Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Appomattox
This past weekend, I had the pleasure of traveling to a friend’s wedding in Virginia. I had never really spent any time in the state before, having only been there twice before on business, both times very briefly. I love visiting new places, just observing the flora, fauna, geology, etc. But places like Virginia, places steeped in history, are even more fascinating.
As I was planning my route from Richmond to Lynchburg, I found two routes that were about equally long. Then, I saw it.
One of the routes went through Appomattox.
I’m a history junkie. Places like that have a special power to me – they are tangible reminders of people and events that shape who we are today. Yes, I would go out of my way to travel through Appomattox, if necessary.
The trip went smoothly, and I approached the area with anticipation. I didn’t expect to get out and explore after my long journey, just being there and knowing the historical significance of the place was enough for me.
Right outside of town, I saw a sign – a large picture of Grant and Lee, extending their hands to one another, with the caption “Welcome to Appomattox, Where Our Nation Was Reunited.”
My jaw dropped. Reunited?
They sanitized it. They sanitized it!
I drove further, and my dismay increased. “Turn here to buy cheap plastic souvenirs!”
GAH! They turned it into a tourist trap!
Then suddenly I realized – I should have known. I should have expected it. And why not? There’s money to be made!
I had to spend some time thinking before I could decide exactly what it was that irritated me so much about this whole thing, the sign in particular.
To many people, the Civil War is a simple good vs evil morality play. I can’t quite look at it that way anymore, as the north was not wholly good, nor was the south wholly evil.
Some in the northern armies fought to free the slaves. Others fought because they were conscripted. Many were as racist as those in the south.
Some in the southern armies fought to protect their right to keep slaves. However, only 25 % of the white population owned slaves in the first place. So what were the other 75% fighting for? Presumably to defend their homes and their honor, and to preserve their right to self-determination.
I have very mixed feelings about the south. I admire antebellum southern culture greatly, in its rural, genteel, cultured way, everything that I want to be as an American Farmer. Then of course there is the inkblot of slavery that taints it all.
I heard the civil war described in the following manner – the north was morally in the right, but the south was legally in the right. At the time, the United States was still a group of united states, governed by a central federal government in Washington DC, but still existing as independent entities choosing to be part of a larger whole. What is to be done when one of those entities no longer chooses to be a part of the whole? Legally, I don’t see how it can be justified that force should be used to prevent the separation. Thus, the south was legally in the right.
Even so, the north was right to end slavery, even if it meant going to war to do it. What is right trumps what is legal.
“Where Our Nation Was Reunited”, with two men shaking hands, glosses over the fact this was a war in which half a million people died. This was not where the nation was reunited, this was where one half of the nation formalized the brutal conquest of the other half. Appomattox was not a picnic or a business agreement, this was the end of the line for a proud army that outfought the north at almost every turn. I have great respect for them and their martial prowess, even as I am glad that they were defeated.
It seems to me that the south no longer has pride in itself, not the unhealthy racist pride or “the south shall rise again” pride, but pride as a distinct culture with much to its credit. It appears that because of the legacy of slavery, the entire culture has been thrown out, the baby with the bathwater. In my time there, it almost seemed that this culture had been eroded down to nothing, surely in part by homogenization and blandness brought by the influx of northerners to warmer climates. So it’s entirely possible that much of the current population doesn’t even have any idea what they have lost.
The civil war was clearly a triumph for the good guys. Slavery was ended. However, we must remember what was lost in the process, for some important things were in fact lost. Primarily, we started down the path to big centralized government the minute we decided that we are no longer a voluntary collection of states bound together in our mutual interests. The movement didn’t really take off until 50 years later, but the stage was set, and the result became inevitable. This is how history progresses, in fits and starts, with unintended consequences that show up decades later.
I’m glad to have driven through Appomattox, as my experience there will likely play into how much effort I put into visiting historical sites in the future. To stand at the site of a great event, surrounded by a circus and by people who don’t care to remember, is nearly sacrilegious to me. Perhaps in the future I will stay home and read another book instead.
Comments
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As a resident of the south I have to say that the south hasn’t rejected its culture. On the contrary, it is alive and well. I never experienced anything like the North vs. the South when I lived in California, New Jersey, or Illinois, but it is COMMON not to trust “Yankees” here in the South.
There is a tiny element of the “South shall rise again” crap. I avoid ANY retailer that has that sort of stupid shit on sale, or people that fly the stars and bars. They can get over themselves (without my support) as far as I’m concerned.
There is very much an aspect of the old gentility that is alive and well, not so much in Texas, because Texas is Texas (and always had a higher rube/asshole quotient than elsewhere), not the “Old South.” But people are MUCH friendlier than Yankees, in general.
There is a quiet, respectful reticence in the North among strangers, and here things are more in-your-face polite...with niceties required… (similar to what you find in Europe) kinda invasive feeling at first, but you get used to it. All I need to do is sport my mild Southern accent (easily acquired by growing up with surrogate parents from Oklahoma and Arkansas) and the treatment/service I receive is 100% better.
As to the Civil War itself, if the South had wanted a peaceful secession they MAY have been able to find one. The South firing on Union soldiers at Fort Sumter sort of closed any prospect of that. The South was not interested in limiting slavery to only the South. They believed that slavery was a Christian tenet/responsibility or a “secular right” and sought to expand slavery. That’s why they went to war over it. You can say that they were fighting for “self determination” but that self-determination included their belief that they had a “right” to own slaves, or that they had a right to allow people to do so.
Fault for everything that happened after, the erosion of states rights included, rests squarely on the shoulders of Southerners.
Never ask a question you don’t want to know the answer to. The South asked, and we all lost.
The idea, however, that anything other than Constitutionally mandated lawmaking with respect to equal citizenship application (of the 14th Amendment “Full Faith and Credit") which was a direct response to overturn the Dred Scott decision, has been judicial overreach. The 14th was meant to re-assert that the Federal government, not the states, determined who was a citizen of the U.S. It was NEVER meant to be anything more than that.
I would gladly sign on to a peaceful secession movement now, if they weren’t all full of crazies. I think secession (into two or more discrete nations) is the only solution to our problems today. Of course, that would require most Yankees to consider moving out of the Socliast hell holes they live in… but moving should be the least of our troubles, considering the alternative.
But I doubt it will happen in my lifetime… so I stare at the globe, wondering where the hell we can go. (Slovakia looks interesting.)
Mrs. du Toit | 4/14/2009 12:11 PM CDT -
As a resident of the south I have to say that the south hasn’t rejected its culture. On the contrary, it is alive and well.
I guess I have to travel around more. I was a bit shocked to discover that maybe 20% of the population had an accent, to my midwestern ear. The entire trip, I didn’t feel like I was treated any differently than I am anywhere else I’ve been. And to drive the point home further, we ate breakfast with a couple that was retiring, selling their home in Massachusetts and moving to Virginia.
You can say that they were fighting for “self determination” but that self-determination included their belief that they had a “right” to own slaves, or that they had a right to allow people to do so.
Yes, I definitely recognize that their desire for self-determination was centered around slavery. The problem is that in overreaching, by starting a fight over that point, they managed to lose the right to self-determination in all legitimate issues as well.
But I doubt it will happen in my lifetime… so I stare at the globe, wondering where the hell we can go. (Slovakia looks interesting.)
Ditto. Tell me if you come up with something. I’m at a loss.
American Farmer | 4/14/2009 03:28 PM CDT -
I don’t think it’s the climate that drew the Northerners to the South. It was the economic liberty. They brought their view of the War with them, too, of course. Fortunately, they also brought their politics, which rescued the South from the vile putrescence that all Democrat-dominated places have.
As for where to flee, I understand Iceland once had a supposed libertarian system, and their government recently fell.
TraitorHater | 4/16/2009 04:12 AM CDT -
I checked out Iceland. Scandinavian socialism.
Blech.
American Farmer | 4/16/2009 11:15 AM CDT -
Sure, now, but back around the Middle Ages, the claim I read (on usenet during my college years, in the 1980’s - I never investigated it myself). And any government that falls and appoints a lesbian former airline stewardess as PM is bound to be easy to take control of. Heck, when’s the last time anyone heard anything out of Iceland except an odd singer?
TraitorHater | 4/16/2009 03:59 PM CDT -
Somehow my email notification checkmark got unchecked when I previewed my last comment to see if BBCode worked, so I’m adding this comment to make sure it notifies me.
TraitorHater | 4/16/2009 04:00 PM CDT -
I guess I’m marginally in the south - I’m on the line between sweet tea and unsweet tea.
You do hear a lot of interesting things here. Some people here just hate Lincoln for destroying the Constitution.
Weetabix | 4/17/2009 03:13 PM CDT -
First, welcome back!
I know what you mean about what’s been done to historically significant places, I used to be a Civil War reenactor and spent quite a bit of time at Gettysburg. To see a place like that, known for a monumental struggle and then again for an incredibly concise speech about that struggle reduced to wax museums and trinket shops is disheartening. Still, some people make the effort to dig beneath the junk and find out what really happened there.
As for peaceful secession, maybe it could have happened in 1861 had cooler heads prevailed, but I don’t know if it would be allowed to happen now.
Mark D | 4/28/2009 09:45 AM CDT -
The viciousness of the Left combined with their cowardliness, capable of ordering the murder of thousands without the slightest concern (bombing a bridge out of Belgrade filled with women and children who couldn’t imagine an American president so criminal he would purposely order their murders in 1999 was one particularly obscene example), subsidizing the forced abortion of millions around the world, while feigning outrage over a terrorist being freightened by 40 seconds of water pouring over his head or a caterpillar crawling in the next room for political advantage, while knowing the harm they’re doing to the West… these are the most despicable people who have lived since the rise of the West.
It’s hard to believe these loathesome people can offer much resistance to honorable Americans. Our problem is that the truth remains hidden from most, purposely, by our enemies. Correct that, and the enemy will fall like wet paper. Which is why I continue to believe that ending government involvement in what they still call education is the first priority.
TraitorHater | 4/28/2009 11:17 PM CDT -
Lovely essay.
Makes me speculate though whether in some future civil strife they might offer citizenship to illegals who take up arms in this country to help impose federal sovereignty over some rogue states. Similar to the deal offered the slaves in the Civil War.
*I hate speculating*DAve | 5/16/2009 05:15 PM CDT
