Dixie Ping!
Posted on 10/27/2002 1:41:51 PM PST by aomagrat
Choosing the content of a future Hunley museum could be controversial.
Supporters envision a building that celebrates Southern nobility; others worry the museum could become a shrine to the Confederacy.
To state Sen. Glenn McConnell, a key supporter, the Hunley embodies what is noble about the Confederate struggle.
Slavery -- to many a major element of the Civil War -- is not something McConnell dwells on. The Hunley's sailors were patriots, fighting for freedom, he says.
"Americans in the pursuit of freedom -- as they perceive it -- are always willing to put aside the element of fear and answer the call of duty. That's the story of America. It's the story of the Hunley. ‘.‘.‘. Those men ‘.‘.‘. were willing to put their lives on the line and go out and try to lift the siege on this city."
But many historians place the Hunley's mission -- sinking a Union ship blockading Charleston -- in a tragic context.
"It makes me sad to think so much Southern ingenuity, heroism and manhood was used by Confederate leaders to try to break up the Union and preserve slavery," said Charles Joyner, a historian at Coastal Carolina University.
Joyner noted the nation's largest Civil War museum is being planned for Richmond, Va.
In that museum, he said, various exhibits will tell the story from three points of view: the Confederacy's, the Union's and that of slaves. That presentation gives a healthy range of views, Joyner said.
State Sen. Darrell Jackson, D-Richland, acknowledged the scientific achievement of the Hunley, the first submarine to sink a warship.
But if taxpayer money is to go into the Hunley museum, Jackson said visitors should be told the reasons for the Union blockade and be given the slaves' point of view: that the 250,000 S.C. whites stood to lose their 400,000 slaves if they lost the war.
"The last thing the rest of the world needs is to regard South Carolina as the state where the Confederacy lives forever," said Jackson, whose S.C. slave ancestors were freed when the South lost the Civil War. "We don't need a shrine to the Confederacy."
McConnell, who heads the Hunley Commission, says no decision has been made yet about what the unbuilt Hunley museum will exhibit.
Many exhibits will be scientific in nature -- describing seafaring inventions or matters pertaining to underwater archaeology. Others will convey the emotion of the submarine experience, he said.
In any case, McConnell said, those responsible for exhibits will seek different opinions before making a decision.
Translation: Any mention of the Confederacy in this museum and we'll boycott.
A "coal passer" in a human-powered submarine? Was he part of the Hunley's crew?
I think it is well past time that we should take American Slavery into historical context. Since the "multi-culturists" who teach our children and inhabit the tatters of the "intellectual" Left today are so big at looking at other cultures why don't we do it honestly at the time of the Civil War? Let's look at the lives of the average Chinese peasent in 1860 and compare his living standard to that of an African American slave in Virginia? What would we find? Why not compare the standard of living of the average African tribesman in West Africa to the average slave in America? How about the quality of life as one of the members of the lowest caste in India to an African American slave?
Why don't we examine the fact that slavery was far more common throughout the world in 1860 than in America? This is not to say that slavery wasn't evil or wrong. But taken in historical context slavery in America was downright civilized compared to the rest of the world.
Indeed. If the truth be known, most southern people back then had no interest in slavery, unfair northern tariffs, or politics of any sort. But once the Northern soldiers began blockading and invading, Yes indeed, they were fighting to protect their homeland.
Lincoln should be vilified for what he did to Americans. A real leader would have found peaceful ways to resolve these problems.
By that statement some are very liberal about throwing around the title of "historian".
Too late, homefry - the CSA lives forever in the great state of South Carolina. No matter how much you boycott, no matter how much you change the story, no matter how many flags you try to remove, South Carolina was part of the Confederacy. That is history, that's a fact, and there's no changin' it!
What does that say for Jefferson Davis then, since he introduced armed conflict into the equation by firing on Sumter?
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