African-American historian discusses Confederacy

Old Virginia Blog ^ | 12/14/2008 | Dennis Hill

[Davy Buck]

I see that the Curator of African-American & Community History for the North Carolina Museum of History, Mr. Earl Ijames, is back in the news. Mr. Ijames was recently the keynote speaker at a new Confederate monument dedication in North Carolina.

A news story quotes Mr. Ijames as saying:

"We need to present a more balanced history," he said, adding that the black Confederate soldier has been lost to history. "They never got recognized, but we are starting to change that," Ijames said.

[Forward the Light Brigade]

This is a story that needs to be told. Blacks who elected to fight for the CSA. Their memory needs to kept alive. Race was added only after the war was over.

[Rebelbase]

[LeoWindhorse]

H.K. Edgerton (here) is a friend of mine .
Such a great guy . Fantastic walker too!

[2banana]

"We need to present a more balanced history," he said, adding that the black Confederate soldier has been lost to history. "They never got recognized, but we are starting to change that," Ijames said.

And free BLACK slaveowners...

[DakotaRed]

Blacks fought herocially as did whites during the Civil War. By denying their contribution to the South, they are being robbed of a rich portion of their heritage as well as perpetrating the myth that the Civil War was only about slavery.

The South was their homeland too and they fought to preserve it.

The post Civil War era was much worse for them, I believe.

[HighlyOpinionated]

Many black men served in the Confederate army, Ijames noted. The North would not accept blacks as soldiers at first, he said, and many blacks, both slave and free, saw joining the Southern army as a way to improve their status.

He cited Union officers' memoirs of running into black rebel soldiers in battle and being surprised.

And the Confederate Battle Flag is about heritage not hate.

[PistolPaknMama]

God bless HK. What a true southern gentleman.

[dr_who]

I suppose it doesn’t fit with the trendy story line these days. Of course, I argue that it’s hard enough to see why all the poor whites who didn’t own slaves or plantations fought, but perhaps that’s the other aspect of the conflict that has been forgotten. It would be really cool to see correspondence from my ancestors back then hinting about what they thought of the war, but one side of my family was illiterate and the other side didn’t appear to have any close family members in the conflict and/or curiously didn’t save any correspondence from those years.

[Lonely Are The Brave]

http://www.amazon.com/South-Right-James-Ronald-Kennedy/dp/1565540247

http://www.amazon.com/Jewish-Confederates-NS-Robert-Rosen/dp/1570033633

[Ammo Republic 15]

He once walked past my business in his uniform carrying the flag. Everybody in the office rushed out to the front parking area to greet him. He was very nice. I believe he had walked from South Carolina through Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi holding that beautiful flag high. What a man!

[AnAmericanMother]

Former prof of mine, James McPherson, wrote a book, Why They Fought. It is a pretty good overview of the reasons that Southerners went to war.

It's on Amazon, but they've changed the title. Must have reissued it (it's been awhile). For Cause and Comrades

One of my gg grandfathers is quoted - the private in the cavalry, not the well to do captain of artillery. He said he felt that he should help defend his country from attack (iirc he said something along the lines of "how can I stand an idle spectator while my country lies bleeding in the dust", they really did talk like that back then), and that besides it would look odd if such a large family wasn't well represented in the army.

We have about 100 of his letters that he wrote back to his wife from the war. We donated them to Emory University after I wrote my thesis on them.

[OL Hickory]

Hk is a hero..I sponsored him once on on of his walks

And I’m in NJ

[OL Hickory]

In 1860 William Ellison was South Carolina’s largest Negro slaveowner. In Black Masters. A Free Family of Color in the Old South, authors Michael P. Johnson and James L. Roak write a sympathetic account of Ellison’s life. From Ellison’s birth as a slave to his death at 71, the authors attempt to provide justification, based on their own speculation, as to why a former slave would become a magnate slave master.

http://www.civilwarhistory.com/Black%20Slaveowners.htm

[WildcatClan]

fallen 13 soldiers during a ceremony off Lynch Road, on the north bank of the Neuse River

I thought this was satire when I first started reading it. The PC chattering class is going to descend on these people like flies on a fresh cow pie.

[AnAmericanMother]

One of my ggg grandfathers was the largest slaveholder in Russell County, AL.

The next two were a Jewish immigrant from New York and a free black man. Can't remember which order they came in, offhand.

Interesting sidelight on Russell County history -- most of the old slave census handwritten returns from before the Civil War have not survived, as they were destroyed during Reconstruction. Somebody took a bunch of volumes of the handwritten returns and walled them up in the old death cell of the Russell County Jail when it was decommissioned. They weren't found until 60 years later when the old jail was torn down. Needless to say, they're an invaluable resource, not only for historians but for black genealogy researchers trying to find ancestors.

[WildcatClan]

Something interesting I found researching the Neuse river: In 1865, one of the first ironclad warships built by the Confederate Navy, the "Ram Neuse", was burnt and sunk to the river bottom by occupying Union Soldiers. It was discovered during historically low water, raised in 1963, and placed beside the river at the Governor Caswell Memorial in Kinston.

[elpadre]

I agree, it should be told, but not for the cause of balance but for the sake of accuracy.

[BnBlFlag]

For your information, Lynch is a fairly common Southern surname.

[Rebelbase]

Met him once while he was standing honor guard in Asheville one Memorial Day. One of the most dignified gentlemen I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting.