Wednesday, September 13, 2006

Dividing Line

Yours truly has had a piece published in Style magazine this week (September 13th issue). It is an expanded revision of something I wrote for this blog last summer. It is the Back Page column if you have a copy. If you are out of town or have not picked up a copy of Style you can find the article here.

2 comments:

pop said...

Mr Retherford,

A most enlightening article.
However...

The War Between the States DID NOT end at Appomattox with General Lee's surrender, nor did it end with General Johnson's surrender at Bennett Place in North Carolina, Nor did the surrender of Generals Smith, Kirby or Forrest end the war.

The war officially ended when the last Confederate Brigadier General signed a cease fire - Native American Stand Watie- commanding the Cherokee Braves.

Technically, if hostilities between the Federal troops and the Native Americans broke out, the War could continue...

You really made the southern white man and those crazy Confederates look pretty bad over the slavery issue. OUCH! Perhaps being a native of Indiana has provided a leftist slant on your history?

While the Dutch, British, and even Portuguese sold us all the slaves we could stand - some enterprising northern yankee merchants also began the slave rum routes. Check out the biography of the person who wrote "Amazing Grace"

Slavery was firmly established by legal precident in 1655 by a wealthy black land owner named Anthony Johnson, who managed to get his Indentured Servant of 14 YEARS appointed 'LIFETIME SERVANT" - and the poor man was a black man named John Casor. Investigate Mr Johnson's story.

You fail to touch on the infamous black codes of the north. You didn't mention that slavery was a protected American Institution for more than 220 years - 89 of which were guarded by the US Constitution. You couldn't seem to advise readers that Brown v Board took place up north in Kansas.

You avoided informing us about the Draft Riots in New York during the War Between the States.

And you shrunk from telling readers about FBI stats that show the most segregated places in America are northern cities like Chicago, New York, etc...

I am always ready and willing to learn something new, but come on sir, please. There is more than enough slavery blame to go around, the simple fact that 220 + years in America, 4 in the Confederacy should tell any reasonable person that it wasn't just a 'Southern thang'

God Bless

Anonymous said...

It took the Union Army to bring about emancipation? You're joking, right? A few historical points for you:

The reason Lincoln emancipated the slaves was because he felt it would hurt the South economically and any state coming back into the Union could keep their slaves. His words, not mine.

Northern merchants got rich on the slave trade.

And Ulysses S Grant, the General of the Union Army that came to "bring about emancipation" also has the distiction of being the last American President to own slaves. Shouldn't you be blogging about that?

Most of Europe sided with the South, not because the Europeans were pro-slavery, but because of what was perceived as unfair economic polices that favored northern industries over southern farmers and the European cotton trade.

I think this blog is more about angering people than anything else, so giving you this much attention is probably a mistake.