor southern dirt farmers were willing to die by the thousands 
so a few plantation owners could keep their slaves is beyond the realm of 
common sense. They fought and died to say "Get the hell off my land... you 
are not going to order me or mine around!" From a southern perspective that's 
it! That's why the war was fought and fought so hard for 4 years... 
self-government, home rule (the same reason the colonials rose up against 
England in 1776.) I can't tell you why the common men of Massachusetts or 
Vermont or Pennsylvania marched into the South to be killed. I don't know the 
reason but I cannot fathom that it was to free slaves who, when freed before, 
were still treated as outcasts and second class citizens.

Slavery was a very big issue but not THE issue, certainly not the rallying 
point for fighting men. Like the Vietnam era where Liberals generally were 
against the war and Conservatives were generally supportive of the war... ther
e were other issues where these two groups also formed an opinion. Those same 
Liberals were perhaps more in favor of expanded civil rights and those same 
Conservatives were perhaps less in favor of expanded civil rights. That 
doesn't mean the Veitnam War was fought over Civil Rights issues. There were 
several major issues and the division was along the same lines for the 
various issues.

I still think "Loreena" is the best tune of the era!

Rocky Ball
Atlanta