Love reading you. It’s so helpful in giving hard facts and honest history to fill in the blurry spaces of my own foundational beliefs. There’s a memory I’ve always had of a field trip I took from Slidell to New Orleans when I was in middle school. We went to a historic home in the Quarter of some Lost Cause family. The only thing I remember was the guide pointing out a floral still life painting hung above the mantle. The guide explained that after the War, it was illegal to publicly express allegiance to the Confederacy and that agents from the Union would periodically crack down on the display of its flag. To get around this, families sympathetic to the Lost Cause would hang these paintings of red, white, and blue flowers that were arranged in the design of the Confederate flag. The remarkable part of all this was that I remember at the time the guide making the Union out to be the villain in this story and that the former owners of the home were like resistance fighters. Sadly, I remember feeling sorry for the family who lived there, forced to bend to will of their oppressors, but never giving up entirely. Today, I feel for my African American classmates who were there with me as well, some of whom were my friends. I want to say it was the Gallier House, but it may have been some other landmark I’ve since forgotten.
Whoa! That’s such an interesting story! I would love to know how that part of the tour, if it all still happens, is handled now. Thanks for this comment, Nathan!
There's so much good stuff in here. (And thank you so much for the link to my story.) So strange and convoluted that message about inclusiveness at Freeman (almost as ironic as DSF's last name). That mention of Civil War history with "a preference for campaigns over social and political history" -- I've noticed so much of that with neo-Confeds. Even when the battle to change Lee High School's name here in Jax was happening, there were people saying the name should remain because Lee was a great general. Fine, but WTF does that have to do with anything? I love your contrasting the "always-already-thereness" with the city's own memory. Positively psychogeographic! Regarding the "white moderate" -- and city vs. county -- obviously Richmond's collective skin color has darkened over the years, a wonderful irony for this old capital of the CSA. With all the positive changes happening in Richmond, as I've said before, I can't help but see it as symbolic of something larger than this city. And Richmond is, obviously, an enormously symbolic city. I'd love to see it flourish by increasingly attracting progressive residents of every race and ethnicity. After all, the problem with referring to the problems of the South, meaning the Confederacy, or post-Confederacy, is that the South and the Confederate States of America are not one and the same. If the South "rises again," it will do so by finally putting a stake through the heart of the CSA.
Thank you for your comment, Tim! I’m only just getting my eyes on the place again after so long, but I really see some good changes, at least to this element of the city’s story. I agree, Richmond is symbolic of where the south and the country overall are heading. Of course it’s not the only symbolic place, but it has a heavy load to carry. After leading in the worst way during the Civil War, in some ways it leads now whether it wants to or not. (??)
Well, it seems to want to. And what you say in your piece above about city memory and will and agency fascinates me, whether it's Peter Ackroyd writing about London or you writing here about Richmond. Culture is its own life. Politics, so often reactionary, tries to thwart it. The city is, in many or most ways, I think, more democratically significant than our usually doofus politicians.
The Lost Cause Narrative has some GD staying power. I cannot for the life of me understand how this permeated the national discussion to the extent that the old stars-n-bars fly on homes in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Wisconsin (to name only a few) considering their losses in the Civil War. Astonishing.
F yes I was just waiting to read about our schools and how families in Jacksonville Florida remember Robert e Lee as being a high school they graduated from and Jeb Stuart is still over here on the west side of middle school now. It's insane how connected Virginia and Jacksonville Florida are I never realized he's parallels until I just read them. Keep writing this is great!
Love reading you. It’s so helpful in giving hard facts and honest history to fill in the blurry spaces of my own foundational beliefs. There’s a memory I’ve always had of a field trip I took from Slidell to New Orleans when I was in middle school. We went to a historic home in the Quarter of some Lost Cause family. The only thing I remember was the guide pointing out a floral still life painting hung above the mantle. The guide explained that after the War, it was illegal to publicly express allegiance to the Confederacy and that agents from the Union would periodically crack down on the display of its flag. To get around this, families sympathetic to the Lost Cause would hang these paintings of red, white, and blue flowers that were arranged in the design of the Confederate flag. The remarkable part of all this was that I remember at the time the guide making the Union out to be the villain in this story and that the former owners of the home were like resistance fighters. Sadly, I remember feeling sorry for the family who lived there, forced to bend to will of their oppressors, but never giving up entirely. Today, I feel for my African American classmates who were there with me as well, some of whom were my friends. I want to say it was the Gallier House, but it may have been some other landmark I’ve since forgotten.
Whoa! That’s such an interesting story! I would love to know how that part of the tour, if it all still happens, is handled now. Thanks for this comment, Nathan!
There's so much good stuff in here. (And thank you so much for the link to my story.) So strange and convoluted that message about inclusiveness at Freeman (almost as ironic as DSF's last name). That mention of Civil War history with "a preference for campaigns over social and political history" -- I've noticed so much of that with neo-Confeds. Even when the battle to change Lee High School's name here in Jax was happening, there were people saying the name should remain because Lee was a great general. Fine, but WTF does that have to do with anything? I love your contrasting the "always-already-thereness" with the city's own memory. Positively psychogeographic! Regarding the "white moderate" -- and city vs. county -- obviously Richmond's collective skin color has darkened over the years, a wonderful irony for this old capital of the CSA. With all the positive changes happening in Richmond, as I've said before, I can't help but see it as symbolic of something larger than this city. And Richmond is, obviously, an enormously symbolic city. I'd love to see it flourish by increasingly attracting progressive residents of every race and ethnicity. After all, the problem with referring to the problems of the South, meaning the Confederacy, or post-Confederacy, is that the South and the Confederate States of America are not one and the same. If the South "rises again," it will do so by finally putting a stake through the heart of the CSA.
Thank you for your comment, Tim! I’m only just getting my eyes on the place again after so long, but I really see some good changes, at least to this element of the city’s story. I agree, Richmond is symbolic of where the south and the country overall are heading. Of course it’s not the only symbolic place, but it has a heavy load to carry. After leading in the worst way during the Civil War, in some ways it leads now whether it wants to or not. (??)
Well, it seems to want to. And what you say in your piece above about city memory and will and agency fascinates me, whether it's Peter Ackroyd writing about London or you writing here about Richmond. Culture is its own life. Politics, so often reactionary, tries to thwart it. The city is, in many or most ways, I think, more democratically significant than our usually doofus politicians.
The Lost Cause Narrative has some GD staying power. I cannot for the life of me understand how this permeated the national discussion to the extent that the old stars-n-bars fly on homes in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Wisconsin (to name only a few) considering their losses in the Civil War. Astonishing.
I know it’s not a question, but is “racism” too short of an answer?
spot on.
F yes I was just waiting to read about our schools and how families in Jacksonville Florida remember Robert e Lee as being a high school they graduated from and Jeb Stuart is still over here on the west side of middle school now. It's insane how connected Virginia and Jacksonville Florida are I never realized he's parallels until I just read them. Keep writing this is great!
Thank you, Sarah!