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The Confederate flag is being taken down across the South, right now. It is my belief that this isn't enough. To truly make progress, it isn't enough to remove narratives - it is important we replace them with something better. Every great accomplishment in this country, whether for good or for ill, has started with a powerful narrative - Manifest Destiny, Civil Rights, Suffrage, The Moon Landing, Gay Marriage. All of them succeeded for many reasons, but in large part because they told a story people could see themselves as part of. Right now, the story of the South's heritage is falling apart, because it was built by racists on a foundation of lies to reinforce their regressive, bigoted ideology. Historical narratives are seldom as much about what happened in the past as what a society values in its future. It's possible that moving forward, there simply won't be a concept of Southern heritage related to the civil war and its aftermath. It's a possibility, but I think it's a sad one. Because there is an opportunity here to do better - there are all the seeds for a narrative that gives Southerners a reason to be proud of their heritage that adopts a different vision for the future. There's the possibility to build a narrative of what it means to be a Southerner that includes black people, that includes the many whose family's fought for the Union, that includes those who did the right thing. A heritage doesn't have to represent all the people of the time - hell, the Lost Cause narrative and the Sons and Daughters of the Confederacy certainly don't! It's about choosing which parts of our past we choose to value and celebrate now. So I'd like your help building one. Southerners, tell me about real heroes from where you live - your towns, your cities, your counties and states. Dig into the history, wipe off the veneer of the Lost Cause bullshit, and find the real stories. Stories of people who stayed loyal, of real Southerners who tried to fight against slavery and for the union, who believed in making the South a better place, that shows what being a Goood Southerner can mean, and expresses Southern values that don't require the existence of inferior races. Historians, give me stories and statistics most of us might not have heard that can be used to support an alternate picture of the South. Who remained loyal to the Union? What did people who didn't support slavery do? After the civil war, who helped rebuild the south and how did they make it better? (Before the white supremacists took over again, of course) Give us a new flag, one deep in meaning, that we can fly in the Confederate flag's place. Give us stories about places like Winston County and Scott County. Everyone, help spread the word, share it with people, and give them a different story to follow. --- So maybe this won't actually help, I don't know. But I feel like I should be doing something to help fight bigotry and racism and make people's lives better, and I don't know what else I can do. It seems like it's worth trying, at least. Even if it only changes a few minds, get's a few people to rethink their history and step away from it in a better direction, it's better than nothing. The Heroes of the South Newton Knight  The story of Jones County, Mississippi’s Unionist activities has long been clouded by myth and legend, but most historians agree that this small, wooded backwater was the site of some particularly violent resistance to the Confederacy. The pro-U.S. movement in Jones first crystallized a few years into the Civil War, when the county became a haven for young men who had grown disillusioned with the Confederate cause and deserted the army. Led by a mercurial local named Newton Knight, the runaways organized into a Unionist guerilla outfit called the Knight Company and took to harassing nearby Confederate units. Whether Knight and his band were a principled resistance group or mere bandits has been a matter of debate, but there’s no doubt they succeeded in stirring the political pot. The group effectively disabled the county government, and at one point, its activities sparked rumors that Jones County had seceded from the Confederacy and was flying the stars and stripes over its courthouse. The Knight Company’s disruptive reign continued until April 1864, when Confederate Colonel Robert Lowry used bloodhounds to track the guerillas and drive them from their hideout in the swamps. Newton Knight later resurfaced, however, and after the war, he assisted in U.S. reconstruction efforts in Mississippi. From Wikipedia: Newton Knight (November 1837 – February 16, 1922) was an American farmer, soldier and Southern Unionist, best known as the leader of the Knight Company, a band of Confederate Army deserters that turned against the Confederacy during the Civil War. Local legends state that Knight and his men attempted to form the "Free State of Jones" in the area around Jones County, Mississippi, at the height of the war. After the war, Knight aided Mississippi's Reconstruction government. Knight has long been a controversial figure. Historians and descendants disagree over his motives and actions, with some arguing he was a noble and pious individual who refused to fight for a cause in which he did not believe, while others have portrayed him as a manipulative outlaw. This controversy was fueled in part by Knight's common-law marriage to a former slave, which effectively established a small mixed-race community in southeastern Mississippi. The marriage would have been considered illegal as Mississippi banned interracial marriages except from 1870–1880 during Reconstruction. GlyphGryph fucked around with this message at 02:23 on Jun 29, 2015 |
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Jun 29, 2015 02:20
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Most people are perfectly happy to be American with a local narrative based around food and sports and the occasional celebrity. Maybe they should try that out for a while instead of clinging to their traitorous failed slaver rebellion from one hundred and fifty loving years ago.
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Jun 29, 2015 03:17
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Drag queens drag racing. There's your new narrative for the south that's as likely as anything else one could propose for the foreseeable future. Although honestly your post should specify white southerners since black southerners have different narratives.
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Jun 29, 2015 07:17
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