Posted on Oct 13, 2019
Black Confederates: exploding America's most persistent myth
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Arlington National Cemetery is the hallowed resting place of America’s war dead. It is also home to a Confederate memorial with a frieze depicting a “mammy” – the stereotype of a black woman loyal to a white family – and an African American man wearing Confederate uniform.
'What politics is': Sidney Blumenthal on Lincoln and his own Washington life
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“For many people, that is evidence of black Confederate soldiers,” Kevin Levin told an audience at the National Archives in Washington last month. “But it’s not. In fact, no one was confused during the dedication that this was in fact a body servant.”
In other words, an enslaved man.
The American civil war has never been in short supply of myths, but Levin describes black Confederates as the “most persistent”. Hundreds of articles, organisations and websites rewrite history by asserting that between 500 and 100,000 free and enslaved African Americans volunteered as soldiers in an army fighting to preserve slavery.
Just because it is counterintuitive does not make it true. In the wake of Donald Trump’s election and the white nationalist protest in Charlottesville, Virginia, where a statue of the Confederate general Robert E Lee still stands, the issue resonates beyond the halls of academia.
Levin, a historian, educator and author of the blog civil war memory, has been writing on the subject since 2008.
'What politics is': Sidney Blumenthal on Lincoln and his own Washington life
Read more
“For many people, that is evidence of black Confederate soldiers,” Kevin Levin told an audience at the National Archives in Washington last month. “But it’s not. In fact, no one was confused during the dedication that this was in fact a body servant.”
In other words, an enslaved man.
The American civil war has never been in short supply of myths, but Levin describes black Confederates as the “most persistent”. Hundreds of articles, organisations and websites rewrite history by asserting that between 500 and 100,000 free and enslaved African Americans volunteered as soldiers in an army fighting to preserve slavery.
Just because it is counterintuitive does not make it true. In the wake of Donald Trump’s election and the white nationalist protest in Charlottesville, Virginia, where a statue of the Confederate general Robert E Lee still stands, the issue resonates beyond the halls of academia.
Levin, a historian, educator and author of the blog civil war memory, has been writing on the subject since 2008.
Black Confederates: exploding America's most persistent myth
Posted from theguardian.com
Civil War
American History
Slavery
Racism
Posted 5 y ago
Responses: 5
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There are many myths about the confederacy and the reasons the war of aggression as the southerners refer to it was fought for. Many southern soldiers were not slave owners and were fighting to protect their lands. After the war the carpet baqggers descended on them. To the victors go the spoils of war. The victors write the history for the reasons for the cause to do battle.
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SPC Robert Conway
There are no reasons after turning traitor to a country that refused to allow them to continue to enslave another race that some people, to this day, consider inferior. EVERYTHING after that is blowing smoke.
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I have known African-Americans who were members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. One had a funeral in Atlanta where all the pallbearers wore Confederate uniforms. This was at a Black church.
A black friend was pulled over by the police in Birmingham because he had an SCV car tag on his car; cops thought he had stolen it.
A black friend was pulled over by the police in Birmingham because he had an SCV car tag on his car; cops thought he had stolen it.
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I agree that most blacks who "served" the Confederacy during the Civil War were enslaved body servants or groups of slaves provided by masters who hoped to profit by their labor building fortifications, etc. In Wikipedia, in an article on black slaves in Confederate service, there is this:
"Near the end of the war, the Confederacy made efforts to enlist black soldiers. In November 1864, Confederate president Jefferson Davis called on the Confederate Congress to purchase 40,000 slaves who would then be emancipated in return for military service. Such calls were very contentious in the south, with General Patrick Cleburne being a leading proponent of arming slaves. Among the opposition to the idea, General Howell Cobb argued in January 1865, "If slaves will make good soldiers our whole theory of slavery is wrong." As the Confederacy collapsed in early 1864 and 1865, arming slaves became, in the words of General Robert E. Lee, "not only expedient but necessary." In March 1865, Davis authorized the enlistment of blacks to the Confederate army and companies began to form by March 25. However, Confederate forces in Virginia surrendered on April 3 and the war was over on April 9, 1865, before black soldiers had a chance to fight on the Confederate side."
"Near the end of the war, the Confederacy made efforts to enlist black soldiers. In November 1864, Confederate president Jefferson Davis called on the Confederate Congress to purchase 40,000 slaves who would then be emancipated in return for military service. Such calls were very contentious in the south, with General Patrick Cleburne being a leading proponent of arming slaves. Among the opposition to the idea, General Howell Cobb argued in January 1865, "If slaves will make good soldiers our whole theory of slavery is wrong." As the Confederacy collapsed in early 1864 and 1865, arming slaves became, in the words of General Robert E. Lee, "not only expedient but necessary." In March 1865, Davis authorized the enlistment of blacks to the Confederate army and companies began to form by March 25. However, Confederate forces in Virginia surrendered on April 3 and the war was over on April 9, 1865, before black soldiers had a chance to fight on the Confederate side."
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