Perhaps what you see and interpret as bigotry is just a reflection of
your own lack of understanding of the situation.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
People think of Southerners as stupid, like it is a genetic defect or
some disease.
They don't stop to think that when whole towns were
burned-out of spite and hatred, not military strategy,
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.
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 offense.
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.
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.
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.
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