Posted on 10/02/2007 1:10:01 PM PDT by 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Facinating article.
Well said...
Latin America pinglist ping.
Just as Article IV, Section III prohibits forming a new state from being created from a portion of another state nor from two or more states without the consent of all the state legislatures involved, plus that of Congress.
Since the West Virginia counties chose to secede from the Confederacy and throw in their lot with the Union, it would have been unconstitutional and illegal for their new state to have been so created- unless, in accordance with the Constitution, the Virginia legislature was no longer a part of the government of the United States, but was by then a creature of the Confederacy.
U.S. Constitution, Article IV, Section 3. New states may be admitted by the Congress into this union; but no new states shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any other state; nor any state be formed by the junction of two or more states, or parts of states, without the consent of the legislatures of the states concerned as well as of the Congress.
There was more of that southern rural interracial harmony than the leftists and current race baiters would admit. But that has little to do with the class that led the south into rebellion in the interest of slavery. Their hostile and exploitive attitude toward blacks was displayed in the postwar Black Codes. The Confederate leadership embodied the worst political thought that our nation has ever seen and their defeat and disgrace was the greatest victory in the history of our people.
Then why is the President and those Executive Branch officers beneath him not required to swear an oath to preserve, protect and defend that Constitution?
America did no such thing.
I’m glad those rebs left for Brazil. The USA was better off without them. I wish more had gone with them. People who do not love our country and its values should leave. I’m afraid there’s many residing in our borders today who are in the same category.
They just cannot understand why we do not fall upon the ground and flog oursleves silly everytime someone brings up the Antebellum period and genuflect to every insulting comment.
We are not guilt ridden liberals. Period.
...and you are soooo wrong. Slavery is NOT "the only reason Southerner's [sic] stood up to the US Govt't...". The Civil War was ultimately fought over State vs. Federal rights and authority. The South was CLEARLY in the right, no matter how abhorrent and deplorable slavery was (and is). We as a nation are still paying a terrible price for the triumph of Federalism. Look at your next pay stub closely to get the tiniest glimpse of why and how.
Shaking my head...Just will not ever get it, these revisionist stereotypes of Confederate leadership and slavery.
Their hostile and exploitive attitude toward blacks was displayed in the postwar Black Codes
The Illinois Black Code of 1853 extended a complete prohibition against black immigration into the state.
Do not throw stones, please
Learning about family history is a nice pastime and can help in building a vital appreciation for American history and traditions but it can be taken to extremes. That's more an Oriental thing, not so much an American tradition. Just because great grandpappy did something, we should not automatically embrace it. And what if one great grandpa was a reb and the other was loyal to the Union? If you honor one esteemed ancestor's cause, it's hard to venerate the other guy.
"I don't know who my grandfather was; I am much more concerned to know what his grandson will be"--Abraham Lincoln
Yeah, well the problem is that Tennessee didn't freely join the Union. They were admitted. Allowed in and only with the approval of a majority of the other states as expressed through a vote in Congress. Now, if you want to still say that Tennessee could have left in the same manner in which they were admitted, with a majority vote in both houses of Congress, then I have no problem with that.
“The Confederate leadership embodied the worst political thought that our nation has ever seen and their defeat and disgrace was the greatest victory in the history of our people.”
In the first decades of the last century, membership in the KKK was a prerequisite to a succesful political career in Indiana, culminating in a Klan Governor in 1924.
Also, Colorado had a Klan Governor in the 1920’s.
The southern black codes of 1966 were just the opposite. They didn't want the freed slaves to leave so the plantation bosses could continue to make easy money off them as in the slavery days.
The two codes illustrate a contrast. It seems that blacks wanted to enter Illinois and it looks like they wanted to leave the south and laws had to be written to bind the serfs to the land.
Tennessee was split between pro Confederate West Tn. and Pro Union East Tn. I think a lot of the “Pro Union” folks were just ambivalent mountain people who didn’t want part of the war in any manner.
Would you say that the notion that slavery is wrong is "Political Correctness"?
Applied retroactively? Absolutely. Do you dismiss every society that practiced slavery? If so, you'd have to include the Hebrews, the Egyptians, the Romans, the Greeks, the Chinese, the Indians, the Japanese, and yes, the Americans prior to the Emancipation Proclamation (and even that didn't free all the slaves.)
....as if the people who founded the Union were somehow no different than the people who tried to destroy it
And they founded it, how? By destroying the previous union with England.
I don't believe women's suffrage was ever put before them. There certainly was no popular movement for it.
Exactly! And you don't see the irony of your argument? Are you suggesting that morality is determined by public opinion? That it's okay to deprive women of the vote if no one cares about that issue? Following that logic, if no one is particularly bothered by slavery, then it must be okay. It only becomes "bad" when people are bothered by it. You see, this constant droning about slavery and other evils (some real, some imagined) of pre-1960s America is extremely destructive. It needs to be seen in its historical context, because once you unleash PC, it's hard to ever restrain it. Once you start down this "the Confederacy was evil because they owned slaves" road, you're setting the entire country up for ridicule and even balkanization. Because the same type of arguments, and many more, can be used against the Founding Fathers and practically every American.
That's why today, if you walk into the History or Political Science Departments of most colleges, and say nice things about America, you're met with, "Oh, yeah....the America that enslaved blacks, the America that stole land from the Indians, the America that deprived women of the vote.....". Blah, blah, blah.
The only reason I brought up abortion, as you should have known, was that it, too, is Politically Correct. I could have just as easily brought up homosexuality (notice the ridicule of General Pace?) or illegal immigration (they tried to ban a statue of Pete Wilson in San Diego because he tried to cut off welfare to people illegally in the state).
“The southern black codes of 1966 were just the opposite. They didn’t want the freed slaves to leave so the plantation bosses could continue to make easy money off them as in the slavery days”
Where do you find it written that blacks were subject to restricted travel and could not leave the South in 1966? It doesn’t jive with the tremendous exodus of blacks to areas like Detroit in the 50’s and 60’s.
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