Dixie tradition kept alive in Brazil enclave[Confederate immigrants]

The Washington Times ^ | 02 Oct 2007 | Anton Foek

[BGHater]

AMERICANA, Brazil

Now well past 90, Judith MacKnight Jones is suffering from Alzheimer's disease, the illness that robbed her of all of her memory, her most precious asset.

She has been lying here for the past 11 years, covered by a patchwork blanket, made from pieces her great-grandmother brought from the United States between 1865 and 1885, after the Confederacy lost the Civil War.

Unable to speak or remember now, her book "Soldado Descanso" ("Rest Soldier") is written in Portuguese, but soon will be translated into English, as the publisher thinks Americans should know about the proud history of Confederate immigrants settling in Brazil, finding a new home here but maintaining many of the traditions they brought from Alabama, Texas, Louisiana, Tennessee, Arkansas, the Carolinas and Georgia.

Her daughter-in-law, Heloisa Jones, said patchwork is only one of the values the Americans have brought.

This blanket is not just any patchwork, she said, "these pieces are very old and reflect a valuable tradition," she said.

"Over a century old and symbolizing our heritage, the flight from our homelands, it is extremely important to keep it that way. I teach my children and grandchildren the American values our ancestors have brought with them. And I expect them to teach their children and grandchildren the same," she said.

Every spring, hundreds of the descendants of the soldiers who lost the war against the North go to the cemetery they call O Campo. They party and meet dressed in traditional costumes, staging shows, singing Southern songs like "When the Saints Come Marching In" or "Oh Susannah," playing banjos and blowing trumpets, the men eventually getting drunk on home-brewed beer.

[Vietnam Vet From New Mexico]

The South did indeed have a draft. Both sides did, I think the South passed it first as they felt the manpower crunch first.

However, the majority of soldiers on both sides volunteered and served honorably.

And I agree, fighting to defend your country from invasion is in no way treason.

[RedMonqey]

I find it magnanimous of you to have given such a well considered reply...

Thank you. He described himself in terms better than any condemnation I dared yet utter in an open forum and not get banned. ...In my case, it was Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Arkansas, and South Carolina to count the kissin' cousins. Not a northerner in the bunch. My great grandfather never wore blue...

Interesting family oral tradition also spoke of our great, great grandfather Andrew to the day he died, never wore blue either. He also never took the pledge, ever the unrepented rebel. Although not legally suppose to vote, he did get a ballot in the elections after Tennessee was readmitted to the Union. Attended many divisional reunions( Forbes Bivouac, 14th Ten. infantry) Not as sure of the other five brothers and assorted cousins and uncles.( 14th Ten. infantry and 49th Ten. infantry) They fought everywhere from Ft Donelson(escaped with Forrest) to Lee in Gettysburg and finally Appomattox. (Walked home from Orange County Courthouse in Virginia)

Contrary to opinion of many here, not every, I dare say not even the majority of former rebels were fire breathing hate mongering Klansman bent on the genocide of the freedmen.

Most just went about the business of every living as best they could. our family never allowed the bitter war to interfere with relations with the former slaves population. Being lower to middle class farmers they hired several freedmen throughout the years and worked beside them. They (and we remain)were very cordial with black families in the community. Even went to the same Presbyterian church. Although I must confess at the time it was segregated with the the back bench reserved for the Freedmen.

I have an old photograph on the wall of Andrew and his son Curtis with Uncle Henry and his brother, two of his workers sitting on mules in the front of the old family homestead.

This is just part of our family's travail throughout history and we didn't need no damned fool historical revisionist to tell us what happened back in those foreboding days.

[RedMonqey]

Many Southerners viewed the ownership of human beings to be a basic human right.

A sad but valid statement. An equally valid statement is that the majority of mankind at the same moment of time believed one man could own his fellow man.

Lest we forget. Liberty to be an individual born of inalienable rights was a radicleidea to most of the world and relatively new concept even in our country.

[truemiester]

As a souther born and raised man, I will say that the south had the right to succeed, per the constitution.

As an American first, I am glad the war was fought and won in the interest of national unity.

Otherwise we would be ‘balkanized’ like Europe. With perhaps 3 languages (English, French and Spanish). Not the great and powerful USA we are now.

[RedMonqey]

Where in The Constitution does the right to secede exist? The States voted in, but the right to vote out is not mentioned.

True. However equally so, NOWHERE does it FORBID states the right to secede either. One could go the easy route and say it is hidden in the Tenth Amendment but one does not have to go there.

In many European societies if the right is not mentioned then it is assumed it does not exist. Divine right of Kings transposed to the State in the modern era. However our founding fathers believed that Man had inalienable rights given by God and stated numerous times in the document and without our constitution of it. States that just because a right is not numerated(mentioned) does not mean it does not exist. It is the reverse. It is assumed man has that right unless strictly forbidden or comes into conflict with the rights of others or powers stated in the constitution.

Although not exactly the same as individual liberties, states also have certain powers that are assumed to them unless expressly denied by or restricted to only the federal government or impedes upon individual rights.

Secession is one of them and Jefferson spoke of it several times in his writtings.

(Mute point anyway. Lincoln settled this one by force....)

[wideawake]

Spoken like a pair of truly poor-mannered, ill-bred yankees...

LOL! Of course, there is no such thing as an uncouth Southron.

Let's face facts - this woman's ancestors were total dead-enders who were willing to abandon the country of their birth because they could not bear to witness the unthinkable calamity of black people being free citizens.

They fled to the one country left in the Western world where their vile mores still held broad sway.

I'm not sure why we are supposed to feel all warm and fuzzy about a crew of people whose American patriotism and willingness to live in the USA was predicated on whether or not it allowed a race of people to be held in chains.

[Lee'sGhost]

What a dumbass thing to say.

[Lee'sGhost]

‘Many Southerners viewed the ownership of human beings to be a basic human right.”

As did many Northerners, which explains why slavery started in the north and existed there eve during the war.

[wideawake]

However equally so, NOWHERE does it FORBID states the right to secede either.

The Constitution obliges the states and the American people to regard the Constitution as the supreme law of the land.

In other words, if a state is to secede, its legislation in this regard is subject to review under the authority of the Constitution. By refusing to allow secession statutes to be submitted to this review, the seceding states violated the Constitution and the officers of those states violated their oaths to uphold that Constitution.

Moreover, the Constitution forbids states to enter into pacts with one another - and it is clear from the speed and coordination exhibited in the creation of the so-called Confederacy that the officers of states engaged in that criminal conspiracy had colluded with one another in contravention of the Constitution and their oaths to uphold it in that regard also.

[wideawake]

What a dumbass thing to say.

See, RM! There's the vaunted Southern charm and civility you were contrasting with my boorish Yankee ways.

[wideawake]

Seriously, do you ever hear slavery condemned without it being American slavery? Do you think these other countries are still beating themselves up over it?

Only in countries like Jamaica, where the vast majority of the population are descendants of slaves.

Condemning Jamaican slavery is easy and cheap.

The fact that America acknowledges the moral flaw of its slaveholding past is a good thing, it betokens a national conscience in working order - the problem is that the American left completely ignores the great sacrifices America made to put an end to slavery.

The American left ignores the fact that America is the only country in the world where the descendants of former slaves enjoy a standard of living and a social status higher than that of almost any historically free demographic group.

[Lee'sGhost]

Considering what I could have said in response to such an uninformed and Southernphobic statement it was civil. “Charm” is usually lost on “boorish” Yankees.

[wideawake]

Considering what I could have said in response to such an uninformed and Southernphobic statement it was civil.

Nice rationalization.

Of course, I am hardly "Southernphobic."

I love the South and Southerners - there are plenty of Southerners in my family in point of fact (and not transplanted-Yankee Southerners, but actual antebellum-descended Southerners).

Finding self-glorifying neo-Confederate mythology distasteful is hardly the same as finding the South or its people distasteful.

[Lee'sGhost]

“Nice rationalization.”

Nope. Just a statement of fact.

[Larry Lucido]

A lot of Dixie traditions are worth keeping alive. This not the least of them.

[puroresu]

Do you find America itself distasteful for its many past “failures” to live up to current standards of Political Correctness?

Is it “neo-patriarchal mythology” to glorify the Founding Fathers? After all, they didn’t support women’s suffrage or “abortion rights”.

[RetiredArmy]

Slavery was practiced in the US until the 1940’s. We just called it different names. The real crime was the practice of oppressing people based on their skin color. Slavery was part of that oppression.

Actually, slavery is still practiced in the USA today. Blacks, and legions of refusal to work whites, have endured themselves to the Marxists Dimocrats for everything they need or want. What is the difference? They are still slaves to the Marxists. They just don't see it that way because they get free stuff.

[Squantos]

Better not be any sugar on them grits ..........:o)

[Larry Lucido]

Nah, that was added by the native Michiganers after folks from the Delta brought them up here. Give me mine with butter and lard.

[wideawake]

Do you find America itself distasteful for its many past “failures” to live up to current standards of Political Correctness?

Interesting rhetorical tactic. Would you say that the notion that slavery is wrong is "Political Correctness"?

One of the things I love about my country is its ability and resourcefulness in correcting the mistakes it makes.

Is it “neo-patriarchal mythology” to glorify the Founding Fathers?

Another interesting rehetorical tactic - you here attempt to conflate support for the Founding Fathers' with support for the architects of the Confederacy as if they were equivalent - as if the people who founded the Union were somehow no different than the people who tried to destroy it.

After all, they didn’t support women’s suffrage or “abortion rights”.

I don't believe that women's suffrage was ever put before them. There certainly was no popular movement for it.

I'm not sure what women having the franchise has to do with the murder of unborn children, or what extending voting rights to women has to do with depriving children of their most basic rights.

As I review your post it seems that you live in a world where disapproving of slavery is the same as "political correctness", where founding a nation is the same as dismembering it and where women voting is the same as murdering children in cold blood.

Please rejoin me in reality at your earliest convenience.