A Sorry State…
By Southern Partisan • October 24th, 2007We’ve given our Scalawag Award to groups before (such as the Ku Klux Klan), but never to any so large or so deserving of our contempt. Recently both the Virginia and North Carolina legislatures voted to apologize for slavery. The nation must regard these apologies as offered on behalf of the people the legislators represent, since as a body they can speak for no one else. Thus their resolutions, cowardly or self-righteous, constitute a cloddish mischaracterization of contemporary Virginians and North Carolinians, who have no cause to apologize to blacks or to the rest of the nation for an institution that was abolished more than 140 years ago.
New Englanders haven’t apologized for the dominant role their ancestors played in the slave trade or for the legalization of slavery in states like Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. Connecticut freed its slaves only 13 years before the outbreak of the War. Yet the Yankees have apparently set up a statute of limitations that shifts with each passing year, always excluding them from prosecution, never expiring for us.
Acting as both priest and penitent, they have absolved themselves of the sin of slavery, while demanding that Southerners come to confession every day.
Black agitators like the Rev. Jesse and the Rev. Al take advantage of this double standard to solicit contributions from their Northern patrons. They know that whenever they attack Southerners or the Confederate past, left-wing Yankees write fat checks. These so-called civil rights leaders are like the ghouls who creep around battlefields after sunset, stealing coins and watches from the corpses of dead heroes.
Yet such hustlers are not our chief enemies. Those who do us the greatest harm are the genteel fraggers who, when we attempt to defend our people, living and dead, fall behind us and shoot us in the back—folks like the Virginia and North Carolina legislators.
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Because the fact of slavery is invoked to damn, by association, a whole culture and all its values, from Christianity to states rights, honor and femininity, I think it’s very important to work to correct the impression that slavery was uniquely or primarily a southern phenomenon. An alternative picture is that slavery largely spread upwards from South America, particularly Brazil and the Carribbean, where conditions were far harsher than in America. In Brazil, an estimated 8 million slaves were worked to death in an average of 3 years each. The slave population declined during rising imports, whereas in America it grew even after imports ceased. In the old south slavery came into conflict with individualistic and Christian values and was considerably softened; for example, there were laws against mistreatment of slaves. Economically, the north had little need of slave plantations but, as the author points out, was more than happy to run the import-export trade.
I don’t think the Jacksons and the Sharptons of the world are primarily to blame. What we are fighting is a coalition of domineering white liberals who hate everything the south stands for, and Democratic Party hacks who depend on a 90-99% black vote to win elections. These people recruit blacks to represent the prejudices of white liberal Democrats. If it weren’t Sharpton it would be someone else. Ultimately, they have the money to get their way via donations. Measures that diminish the role played by money in politics would be helpful.
Here’s the rub: blacks are one of the more politically INcorrect groups in American society. They are churchgoers, they have no zeal for feminism, gay lib, gun control or state surveillance of the citizenry. They don’t lie awake at night worrying that somewhere a child is praying in school. And while it is understandably easy to talk them into approving speech codes and the like, many understand that limitations on free speech implemented with the aid of their support come back to haunt them. But because of their economic position they are unlikely to vote for a party that offers them no help instead of a party that fawns over them and offers massive state benefits. The situation of our culture is so desparate that it can only be saved by creating a third party or remaking an existing party that will combine effective economic aid for the poor with Christian and libertarian values in the social and political realm. I am convinced that if the tide is turned on social issues the gradual restoration of economic liberty (which does NOT involve bailing out large investment banks) will be possible.
All things considered blacks have been surprisingly willing to see the virtues of the south. For example, many have expressed sympathy with the view that the battle flag stands for something other than slavery. But today’s southern politician must kiss up to the northern establishment if he hopes to get anyware. Ironically, the most effective exponents of the author’s message may be the Afro-American studies professors in universities. Though not out to make excuses for the south, they are concerned to dig deeper into the history of slavery and do not spare northerners or Europeans from investigation. Over time, they are shaking free of the pressure to merge their concerns with the official agenda of the white left. The global picture they are constructing will at least somewhat undermine the demonization of the south that we all condemn.
[…] has a website, but only a few articles are available there. It’s certainly strange. While criticizing the state legislatures of North Carolina and Virginia for apologizing for slavery, it notes: […]
Thanks for the alternative view of history; it gives Northerners another opinion and, being intelligent people, they can figure it out themselves. They should be able to, for example, understand the slavery issue, in the light of your most recent article, where you state that slavery in the North was only repealed 13 years before the outbreak of “Civil War.” As you can see, I defer to Southerners’ preference for “War for Southern Secession.”
Sincerely,
Ezio Maiolini
Oakland, CA
Thanks for the alternative view of history; it gives Northerners another opinion and, being intelligent people, they can figure it out themselves. They should be able to, for example, understand the slavery issue, in the light of your most recent article, where you state that slavery in the North was only repealed 13 years before the outbreak of “Civil War.” As you can see, I defer to Southerners’ preference for “War for Southern Succesion.”
One more point: Has the discussion on Slavery ever carried over to the undermining of the Self-Sufficient-Farm System developed more in the South than in the North. I would love to hear more on this subject.
Sincerely,
Ezio Maiolini
Oakland, CA
If apologies are required they should begin with the there own people.After all the slaves were supplied by black tribial leaders.They were then transported by Yankee Ships for sale in America.
Unfortunate for them but I think slave life in America was far better then the life they left behind in Africa.
As for the Confederate States paying reperations or even apologizing, Well I think we paid a heavy enough price! The destruction the yankees laid to the south, the stolen property,whole towns GONE!