The Civil War

‘Rare’ Civil War Shipwreck Discovered Off North Carolina Coast – Yahoo

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“Maritime archaeologists and researchers in North Carolina recently discovered one of the most significant shipwrecks found off the East Coast in recent years. During a routine sonar assessment of known wrecks off the seaside town of Oak Island in North Carolina on Feb. 27, researchers and archaeologists stumbled upon the well-preserved wreckage of a blockade runner steamer from the Civil War, according to Billy Ray Morris, North Carolina’s deputy state archaeologist-underwater and director of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources’ Underwater Archaeology branch. “This finding is incredibly exciting because it’s so intact,” Morris told ABC News.”

Very cool!

Source: ‘Rare’ Civil War Shipwreck Discovered Off North Carolina Coast – Yahoo

“Why Are So Many Distraught to Learn that Slavery Was the Cause of the Civil War?” |History News Network

/ Debbie / 1 Comment
I think that most of us would agree with Dale Schlundt’s answer to this question: “Because who in the middle of the twentieth century wanted to admit great grandpa fought for something other than an honorable and admirable ideology.” The motive is understandable. However, the deception comes at a cost. We cannot understand the present if we do not understand the past, and by denying the crime we dishonor the thousands who suffered and died as a result of the despicable institution of slavery. If we want to live up to our own values and learn from the past we must confront the history of the Civil War honestly.
Civil-War

More Evidence That Civil War Was Not About States’ Rights (As if the words of the Confederate leaders wasn’t enough!)

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In the wake of the fight over the Confederate flag and the new that Texas school children will not learn that the Civil War was fought over slavery, two articles this week at the History News Network present us with more evidence that the South did not fight for states’ rights. Roy Finkenbine invokes “the little-known U.S. Supreme Court case of Ableman v. Booth” to argue that “[o]nly in the wake of Appomattox did former Confederates assert that the conflict had been waged over constitutional principles.”And Stephen R. Leccese argues that “[t]he states’ rights argument falls apart when one has an understanding of antebellum Southern history. Before the Civil War, the South was in no way a bastion of states’ rights.”
I agree with Leccese that “[t]his country’s educational system must do better and present an accurate view of history. When that happens, we can have a public that acts with an informed mind on issues of national (and international, as the world views race relations in this country very poorly) importance.”

“The Supreme Court Case that Proves that the Antebellum South Wasn’t Really Concerned with States Rights.” | HNN

"Slaves Waiting for Sale: Richmond, Virginia - Wikipedia"

“Slaves Waiting for Sale: Richmond, Virginia – Wikipedia”

Texas officials: Schools should teach that slavery was ‘side issue’ to Civil War – The Washington Post

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“Five million public school students in Texas will begin using new social studies textbooks this fall based on state academic standards that barely address racial segregation. The state’s guidelines for teaching American history also do not mention the Ku Klux Klan or Jim Crow laws. And when it comes to the Civil War, children are supposed to learn that the conflict was caused by ‘sectionalism, states’ rights and slavery’ — written deliberately in that order to telegraph slavery’s secondary role in driving the conflict, according to some members of the state board of education.” This is what happens when politically motivated Schools Boards determine what children will learn. You may recall the kerfuffle over the Texas state curriculum standards in 2010 and the textbooks in 2014 that led to this version of the Civil War appearing in Texas social studies textbooks. (see previous posts on this subject here and here)

The belief that the Civil War was about states’ rights not slavery might be comforting to some, but that feeling comes at the cost of truth, justice, progress, and everything we hold dear as a nation. How can students understand the present if they have been mislead about the past?

Texas officials: Schools should teach that slavery was ‘side issue’ to Civil War – The Washington Post.

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Texas students take aim at Jefferson Davis campus statue – Yahoo News

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Apparently there are “more than 1,000 sites in the state that memorialize the Confederacy — from a Confederate cemetery in San Antonio and marker honoring Gen. Lawrence ‘Sul’ Ross at Sul Ross State University in Alpine to a building in Marshall that housed the Civil War State Government of Missouri in exile.” Unbelievable!!

Texas students take aim at Jefferson Davis campus statue – Yahoo News.

A statue of Jefferson Davis is seen on the University of Texas campus, Tuesday, May 5, 2015, in Austin, Texas. As University of Texas administrators consider a request to remove a statue that symbolizes the Confederacy, the number of memorials in Texas honoring the Confederate cause and its leaders continues to grow. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

A statue of Jefferson Davis is seen on the University of Texas campus, Tuesday, May 5, 2015, in Austin, Texas. As University of Texas administrators consider a request to remove a statue that symbolizes the Confederacy, the number of memorials in Texas honoring the Confederate cause and its leaders continues to grow. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)