Slavery: Some Facts or Some Fictions

[OpnDownfall]

I hope Johan Steele is right and H. K. is earning a good living conning blue blooded southron types. He is probably doing little harm, after all, most of the ones he appeals to are beyond rational thought (on this matter) anyway and if he can earn some coin agreeing with their prejudices and making them feel good about their 'heritage'. What they would be wasting their money on. if not on his, relatively harmless, paraphenalia, one can only guess, but probably could be a lot worse.


P.S. If I took H.K. seriously, I would be outraged, but I think he has found a niche in the economy where he can earn a, relatively, honest living.

[ole]

Now that was about as close to flaming as one can be without actually flaming. Kudos, opn! Gonna take that one to bed with me. Don't bother if I chuckle audibly once or twice.

ole

[samgrant]

Now if you met someone wearing that shirt???


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[ole]

I'm neither big nor fit enough to meet someone wearing that shirt. But the mouth still works. I'd be unable to resist. If my luck holds out, it will be a small girl.

ole

[larry_cockerham]

I sense some of you haven't met this fellow. He's an old man, just as he stated. Yes, he sells t-shirts when he can to supplement his gas money for his old deteriorated badly polluting sedan. He is no way a rich or even comfortable man. I've never seen him with the shirt depicted, most of his shirts contain his image, usually showing his past marches.

The SCV and other groups have augmented his income from time to time, but in a very minor way. As you all may suspect, we're cheap. The times we've invited him to the Nashville area, a hat has been passed, usually producing less than what he needs to make the trip from North Carolina. I haven't bought a shirt, they don't appear to be large enough to encircle my voluminous gut.

Believe it or not, the focus of H.K.'s efforts appears to be the black youth. He believes that one's heritage is of some value. That sounds perhaps like an indorsement or statement of support. It ain't. Just a neutral observation concerning a man who has the nerve to cause a bit of a ruckus for what he believes to be the truth. If he does nothing more than continue to spread his smile and promote positive relationships between races, he will have earned his meager bread. If HK can get a black (or white) youth to even consider that his southern heritage is positive, then he has my vote as long as needed. My southern heritage is valuable to me. Apparently thirty-thousand plus SCV members feel the same way. That number should be half a million, but I won't hold my breath.

[cash]

Originally Posted by larry_cockerham

He believes that one's heritage is of some value.

Except that what he's peddling is a lie.

Regards,
Cash

[larry_cockerham]

Originally Posted by cash

Except that what he's peddling is a lie.

Regards,
Cash

You and H.K. have differing opinions, as I suspect you are well aware. My first inclination is to go with H.K. Do you have facts to support a contrary view?

[cedarstripper]

Originally Posted by ole

I'm neither big nor fit enough to meet someone wearing that shirt. But the mouth still works. I'd be unable to resist. If my luck holds out, it will be a small girl.

ole

She might point out to you that the retouched photo on the shirt IS afterall headlined with LEGENDS of the Confederacy.

Cedarstripper

[cash]

Originally Posted by larry_cockerham

You and H.K. have differing opinions, as I suspect you are well aware. My first inclination is to go with H.K. Do you have facts to support a contrary view?

Plenty that have been posted in this group for a long time. If thousands of blacks supported the confederacy, why didn't Patrick Cleburne, Robert E. Lee, Howell Cobb, and Jefferson Davis know about it? Why didn't it get brought up in the debates in the confederate congress late in the war about enlisting blacks into the army? Why didn't this Union veteran know about the thousands of blacks: “Any man who comes into, or goes with the army will see that the white men of the South are in the Southern army, and their negros are at home raising crops to support their families." [A private in the Ill. Cavalry, to Editor, 26 Mar 1863, _Quincy Whig and Republican,_ 11 Nov 1863]

Sure, a handful of blacks supported the confederacy voluntarily. But not what Edgerton is peddling. It's not just an opinion. It's a fact.

Regards,
Cash

[larry_cockerham]

Originally Posted by cash

Plenty that have been posted in this group for a long time. If thousands of blacks supported the confederacy, why didn't Patrick Cleburne, Robert E. Lee, Howell Cobb, and Jefferson Davis know about it? Why didn't it get brought up in the debates in the confederate congress late in the war about enlisting blacks into the army? Why didn't this Union veteran know about the thousands of blacks: “Any man who comes into, or goes with the army will see that the white men of the South are in the Southern army, and their negros are at home raising crops to support their families." [A private in the Ill. Cavalry, to Editor, 26 Mar 1863, _Quincy Whig and Republican,_ 11 Nov 1863]

Sure, a handful of blacks supported the confederacy voluntarily. But not what Edgerton is peddling. It's not just an opinion. It's a fact.

Regards,
Cash

You're confusing me here. (not hard to do, as you know) You seem to be back on the argument about numbers. That not where HK is coming from. Very few of us, including HK, have made any claims for vast numbers of Confederate black soldiers or even Confederate assistance of any sort from vast numbers of blacks, only that it happened. HK seems convinced that his ancestor/s were/was in that group. It matters little to me. My ancestors weren't black, as far as I know, and after several decades of research, I probably would have found them by now.

H.K. is "peddling" the notion that he is black (seems to me that is pretty obvious) and that he is proud of the fact his ancestors fought for the Confederacy. His pride is also obvious. I don't know that he has absolute proof of that fact, but he seems convinced. Lots of other folks don't have exacting proof either, but go about happy as a lark because of their belief. I can prove my four guys fought for the Confederacy (one deserted, apparently) and I have solid proof two of my guys were Unionists and a third, the former Confederate, earned an honorable discharge from the US Army. That's probably the way I would have gone, supporting the Union, but I wasn't there. Neither was H.K.

H.K. is working very hard to convince the young black folks he encounters that they were at least related to folks who supported the Confederacy for the right reasons. (yes, there were some right reasons) Young black folks need a heritage, same as young white folks. They could do worse than a Southern one.

H.K. Edgerton is sincere. He's polite and he chooses to suffer for his beliefs for whatever reason, known only to him and his Maker. I intend to allow him to continue to do so. I wish I had his fortitude. I won't be buying a tee-shirt depicting a group of Pennsylvanians if I can help it, not even a nude shot of William Penn. That's beside the point, just as worrying about exaggerated numbers of Confederates with black skin some folks espouse is beside the point. The South was and is worth fighting for.

Slavery was not, never has been.