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Post by Jack Frost on Nov 17, 2011 13:26:37 GMT -5
I came across a 1912 American History book, which has a much more accurate rendering of historical facts than the modern history books. It doesn't have a Southern point of view (it was published in NYC), but it doesn't demonize the South like modern history. I'm tired of the South (particularly South Carolina) being put down and mocked by all those ignorant jerks who didn't live in the 19th century, but pretend they are experts on it. I'm proud to be a native South Carolinian.
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Post by elephant on Nov 17, 2011 15:16:06 GMT -5
Can you give us some examples, Jack?
I have to admit there are those South Carolinians who seem to live to exemplify and reinforce the stereotype by using poor grammar, etc.
I am also a proud native south Carolinian.
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Post by Jack Frost on Nov 18, 2011 19:19:07 GMT -5
Here are some quotes from the book:
"The South, from 1830 to 1860, formed the last citadel of unimpaired Anglo-Saxon individualism. ... In a social order such as this, men were bound to develop a keen sense of the need of their community for commanding personalities and to look with distrust upon that democratic collectivism which, as they believed, -whether rightly or wrongly does not here concern us, - was threatening to put an end to the production of exceptional people and to increase enormously the number of commonplace people.
...
For a majority of states to destroy the prosperity of a minority, for a majority of citizens to ride rough-shod over the interests of the remainder, appeared to the Southern mind the same thing as the ancient tyranny of the kings.
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Furthermore, the social system of the South was still aristocratic. A class of landed proprietors practically ruled the country. But their power had no basis except their own skill in making use of the social lead which their fathers had secured. Theoretically the poorest white man in the South was the equal of the richest, and therefore the landed class, to retain its social and political eminence, had to keep the mass of the Southern people satisfied with its rule. It had to lead - it could not drive - its followers. ... In the effort to do this there was give and take between the classes, resulting in tactful authority on the part of the aristocracy and a great trustfulness on the part of the common people.
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The Southerner of every class lived largely out of doors. He was generally a good horseman and a good shot. While the same was true of all the frontier population North and West, it was not true of that large part of the Northern people which lived in cities.
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In all the Southern states the provisions of the Reconstruction Act were carried out. Each state witnessed a social revolution during the brief period of the rule of the generals. Great numbers of whites were excluded from the franchise...
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The condition of the country during Grant's administration was extremely critical. A large part of the North were hostile to the government and considered it despotic, a menace to free institutions. The chief seat of danger, however, was the South. The conditions there were so peculiar and so sinister that we must pause to glance at them. ... Although the South was utterly impoverished as a result of the war, the legislatures controlled by these shameless adventurers (the scalawags and carpetbaggers) put the Southern states in debt for some $300,000,000 and none of this money was expended for the benefit of the people whose taxes would have to pay it back. The taxes fell almost altogether on those classes which, for the moment, had no voice in government. The amount of these taxes was staggering. Time and again plantations had to be sold in order to pay the taxes levied by a legislature of negroes and adventurers who themselves paid practically no taxes at all. The use of the money thus raised was most disgraceful. ... In South Carolina the negro legislature in one year spent $350,000 for "supplies, sundries, and incidentals." Records still exist which show that the "sundries" were chiefly liquors and cigars. On one occasion the speaker made a bet of a thousand dollars with a member. The speaker lost. One of the last acts of the session increased the speaker's salary for that year by one thousand dollars. These are fair specimens of what went on throughout the South.
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By way of protection against their irresponsible despots, the Southern whites formed secret societies. The most famous of these was known as the Ku-Klux Klan. This society discovered a way of working upon the superstitions of the negroes, making them believe that supernatural powers had forbidden them to take part in politics. Bands of horsemen, swathed in white so as to have a resemblance to specters, rode about at night among the ... black folk and often succeeded in frightening them out of further participation in politics. (As the situation became more desperate, the Ku-Klux had recourse to force, and sometimes terrified negroes by means of violence. No sooner was it known that such things were going on, than all sorts of desperadoes put on the Ku-Klux disguise and committed violent acts of various kinds. All these events were reported in the North as done by the Ku-Klux, and no distinction was made between the actions of genuine Ku-Klux and their crafty imitators. At length, the original society took the lead in a movement to put down all such associations.)
However, these simple means were not sufficient. They were counteracted by secret societies among the negroes and low whites, the chief of which was the Union League. The latter sought to terrorize the whites. Houses were burned at night, and fearful insults were offered to white men and women. The Ku-Klux retaliated by whipping and even killing negroes. For a time there was a virtual civil war between the two groups of secret societies.
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In South Carolina, particularly, under the able leadership of General Wade Hampton, they made a gallant struggle against the adventurers and the Federal troops. At the close of the year there were two governors and two legislatures, each claiming to be legally elected.
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In South Carolina and Louisiana the situation, when Hayes became President, was critical in the extreme. Furthermore, the entire country was in a state of intense excitement. ... Soon after his inauguration, the troops were withdrawn. Thereupon, both in South Carolina and in Louisiana, the Radicals surrendered.
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Post by Jack Frost on Nov 18, 2011 20:17:21 GMT -5
In 1894, an Alabama educator, J.L.M. Curry, wrote The Southern States of the American Union after becoming alarmed at the portrayal of the South in the role of criminal in U.S. history. He said, "History as written if accepted in future years will consign the South to infamy."
A.H. Jennings wrote:
"These attacks and untruthful presentations of so-called history demand refutation, for the South cannot surrender its birthright and we pray the day may never dawn when it will be willing to abandon the truth in a cowardly or sluggish spirit of pacifism. During the Great War [W.W.I], when the South and all other parts of our country were straining every nerve to defeat a common foe, strange and unbelievable as it may seem at such a time of crisis, there was a most remarkable flood of misrepresentation, false analogy, and distorted historical statements concerning our American history as it particularly relates to the Southern people. Ignorance, as well as deliberate distortion of facts, contributed to this. ...no one who reads at all could have failed to note this mass of unfair and untruthful statements which for years has filled newspapers, magazines and periodicals of the North. Nor has this defamation ceased - it still goes on, unabated, and there is a constant and strong stream of misrepresentation and false historical statement flowing from the North . . . false history almost overwhelms us."
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