A Liberal Dose, June 3, 2021
Troy D. Smith
Civil War and Slavery: Past Is Prologue
I was born and raised right here in Sparta, in 1968. When I
was growing up I was fascinated by the Civil War –I still am. I researched and
wrote about it in my dissertation, and in several academic publications, as
well as two epic-length novels and many short stories. It is a dramatic
subject, and is really second only to the American Revolution in establishing
just what the United States of America is. I’ve also researched and written
extensively about slavery. Like it or not (and hopefully for all of us it is “not”),
slavery, too, played a huge role in the early centuries of our country and the
struggle to establish what America is.
When I was growing up, the textbooks said the Civil War was
fought over slavery. That’s not the impression I came away with, though.
Grown-ups, including teachers, said it wasn’t “really” about slavery at all, it
was about states’ rights, or tariffs, or because Yankees were jerks who tried
to tell us how to live. It wasn’t really the impression I got from movies,
either, like Gone with the Wind. When I was in my late teens I discovered
books at the old bookstore in the mall that seemed to back up this alternative
view, and that called Abraham Lincoln a racist and a tyrant. It seemed like the
South was being misrepresented in the history books –and that wasn’t hard to
believe, because it seemed then (and now) like the rest of the country looks
down on us and treats us unfairly in general. What I’m trying to get across is,
as a white Southerner I grew up thinking about the Civil War the way the
majority of you probably do.
But I learned different.
In college, I met Professor Larry Whiteaker –like myself, a
native of this area. I had him for U.S. History, and took his upper division
course on the Civil War. Dr. Whiteaker (like my grad school co-adviser, Vernon
Burton) had been directed in his dissertation at Princeton by James McPherson,
Pulitzer prize winning author of Battle Cry of Freedom and probably the most
esteemed living historian of the Civil War. Dr. Whiteaker was very emphatic:
the Civil War was about slavery. I still wasn’t completely convinced.
Then I went to graduate school and did a deep dive into the
primary documents of the era. Thanks to the wonders of Google, you can do the
same without leaving your home. Check it out. The seven states that seceded to
form the Confederacy (Georgia, South Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida,
Louisiana, and Texas) each issued statements explaining why. The main reason:
to protect the institution of slavery. Four Upper South states later joined, after
the siege of Fort Sumter and Lincoln’s call for volunteers to put down the
rebellion: Virginia, North Carolina, Arkansas, and Tennessee. The
vice-president of the new Confederate States of America, Alexander Stephens,
gave a famous speech at the very beginning of the war explaining why the
Confederacy existed and why they were willing to fight. It is called “The
Cornerstone Speech” –please look it up and read it. As my space here is
limited, I’ll give you the high points: he said the new Confederate constitution
was better than the U.S. constitution, because it explicitly (rather than
vaguely) defends the institution of slavery, and because it explicitly lays out
the “great truth” that black people are inferior. That “great truth,” Stephens
said, was the cornerstone on which the Confederacy was built.
During grad school I read through all the available primary
documents about the Civil War in the Upper Cumberland. Of particular interest
was the statement prepared by the city of Cookeville that Tennessee should
secede to protect slavery and keep black people in their place.
All very interesting, you might say, but what does this have
to do with modern politics, or education? Stay tuned.
--Troy D.
Smith, a White County native, is a novelist and a history professor at
Tennessee Tech. His words do not necessarily represent TTU.
A complete list of "A Liberal Dose" columns can be found HERE
A list of other historical essays that have appeared on this blog can be found HERE
Author's website: www.troyduanesmith.com
No comments:
Post a Comment