Homestead mailing list

[Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>]

On Apr 29, 2008, at 11:03 PM, EarthNSky wrote:
> Perhaps what you see and interpret as bigotry is just a reflection of
> your own lack of understanding of the situation.

Well, here is a specific: at the license office I was forced, if I  
wanted my license, to sit through a harangue about black people that  
included the license agent telling me that he would whip any of his  
children who were found watching the Bill Cosby Show. Not my lack of  
understanding. Purely his extreme prejudice.
> Not
> > sure why, but there is a crossing of Bryant Creek about a mile from
> > here named Nigger Ford.
>
> I'll tell you, Gene, you can profess to be in the Bible Belt all you
> want, but if the Bible Belt equates to being in the South, then you
> aren't in the South.  I know of NO place that uses that name, either
> officially or unofficially.  It would not be tolerated, and frankly, I
> am amazed that it is tolerated there.  I've lived in SC, GA, TN, AR,  
> and
> NC, and I have NEVER heard that word used in a place name.

Nor have I. But James just told us of various common uses of the word.  
I used it to show that there appear to have been some people here who  
either used the word commonly, that is, not pejoratively, or that, and  
this is more likely, in this particular county there have been very  
few black people, ever, so, according to one source, the stream  
crossing is named for the black man who lived on the west bank of the  
river. That is the only person who has said that, so I consider it  
unverified.
> Well, let's see...knowing the history of the blacks in this country,  
> if
> I were black, I wouldn't live anywhere near a place called that.
> I guess if there are no blacks in your county, that would explain why
> people are so tolerant of that name.  It's real easy to be tolerant if
> all the people are the same race.

Yep.
>  Btw, Battlefield is the name of a road and many other things
> > in Springfield, Missouri, named for the Battle of Wilson's Creek near
> > Springfield on August 10, 1861
>
> Almost everyone in the Eastern US lives near a battlefield of some  
> sort.
>   I've never heard of that Battle, should I have?

I don't know why you should have.
> I grew up in Cobb County, on land occupied during the Battle of  
> Kennesaw
> Mountain.  I grew up and still live in an area totally ravaged by
> Sherman and those that came after him.  Even 100 years on, I can still
> see the damage.

I can see how that sort of thing would create all kinds of negative  
feelings.
> A quick story..
> My friend Sandy is from RI.  One day, while shopping for antiques, she
> said, Bev, we have got to go up to my neck of the woods--we have such
> wonderful antiques there, but down here, all there is is primitive
> stuff, less than 100 years old.
> She never made the connection.

Views on antiques are funny. A car enthusiast might called a car  
antique if it is fifty years old. A Westerner looks at stuff that  
might be a hundred years old and declares it an antique. An Easterner,  
maybe two hundred years old. A European, perhaps a thousand years old.  
Lots of just plain old furniture is imported from Europe and sold here  
as antique.
> People think of Southerners as stupid, like it is a genetic defect or
> some disease.

Now, see, I have never encountered that thinking.

>  They don't stop to think that when whole towns were
> burned-out of spite and hatred, not military strategy,

I still think it was primarily military strategy but if I lived in an  
area where Sherman had come through, I might very well feel differently.

> it took many
> years to rebuild.  In some areas, reconstruction was still in place 80
> years later.  Multiple generations grew up without schools, without
> libraries, separated from the arts, culture, and media of the rest of
> the country.  In effect, we had two countries in one, but we did not
> have the benefit of being independent.

That would leave a lasting impression, for sure.
> > I'm glad I grew up in a place where the Civil War was simply a very
> > sad occurrence in our history. I'd not want to carry around the
> > negative baggage that some seem to do.
>
> And this shows that you are ignorant of the facts.

No, not ignorant of the facts. Grateful that my family did not endure  
such ugliness.

>  No offense.

None taken.

>  Had you
> grown up in a place where when you looked out your window you saw a
> hill, ridge, or field where your grandfather/great grandfather watched
> his father or grandfather die, or maybe he saw his mother raped, or  
> his
> home burned,  his animals killed, his crops for the winter destroyed.
> 150 years seems like a long time, but within a family, it is but a few
> generations.  That negative baggage is their family history-it is part
> of who they ARE, and they are reminded of it everyday because they  
> still
> live on the family land.  Or maybe they remember their Dad losing a  
> hand
> during the Reconstruction years.  In the North, the proclaimed end of
> the war meant that Johnny was coming home and that no other men would
> die and no other hardship would be felt,  People came back and  
> returned
> to their lives...I'm sure within 10 years or so, the war was a distant
> memory, much like we think of Persian Gulf I.  We went, we fought, we
> conquered, we came home, and we resumed our lives.  Things normalized.

Well, I have not had a close family member die in a war, so I don't  
know how long the family pain lasts. It does look like more people of  
the Union army died than the Confederate army. But, yes, the venue was  
mostly in the South and so the memories would be more intimate and  
horrific.
> In the South, the proclaimed end of the war meant that Phase I of the
> destruction and carnage was over(Sherman and troops had passed  
> through),
> and stage II was beginning, the Carpetbaggers arrived and looted and
> stole anything they could find. )  Johnny very often did not have a  
> home
> to come home to.  He would have to start over.  Everyone had to start
> over.  No jobs, no homes, no family, no community,  only chaos, and  
> that
> chaos lasted in degrees for generations.

It occurs to me that Southerners would be most against war in general.  
I wonder if that is the case. Anyone know?

>  Those in the
> mountains-Appalachia- kept the arts and old ways alive as best as they
> could.  Celia, everything centered around family because that was all
> people had-all they could rely on-all that was important.  In the town
> where I reside, there are many, many families who remember the war  
> like
> it happened 20 years ago.  It's their family history-their survival  
> and
> triumph, and I haven't met anyone yet who thought of it as baggage.

To be perfectly clear, I do not use baggage as a pejorative; I use it  
as a negative psychological feeling that one carries within. I have my  
own sack of rocks that I carry around with me. Glad I don't have more.  
Glad I grew up where I did. Pure fate.