Civil War Memory

"A Thoughtful Well-Meaning Confederate Apologist"

I recently discovered an excellent blog written by a graduate student in history who is very interested in issues related to the Lost Cause, public history, and memory.  One particular post on Michael Hardy's blog, North Carolina and the Civil War, really caught my attention.  The writer applauds Hardy for his sincere interest in researching his Confederate ancestors who fought in the war, but expresses concern over his failure to acknowledge the centrality of slavery to the war on a number of different levels.  There are very few references to race and slavery and the few that do reference it buy into the myth of loyal slaves and black Confederates.  The writer concludes with the following:

Jefferson Davis, Jim Limber, and the Sons of Confederate Veterans

It looks like 200th anniversary of Jefferson Davis's birth is passing us by with very little interest.  This is no surprise given our tendency to concentrate on military leaders and ignore the broader political/racial issues that defined the Civil War.  Spend too much time on Davis and you raise the problem of slavery and race.  I recently came across a very brief reference to a plan on the part of the Sons of Confederate Veterans to erect a statue in memory of Davis and his adopted free black son, Jim Limber.  Limber's story is very interesting from what little we know of it.  William J. Cooper makes no reference of the boy in his excellent biography of Davis.  I did locate a short article about Limber by Peggy Robbins which was published in Civil War Times Illustrated (Vol. 17) back in 1978.

A Teachable Moment

I am not a fan of Chris Matthews, but last night's interview with radio talk show host Kevin James on Bush's use of the Neville Chamberlain/appeasement analogy in a speech in Israel is perfect for the classroom.  As I've said on numerous occasions I fervently believe that knowledge of the past can inform our understanding of the world around us.  It's what drives me in the classroom.  Unfortunately, there are too many people out there who rely on their personalities and hyperbole as a substitute for sound analysis.  Chris gave this clown every opportunity to explain the concept of appeasement, but rather than admit his ignorance James kept digging himself into a deeper hole.  Sometimes yelling and screaming at the top of your lungs is not sufficient.  Show this to your classes and ask your students to think about what type of advocate they hope to be.

Thanks for the Check Mr. President

Dear Mr. President, -- Well, another year of teaching is quickly coming to a close and the wife and I are in the middle of planning our summer vacation.  I know how important education is to you and I always keep your words in mind whenever I am feeling overwhelmed or tired: "Rarely is the question asked, is our children learning?"   The wife and I wanted to thank you for sending along our much awaited Economic Stimulus check for $1,200 which we plan to apply to our vacation expenses.  At first we hoped to travel to northern Europe including Amsterdam, Stockholm, Oslo and Bremen, but because of high gas prices and the weak dollar we had to scrap our plans.  I guess we all have to make sacrifices during these difficult times.  I recently heard on the news that after you ordered the invasion of Iraq you decided to give up golf as a gesture to the brave men and women who were fighting and dying overseas.  That must have been extremely difficult for you but I am sure that our military appreciates the gesture.

Instead we are planning another trip to Montreal for the Montreal Jazz Festival which begins in late June. We had a wonderful time in the city last summer.  Just in case you didn't know Montreal is in Canada which is our neighbor to the north.  If you were to get into your truck and drive north for about 10 hours you can't miss it.  Anyway, our hotel is booked in the old town section of the city and we were able to purchase some excellent concert tickets.  On Friday night we are going to see  the Saxophone Summit with Dave Liebman, Joe Lavano, and Ravi Coltrane followed by Brad Mehldau solo.  On Saturday we will see Brad Mehldau again, but this time with his trio and the Gonzalo Rubalcaba Quintet.  Finally, on Sunday we will see Hank Jones and Charlie Haden. This doesn't include all of the free concerts that run on at least five different stages throughout the afternoon hours. 

From Montreal we will drive to New York City for four days where we plan on checking out a bunch of museums and even an opera.  Back in 2001 you climbed up on some rubble in the downtown area and if memory serves me it was the last time that the country was rallied around you.  Those were good days Mr. President.  Don't worry, in a few months you can get back to your golf game and pretend that the last eight years never happened.  Thanks again for the check and we will be sure to send you and Laura a postcard.

"Who Needs the Nutmeg Now, Brother?": History as a Safety Zone

It's always difficult to teach the first two weeks in May with so many AP exams taking place.  On most days I may have half of my class present, which makes it very difficult to organize and execute lesson plans.  Over the past few years I've shown a movie that fits into the topic under discussion; this usually involves something within the area of the Civil Rights Movement.  This year I decided to show Spike Lee's Malcolm X.  In addition, we analyzed some of his speeches and read a short article comparing Malcolm and King by Clayborne Carson.  We compare all three sources since the movie does play loosely with Malcolm's life and especially with the Nation of Islam.  The students find the movie to be very interesting and a number of them have already decided to include the Autobiography of Malcolm X as part of their summer reading lists.  I've read the book three times and believe it to be one of the great American stories. 

This year I noticed something very interesting.  When the whole Reverend Wright controversy surfaced I had a great deal of difficulty getting my students to think beyond the short clips that were running endlessly on the news.  They seemed unwilling to engage in serious thought and rarely moved beyond their gut responses which revealed a great deal of frustration, misunderstanding, and fear.  They seemed to interpret my prodding of them to think more seriously as an attempt at forcing them to agree with the words spoken.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  My job is not to force my students to believe anything, but to learn how to think for themselves.  At times I probed by asking questions to flesh out their views, but for most part it was to no avail.  With that in mind I looked forward to seeing how my students would respond to Spike Lee's movie.  Interestingly, they were much more open to empathizing with Malcolm given the attention paid to his early childhood.  The movie, along with our other sources, provided a much richer perspective on why Malcolm advocated Black Nationalism and a policy calling for the separation of the races.  His more "controversial" claims didn't seem to bother my students - at least they didn't voice it during the movie; in fact, many of them grew in their respect for the way Malcolm dealt with various challenges in his life.  A few of my students who were familiar with references of "White Devils" or "By Any Means Necessary" seemed pleasantly surprised by the larger picture that came into clearer view as the movie and our discussions progressed.  The key to unraveling preconceptions and fostering empathy (not necessarily agreement) was that the movie and other sources revealed a complex life that went through dramatic change. Students appreciated and worked to better understand how and why Malcolm responded to new experiences such as his conversion to Islam in prison and work with the Nation of Islam and later following his pilgrimage to Mecca in 1964. 

I haven't touched the Jeremiah Wright controversy since we started the movie, but I probably should.  It would be interesting to know whether they are more open to exploring Wright's more controversial claims within a more mature and inclusive context.  Perhaps Malcolm himself can provide that window.  It seems to me that the way in which the media approached Malcolm with their overly simplistic questions and need to sell a story is not much different from what happened with Wright.  Perhaps this helps us get at the old saw that the teaching of history helps to shape more informed citizens.  One of my fundamental goals as a history instructor is to teach my students how to better understand others without asking them to necessarily agree or disagree.  Out job is to impress upon our students the importance of gathering information from a wide variety of sources which allows for a more informed rather than emotionally driven judgment. What was driven home for me this past week is that the study of history can provide a safety zone in which to practice these other-regarding skills.  The events are easier to consider because they are in the past and therefore rendered remote or safe to approach.  We do our students a disservice, however, if we fail to give them the opportunity to apply these skills to the present as a way to better understand the shifting world of politics and current events.

The recent events surrounding Jeremiah Wright and the way in which it continues to be covered along with our study of Malcolm X serves to remind me of just how important this responsibility is. 

The 2008 AP United States History Exam

My students are relieved that the AP exam is over and overall are confident that they did extremely well.  While I am not a fan of the AP curriculum I do respect my students' commitment to doing well on the test.  They work very hard throughout the year and if this is one way they can bring closure to the year than so be it.  Luckily for this particular class I nailed the Document-Based Question (DBQ), which was on the Vietnam War.  I was fairly confident that the question would be pulled from the 20th century given the last few exams.  We spent quite a bit of time on the Vietnam War and the period between 1960 and 1980 so I know there was a sigh of relief when they flipped that page in their test packet.  You will notice a heavy emphasis on social/cultural history which I have no problem with.  The questions cover a broad range of topics and provide a number of analytical entry points for students to work with.  While some people complain about my choice of a textbook there is no better source with which to prepare students given the content of the essay questions.  More importantly, it's a damn good read.  Here are the questions beginning with the DBQ:

Thank You Jon Stewart

What does it say about our media when it takes a comedy show to hold our public leaders accountable.  I actually felt sick to my stomach listening to Jon Stewart interview Douglas Feith about his new book.  Thousands of American soldiers have made the ultimate sacrifice in addition to the tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis who have died as a result of our invasion and this guy gets to spend his time rationalizing the road to war.  Part 2 of the interview can be found here.

Not North v. South, but East v. West

[Hat-Tip to Chris Paysinger]

In my last post I briefly referenced the sharp divide between Tidewater Virginians and those living in the western counties along the Blue Ridge and Allegheny Mountains.  Our popular memory tends to run rough shod over important debates that took place within Virginia and the rest of the South surrounding political control on the eve of the Civil War.  The debate within Virginia was part of a much longer political dialog that went back at least to the slave debates of 1831.  Tidewater planters dominated the state legislature in Richmond and passed legislation that solidified their control and which benefited slaveholders at the expense of non-slaveholders.  Perhaps the best example of this was a law which capped the tax on slaves at $300, although the value of a healthy male slave was much higher.  Western Virginians cried foul, but there was little they could do about it.  Those long-running debates played out for everyone to see when it came time for Virginia to secede.  Thanks to Chris for passing this image along.

Would Robert E. Lee Welcome YOU To His Dinner Table?

I am currently reading and enjoying Susan Dunn's Dominion of Memories: Jefferson, Madison, and the Decline of Virginia (Basic Books, 2007), which explores the period between the 1820s and the Civil War.  Dunn writes well, but most importantly the book is filling in a significant gap in my understanding of the state's history.  According to Dunn, Virginia went from a national leader during the Early Republic to a declining economy whose leaders held tightly to a provincial view which provided little opportunity for a large portion of its white population.  Planters defaulted on their loans and gradually became more defensive about their northern neighbors and foreign observers who visited the region and were shocked to discover the lack of productivity on Virginia's farms and the pervasiveness of poverty.  Dunn attributes Virginia's downfall to a combination of its ruling elite adhering to a "gentlemanly" way of life, its obsession with states' rights and the retention of slavery.

Peer Review or An Exercise in Humility

This post originally appeared in December 2005, just one month into my blogging experiment.  I've enjoyed Eric Wittenberg's excellent series of posts on his experience researching and publishing Civil War history so I thought it might be helpful to re-post my own experience with peer review for those interested.  I should add that since this post I've done quite a bit of peer review for a few journals and am currently serving on the editorial advisory board for the Virginia Magazine of History and Biography.  Perhaps I will have time at some point to discuss my experience on the other side.

It's been an interesting few months putting the finishing touch on two essay slated for publication in the near future. The first is a piece on William Mahone's postwar political career and its connection to his legacy as a Confederate general and will appear in a few weeks in the Virginia Magazine of History and Biography. The second is an article on postwar debates between Virginians, North Carolinians, Alabamians, and South Carolinians over the Crater. This is set to appear in an edited volume that will be published next fall by the University of Kentucky Press.

Both articles have gone through a very rigorous peer review process and since it is my first experience I wanted to take a few moments to reflect on it. The Mahone article has gone through a very stringent set of controls. Once submitted the article was read by the two editors of the journal. I was notified after a few months that the article had been read by the editor and was deemed worthy of being sent out for anonymous peer review. The essay was sent to four readers and within a few months I had their response: "REJECTION." The paper was rejected for immediate publication; however, I was given the opportunity and encouraged to respond to the reviewers' comments and resubmit. I have to admit that it took me about a week to drag my ego out of the mud. To make a long story short, the reviewers tore my essay apart. They all agreed that it had redeeming qualities, but it needed serious revision. With a renewed commitment I set out to respond to the critiques. I took a 4-day trip down to Special Collections at Duke to work with the Mahone collection and began rewriting. After about 5 months I had a revised draft ready to send back to the journal with no guarantee that it would be accepted. The essay was drastically revised both in terms of content and thesis. I was pleasantly surprised to learn a few weeks later that the article had been accepted for publication. Thinking that the brunt of the work had been completed I focused on other projects. It was not to be: A few weeks later I received my first email in reference to polishing the prose and clarifying specific analytical points. Arguments that I believed were rock solid were referenced for clarification. A few weeks later another email arrived that focused specifically on the endnotes. Every reference (apart from archival material) had been double-checked to ensure that information was properly accounted for. A number of footnotes had to be confirmed. Additional emails continued to arrive regarding a wide range of questions. I have to admit to being a bit paranoid throughout this process. It seemed reasonable at any moment to expect a phone call or email with the following: "Mr. Levin. . . .we have decided that following through with the publication of your essay is costing us valuable time and mental distress." Of course I am exaggerating, but this can make you a little nutty first time around.

With the article now close to publication and the other essay close to final revision I have a much clearer appreciation as to why this process is so important to serious historical study. For one, the amount of time spent doing serious research on a topic has the potential for creating a very tight psychological hold between author and product. In short, the more time spent, the more difficult it is to maintain an objective or critical perspective on the interpretation. The anonymous reviews really drove home the importance of independent analysis. On one level it is a humbling experience to be reminded of your own analytical limitations. At the same time it became obvious to me that regardless of how much time you spend reading secondary sources and delving through archival material others still somehow know a hell of a lot more and are more creative thinkers. The trick is to see the editorial/peer review process as an integral step in the overall improvement of the interpretation.

Sons of Confederate Veterans Hope to Purchase Mahone's Tavern

The members of the Urquhart-Gillette Camp No. 1471, Sons of Confederate Veterans in Southampton County, Virginia hope to raise enough money to purchase the boyhood home of William Mahone, which is currently on the market.  Mahone's family moved into the home following "Turner's Rebellion" in 1831 and established a tavern a fairly successful tavern.  While I applaud the SCV for taking on this cause there is something just slightly humorous about their decision to utilize Mahone's home for your standard SCV/UDC events:

The group holds monthly meetings in a private restaurant room in Franklin, and [Tommy] Simmons said Mahone’s Tavern would provide a meeting place and activity center for the local SCV camp, as well as for the local chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy and other community historic and civic groups.

As many of you know I've spent considerable time reading and writing about William Mahone's postwar career, and while he was involved in various kinds of commemorative events his goal was almost always to further his business and political interests.  Mahone led a veterans organization made up of men from his Virginia brigade and he authorized biographies as a means to attract interest in his plan for railroad consolidation.  His forays into the past usually resulted in controversy owing to his abrasive personality and political convictions.  The point is that Mahone did not languish in the Lost Cause or weep over the death of the Confederacy; rather, he was optimistic about the future and confident that he could bring Virginia into the modern age.  Such a goal stands in sharp contrast to our memory of white Southerners in the postwar period who stood up defiantly against the modernizing tendencies that they so valiantly fought against for four years. 

Most interesting, of course, is Mahone's politics and position on issues of race.  One has to wonder what Mr. Simmons has envisioned when he references using the home as a "meeting place and activity center."  How many members of this particular chapter of the SCV are aware of Mahone's leadership of the Readjuster Party from 1879 to 1883 which was the most successful bi-racial third party in the postwar South?  Do they know that Mahone was considered to be a "Judas" by much of the state and even the men he led into battle for bringing about a political coalition with black Virginians that led to important advances within the public sphere?  Black Virginians attended public schools in the largest numbers and served in local governments around the state, while Mahone served as senator in Washington and voted with the Republican Party:

In 1858 occurred the raid of John Brown and the raid of Mahone and the Readjusters in 1879, though less bloody was more dangerous than that of John Brown.  Both raids occurred in Va, and the negro was in both cases the instrument relied on to destroy the old order of things. [George Bagby’s pamphlet, John Brown and William Mahone: An Historical Parallel, Foreshadowing Civil Trouble]

The Revolution gave us but one Arnold, during the whole seven years of its course, while the Confederate war failed to yield a single one on either side until after it had been fought out.”  Though many of Virginia’s native sons “held out long and well. . . at last some of them succumbed, and are now found, Arnold-like, leading their old enemy against their old friends and associates. [The Richmond State, 1881]

Reconstruction came late to Virginia and it came not at the hands of so-called "Carpetbaggers" but at the hands of one of the most successful Confederate generals.  As a result, white Virginians consciously erased Mahone and the Readjusters from their public memory well into the twentieth century.

Again, I wish the SCV all the best in raising the necessary funds to purchase the property, but I am not at all confident that Mahone would want them in his home.

Did Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson Subscribe to the Theory of Evolution?

My guess is that the good people at Exploration Films Television probably don't think so.  They make films and documentaries for a Christian audience:

EFT believes that life is a wonderful discovery and they serve those who are willing to embrace life to the fullest... those who are curious, risky and insightful... people who love truth: true thinking, true ideas and true facts. EFT's powerful, high-quality stories are some of the most unique around. Some of its titles include Incredible Creatures That Defy Evolution, a three-volume series that exposes the lies and assumptions of evolutionary theory; Warriors of Honor, a look at the life and faith of two of America's legendary generals Robert E Lee and Stonewall Jackson; First Love, an historic reunion of Jesus-Music pioneers; and Rebellion of Thought, a chronicle of two brothers and their heart-rending struggle for authentic faith in a post-modern culture.

I assume that Lee and Jackson are two of the "Incredible Creatures" that we can watch in the documentary challenging the theory of evolution.  After all, Lee and Jackson are the paradigm examples in favor of Intelligent Design since it is impossible to imagine that they were both simply the result of some kind of accident within the primordial soup.  More telling, however, is the listing of the Lee and Jackson film smack in the middle of two films that point to the dangers of a secular world. It gets us right back to my previous post which pointed out that we are wedded to an image of the Confederacy as defying the modern tendencies of the North during the war.  It's the standard ahistorical distinction that we've grown accustomed to and which provides the moral framework for understanding the war that a large number of people continue to utilize.  This is a wonderful example of the ways in which history can get sucked into the culture wars: on the one side we have Lee, Jackson, God, and morality and on the other we find Grant, Sherman, atheism, and pragmatism.  For a sense of just how pervasive these assumptions surrounding Lee and Jackson are, keep in mind that EFT is based in Colorado and not in the South. 

Demobilization, Reconciliation, and Johnny Yuma

About two weeks ago I shared my very rough introduction to my essay on the demobilization of the Army of Northern Virginia. I took on this project with few prior assumptions about what I would find.  Problems abound in trying to track down sources from the period immediately following Appomattox.  Few soldiers had the time or the interest in cataloging their journeys home.  Most surprising of all was the level of violence that pervaded sections of Virginia, specifically along the Blue Ridge Mountains where those Confederates who deserted during the war continued to hide.  Others headed for the hills in hopes that elements of the ANV would regroup and continue the struggle.  The sudden surrender and dispersement of the ANV taxed an already depleted landscape and placed those civilians living in close proximity to roads in a precarious situation.  Competition for limited resources inevitably led to clashes between soldiers, civilians, and the newly-freed slaves.  Couple that with the humiliation of defeat and a sense of uncertainty regarding the future and you've got yourself a potentially explosive situation.  Many of the soldiers learned of Lincoln's assassination during their travels and this only added to that uncertainty.  I was surprised by how many Confederates viewed the president's death as a loss for the South.  A farmer in Nelson County anticipated much harsher punishment for former Confederates under the new president, Andrew Johnson, while others could only speculate as to how they would be treated.

Confessions of an AP History Dropout

Leave it to a high school junior to sum up my own feelings about the AP American history curriculum:

The overriding goal is to crack the AP test. That means taking a lot of practice tests -- week after week, filling in those bubbles in class. It means researching past AP exams to predict what will be on the test. It means answering model AP essay questions for homework. It means brute memorization. My classmates ask: Will there be more questions on the American Revolution or World War I? What do we really have to know about mercantilism? Their unspoken question is: If I blow the AP test, can I still get into a good college?

In class, we cannot stray from the AP regimen. A few weeks ago, we were rushing through the 1960s with lightning speed. The Vietnam War is a fog. Somehow the New Frontier turned into the Great Society, which I always confuse with the New Freedom, the New Nationalism and the New Federalism. And what does CORE stand for?

Today is my last day with my AP students before tomorrow's test.  I hope they do well on it, but I have to admit to feeling ambivalent about the "big day."  The level of tension among many of my students has gradually increased over the past few weeks and it has become much more difficult to engage in serious dialog.  They've entered the "just the facts please" mode which leaves little room for the bigger questions and debates.  What I dread most of all is that my students will evaluate their progress in this course based on their AP score which usually arrives in July.  I also get to see the grades, but to be completely honest I don't place much stock in them.  The final grade that I give each student is based on a much richer body of information that the AP Test cannot measure.  I don't feel much excitement about having come to the end of the year; what I find myself contemplating is whether all the work put into the year has been nothing more than preparation for a standardized test created by people who have no idea what went on in my class. 

On a more personal level, I thoroughly dislike the way the course ends.  Most of my students are taking other AP courses, which means that during the week of exams I never have a full class.  There is little opportunity to bring the class to a close with final thoughts or to introduce some kind of lesson that allows my students to think about the year as a whole.  Unlike other schools we do not meet as a class after the AP Test.  I think this is unfortunate as I have grown quite attached to my students.

I recently completed work on a committee here at school set up to evaluate our AP program.  We had some very interesting discussions and our final report will hopefully lead to some changes.  I look forward to the day when I can add my name to the growing list of AP dropouts.