Commentary: Truth blown away in sugarcoated 'Gone With the Wind'

sacbee ^ | 11-13-04

[LouAvul]

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Based on Margaret Mitchell's hugely popular novel, producer David O. Selznick's four-hour epic tale of the American South during slavery, the Civil War and Reconstruction is the all-time box-office champion.

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Considering its financial success and critical acclaim, "Gone With the Wind" may be the most famous movie ever made.

It's also a lie.

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Along with D.W. Griffith's technically innovative but ethically reprehensible "The Birth of a Nation" (from 1915), which portrayed the Ku Klux Klan as heroic, "GWTW" presents a picture of the pre-Civil War South in which slavery is a noble institution and slaves are content with their status.

Furthermore, it puts forth an image of Reconstruction as one in which freed blacks, the occupying Union army, Southern "scalawags" and Northern "carpetbaggers" inflict great harm on the defeated South, which is saved - along with the honor of Southern womanhood - by the bravery of KKK-like vigilantes.

To his credit, Selznick did eliminate some of the most egregious racism in Mitchell's novel, including the frequent use of the N-word, and downplayed the role of the KKK, compared with "Birth of a Nation," by showing no hooded vigilantes.

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One can say that "GWTW" was a product of its times, when racial segregation was still the law of the South and a common practice in the North, and shouldn't be judged by today's political and moral standards. And it's true that most historical scholarship prior to the 1950s, like the movie, also portrayed slavery as a relatively benign institution and Reconstruction as unequivocally evil.

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Or as William L. Patterson of the Chicago Defender succinctly wrote: "('Gone With the Wind' is a) weapon of terror against black America."

[stand watie]

what do you like about how blacks, indians, jews & other UNfavored racial/religious minorities were/ARE treated in the NORTH??

especially the MASS LYNCHINGS in NYC during "the war to end slavery". (UNfortunately, the NY Draft Riots were not an aberration.)

btw, did you know that there are MORE SEGREGATED public schools in the north NOW than there was in all of dixie in 1950??? (the damnyankees are nothing if not HATEFUL & HYPOCRITICAL!)

free dixie,sw

[stand watie]

this article nothing more than HIS OPINION. it is NOT backed up with facts.

SAD, but TRUE!

free dixie,sw

[stand watie]

but the FACTS are that at least 100,000 free blacks DID fight for dixie FREEDOM, especially after the yankee army started burning private property, committing mass rapes, looting churches and committing other WAR CRIMES all over the southland.

may i gently suggest that you go read BLACKS IN BLUE & GRAY, before you make any more UNknowledgeable comments. Dr Blackerby was at the time he wrote his book the Dean of Arts & Sciences at Tuskegee College (now Tuskegee University) & was a former professor of history at Morehouse College.

btw, speaking of Morehouse College, Graves Hall is built over the graves of over 150 FREE black CSA soldiers, who died BRAVELY during the defense of Atlanta. (you know those black soldiers that you BELIEVE don't exist! that's where SOME of them are BURIED.)

free dixie,sw

[stand watie]

also, the PUBLIC RECORDS at the US Archives indicate that MANY THOUSANDS of dixie's hero-martyrs were BLACK men.

their SERVICE RECORDS are there for anyone to see.

also MANY black men belonged to the United Confederate Veterans & were welcome participants in UCV activities as long as they lived. (do you REALLY believe that their white comrades-in-arms would have allowed a NON-veteran to join their camp, especially during the "jim crow" days????)

one of our SCV camp's members gr-grandfather was a black Confederate States Marshal and Confederate States Treasury Guard (read:Secret Service Agent);he was a LIFE MEMBER of the UCV. he was buried in the 1930s in Danville, VA in what up to that date was the largest funeral in Danville's history.

so much for the "myth of the black CSA veteran"!!!

free dixie,sw

[ruthles]

Recently I was teaching the Thanksgiving story to my students. I told it from the Pilgim's perspective, and then on the internet I found a perspective written by a Algonquin Indian. He claimed that the Articles of Confederaton and the US Constitution were modeled after the tribal counsels as per Benjamin Franklin's recommendation, and that the Pilgims wouldn't have surivied had it not been for the Indians, etc. Many claims glorifying the superiority of the Indians.

Yet, it was interesting that Squanto although sold into slavery was rescued by Spanish Franciscan Priest and Squanto's friend John Weymouth paid for Squanto to return to America.

My conclusion was that there were heroes and villains within the European culture, just as many of the Native Americans practiced cannibalism and other such hideous practices as well as democracy.

[stand watie]

we "redskinned blanket-a$$e$" should have STRANGLED Squanto! (rotflmRao!)

had one of my ancestors done that, we might still not have the damnyankees out of "TAXatuecetts" to deal with, as all those "wunerfull,wunerful" pilgrims would have starved to death the first year.

YEP, there were LOTS of problems of the sort you mention on BOTH sides, BUT the depredations and massacres of my people by the europeans will forever live in infamy. what my people did to the invaders was PEANUTS compared to the theft of the whole country & the INTENTIONAL destruction of our indigenous cultures.

btw, did you see my post reference the REAL 1st Thanksgiving???? it was celebrated in what today is EL PASO, TX, LONG before there were Pilgrims in MA or anywhere else.

free dixie,sw

[stand watie]

i wish i could find a copy. i hear it's a HOOT!

free dixie,sw

[stand watie]

see post 215 this thread.

your students should know that the northeastern damnyankees have HIJACKED the REAL HISTORY of our shared country.

also, several FL towns & Jamestown, VA were settled long before the "taxatuecetts" religious FANATICS came to the country, yet most "publick screwlbooks" hardly mention either FL and/or VA being older & at least as important as MA & the rest of new england was.

NOR do the "screwlbooks" tell the TRUTH about how HATEFILLED,$$$$$-hungry, arrogant, self-righteous,power-hungry & INtolerant the puritans were. NOT people you'd want to have living next door! (imVho, the Salem Witch Trials were the damnyankees at their BEST. that is what they were REALLY like.)

free dixie,sw

[stand watie]

btw, do you teach your students about the NY DRAFT RIOTS, where THOUSANDS of INNOCENT blacks were lynched by the "oh, so wunnerful,wunnerful & oh, so tolerent new yawkers", during the NEEDLESS war against the new dixie republic???

do you teach your students about the TENS of THOUSANDS of damnyankee WAR CRIMES against UNarmed civilians, "persons of colour", the "poorest of the poor" & helpless CSA POWs????

just curious.

free dixie,sw

[GOPcapitalist]

The point remains, and one can argue the hypothetical about the application of slavery to mining

Lincoln certainly didn't. One of the schemes he was cooking up in 1862 involved shipping all the blacks down to Panama for use in a coal mine that supposedly existed there but turned out to be too poor in quality for use. Of course he didn't call it "slavery" - he dressed it up with better sounding names like "colonization" and "emigration," but the effect was similarly coercive. The contract he signed (which is in the national archives today) even stipulates that the blacks would be given into the custody of an overseer who was contracted for the project and that he could punish them as he saw fit - in short, treating them like children with no real freedom.

Article 9th - To provide against the United States being compromised by this contract in any manner in its treaty stipulations with New Granada or the U.S. of Colombia it is agreed that the said Thompson is to be responsible for the good behavior of persons of color whom he may recieve from the United States upon his lands, or employ in his mines, or in works of improvement, and if any of said persons become (illegible) by reason of bad behavior or refuse to obey the laws and authorities, they are to be restrained or removed by said Thompson.

- Signed by Abraham Lincoln, September 11, 1862

Imagine that, capitan. Sending blacks to Panama and into the custody of a private individual for the explicit purpose of working on that private individual's lands and in his mines and also giving that same private individual full private control over the punishment, restraint, and removal of his recieved "workers" while they are there.

[unspun]

The flashpoint is the question of whether Southerners had any Fourth/Fifth Amendment property rights in slaves they held, that other people in the United States were bound to respect.

Absolutely not --whetever the Constitution says. The Declaration of Independence is our founding document and as sure as it declares the existence of our Nation it declares Americans are endowed by their Creator with the right to live our own lives.

And no human, not even ourselves, "owns" our lives, unlike the Libertarian credo; we merely "are" our lives. Any idea that humans are property is without base in the America of the Declaration, no matter where anyone writes it. There is law for America that is even higher than the Constitution. I have just referred to it.

Defending the South about slavery is harldy a winning prospect. Not in the 19th Century. Not in the 20th Century. Not in the 21th Century.

That isn't an epaulet on your shoulders. Knock it off, yourselves.

[unspun]

21st

[fortheDeclaration]

also, the PUBLIC RECORDS at the US Archives indicate that MANY THOUSANDS of dixie's hero-martyrs were BLACK men. their SERVICE RECORDS are there for anyone to see. also MANY black men belonged to the United Confederate Veterans & were welcome participants in UCV activities as long as they lived. (do you REALLY believe that their white comrades-in-arms would have allowed a NON-veteran to join their camp, especially during the "jim crow" days????) one of our SCV camp's members gr-grandfather was a black Confederate States Marshal and Confederate States Treasury Guard (read:Secret Service Agent);he was a LIFE MEMBER of the UCV. he was buried in the 1930s in Danville, VA in what up to that date was the largest funeral in Danville's history. so much for the "myth of the black CSA veteran"!!!

Well, according to the articles I posted, that is exactly what they are-myths.

Now, being in the CSA as either an enforced laborer or as a volunteer in the supply corp is not the same as carrying a rifle-something the South feared above all things-armed black men.

So, how may regiments of Black troops did the South field?

I have heard of the Northern regiments but no Southern ones.

Oh, I know, the South was so racially advanced that they had intergrated units!

So how did the 'noble' South treat Northern Blacks they found in Union uniform?

Why they either shot them or put them into slavery.

Wasn't one of your great war heros, Bedford Forrest responsible for some massacre of the Black union troops?

Save you attempts at proving how noble and honorable you guys were, you fought for a degenerate and corrupt insititution.

And you are fortunate that your leaders were not hung for treason.

You guys lost-get over it!

[fortheDeclaration]

but the FACTS are that at least 100,000 free blacks DID fight for dixie FREEDOM, especially after the yankee army started burning private property, committing mass rapes, looting churches and committing other WAR CRIMES all over the southland. may i gently suggest that you go read BLACKS IN BLUE & GRAY, before you make any more UNknowledgeable comments. Dr Blackerby was at the time he wrote his book the Dean of Arts & Sciences at Tuskegee College (now Tuskegee University) & was a former professor of history at Morehouse College. btw, speaking of Morehouse College, Graves Hall is built over the graves of over 150 FREE black CSA soldiers, who died BRAVELY during the defense of Atlanta. (you know those black soldiers that you BELIEVE don't exist! that's where SOME of them are BURIED.)

Goodness a 100,000 black men carrying rifles in the South.

And not one regiment on record!

We know that you have black laborers with you but you did not have organized black troops.

As for the burning and looting, next time you start a war, be prepared to finish it.

The guy who did the looting (Sherman) was very pro-South by the way.

[GOPcapitalist]

So, how may regiments of Black troops did the South field? I have heard of the Northern regiments but no Southern ones.

Records are incomplete but the national government is known to have raised at least two all-black units in Richmond in 1865. One of them fought near Saylor's Creek - the last battle of the war in the east.

The most likely place to find blacks in the confederate armies were state units, and some of them were even integrated. This was due to the fact that each state had different laws on whether or not blacks could join their militias and if so what roles they could fill.

Tennessee was the first state to pass a law permitting blacks to join up and did so in June of 1861. There are some newspaper reports of black units being raised from around that time, but most military records show individual blacks serving in majority-white units from Tennessee. Louisiana also had some black Creole units in their state militia.

[GOPcapitalist]

Wasn't one of your great war heros, Bedford Forrest responsible for some massacre of the Black union troops?

That's the common myth. The event it refers to is the battle of Fort Pillow in Tennessee. The mythical version claims the fort was either all black or majority black, that it tried to surrender, and that its people were mowed down in brutal slaughters for hours after the battle. There isn't any credible record to support those claims though and most were made up for propaganda purposes to boost recruits into the northern army on an outrage emotion.

What really happened at Fort Pillow is this: Forrest's vastly larger army came upon a small yankee-held fort that was about half white, half black. During some initial skirmishing virtually all of the fort's superior officers were killed, though this was unknown to Forrest at the time. A ceasefire ensued in which Forrest sent a message to the fort's commander (who was deceased, unbeknownst to him) saying the situation was hopeless and that they should surrender. A hotshot lower level officer had since taken command even though he was inept and unqualified to do so, but rather than respond to Forrest's request he forged a message back to him under the name of the dead commander informing them that they would stay and fight. Forrest then ordered the attack, which was swift and bloody as the fort was easily overrun. Barely a moment into the attack the remaining yankee officer command collapsed entirely, with low level officers giving simultaneous and contradictory orders to form and hold a line, to surrender, and to retreat to the river. This produced a situation where men standing side by side were following opposite orders. Some even laid down their arms as ordered only to pick them up again and resume the fighting when they saw people next to them getting different orders. It was a brutal mess in which the yankees sustained heavy casualties - primarily as a result of disorganization. In the heat of battle a few cases of brutality were reported, though that's about it. Forrest and the other officers are also recorded to have arrived on the front line at the end of the battle and specifically put a halt to the soldiers who were out of control.

[rustbucket]

Wasn't one of your great war heros, Bedford Forrest responsible for some massacre of the Black union troops?

I have no doubt that individual soldiers on both sides committed attrocities.

Here was a report about Forrest's personal actions at Fort Pillow published in the New Orleans Daily Picayune right after the battle. The report was taken from a Memphis paper as I remember, Memphis being in Union hands at the time.

"Capt. Young, Provost Marshall, was taken prisoner, slightly wounded, and paroled the liberty of their camps, and allowed to see his wife. He says that our troops [the Federals] behaved gallantly throughout the whole action, that our loss [Federals again] in killed will exceed 200; he also stated that Gen. Forrest shot one of his own men for refusing quarters to our men."

[rustbucket]

In any case, the southern Civil War claims in the New Mexico Territory do not coincide with Texas's historic claim to the lands east of the Rio Grande.

The New Mexico Territory consisted primarily of present day New Mexico and Arizona. Consider the following: Arizona Ordinance of Secession.

Arizona, which at that time was the Southern portion of both Arizona and New Mexico, wished to join the Confederacy. Hmmm. They didn't even mention slavery. How can that be?

[ruthles]

OK, am I getting this right? The New Englanders/Yankees were more prejudiced and racist than the slave owners/Confederates in the south. Is that what you're trying to say? I never took to American history much, sorry.
I visited St. Augustine Florida once and did feel really confused by what my traditional education had taught me regarding the first colonies, etc.
I'm still confused.

[rustbucket]

Rebel Negro Pickets As Seen Through A Field-Glass

From The Sun of New York (November 25, 1861) quoting the Frankfort Commonwealth:

Why should not the slaves of traitors in arms be confiscated for the use of the government? The Democrat will not deny that slaves are property, as clearly so as mules. Is it right and proper to confiscate a mule, and put it to hauling transportation? If it is, why is it not equally right and proper to cofiscate a slave for a driver of that mule? Both are property, and both are employed by the rebels in their attempt to destroy this government. We believe in 'fighting the devil with fire.' The rebels employ armed negroes, armed savages ...