Posted on 03/28/2008 12:15:10 PM PDT by cowboyway
Over the last few months, celebrations for Abraham Lincoln's 200th birthday have drawn attention to the Kentucky native's life and his legacy as president. But the 200-year anniversary of another Kentucky president's birth, Confederate President Jefferson Davis, is receiving mixed reviews.
"I'll say it this way - winners write history," said Ron Bryant, a Lexington historian writing a book on Davis. "We need heroes, we need villains. Lincoln became a hero and Davis a villain."
Davis was born in what is now Todd County, Ky., in 1808, one year before Lincoln. Davis served as the only president of the 11 southern states that seceded from the Union between 1861 and 1865. The Confederate States of America surrendered in 1865, and Davis was locked in prison the same year.
Despite being denounced by many civil rights groups, signs of Davis' legacy can still be found throughout the state.
In Southwest Kentucky, a structure resembling the Washington Monument stands in memory of Davis. At 351 feet tall, the Jefferson Davis Monument is the fourth largest freestanding obelisk in the world, according to Kentucky State Parks.
Although Kentucky never seceded from the Union, a statue of Davis stands in the rotunda in the state's Capitol building.
"The Civil War is still very much alive in many places," said Cliff Howard, a Jefferson Davis impersonator. "Kentucky was on both sides of the fence. It still is."
Having heard of Kentucky's reputation for "being a little backward," integrated strategic communications senior James Davidson Jr. was not surprised about Davis' statue in the Capitol building.
Davidson, first-vice president of UK's chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said a statue of Davis leaves a bad impression.
"What is Frankfort saying to the rest of Kentucky with it being there?" Davidson said. "I respect everyone's heritage and Southern tradition, but given the history, I think it shouldn't be there."
The statue of Davis, installed in 1936, is one of five statues in the Capitol building. Lincoln is the largest in the center, and Davis stands in the corner behind his right shoulder. Former Kentucky Congressman Henry Clay, physician and drafter of the state constitution Ephraim McDowell and former Vice President Alben Barkley also stand in the rotunda.
The last time Davis' statue came into debate was 2003, when a coalition of African-American groups protested its presence in the Capitol building. A state advisory committee left the issue up to former Gov. Ernie Fletcher, who took no action during his term.
Gov. Steve Beshear does not plan to remove the statue because Davis is a historical figure who represents part of Kentucky's cultural history, a spokeswoman said.
Student Government President Nick Phelps said his feelings on the statue in the Capitol building resembled how he felt during a controversy two years ago about a 46-foot mural in Memorial Hall depicting the history of Lexington and its surrounding area. The mural, which some said stereotyped American Indians and blacks, was not removed.
"I was not in support of removing the mural, so I would not support removing Jefferson Davis," Phelps said. "I don't think we should remove history. I think it removes the question, 'Who is he?' "
Many students might ask the same question about Davis.
In Kentucky, the Civil War is part of the middle school curriculum. Unless students take an advanced placement history course in high school, that's usually the last time they focus on 19th century American history, said Nayasha Owens-Morton, a U.S. history and African-American history teacher at Bryan Station Traditional High School.
William Campbell has taught a class on Lincoln at UK for about 10 years as an English and honors professor. Students going into his class know little about the confederate president, he said.
"About Jefferson Davis, Kentuckians tend to know that he was from our state, that there's a memorial dedicated to him somewhere in the state, and that he was the president of the Confederacy," Campbell said. "Of Lincoln's writings, most have read only the Gettysburg Address. Of Davis's writings, most have read nothing."
If you read the article, my point would be obvious. If the South had won the Civil War, Jefferson Davis would have a greater legacy than Lincoln.
Doesn’t the article compare their two legacies?
Thanks X. No one has to make swattie “SOOK” like Like a liar - it’s been made abundantly clear by swattie itself. Like its secret pal hillary, it can’t remember all of its lies so it resorts to a barrage of imbecilic spew.
FreeRepublic from bigots like swattie!
the TRUTH is that you just aren't smart enough to be taken seriously on ANY subject.
laughing AT you,as most FReepers do.
free dixie,sw
EVERYONE on these threads knows that you're out of your intellectual depth in a mud puddle. (remember, Judy says you are "mentally challenged", i.e., RETARDED & therefore i shouldn't ridicule you for being a creep/cretin/liar/fool.= perhaps she's correct.)
stick to posting SILLY cartoons & STUPID/point-LESS jokes, as you aren't capable of anything more complicated than that.
laughing AT you.
fyi, what i posted about my family's slaughter was FACTUAL. sadly, it was FAR from unique. in fact, you might say that what was done to our family was TYPICAL of the sort of WAR CRIMES & CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY that the DYs committed in dixie. the excesses of the union army in dixie is a MAJOR reason that the bitterness of the WBTS is still fresh in the minds of southerners after 140+ years.
laughing AT you.
free dixie,sw
the FACTS are that the winners write "the history", and therefore the MYTH is eventually accepted as fact, even when the myth is an outright LIE, which was intentionally designed to cover up the WAR CRIMES & CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY that the winner committed.
had the Axis won their war, would those of us who weren't alive then KNOW about the MILLIONS of innocents, who were slaughtered in that war because of racism/ethnic cleansing/etc??? (my guess is NO.)
free dixie,sw
Sir, I agreed with you that the conditions under which people lived in that area may have qualified as “slavery” from our present perspective.
That is all quite beside the point.
Your claim was that massive numbers of “northern slaves” were sold to the Caribbean Islands during the WBTS.
I have merely asked you to back this claim up with something resembling evidence. All you have produced is anecdotes about “slavery” existing in the islands long after it was supposedly banned.
The existence of “slaves” does not equate to the existence of a slave trade, most especially not to massive numbers of slaves being imported from foreign lands. Most people down through history have lived in slave or semi-slave conditions. Not very many have been shipped across the ocean to other lands.
The overseas slave trade was banned in the US in 1808 or thereabouts, equated with piracy and made a capital crime in 1828, and somebody actually hanged in 1862 or so.
You claim exporting of slaves in large numbers during the WBTS, yet I have never read of a single incident. Please come up with something resembling evidence for this extraordinary claim.
i KNOW that you don't want to admit that the northerners were not only HYPOCRYTES, but also the SELLERS of slaves "to the sugar islands"/out of the USA, as it makes the "crusade against slavery", as touted by the DY extremists LOOK hypocritical, but it IS also the TRUTH!!!.
stripped of "the crusade", the DYs excuses for the rape of dixie & the TENS of THOUSANDS of WAR CRIMES & CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY committed against southern civilians & CSA prisoners of war collapse of those excuses SMALL weight.
face it Sherman, you've been LIED TO & MADE a FOOL OF, as MOST people in the north have. it's really no more complicated than this: the north was the OPPRESSOR;the southerners were the FREEDOM FIGHTERS!
free dixie,sw
It won’t do any good Sherman - swattie’s noggin is as empty as it is wooden. There ain’t nothing gonna penetrate it. As you’ve been so richly “treated” by now, you see that its only response is a regurgitation of “south=pure as the driven snow - north=spawn of Satan”.
You can’t reason with a bigot, and you shouldn’t argue with an idiot - they’ll wear you down and beat you with experience. swattie is unabashedly both.
He will not accommodate your request for evidence because there is none to be proffered. In true leftist fashion what he doesn’t make up out of whole cloth he twists and distorts until it is nothing more than propaganda.
No doubt you’ve noticed that he presents it with malicious hubris that is initially laughable, but ultimately irritating to even the most patient and tolerant. Unless you march in lockstep with his bizarre notions of history you will be subject to his slanders - there is no middle ground.
Good luck with your project...
The problem might have been that they reported it in Mississippi.
Rally to the Battle Flag! (Free Republic)just a couple of comments- As a "recipient" of yankee "kindness" during the WBTS, MY FAMILY suffered many murders of women and children (should you doubt this go to the Lake Corinth Cemetary in Corinth, MISS and look at the many gravestones and observe the gender and ages of the dead!- all but one was either female or under 10 years old- the family surname is BANKHEAD),as well as numerous cases of rape, robbery, arson and pillaging....
104 Posted on 01/10/2000 07:02:43 PST by stand watie
REF: the massmurders, rapes, pillaging and arson committed against MY family:the dates were April 16-18, 1864, Lake Corinth, Mississippi-the culprits were UNIFORMED "bummers" of the US Army- NO ACTION was ever taken against the participants by the army's high command-a private letter from my greatr-great great-grandaunt (Cordelia Elizabeth Mary Bankhead-Knieff- her diary of the war years is in the collections of the University of Southern Mississippi) indicates that a report of the atrocities committed was reported to the nearest yankee headquarters with no results, as misbehavior of troops against civilians was both expected and accepted as NORMAL behavior toward the "rebel filth".
119 Posted on 01/16/2000 14:18:23 PST by stand watie
inasmuch as:
1. he IS a serial liar, whose "word of honor" is a BAD joke,
2.he was PERMANENTLY banned from FR "for cause" & came back "under another name,
3. he CLAIMS to be "Heyworth", who was banned forever "for cause", but now says that he LIED about that, too (i believe that he is actually "modernman" in another guise, as he has the same prejudices as that CREEP),
4. i told him WEEKS AGO that i would neither read nor respond to his LIES,
5. his "sources" have been "checked by "other FReepers & found to be FREQUENTLY bogus &
6. his posts are filled with HATE for the southland/southerners, ignorance of the facts & stupidity,
one would wonder WHY he keeps posting to me??? (could it be that he's so clue-LESS as to believe that i CARE about what he spews out onto the forum??)
believe anything he says at YOUR peril.
further, i shunned "the brain-LESS, filthy-mouthed,one", TOO.
finally, inasmuch as the "DAMNyankee coven of nitwits, REVISIONISTS, "useful idiots", RACISTS, fascists,etc" has had at least a dozen of "their finest" BANNED forever , one should (even NOT being a denizen of these threads) be able to tell WHICH camp of the Blue/Gray sides is decent/honorable/truthful/intelligent.(hint: it is NOT the side of the DYs.)
free dixie,sw
Once again, what you said weeks ago was that you’d hit the abuse button and report me to the mods if I responded to another of your posts. Since I’m obviously still here, I can only assume that you’ve either failed to make good your threat or that it’s been ignored.
So are you claiming that you didn’t write on another thread that this supposed massacre happened in Mississippi, complete with names, dates, locations, cemeteries and more? Are you claiming that I’ve hacked into the FR archives and planted those posts from you?
btw, you should ask him WHO he "used to be" before he was BANNED FOREVER from FR "for cause" & WHAT he DID to get himself PERMANENTLY banned from this forum. (ask for INDEPENDENT PROOF, as his "word of honor" is a JOKE to those of us, who have dealt with him for too long a while.)
in the event that you choose NOT to believe me, you've been forewarned.
free dixie,sw
So are you going to report me to the moderators like you threatened, or does that get filed next to the Galveston U-boat?
It’s obvious that FreeRepublic has figured out that you are the liar here swattie...
Confederate Flag represents both heritage and hate
Posted by stand watie to Non-Sequitur
On 03/13/2008 2:19:50 PM PDT · 160 of 242
btw, you might tell "your buddies", ("bubba, the LIAR" & "rockrr, the VULGAR-talking SWINE") that they are SHUNNED by the undersigned, PERMANENTLY. i neither READ (nor care to read) their LIES/VULGARITY or ANSWER them, ever again.
what i WILL do is start "hitting the abuse button" (as you know, i've never "hit" it before, but i'm sick of them) every time i see on the "post history',that they have posted TO me.
free dixie,sw
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Davis, Lee, and Jackson are three of the finest freedom loving patriots the world will ever know.
No, that's disrespectful Yankee Speak saying that Southerners are backward dummies.
Since when does asking to be left alone qualify as asking for someone to surrender?
Right on. This is precisely why The War Between the States was NOT a Civil War.
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