As to Dr. Schuyler's Point #1, I would suggest that throughout history there
have been millions of voices raised against slavery, those of the enslaved
themselves. Though actions spectacular (revolts, rebellions, and
revolutions) and mundane (everyday acts of resistance) they raised their
voices individually and collectively against their enslavement. We as
historical archaeologists should always strive to "listen" for those
silenced voices absent or muted in historical archives.
Rob
*****************************************************
Rob Mann, Ph.D.
Southeast Regional Archaeologist and
Assistant Professor-Research
Department of Geography and Anthropology
Louisiana State University
227 Howe-Russell Geoscience Complex
Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70803
Office: 225-578-6739
FAX: 225-578-4420
-----Original Message-----
From: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Robert
L. Schuyler
Sent: Thursday, April 14, 2011 10:15 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: War (1861-1865)
I find the entire discussion a bit odd. Why is fighting the Civil War over
slavery (which was clearly the immediate and emotional issue that set the
stage) and over states rights mutually exclusive. One of the basic rights of
the Southern states was the right to practice the basis of their economy -
plantation agriculture based on slave labor.
As far as the South not recognizing the slavery issue it was clearly
incorporated into their new constitution (based on the US Constitution but
with changes (e.g. one term presidency)) although the Slave Trade was still
outlawed.
Some points for the South and for the North:
(1) All known civilizations since ancient times practiced slavery and only
rare voices were ever raised against it. When someone did speak against
slavery it was usually only to say "do not enslave your own kind" (e.g.
Greeks enslaving Greeks or Moslems enslaving other Moslems). As far as I
know Jesus Christ, for example, never said anything about slavery or spoke
out against it. In the Ten Commandments I do not think another's 'man
servant' or 'maid servant' meant salaried employees.
(2) All the American British colonies and most of the new American states
had slaves and continued to practice slavery although by 1783 a movement was
underway against it. The South found the northern states hypocritical in
their newly found abolitionist stand (which was a minority view even in the
North).
(3) The states had entered the new American union (Constitution) voluntarily
and nothing in that document says they could not withdraw the same way they
came into it. Groups in New England, for example, had earlier discussed
succession at the time of the War of 1812.
(4) States Rights was critical because the South was afraid they would be
eventually outvoted in Congress as new states came into the Union and the
government might outlaw slavery as it was clearly already trying to block it
geographical expansion.
(5) The South (lower Southern states) did withdraw peacefully and amazed
everyone by successfully forming a new and viable government with a
President, Congress, Constitution and election (CSA).
(6) Technically the South started the war by firing on a federal fort but it
is clear the North set the stage and forced the issue.
(7) The War was not fought to destroy slavery. The federal government and
the President (Lincoln) clearly said it was initiated to save the Union, not
to destroy slavery in the southern states.
*************************************************************
(1) No federal President (Buchanan - Democrat or Lincoln -
Republican) could allow the South to leave the Union and expect the USA to
survive. Lincoln was not the President who refused to remove federal forces
from Charleston harbor. That had already happened before he took office.
(2) In the past other Presidents made it clear what would happen (e.g.
Andrew Jackson - a slave owning southerner) - WAR.
(3) If the South had been allowed to withdraw peacefully (and if so the
Upper South might have stayed in the Union) war might well have already
started over who would control the western part of North America or other
issues.
**************************************************************
The War was a major disaster for America brought on by a bunch of fanatics
in the North (immediate abolitionists) and fanatics in the South ("fire
eaters") while a slower and compromising approach would have gotten rid of
slavery. All national legal slavery was gone on Earth by 1890. Slavery, of
course, still survives in illegal pockets all around the world.
The equal disaster was the assassination of Lincoln which allowed the
Radical Republicans to make revenge-war on the South and eventually fail at
Reconstruction and set the country back for a century. If Lincoln had lived
with the victory in the war, with firmness but fairness toward the South,
things might (??) have been quite different.
Back to Historical Archaeology: How do all these changes show up in, say, a
county in the "Black Belt" in settlement patterns and in the landscape. What
was county "X" like in 1860 vs. 1870 and later how did Reconstruction impact
the county, and then how did things change again when the "Redeemers"
created the segregated South between 1880 and 1960? Are there major changes
generated by these changes or just ripples in the pond?
Bob Schuyler
At 07:52 PM 4/14/2011, you wrote:
>Charles Dew's *Apostles of Disunion *does an excellent job of covering
>the secession movement and the various secession commissions that were
>sent from the deep South to the states of the upper South. It's a great
>place to start and provides a pretty thorough examination of the
>various secession statements.
>
>Travis Shaw, M.A.
>Archaeologist/Historian
>R. Christopher Goodwin & Associates
>
>On Thu, Apr 14, 2011 at 7:38 PM, Sean Doyle <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> > Bloody smart phone. Sorry about the odd sentence at the end.
> >
> > Robert Leavitt <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> >
> > The secession statements of Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina,
> > and Texas are available at
> > htttp://sunsite.utk.edu/civil-war/reasons.html
> > and are most interesting. Georgia's is almost solely a rant in favor
> > of slavery and against the anti-slavery attitudes of the north.
> > Slavery is a significant issue in the statements of Mississippi and
> > South Carolina, and, along with the attitude that "y'all are against
> > us just because we hold slaves"," is well represented in the Texas
> > statement. I've not found on-line sources for statements of the
> > other nine seceding states, but I'd be willing to bet that slavery
> > was, at the very least, one of the major concerns they all addresse.
> >
> > Robert
> >
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> >>From: "Linda Derry" <[log in to unmask]>
> >>To: "'HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY'" <[log in to unmask]>
> >>Subject: RE: FW: Today in history
> >>Date: Thu, 14 Apr 2011 17:05:00 -0500
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> >>
> >>Hi Ya'll,
> >>
> >>As historical archaeologists, we should all agree that it is always
> >>good
>to
> >>work with PRIMARY documents, right?
> >>
> >>With that in mind, I have to say that from where I'm sitting, the
> >>old
>Black
> >>Belt or cotton belt of Alabama, it sure does appear that slaveholding
took
> >>center stage in the primary documents that speak to this issue. ( as
> >>opposed to the rationalization that appeared along with the "Lost Cause"
> >>narrative in the late 19th/ early 20th century.)
> >>
> >>Nothing could be more primary that Alabama's secession ordinance,
> >>so I looked it up, and it does state a need for a union of "Slave
> >>holding States of the South" and then at the convention they refer
> >>to the new
>nation
> >>as "a Southern slaveholding Confederacy."
> >>
> >>I'm betting that secession documents in most Southern states have
> >>similar statements - So, if you hold to the state's rights point of
> >>view, why not test your theory by locating this ordinance for your
> >>state. (& find the complete ordinance, not something excerpted by folks
with agendas).
> >>
> >>
> >>Just thought it was worth throwing out to the list - I REALLY don't
> >>want
>to
> >>argue about the cause of the war (since I live with this rhetoric
> >>on a daily basis) but was just thinking that in our professional
> >>community, these secession documents ought to be our reference point
> >>rather than
>stuff
> >>silly old arm chair historians or journalists write! <SMILE>
> >>
> >>
> >>Linda Derry
> >>Site Director
> >>Old Cahawba
> >>719 Tremont St.
> >>Selma, AL 36701
> >>ph. 334/875-2529
> >>fax. 334/877-4253
> >>[log in to unmask]
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>-----Original Message-----
> >>From: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
> >>geoff carver
> >>Sent: Thursday, April 14, 2011 12:40 PM
> >>To: [log in to unmask]
> >>Subject: Re: FW: Today in history
> >>
> >>I keep wondering what rights other than the "right to own slaves"
> >>was covered under "states rights" anyway.
> >>
> >>-----Original Message-----
> >>
> >>He contends that the war was always about slavery from the very
> >>beginning but why after the war concluded, historians, politicians,
> >>and the media ignored or downplayed that reality, be they
> >>northerners or southerners
> >
|