Article in "The Atlantic," The True History of the South Is Not Being Erased.

Garrett Epps has this article, "The True History of the South Is Not Being Erased," in The Atlantic.

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/06/the-true-history-of-the-south-is-not-being-erased/529818/

The subtitle is, "Taking down Confederate monuments helps confront the past, not obscure it."

He has a reference to an earlier article, "The Motionless Ghosts That Haunt the South," in The Atlantic also. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/05/the-motionless-ghosts-that-haunt-the-south/526668/ In that article he says it is time to take the statues down.

He is mentioned as a "Richmond native."

The article "True History" is in response to the reaction he got from his "Ghosts" article.

Epps rejects the ridiculous claim that removing monuments is erasing history.

I post these two articles as a resource for when we start acting to bring down the Robert E. Lee monument and other Confederate monuments and face the usual excuses and rationalizations for them.

I plan on blogging these articles so that when have a full resource when we start our effort.

Kevin M. Levin talks down to Sarah Jones of the "New Republic" magazine.

Kevin M. Levin attempts to patronize Sarah Jones of the "New Republic." You can read the exchange here on Twitter if you are a member. I printed it out for my records.

https://twitter.com/KevinLevin/status/864241228333940737

In this conversation he is the expert talking down to Sarah Jones. He also uses his usual tactic avoiding debate on the issues by either questioning the competency of the individual or their right to debate the issue.

You really have to read the entire series this is one example. Not the capitalization of "WHY" and the expression "you would do well to consider."

Levin pulls out what he thinks will flatten Jones by asking whether she has been to Richmond. If Jones hasn't then she is some type of outside agitator. This is the theme of "Sweet Home Alabama" that Jones is an outsider.

Turns out that Sarah Jones is from Virginia and has been to Richmond many times.

Then it is more patronizing stuff.

Levin's patronizing of Sarah Jones is this article by Jones in New Republic.
https://newrepublic.com/minutes/142710/yes-tear-confederate-monuments

Levin blogs on this encounter.
http://cwmemory.com/2017/05/15/is-richmond-next/

Levin is bent out of shape that Sarah Jones doesn't think much of the efforts of the local historical societies and what cliques they make up and of which he is in good standing.

He can't comprehend that some figures in the larger national establishment are just coming out  and saying these statues need to go and really don't care what rationalizations or excuses or clever strategems the local historical cliques have come up with.

I wonder how long it is going to be before The Atlantic decides that Levin is retrograde.

"Atlantic" magazine has article that it is time for the Confederate monuments to come down

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/05/the-motionless-ghosts-that-haunt-the-south/526668/

What is interesting about this article is that the liberal establishment and neo-liberal establishment is deciding that the Confederate monuments need to go and are providing the space for voices against Confederate monuments to be heard. This is an important change from the past where these type of publications mostly didn't discuss Confederate monuments.

The old story was the Confederate flag hurt feelings of African Americans, but if the flag was gone, then everything was okay. You had to be a radical to be against Confederate monuments.

As one major journal of public opinion follows the next it will develop that they all will adopt a position that they are for the removal of Confederate monuments. Support for Confederate monuments will be confined to reactionary magazines and websites and support for Confederate monuments identified with reactionary opinion.

Arguments for contextualization will be seen for what they are, an excuse to retain monuments or just plan oddball.

Dallas is the city of boosterism and real estate development is its highest moral value. So as Confederate monuments start being removed elsewhere Dallas will increasingly look backward for having Confederate monuments in prominent locations.

Here is a quote from the article.

Those monuments, that reverence for the Lost Cause and its leaders, do lasting damage to all who live in their shadows. It’s no coincidence that Richmond was the ideological powerhouse of “massive resistance”—defiance of the Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education—during the 1950s. That constitutional monstrosity flowed directly from neo-Confederate ideology.

Confederate monuments are going down elsewhere.

Confederate monuments are going down elsewhere. Most notably in New Orleans. However, activity is ongoing in Charlottesville, Virginia and in Shreveport, Louisiana to remove monuments.

So far 2 out of 4 monuments in New Orleans have come down. My other blog has been covering the developments closely. The other blog if you are not aware of it is http://newtknight.blogspot.com/.

As soon as the 4th monument comes down, I think that an example will be set for the entire nation that these monuments need to go and they can be removed with a focused effort. As monuments are removed elsewhere, the idea that it can be done will have more and more credibility. Also, the cities which still have Confederate monuments will be seen as retrograde.

So these are the link to my blogging.

White supremacists march for the Robert E. Statue in Charlottesville, VA.
http://newtknight.blogspot.com/2017/05/white-supremacist-protest-in.html#.WRiHeGgrKiM

Washington Post column arguing for Confederate monument removal and rejecting excuses to retain them.
http://newtknight.blogspot.com/2017/05/hell-has-frozen-over1-washington-post.html#.WRiHs2grKiM

Behind the neo-Confederate groups are influential rich white people pushing to keep the Confederate monuments. In Dallas we very likely have the same.
http://newtknight.blogspot.com/2017/05/frank-stewart-is-outed-as-defender-of.html#.WRiIEGgrKiM

Efforts to remove Confederate monuments are starting elsewhere.
http://newtknight.blogspot.com/2017/05/effort-to-remove-confederate-monument.html#.WRiIZWgrKiM

Discussion that a revolution against Confederate monuments is starting in New Orleans.
http://newtknight.blogspot.com/2017/05/the-revolution-against-confederate.html#.WRiImWgrKiM

Sons of Confederate Veterans declares a boycott of New Orleans. I doubt this is of any consequence to New Orleans perhaps a benefit to the city.
http://newtknight.blogspot.com/2017/04/new-orleans-gets-better-sons-of.html#.WRiJo2grKiM

As Confederate monuments are removed from one city people in other cities will ask their leaders why there are still Confederate monuments in their city.
http://newtknight.blogspot.com/2017/04/when-one-prominent-monument-is-removed.html#.WRiKcmgrKiM


I will likely have more blogs postings at the other blog about monuments going down.

You can sign up for email notification at all my blogs.

Robert E. Lee Has His Slaves Whipped and Brine Poured Into the Wounds

The vicious character of Robert E. Lee is revealed here.

The following account if from the book, “Slave Testimony: Two Centuries of Letters, Speeches, and Interviews, and Autobiographies,” edited by John W. Blassingame. It is published by Louisiana State University Press, Baton Rouge 70893. It is in paperback and not expensive at all.

I
On page 467 in the section Newspaper and Magazine Interviews, 1864‑1938.

WESLEY NORRIS

Interviewed, 1866(?)

b. Virginia

Enslaved: Virginia

It has frequently been represented by the friends and admirers of Robert E. Lee, late an officer in the rebel army, that, although a slave­holder, his treatment of his chattels was invariably kind and humane. The subjoined statement, taken from the lips of one of his former slaves, indicates the real character of the man:

"My name is Wesley Norris; I was born a slave on the plantation of George Parke Custis; after the death of Mr. Custis, Gen. Lee, who had been made executor of the estate, assumed control of the slaves, in number about seventy; it was the general impression among the slaves of Mr. Custis that on his death they should be forever free; in fact this statement had been made to them by Mr. C. years before; at his death we were informed by Gen. Lee that by the conditions of the will we must remain slaves for five years; I remained with Gen. Lee for about seven­teen months, when my sister Mary, a cousin of ours, and I determined to run away, which we did in the year 1859; we had already reached Westminster, in Maryland, on our way to the North, when we were apprehended and thrown into prison, and Gen. Lee notified of our arrest; we remained in prison fifteen days, when we were sent back to Arlington; we were immediately taken before Gen. Lee, who demanded the reason why we ran away; we frankly told him that we considered ourselves free; he then told us he would teach us a lesson we never would forget; he then ordered us to the barn, where, in his presence, we were tied firmly to posts by a Mr. Gwin, our overseer, who was ordered by Gen. Lee to strip us to the waist and give us fifty lashes each, excepting my sister, who received but twenty; we were accordingly stripped to the skin by the overseer, who, however, had sufficient humanity to decline whipping us; accordingly Dick Williams, a county constable, was called in, who gave us the number of lashes ordered; Gen. Lee, in the meantime, stood by, and frequently enjoined Williams to 'lay it on well,' an injunction which he did not fail to heed; not satisfied with simply lacerating our naked flesh, Gen. Lee then ordered the overseer to thoroughly wash our backs with brine, which was done. After this my cousin and myself were sent to Hanover.

Mr. Norris’ account though descriptive doesn’t really express what is was like to have salt or brine put in your open wounds. Being a victim he probably would not like to describe his own behavior. I am not exactly an expert on torture and its psychological impact on its victims. The following historical record gives a very accurate description.

An Eye Witness Account of a Slave Whipping Using Salt

“This white man was whipping him and the blood was all over this nigger and he was saying "o, master, o, master, I pray you not to hit me any more. Oh, Lordy, oh, Lordy, has mercy on me. Master, please has mercy on me, please has mercy." But this man wouldn't stop a minute and spits tobacco juice and cuss him and then starts in whip­ping him again. This nigger was jumping around on the ground all tied up, just like a chicken when you chops his head off when this man was whipping him and when the white folks would stop awhile this nigger would lay there and roll from side to side and beg for mercy.

I runs off a good piece when this white folks started whipping him and stopped and looks back at him, I was so scared that I just stood there and watched him till he quit. Then he tells some of the slaves to wash him off and put salt in the cut places and he stood there to watch them to see that they did. He was chewing his tobacco, spitting and cussing that nigger and when they gets him washed off and puts salt in the raw places he sure did scream and groan.

But when he groaned they just keeping putting the salt in to the wounds on his poor old beat up body.

The first thing that I know my father was patting me on the back and said, "Honey, you better run along home now," and I sure did and I didn't go back over there any more. That was the only slave I ever saw get a whipping.”

This is quoted on page 147 in the book, “An Empire for Slavery: The Peculiar Institution in Texas, 1821-1865.” It is an account of whipping by a white women remembering a childhood experience. The primary reference is Am. Slave, Supp., Ser. 2, IV, 1120-21, (Mollie Dawson). This book in the same section has the description of whippings and its use in slave life. The author Randolph B. Campbell is a professor at the University of North Texas. The book is published by the Louisiana State University Press, Baton Rouge 70893 and is available in paperback.

I enclose this text to let the reader know what it would be like to be whipped and then have salt put in the wound. Whipping is painful enough. Imagine the burning of salt in an open raw wound, it must have been like the fires of hell.

Robert E. Lee thinks Virginia would be better without African Americans

ROBERT E. LEE WANTS AFRICAN AMERICANS OUT OF VIRGINIA

From the “Report of the Joint Committee on Reconstruction,” of congress, pages 135-136, testimony of Robert E. Lee before the Congressional Joint Committee on Reconstruction in response to questions by Mr. Blow, on February 17, 1866. Blow is asking all the questions and Robert E. Lee is giving all the answers.

By Mr. Blow:

Question. Has there been any considerable change in the number of the negro population?

Answer. I suppose it has diminished, but I do not know.

Question. Diminished in consequences of more negroes going south than was made up by the natural increase?

Answer. My general opinion is that the number has diminished and for the reason you give.

Question. I suppose that the mass of the negroes in Virginia, at the present time, are able to work; that there are not many helpless ones among them?

Answer. There are helpless ones, certainly, but I do not know to what extent.

Question. What is your opinion about its being an advantage to Virginia to keep them there at all. Do you not think that Virginia would be better off if the colored population were to go to Alabama, Louisiana, and the other southern States?

Answer. I think it would be better for Virginia if she could get ride of them. That is no new opinion with me. I have always thought so, and have always been in favor of emancipation—gradual emancipation.

Question. As a matter of labor alone, do you not think that the labor which would flow into Virginia, if the negroes left it for the cotton States, would be far more advantageous to the State and to its future prosperity?

Answer. I think it would be for the benefit of Virginia, and I believe that everybody there would be willing to aid it.

Question. And do you not think it is peculiarly adapted to the quality of labor which would flow into it, from its great natural resources, in case it was made more attractive by the absence of the colored race.

Answer. I do.

Robert E. Lee Sr. advises Robert E. Lee Jr. not to hire African Americans who he feels are enemies.

Robert E. Lee Sr. advises Robert E. Lee Jr. that African Americans are their enemies and not to hire them.

The book, “Recollections and Letters of General Lee,” by Robert E. Lee Jr. published by Doubleday, Page & Company in 1904, has a letter by Robert E. Lee Sr. to Robert E. Lee Jr. advising him not to hire African Americans.

From page 305 to 307 of the book, “Recollections and Letters of General Lee,” by Robert E. Lee Jr. published by Doubleday, Page & Company in 1904, A letter by Robert E. Lee Sr., the famous general, to his son Robert E. Lee Jr. advising him to not hire African Americans since he considers them their enemies.

Extract from the letter:

Lexington, Virginia, March 12, 1868.

“My Dear Rob: I am sorry to learn from your letter of the 1st that the winter has been so hard on your wheat. I hope, however, the present good weather is shedding its influence upon it, and that it will turn out better than it promises. You must, however, take a lesson from the last season. What you do cultivate, do well. Improve and prepare the land in the best manner; your labour will be less, and your profits more. Your flat lands were always uncertain in wet winters. The uplands were more sure. Is it not possible that some unbidden guest may have been feasting on your corn? Six hundred bushels are a large deficit in casting up your account for the year. But you must make it up by economy and good management. A farmer’s motto should be toil and trust. I am glad that you have got your lime and sown your oats and clover. Do you use the drill or sow broadcast? I shall try to get down to see you if I go toRichmond, for I am anxious to know how you are progressing and to see if in any way I can aid you. Whenever I can, you must let me know. You must still think about your house and make up your mind as to the site and kind, and collect the material. I can help you to any kind of plan, and with some ready money to pay the mechanics. I have recently had a visit from Dr. Oliver, of Scotland, who is examining lands for immigrants from his country. He seems to be a sensible and judicious man. From his account, I do not think the Scotch and English would suit your part of the country. It would require time for them to become acclimated, and they would probably get dissatisfied, especially as there is so much mountainous region where they could be accommodated. I think you will have to look to the Germans; perhaps the Hollanders, as a class, would be the most useful. When the railroad shall have been completed to West Point, I think there will be no difficulty in getting the whites among you. I would try to get some of our own young men in your employ. I rode out the other day to Mr. Andrew Cameron’s and went into the field where he was plowing. I took great pleasure in following the plows around the circuit. He had four in operation. Three of them were held by his former comrades in the army, who are regularly employed by him, and, he says, much to his satisfaction and profit. People have got to work now. It is creditable to them to do so; their bodies and their minds are benefited by it, and those who can and will work will be advanced by it. You will never prosper with the blacks, and it is abhorrent to a reflecting mind to be supporting and cherishing those who are plotting and working for your injury, and all of whose sympathies and associations are antagonistic to yours. I wish them no evil in the world—on the contrary, will do them every good in my power, and know that they are misled by those to whom they have given their confidence; but our material, social, and political interests are naturally with the whites. Mr. Davis’s trial was fixed for the last of this month. If Judge Chase’s presence is essential, I do not see how it can take place, unless that of Mr. Johnson is to be postponed. I suppose that will be decided to­day or to­morrow, and then I shall ...

Robert E. Lee

 http://www.confederatepastpresent.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=130%3Arobert-e-lee-advises-robert-e-lee-jr-that-african-americans-are-their-enemies-and-not-to-hire-them-&catid=38%3Areconstruction-and-fusion&back=yes

Robert E. Lee advises a friend that he shouldn't hire African Americans.

Robert E. Lee advises friend to hire whites only, Lee thinks African Americans make things worse. 

This is from the “Recollections and Letters of General Lee,” by his son, R.E. Lee, Jr. which was published by Doubleday, Page & Company in 1904. The following is a section about R.E. Lee Sr. visiting “Corbin Braxton’s widow” for dinner with some friends and his son gives an account on page 168 of the 1988 reprint by Broadfoot Publishing Co. In reading the book it is not clear exactly when this occured, but it was at some time right after the Civil War, but before he became president of Washington College.

Extract from the book:

…. a repast composed of all the good things for which that country was famous. John and I did not seem to think there was too much in sight—at any rate, it did not daunt us, and we did our best to lessen the quantity, consuming, I think, our share and more! We had been for so many years in the habit of being hungry that it was not strange we continued to be so awhile yet. But my father took a different view of the abundance displayed, and, during his drive back, said to Colonel Carter.: “Thomas, there was enough dinner to­day for twenty people. All this will now have to be changed; you cannot afford it; we shall have to practice economy.”

In talking with Colonel Carter about the situation of farmers at that time in the South, and of their prospects for the future, he urged him to get rid of the negroes left on the farm―some ninety­-odd in number, principally women and children, with a few old men―saying the government would provide for them, and advised him to secure white labour. The Colonel told him he had to use, for immediate needs, such force as he had, being unable at that time to get the whites. Were upon General Lee remarked:

“I have always observed that wherever you find the negro, everything is going down around him, and wherever you find the white man, you see everything around him improving.”

http://www.confederatepastpresent.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=129%3Arobert-e-lee-against-employing-african-americans&catid=38%3Areconstruction-and-fusion&back=yes