Confederate History Month / Identity

[burgunder]

Confederate History Month, often celebrated in April in the South, is so outside of my childhood and adult experience that I had to look up what CHM even stood for when I read this article that Kris sent me:

Commemorating CHM: "They Too Needed Emancipation" by Ta-Nehisi CoatesI grew up in Kansas, which may now have a reputation as an ultra-

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[geekalpha]

Coincidentally, I was just going to do a post on Confederate history month. The quick summary is, being from The South, the story I learned was that slavery was entirely incidental and the war was really about state's rights. Interestingly, I had never ever been introduced to the Confederate Constitution or any of the state's Reasons of Secession documents. Turns out that the principal state's right they were interested in, was the right to own people, demand that other states recognize that right and return escaped slaves, and the right to make new territories fellow slave territories.

You can't live in Georgia without learning all about the War of Northern Aggression, the martial prowess and valor of the Confederate Army (which is pretty legitimate), and hear about the state's rights the Confederacy stood for. To most southerners it seemed, the rebel flag isn't seen as having anything to do with black people, but as a symbol of independence (yes, anyone would admit, it is also used by white supremacists, but that isn't its meaning). At least that is the way things were always presented to me.

Now, I always felt that most of the southern Confederacy wanking I was exposed to was a bit silly (barbershop quartets and the like) or too redneck (trucks with rebel flags, etc.). It was also clear to me that slavery was a key issue in the war. But, I was shocked when I actually read the secession documents themselves. Why were those never included or referenced in any of my education or discussion on the subject? The answer: they are damning. Confederate history month isn't about history, it's about a history that never was.