"The Portrait:" -- A listener voicemail sends us deep down the rabbit hole into one of the most toxic myths of the Confederacy.
Listen to "The Portrait" @ https://megaphone.link/GLT5787464345
Below is a snippet from the interview with Myra Chandler Sampson… the great-grand-daughter of Silas Chandler.
JH: Before the war, Myra says, Silas was already a carpenter…. He helped in the construction of many buildings on the plantation…. And he was loaned out to help build the courthouse in West Point, Mississippi.
MCS: When he went away to the war he had just married and his wife was pregnant. and so his son, his first son, was born while he was away with Andrew. And I’m sure that if Silas didn’t have a family, if he didn’t have a wife back home, and he had a chance to escape, I’m sure he would have. He obeyed his oppressor, and followed directions because he wanted to survive, and he wanted his wife and his unborn son to survive.
JH: After the war… Silas went on to have seven more children… he continued to be a builder and taught his sons his trade… Silas Chandler lived until 1919…
MCS: He’s buried in the Greenwood Cemetery in West Point, Mississippi.
JH: Mm-hmm
MCS: That’s the black cemetery, the African-American cemetery.
JH: When Silas died, his family had a mason symbol engraved on his headstone -- to acknowledge his work as a carpenter.
But almost a century later, the Confederate supporters came up with a different idea about how to memorialize Silas Chandler
MCS: I believe it was 2003 the Daughters of the Confederacy and the Sons of the Confederate Veteran uh, they, they put an Iron Cross on his grave and a Confederate flag. And they declared Silas a Confederate hero.
It was on all the TV stations and throughout the state of Mississippi. I, I was invited to the ceremony but I told them there was no way in hell that I would attend a ceremony like that.
CK: But of course, that didn’t stop them… and it went far beyond just the ceremony… pro-Confederate groups turned Silas into an icon….There are posters… even t-shirts with his likeness... One t-shirt features Andrew Chandler wounded in battle...
MCS: And Silas is down on his knees, uh wrapping Andrew’s leg. And Silas has on a Confederate uniform with a Confederate cap at that time. And believe it or not I ordered that T-shirt ‘cause, ‘cause I wanted to see it.
JH: These groups… had taken Myra’s ancestor away from her…... They had redefined who Silas was.
This is the video Myra mentioned in her interview:
MCS: When he went away to the war he had just married and his wife was pregnant. and so his son, his first son, was born while he was away with Andrew. And I’m sure that if Silas didn’t have a family, if he didn’t have a wife back home, and he had a chance to escape, I’m sure he would have. He obeyed his oppressor, and followed directions because he wanted to survive, and he wanted his wife and his unborn son to survive.
JH: After the war… Silas went on to have seven more children… he continued to be a builder and taught his sons his trade… Silas Chandler lived until 1919…
MCS: He’s buried in the Greenwood Cemetery in West Point, Mississippi.
JH: Mm-hmm
MCS: That’s the black cemetery, the African-American cemetery.
JH: When Silas died, his family had a mason symbol engraved on his headstone -- to acknowledge his work as a carpenter.
But almost a century later, the Confederate supporters came up with a different idea about how to memorialize Silas Chandler
MCS: I believe it was 2003 the Daughters of the Confederacy and the Sons of the Confederate Veteran uh, they, they put an Iron Cross on his grave and a Confederate flag. And they declared Silas a Confederate hero.
It was on all the TV stations and throughout the state of Mississippi. I, I was invited to the ceremony but I told them there was no way in hell that I would attend a ceremony like that.
CK: But of course, that didn’t stop them… and it went far beyond just the ceremony… pro-Confederate groups turned Silas into an icon….There are posters… even t-shirts with his likeness... One t-shirt features Andrew Chandler wounded in battle...
MCS: And Silas is down on his knees, uh wrapping Andrew’s leg. And Silas has on a Confederate uniform with a Confederate cap at that time. And believe it or not I ordered that T-shirt ‘cause, ‘cause I wanted to see it.
JH: These groups… had taken Myra’s ancestor away from her…... They had redefined who Silas was.
This is the video Myra mentioned in her interview: