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"The attack on the Confederacy doesn't get the attention it deserves. These blacks today have no idea what took place back then. (Blacks) earned a place of dignity in that war. If it wasn't for Africans that war would have lasted four days, not four years. We made all of the implements of war, we fought, we participated -- not one slave insurrection happened during that period of time. They did not have whips and guns forcing them to be there. God and his infinite wisdom brought these people here. He brought about a love between master and slave that has never happened before. If you search this empirically then you will know the only one who cared about the African was the man in the south. But we don't want to face that."
`H.K. Edgerton
__________________ A cat can have kittens in the oven...but dat don't make-um biskets
H.K. has given untold hours to improve race relations in the South. He has caused many people to take a second look at themselves, both black and white. His road has not been an easy one, but he has planted a seed, caused black people to take interest in their heritage.
__________________ Homer Gross Ellison L. Gross, 13th GA Cav, Daniel Boykin, 46th MS Inf, William C. Underwood, Co E, 6th MS Inf.
I believe this speech describes H.K. Edgerton better than any words could.
Hk Edgerton's Speech To the Asheville, N.C. Torch Society/February 2, 2006
Southern Cultural Genocide
Good evening ladies and gentlemen. In any venue where the defense of the Confederate Battle Flag (The Christian Cross of St. Andrew ),and the honorable men and women who fought , lived and died under her glorious banner ; the economic institution of slavery inevitably surfaces as the topic of discussion , and more times than not , those who choose to bare a negative view of the South and her body politic; choose as their enlighten a parallel to Harriet Beecher Stowe's Fiction," Uncle Tom's Cabin", where every Southern charitable sympathy is betrayed, every moral purpose twisted to wrong, every patriotic feeling insulted by the pernicious intrigues of sectional animosity and willful slander.
The routine act of human interests, of human duties, of human necessities, and even human ambitions in America and around the world during this epoch produced scenes , more terrible and agonies more poignant and heart rendering than any contributed to Southern Slavery. The Northern and European Cotton Mills transmitted more misery on the poor and suffering than all the incidents of servile misery recorded by either reputable or not, authors of that time. The average condition of the Southern Slave was infinitely superior, morally and materially, in all respects, to that of the laboring class in other circumstances in other parts of the world at that time. The community of the South was the policeman who protected the slave against injury against force, fraud , or outrage. Such habitual regard by the community for this subordinated class caused a generation of kindliness of feeling and deference of power among the slaveholder in general, which no severity could produce and no judgment maintain. It is this intercommunion of good offices and good will, of interests and obligations which renders the realities of slavery in the South so much more different from what was written by those who imagined and analogize it to Northern chattel slavery and had and have no intimate familiarity with its operation in the Southern body politic.
I speak this evening on behalf of the 2 and one half million Southern Bondsmen, Bondswomen, Freedmen and Freedwomen who from 1861 to 1865 loyally served and supported the Confederate cause, in however humble and noble a capacity.
When cotton was needed to finance a long war, it was Black hands that picked it and prepared it for export to Europe. When foodstuffs were needed to feed the embattled Southern Armies and a beleaguered Southern civilian population, it was Black hands working with White hands that tilled the soil to grow needed crops to fend off starvation. Slave and Freeman alike gave his last penny to support the Confederate cause. It was trusted Black hands left on the plantation to guard the Mistress and her children from the hand of the invader. It was skilled Black labor that worked in the new Southern factories making the implements of war that kept the southern armies in the field for four years. Across the South in every town, city, and plantation, a trained cadre of Black laborers and craftsman worked to keep the Southern armies supplied with all the implements of war. Without the untiring sweat of Black men , the Confederate Army would have quickly ground to a halt. Black men served as Teamsters, Cooks, Blacksmiths, Furriers, Laborers, Servants and in many cases as the Close Friend of the White Man he accompanied. Many of these Black Auxiliaries were to prove there worth in combat, even though by law, they could not be compelled to fight, and would not be allowed to enlist as soldiers until the last days of the War.
More importantly was the Bond of Love and Affection between Black and White that transcended the economic institution of Slavery, and is so incomprehensible to people up North. In cases too numerous to mention, boyhood friends, Black and White went off to war together, sharing together the hardships of camp life, the stress of campaigning, the excitement of battle, the agony of the hospital, and the painful separation of death. Stories abound of faithful Black friends and servants seeing to the comfort of their White friends last moments on earth, and with tearful countenance and broken hearts begin the sometimes difficult and arduous task of obtaining proper burial for his friend , and then bringing the painful news home.. Only love can explain such a bond., fear of the lash cannot explain it, and our Northern friends dismiss it as so many fairy tales. These Northerners miss a very important point. We are Southerners too. By 1861 we had worked with White southerners for two centuries. North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, or Tennessee was our home. The average Black Confederate understood his duty as god gave him the light to perform it. He performed his duty without expectation of reward, or promise of freedom, but he knew that if he worked and struggled, and fought hard for the Confederate cause as a loyal subject, the white people of the South would do right by him.
When Sherman marched to the sea, he destroyed Black homes as well as White, stole foodstuffs that would keep Black children from starving as well as White, his soldiers raped and killed Black women, and forced loyal Black men to volunteer for their army at bayonet point, or more commonly to act as laborers so that White Yankees could sit on their backsides. Then came 1865 , the complete collapse of the Confederacy, so called freedom for the Slave, and the beginning of 135 years of deferred promises to African Americans under the Stars and Stripes.
The White South was ready to do right by their former Slaves. They accepted the fact of freedom, and were prepared to make provision for the new Freedman within the limits of an impoverished and devastated South, but even though the Southern armies had surrendered, the North had not finished their conquest. They began a deliberate policy of poisoning the minds of the former Slaves against their former Masters. The bonds of love and affection were severely tried and in many cases sundered. The North spread anarchy and hatred through their secret Black Societies called the Loyal or Union Leagues.
By the misrule of the Carpetbag Governments, they spread corruption across the defeated South. They continued their deliberate economic boycott of the South until the mid 20th Century. There was no Marshall Plan for Dixie. This Northern policy of divide and conquer coupled with the economic strangulation of the South go a long towards explaining much of the rancor and hatred of Black/White relations in the south. As this Month begins what is supposed to be Black History Month, the people of this Nation will not hear the name of the Honorable Rev. Mack Lee( body servant and Cook of the Honorable Gen.Robert E. Lee, started perhaps the Nations first Credit Union in America in hopes of aiding his now free African Brother, and who started Churches in both the North and South, Holt Collier(famous trapper and first Black man to be acquitted for killing a White man in Mississippi who had killed his former Master; he would be responsible for Teddy Roosevelt's coined nick name Teddy Bear), Levi Carnine(carried letters and money home hundreds of miles through hostile enemy territory where he could been captured as a traitor or run away) Napoleon Nelson(body Servant and body guard to the Honorable Gen. Nathan Bedford Forest) or even our own George Mills form Hendersonville, N.C. who like so many other Black Confederates brought the remains of their friend and master home through treacherous and hostile territory home to their family. No we will not hear their names or any of the other many names that I personally heard as I crossed the South in the Historic March Across Dixie. Time permitting , I shall read to you my letter which I not only submitted to the President of the United States , but also personally placed in his possession in a town Hall meeting in our capitol witness by our own Don Yelton and a host of other prominent citizens of this city. Dear Mr.. President......
__________________ "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
..... or even our own George Mills form Hendersonville, N.C. who like so many other Black Confederates brought the remains of their friend and master home through treacherous and hostile territory home to their family. No we will not hear their names or any of the other many names that I personally heard as I crossed the South in the Historic March Across Dixie.....
I know this is off topic but it's close to home. Walter M. Bryson was killed at Antitem. When he died he had $365 on his person. George Mills who went to war with Walter as a servant took some of that money, bought a wagon and brought Walter home. In Greeneville Tennessee he bought an iron casket with the remainder of the money and placed Walters body in it. George Mills then enlisted in the Army and served the rest of the war in the home guard in Henderson county.After the war he was over he drew a pension till he died in 1924. Around 1918 the city cemetary was moved and Walter's body was one of the ones that was buried there. George Mills was in his late 70's when that took place and there are pictures of him walking beside the casket, the same one he bought in TN, the entire 5 mile procession. Our SCV camp is named after Walter M Bryson, and there is a motion before us at this time, pending approval to change the name of our camp to Walt Bryson, George Mills camp #70.
__________________ It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood.
Buff,
You asked if someone could explain the two sides of this man. I met H.K. at Newton, MS during his walk across the South. I have no doubt that he believes in his work. Money is not his objective, niether is political correctness.
Rose,
You summed it up better than I ever could.
__________________ Homer Gross Ellison L. Gross, 13th GA Cav, Daniel Boykin, 46th MS Inf, William C. Underwood, Co E, 6th MS Inf.
I have refrained from commenting on this thread because I do not know very much about the man. I am familliar with the man's SCV membership and his marches with the CBF across the country. I am also somewhat aware of the controversy surrounding him and his former NCAAP membership. But I can come to no knowledgeable conclusion on him due to lack of confirmed information.
But I can comment on the speech he made provided by Wild_Rose. I have come to the conclusion that race does not matter in how one can draw conclusions about the Civil War, slavery and the slaves feelings on it, and just how far one can be off the mark.
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
In my house, the jury is still out on Mr. Edgerton.
Judge not, least ye be judged. Or until you find the files.
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
Thank you, Tarheel, for that touching story. I've been reading slave narratives that tell time and again of the strong bonds between antebellum, Southern blacks and whites.
No, the stories aren't all happy, in the overall course of human relationships that is nigh on to impossible, but the good times as well as hard times shared that brought black and white friends close are heartwarming and that is the South I know.
This is an excerpt from one of the narratives I'm reading at this time:
Andy J. Anderson, Texas
Collected by the Federal Writers Project, Works Progress Administration
"De wah stahts an' dat makes a big change on de Marster's place. De Marster j'ins de ahmy an' hires a man named Delbridge fo' overseer to he'p de Marster's son, John. Den, in 'bout three months, de soldiers come an' took Marster John to de ahmy by fo'ce. Deys put him on a hoss an' tooks him away.
Thar come pretty neah bein' some hu't n*****s de day deys took Marster John away. You see, weuns don' know dey had de right to took Marster 'way, so weuns cullud folks crowded 'roun' de Marster an' warnt gwine to 'low dem to took him. De Marster tol' weuns to go 'way 'cause de soldiers have de right to took him an' weuns jus' git hu't if weuns try to stop de soldiers, so weuns dispatched." http://newdeal.feri.org/asn/asn12.htm
Regards,
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
Can someone explain the real "two sides" of the story of this man ?
The SPLC calls his a Neo-Confederate and a member of the white supremisist movements.
I believe there is only one side to Mr. Edgerton. That being a true Southern patriot and a man who is proud of his heritage, who seeks only the truth and harmony between the races. I believe that "other side" has been fabricated in an effort to discredit him. I think calling him a "white supremist" is nothing short of ludicrous for obvious reasons.
The SPLC has done everything in their power to discredit anything good about Southern heritage. I've read their lies and hateful portrayals of anyone that takes up the defense of their Southern heritage.
Regards,
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
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Who is H.K. Edgerton 
Can someone explain the real "two sides" of the story of this man ?
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