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From The Pulitzer Prize winning book(C. Vann Woodward) in 1982 "Mary Chestnut's Civil War"... She was a staunch Virginia Confederate that detested slavery but put up with it. Many of her quotes are in PBS Burns DVDS on CW. This is a top 3 Civil War book ever according to the experts.
"This war was undertaken by us to shake off the yoke of foreign invaders.So we consider ourselves righteous. The Yankees, since the war has begun, have discovered it is to free the slaves they are fighting--so their cause is noble. They also expect the war to pay. Yankees do not undertake anything that does not pay.They think we belong to them. We have been good milk cows. Milked by the tariff, or skimmed. We let them have all of our hard earnings. We bore the ban of slavery. They got the money. Cotton pays everybody who handles it, sells it, manufactures etc., it rarely pays the men who make it. Secondhand, they received the wages of slavery. They grew rich, we grew poor. Receiver is as bad as the thief. That applies to us too-- we received these savages they stole from Africa and brought to us in their slave ships. Like the Egyptians. If they let us go, it must be across a sea of blood".
There is absolutely NO way this war could have been averted at the time and considering all the circumstances. Feelings were absolutely too strong.
Last edited by muzzleloader; 07-15-2006 at 07:35 AM.
Location: North Carolina is my home. I own 20 acres in Texas.
Posts: 39
Anyone that says anything in opposition to your opinion is an idiot, huh? You can't even say more than a few words in opposition to the quote that was stated. All yall try to say that we Southerners are stupid if we have an opinion indifferent to your own.
I agree very good quote.Of course the only quotes most northerners on this board agree with are those supporting their narrow view of the Old South.Oh well not everyone is looking to learn about history.
__________________ "The sword is mighty, but principles laugh at swords. Overwhelming force may crush truth to earth but, crushed or not the truth is still the truth." Regards, Ashley
Location: North Carolina is my home. I own 20 acres in Texas.
Posts: 39
Quote:
Originally Posted by MobileBoy
I agree very good quote.Of course the only quotes most northerners on this board agree with are those supporting their narrow view of the Old South.Oh well not everyone is looking to learn about history.
I have noticed that Ashley. Wonder why that is. Seems no one likes us ol' Southerners. Makes me sad. haha
One could consider Mary Chestnut's view very narrow as she is not to be very fair in her assesment of the causes of the war, etc., but that is only my opinion.
Another personal view. It is not Southerners I do not like. I have found them to be friendly, helpful, generous people on each time I have visited them and had dealings with them.
It is the Confederacy that I dislike.
Sincerely,
Unionblue
__________________ "The American people and the Government at Washington may refuse to recognize it for a time but the inexorable logic of events will force it upon them in the end; that the war now being waged in this land is a war for and against slavery." Frederick Douglass
"Loyalty to our ancestors does not include loyalty to their mistakes." George Santayana
I agree 100%. It is irrelevant whether 90% of the confederates owned a slave or not. Its the fact that the Confederate stance was one wholly in favour of the retention of Slavery, and its expansion Westwards.
I admit that the Northern (and too some extent Southern) expansionists had no loyalties either way. However, the murder of Negro Union soliders at the Battle of the Crater, and Fort Pillow, show too me, that there was a fear of retribution if the Confederate "cause" should fail.
And please understand my position so far from their time. The late (and lameted Shelby Foot) said "The Civil War made us an Country. Before the United States was an "is."
The question still remains: What if the United States had abolished slavery at the same time Great Britain did? Would there have still been a Civil War????
One could consider Mary Chestnut's view very narrow as she is not to be very fair in her assesment of the causes of the war, etc., but that is only my opinion.
Neil, I don't think it's fair to call Mary Chestnut's view narrow simply because she sided with the Confederacy. She was Southern. She had every reason and right to view the war from a Southern point of view. Her assessment of the causes of the war were no different from most other Southern people of the day. She was educated, intelligent, and a respected member of the community, not to mention she was a U.S. Senator's wife. This was no backwoods, uneducated, or ignorant woman. She had and understood all the facts.
Respectfully,
Rose
__________________ "Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names".--J.F.K.
The War Between the States established... This principle that the Federal Government is, through its courts, this final judge of its own powers.
-- Woodrow Wilson
I don't think it's fair to call Mary Chestnut's view narrow simply because she sided with the Confederacy.
Rose: I believe Neil meant narrow in that it is one record. It is a bright, insightful journal, but it is one. It can't be held up as "the true way the south thought."
I would allow that it was the way many of the upper-class southerners thought, not necessarily the way the south thought.
Ole
__________________ I never knew a man who wished to be himself a slave. Consider if you know any good thing that no man desires for himself. A. Lincoln
Being new to this forum I hesitate to express opinion. But having one I guess I'm as entitled as the next to do so.
It distresses me to see us here much more than a century, nearly even two centuries after the facts and the acts using our current standards, morals and mores to JUDGE those who came before us.... not just in this discussion but in many of the discussions here.
I see this on an equal to the old tale of the three blind men examining the elephant, each feeling a different part of the animal and arguing with the other about what the whole looks like.
Furthermore, I think for us to do so in the infinitely small and petty hair-splitting fashion that each of these discussions invariably devolves into and in sanctimonious tones OUR opinions are expressed about what THEY thought and did do great disrespect to those that our interest in this great event in our history should be honoring.
Everyone with few exceptions did what they thought was the right thing to do. There were hundreds of reasons, regardless of what color coat they wore, often specific to the individual, why they thought and acted as they did. For us to assume today that we can understand and conveniently compartmentalize why those then thought and acted as they did is folly.
We should honor all for their courage, dignity and commitment to take the path they thought best and lay their life on the line in doing so.
Instead, I see these discussions doing the opposite... at THEIR expense to make US somehow feel better.
There is more rhetoric and finger-pointing going on today than there was prior to the War. It is, in my opinion, as it was... posturing. And, as I said, it greatly distresses me.
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This Is The True Way The South Thought 1855-64 
I have noticed that Ashley. Wonder why that is. Seems no one likes us ol' Southerners. Makes me sad. haha
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