The South shall rise again:

the northern role in provoking racial tension.

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The South shall rise again
wish I was in the land of cotton
old times there are not forgotten
look away, look away, look away
dixie land


Strom Thurmond

Strom Thurmond
Republican, ex-segregationist

Confederate Flag

Confederate Battle Flag
Blacks served this flag, too

Robert E Lee

Virginia`s Robert E. Lee, General
the Grey Knight of the Confederacy

The South shall rise again

the honorable and noble side of the nostalgic, picturesque "Old South"


White southerners have taken a bad rap in the eye of history. White southerners are seen as the villains in the drama, the slave owning and abusing bullies, even though only a small minority of white southerners ever owned slaves. White southerners are blamed for starting a war they then ultimately lost, even though it was just a few Charlestonian hot heads who attacked Fort Sumter, forcing its surrender. The North, hardly innocent, revels in its victory. Truth be told, it was a war that never needed to be fought. For more.

U.S. Grant winds up as president, yet Robert E. Lee retires to shame and obscurity, even though, in some respects, Robert E. Lee was one of the greatest men America has ever produced. Northern historians might point out Grants dogged tenacity, his humble origins and ultimate victory. Lee, who turned his back on the flag he loved, and his broken oath of loyalty as an officer, yet most historians concede that Lee was unmatched as a strategist. What people forget is that Lee was also a great Christian, too. After the war, a black man sought to join the Episcopal Church where Lee was a lay leader. No one would stand in the black man's behalf, but Lee did.

Slavery is the albatross which history has hung around the neck of the South, the "bloody shirt" they fling at white male southerners throughout subsequent politics. Yet slavery has existed from time immemorial. Andrea Dworkin says slavery is a natural outgrowth of male domination of 'his' female property. Serge Trifkovic notes that European enslavement of black Africans was started by Islamic Arab traffickers. It was from Arab slave dealers and traders that the Portuguese and Spanish first purchased black African slaves for their colonies in the Western hemisphere. The Arabic slave trade in black Africans began to flourish at the time of the Muslim expansion into Africa in the middle of the seventh century, and it still survives today in Mauritania and Sudan. [The Sword of Islam. pp 172-173]

Disney's saddest disappointment 'Song of the South'

Our Family Feud
The America of the civil war - our republic of suffering - has surely never endured such an immense and tragic baptism of wrenching pain as in that conflict to end human bondage. It was an armageddom struggle between the modern age and the classical one, and the wounds it inflicted on the American soul were epic. Lucan wrote: alta sedent civilis vulnera dextræ. I would contend that "The Brother's War" between north and south was a war that didn't have to be fought. Northerners judge the white South for hardening their position during the days of abolitionist fervor, yet Northerners forget several things:

(1) The intensity of anti southern rhetoric had been rising exponentially in the North. How would you feel if you were heaped with vile calumny, were accused of every crime from cruelty to sexual madness and molestation and rape? The northern evangelical Charles G. Finney urged his fellow abolitionists to tone down their anti-southern rhetoric to a more responsible level, and avoid the extremes of accusation, particularly where the truth of the allegations was doubtful.

(2) The North was not alone in abolitionist sentiment, as numerous white Southerners, almost from the beginnings, had expressed reservations, and many hoped (or expected) to see the eventual end to slavery. There had been several mini-movements toward some form of emancipation in Southern churches, though each of those movements had ultimately been defeated.

(3) What northerners failed to see was that any form of immediate abolition would have been catastrophically disruptive not only socially and culturally but economically as well. I believe every single one of the numerous Southern white emancipationists from the days of the Founding, right on down to the days of Henry Clay and even Robert E. Lee, argued that ONLY a careful, considerate, responsible plan of gradual emancipation could work, if at all, and should include remuneration in value. If you are going to pay the workers for work performed, you must also compensate the owners for lost "property."

(4) If the gradual, compensated emancipation of the great Henry Clay had been tried, it very well may have worked, and at the very least would have averted Fort Sumter and its aftermath. But not only did white southern aristocrats shy away from the whole hot button issue, but white northerners reviled Clay as a contemptible slave owner. Robert E. Lee himself supported Henry Clay's compromise stance, both because Lee's natural inclinations were always pro-union and whiggish-leaning, in economics, but also because Lee saw that eventually, emancipation was necessary for the entire nation.

(5) The North was hardly innocent in the entire racial mess of human bondage, and its peremptory condescending tone so evident in much of the abolitionist rhetoric was hardly appropriate. Lincoln himself admitted the complicity of the north, economically, in the ongoing profits of slave-based southern agriculture. New York City profited immensely from the loans made to the South's King Cotton, and behind the scenes, northern business tended to be no less opposed to abolition than were white southerners. A few exceptions of course, existed (Lewis Tappan comes to mind).

(6) Few white Southerners these days are proud of the racist aspect of their tormented past. They just want a little fair treatment. Northern whites were hardly innocent on the issue of racial prejudice, as any glance should show. Lincoln as much as admitted the same, even owning up to his own prejudice and white supremacist inclinations. Irish and German Democrats in the North were notoriously copperhead in their prejudices. But as with anything difficult or tortuous, sometimes all we can do is hope for a change, seek and appeal for a better tomorrow. Martin Luther King Jr. (a Southern Christian and a patriot) reminded us that God can still wring good out of evil.

(7) The cruelties of slavery have been much flaunted (almost tabloid -style) by various muck-raking historians (who behave sometimes little better than unscrupulous journalists). Yet for all the hoopla, all the sentimentalism (and in essence, hypocrisy) over this issue, the fact remains that during the war years, when most white men were away fighting for their homes and families, and work on the plantations was left to a substantial extent to the women and the black slaves, there was not one known case of a slave taking advantage of this absence to commit insurrection or outrage or any major crime whatever. Not to say there were not run-aways, or the attendant pilfering of those who ran away. But as Ida B. Wells noted, there was neither mutiny, nor insurrection, nor outrage against white women during that period. It speaks well not only of the record of white southerners involved in the plantation system, as well as of the (essentially) loyal black folk who performed so much of the necessary work.

thanks to "Robert Shepherd"


Celebrating the South ~ from a Mississippi Magnolia
a glimpse of southern life ~ Patricia Neely-Dorsey

"More than any other part of America, the South stands apart...Thousands of Northerners and foreigners have migrated to it...but Southerners they will not become. For this is still a place where you must have either been born or have 'people' there, to feel it is your native ground. "Natives will tell you this. They are proud to be Americans, but they are also proud to be Virginians, South Carolinians, Tennesseeans, Mississippians and Texans. But they are conscious of another loyalty too, one that transcends the usual ties of national patriotism and state pride. It is a loyalty to a place where habits are strong and memories are long. If those memories could speak, they would tell stories of a region powerfully shaped by its history and determined to pass it on to future generations."

Tim Jacobson, Heritage of the South

May God rescue us from the folly of our own acts, save us from selfishness and teach us to love our neighbors as ourselves.

Robert E. Lee

SHOCKER: Black Woman Embraces Southern Conservatism
Karen Cooper defending the Confederate Battle Flag

Please see the Advise Show (hosted by Phil) response

What about the many slave revolts? (Nat Turner, Seminoles, etc)


Song of the South

Disclaimer by Robert Shepherd

Robert Shepherd Though a part of my heritage is "southern," I have to say I am not one to mourn the passing of the Stars and Bars (Confederate Battle Flag). All I am trying to defend is the positive motives of a great many of the heroes who fought under this flag, both white and yes, there were some blacks, too. (At the very end.) I certainly do not blame the hostility that non-white Patriots, as well as northern whites, may feel against this flag, particularly to the extent that it continues to represent the worst, the racist aspects of our history. For more on the anti-racist theme. A very large number of whites of our generation would concur, by and large. Speaking for myself, I do. But is there not a very legitimate aspect of honoring one's heritage, honoring one's predecessors and, while admitting the wrong, also earnestly contending for the valid and honorable side of our history?

Historians have commented how in some ways, racial hostility in the South increased during reconstruction (and in its aftermath), far worse than during actual slavery. There are reasons for this, and northern meddling and intervention must bear some responsibility. Military occupation is loathsome to any people, and northern hypocrisy had for years grated on the nerves of white southerners. "Try to walk a mile in our shoes." If northerners would read some of the comments of their own beloved President Lincoln. At times he seemed genuinely to try to put himself in the mind of the white South, and imagine their own torment at the impossible crux of circumstance, not of their making. For example see his letters to his southern friend Alexander Hamilton Stephens. But alas, Lincoln's own Christian faith is even still much in doubt.

Susan B. Martinez indicts the young Lincoln for almost complete atheism (reminds me of Martin Luther King's skepticism at Morehouse). She calls him the only American president never to join a church, Abraham Lincoln had, in his 20s, dismissed the religious wrangles that once perplexed him, losing all interest in denominational infighting. Carl Sandburg recalls Lincoln's words during the fitful period of his nomination of 1860. With the country on the brink of Rebellion, Lincoln went on in a ... dark meditation on God and Christ [and] slavery..." even prophesying that "the end ... will come, and I shall be vindicated; and these men will find that they have not read their Bibles aright."

It is true that to some extent, Reconstruction and the three Reconstruction amendments (13, 14, 15) benefitted poor whites in the South, more than they did the black freedmen. (Northern corporations highjacked the 14th amendment in the Courts.) In the South, poor whites had also been waiting in line, to be sure, for such perks and amenities of Democracy as the right to vote without hindrance (and enjoy full civic participation); and the right to basic free education in the early childhood years. Northerners had been by and large spoiled on these privileges and immunities. Ante-bellum attitudes were fearful of rampant "Democracy," which was hardly a positive concept in the Old South.

Even Jefferson, a proud Democrat of the Enlightenment variety, felt there was a natural aristocracy among men. He foresaw the emergence of popular government, but felt it best channelled through the hands of wise leaders. Poor white southerners may have been generally excluded from essential leadership (there were outstanding exceptions, like Andrew Jackson and Andrew Johnson), but they still had a place in the color-based rankings of the ante-bellum (and stratified) Southern society.

Arthur Schlesinger comments on the somewhat self-serving and hypocritical side of northern Republicanism in the aftermath of the Republican triumph at Appomatox. The economic wisdom of the emerging northern corporatocracy may have been a seeming validation of Hamiltonian principles, but it was accomplished on the basis of the economic subjugation of rural and agrarian America. Schlesinger writes that by capturing the Republican Party the business community captured the presitige of representing freedom and democracy. "The technique of 'waving the bloody shirt' -- that is, of freeing the slaves again every fourth year -- enabled the Republicans long to submerge the fact that they were becoming the party of monopoly and wealth."

The Old South has been roundly villified by history, and not entirely justly. Even recent Southern "apologists" have come into the line of fire. At times, perhaps, deservedly. But I believe that some socalled Southern "apologists" -- including Richard N. Weaver and Willmoore Kendall -- though branded as defenders of the Old South, are actually precursors to a NEW South. I do not feel either of them excused or condoned the old racism, per se. They merely pleaded for a fairer perspective when you judge the South. "Walk a mile in our shoes."

An author I would recommend for those interested in a more serious, scholarly approach (from a conservative perspective) is Dinesh D'Souza. I have found myself much edified by the breadth and insight of his scholarship. He has authored several books, some of them weighty works indeed. One insightly and optimistic book is The End of Racism: Principles for a Multiracial Society (1995).

My own hope is that, once outside meddling has decreased to the lowest level necessary, and a genuine brotherhood between races can again be nourished on its own soil, the prayer of both blacks and whites will be fulfilled, and the South shall indeed ....... rise again. And as the old gifted seers foretold, this time the rising will be ....... together.

How Dixie has "conquered" the Republican Party

A Beautiful Sadness

There was a yankee soldier who wrote of coming upon a stately plantation deep in Mississippi that was wholly run by the white women and the black slaves. The federal troops approached the mansion and were met by an old black slave holding a rifle. Behind him on the portico were the mistresses, the white family he was protecting. He was apparently their Uncle Tom, the trusted white haired Chief Slave, in charge of the plantation. It is a sad testimony that many yankee soldiers were not always the best behaved, during the occupation of Reconstruction.

YOU-TUBE: The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down



Black rebels   -   A few good men   -   black warriors in Gray   -   black warriors in Gray (more)   -   Black Confederates

Blacks in Gray   -   Forgiveness   -   Winbush   -   Confederate Jews   -   Black rebels   -   Steel Magnolia   -   Mississippi scribes

A white southerner hails Martin Luther King

Robert Penn Warren asks:

Have we, in America, had a hero in our time -- that is, since World War II? I can think of only one with a serious claim, Martin Luther King. The theme was high, the occasion noble, the stage open to the world's eye, the courage clear and against odds. And martyrdom came to purge all dross away. King seems made for the folk consciousness, and the folk consciousness is the Valhalla of the true hero -- Robert Penn Warren, "A Dearth of Heroes," American Heritage, vol. 23 (October 1972), p. 99

A black southerner hails the South's Christian heritage

Our Eyes on the Beloved Community

Alice Walker praises the positive

One of the triumphs of the Civil Rights movement is that when you travel through the South today (2010) you do not feel overwhelmed by a residue of grievance and hate. This is the legacy of people brought up in the Christian tradition, people who are true believers of every word Jesus had to say on the issues of justice, lovingkindness, and peace. This dovetailed nicely with what we learned of Gandhian nonviolence.

Alice Walker, Overcoming Speechlessness. (page 54)
MORE: A nation under God?

What if "slavery is the price of civilization"


(Zora Neale Hurston)

A black southerner hails southern style conservatism

Who's a Redneck?

Thomas Sowell declares

Stanford economist Sowell says, "I came out of the Southern culture and could have been considered a black redneck."
[Reality is often more complex than simple stereotypes. See Sowell's new book "Black Rednecks and White Liberals"]

The Dark Secret of Jim Crow and the Racist Roots of Gun Control
Whatever happened to the Second Amendment and the Right of Self-Defense?



The Truth About Slavery: Past, Present and Future. Stefan Molyneux, host of Freedomain Radio, uncovers
the obscured and barbaric history of slavery to unearth important lessons that can and will shape the future.


Were blacks the unwitting pawns used by Yankees?

Abraham and the abolitionist assault on the South

Abraham and the do-gooders wreak havoc on historic Dixie

The highly acclaimed African-American author James Baldwin writes: "The [white] Southerner remembers, historically, and in his own psyche, a kind of Eden in which he loved black people and they loved him. Historically, the flaming sword laid across this Eden is the Civil War. Personally, it is the Southerner's sexual coming of age, when, without any warning, unbreakable taboos are set up between himself and his past. Everything thereafter is permitted him except the love he remembers and has never ceased to need. The resulting indescribable torment affects every Southern mind ...."

Fifth Avenue, Uptown

The great black poet James Weldon Johnson writes

The Southern whites are in many respects a great people. Looked at from a certain point of view, they are picturesque. If one will put oneself in a romantic frame of mind, one can admire their notions of chivalry and bravery and justice.

Reese - almost a southern belle

Red and yellow, black and white

They are precious in his sight

Jesus loves the little children

Of the world.

Martin Luther King
a 'Hero for Our Time'

Robert Shepherd
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