Free Republic

Mary Baxter Gresham was 42 when her invalid son, LeRoy, died in June 1865. She had already lost two infant children and had just lived through the upheaval of the Civil War in Macon, Ga. But when 17-year-old LeRoy, know as “Loy,” died on June 18 in the house where he was born, she was devastated. “God has tried me often and in many ways but never has my heart been so wrung as now,” she wrote to her sister, Sallie, on July 12. “And yet the trial had so much mercy mixed with it that my soul swells within...

Years ago, a decade ago, an old friend emailed me a classic Southern news story. It went down straight. Neat. Like a shot of Early Times. The story came out of the Mobile Press-Register in Alabama back when it was still a daily. That newspaper has since been reduced to a fragment of its old self, and now puts out a print edition only three days a week. The oldest paper in that state, the Press Register or one of its predecessors had been publishing daily since the early 1800s. The same thing happened, briefly, to Louisiana's fabled Times-Picayune...

Miss Rutherford lived during a time when people were closer and the pace was slower! “Miss Rutherford writes often about the Confederacy, and Southern traditions, and was overall a champion of all things Southern. While her writings may not be politically correct in today’s world, they are an important look into her era and document views and events from someone who lived through them and knew people who did.”---Kenneth H. Thomas, Jr., Genealogy Columnist, The Atlanta Journal and Constitution

I don’t believe it’s a stretch to say that the South is the most misunderstood region in the United States. Everywhere I go (even sometimes here in the South!) I run into misconceptions about this area. I’m proud of the region I call home, and I wish everybody could know the South that I’ve experienced my whole life. So I’m glad to get the chance to clear up some of the stereotypes and generalizations. Here are the ten things that everybody gets wrong about the South.10. White Southerners Still Haven’t Gotten Over The Civil War. There’s a notion that we...

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (AP) — Myrtle Beach police say three people have been shot and killed and another person injured at a motel in the popular resort city. MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (AP) — Three people were killed and a fourth person was wounded in a shooting at an oceanfront motel in Myrtle Beach, one of South Carolina's most popular tourist destinations. The shootings took place around 11 p.m. Saturday in front of crowds of tourists at the Bermuda Sands Motel along the beach's new boardwalk, Myrtle Beach Police Capt. David Knipes said.

“If you see some Middle Eastern guy come in, you don’t have to be so worried about that”by Gina Cassini | Top Right NewsThe same FBI that ignored Russian and Saudi intelligence warnings about the Tsarnaev brothers -- the Boston Marathon jihadists -- and refused to question anyone at their radical mosque, is now visiting a gun store near you to target...conservatives!That's right, according to a new report, FBI counterterrorism agents are visiting gun shops in South Carolina to investigate “suspicious purchases” made by people who talk about “big government.”

Full Title: "Finally, Someone Acts Like An Adult: District Attorney Drops Charges Against Bullied Teen Who Recorded His Tormentors" South Fayette School in Pennsylvania, along with a complicit criminal justice system, recently made headlines with its groundbreaking anti-bullying program, which apparently deters bullying by punishing bullied students. Here's a short recap: A bullied student used an iPad to make an audio recording of other students abusing him. He brought this to school administration who a) called in a police officer (after being advised by its legal team that this might be a violation of the state's wiretapping law) and b)...

I’m a Southern boy (that’s Southern, with a capital ‘S’). My parents are Southern by birth. So were my grandparents. I was born in the South, I live in the South. My blood probably resembles gravy more than it does blood and I’m quite sure my breath smells like fried chicken. I’ll be the first to admit the ‘South’ is different. We’re not the Mid-West, Eastern Seaboard or the West Coast. We’re another country. For that matter, we’re another world. The best example I can think of to demonstrate this fact is the horoscope. Every newspaper in the country publishes...

Often you need to hit bottom before you can start working your way back up. We Southern Democrats are basically at that point. With control of only two of 22 legislative bodies, three of 11 governors’ mansions and precious few other statewide offices, Southern Democrats are an endangered species indeed. In 1969, Republican strategist Kevin Phillips argued that the South was “shaping up as the pillar of a national conservative party.” He was half right: Although Democrats have made great strides elsewhere, between 1992 and 2012 Republicans won the governorships and legislatures of all but two Southern states. The last...

Thousands of Atlanta students stranded all night long in their schools were reunited with their parents Wednesday, while rescuers rushed to deliver blankets, food, gas and a ride home to countless shivering motorists stopped cold by a storm that paralyzed the business capital of the South with less than 3 inches of snow. The result was gridlock on freeways that are jammed even on normal days. Countless vehicles were stranded and many of them abandoned. Officials said 239 children spent Tuesday night aboard school buses; thousands of others stayed overnight in their schools. One woman's 12-mile commute home took 16...

[Video] Fox News’ Bob Beckel Calls NRA’s Colion Noir “A Punk” Over His MLK Day Gun Rights Video January 22 2014 by Dan Cannon Share This Post First off, Colion Noir got featured on Fox News’ The Five. Bravo man. You know you’re doing something right when you get the mainstream media’s panties in a wad. If you aren’t aware, Noir made a video on Martin Luther King Jr Day for the NRA News in his role as an NRA News Contributor. The video focused on the fact that MLK saw the need for firearms for self defense and even...

In Latin America, hot tamales are as ubiquitous as the sandwich. This holds true in, of all places, the Mississippi Delta. Better known for its association with cotton and catfish, the Mississippi Delta has a fascinating relationship with tamales. In restaurants, on street corners, and in kitchens throughout the Delta, this very old and time-consuming culinary tradition remains vibrant. But how and when were hot tamales introduced to what has been called “the most Southern place on earth”? And why have they stayed? There are as many answers to those questions as there are tamale recipes. Oral history interviews with...

“There was a land of Cavaliers and Cotton Fields called the Old South. Here in this pretty world, Gallantry took its last bow. Here was the last ever to be seen of Knights and their Ladies Fair, of Master and of Slave. Look for it only in books, for it is no more than a dream remembered, a Civilization gone with the wind.”

‘Now, this here tale didn't happen just yesterday, nor the day before.’Twas a long time ago. And in them days, everything was mighty satisfactual. The critters, they was closer to the folks, and the folks, they was closer to the critters, and if you'll excuse me for saying so, 'twas better all around’----Uncle Remus from Disney’s Song of the South.

During my childhood of the 50s, songs like “Swanee River”, “Mammy” and “Waiting for the Robert E. Lee”, all best sung by the late great Al Jolson, were very popular in the South and throughout the USA.

Is the Second Reconstruction over? The first ended with the withdrawal of Union troops from the Southern states as part of a deal that gave Rutherford B. Hayes the presidency after the disputed election of 1876. The second began with the Voting Rights Act of 1965, a century after Appomattox. Under the VRA, Southern states seeking to make even minor changes in voting laws had to come to Washington to plead their case before the Justice Department and such lions of the law as Eric Holder. Southern states were required to get this pre-clearance for any alterations in voting laws...

In the coming weeks, Hanauer and Loranne Ausley, a former member of the Florida House of Representatives, plan to launch something they're calling the Southern Project, which will conduct research and formulate messages that can help Democrats win over Southern voters. A pilot study conducted in North Carolina in February, for example, concluded that under the state's Republican governor, Pat McCrory, "there is a clear sense that hardworking taxpayers are getting the short end of the stick at the expense of big corporations and the wealthiest." The set of talking points advises progressives to make arguments "focused around fairness and...

Have liberals already conceded defeat in today's South Carolina special election? Though polls show the race a true toss-up, some Democrats are attacking not just Republicans, but smearing the entire state as well. During today's Stephanie Miller Show, guest Charlie Pierce of Esquire Magazine slammed the Palmetto State as "tribal", "a cult" and the ultimate dig, "religious"! From the program: [video] STEPHANIE MILLER (07 May 2013): The cogent point in your headline “South Carolina is still South Carolina. JIM WARD: Ha ha ha ha! STEPHANIE MILLER: Obviously the latest poll had Mark Sanford ahead, right? CHARLIE PIERCE: And you know...

The South Carolina state House passed a bill Wednesday that declares President Obama’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to be “null and void,” and criminalizes its implementation. The state’s Freedom of Health Care Protection Act intends to “prohibit certain individuals from enforcing or attempting to enforce such unconstitutional laws; and to establish criminal penalties and civil liability for violating this article.” The measure permits the state Attorney General, with reasonable cause, “to restrain by temporary restraining order, temporary injunction, or permanent injunction”

Southerners Not Actually Fatter Than People From Other Regions, Just Less Likely To Lie About Their Weight...... "The South often gets tagged with having the most obese population. But it doesn't appear to be true, a ....study suggests. The study recently published in the journal Obesity found that there's a significantly higher percentage of obese people in a region of central and northwest states including Minnesota, Kansas and North and South Dakota. "What we found is the West North Central region has about 41 percent obesity compared to 31 percent obesity in the southern region that includes Alabama and Mississippi,"...