For those seeking a good review of the historical context behind Southern Civil War monuments, especially those in the public sphere, please see the following link: http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYP…/INCORP/monuments/front.html
For those who are confronted with the words of Confederate leaders and the ordinances of secession drafted by the southern states that left the Union before Fort Sumter and still choose to deny the FACT that slavery was the primary cause of the Civil War, then they will deny that these monuments that stand in public spaces represent an imagined past, one marked by southern defiance, violence, and racial segregation--the Jim Crow South when they were erected. Many of these good Americans, who I count among my own family and friends and I still love them in spite of their social media posts, refer to the United States Civil War as the "War of Northern Aggression." They suffer from what psychologists refer to as "motivated reasoning" and therefore are emotionally invested in a belief and are inclined to accept only information that confirms their pre-existing beliefs, while dismissing conflicting evidence. They choose to adhere to a declaration of their values irrespective of others and thus see the world in way that divides along political lines (motivated reasoning is endemic among extremists of all political stripes). There is not much more we can to do to help these folks, who have either quit reading my posts or have severed our bonds of social media friendship.
For those who are confronted with the words of Confederate leaders and the ordinances of secession drafted by the southern states that left the Union before Fort Sumter and still choose to deny the FACT that slavery was the primary cause of the Civil War, then they will deny that these monuments that stand in public spaces represent an imagined past, one marked by southern defiance, violence, and racial segregation--the Jim Crow South when they were erected. Many of these good Americans, who I count among my own family and friends and I still love them in spite of their social media posts, refer to the United States Civil War as the "War of Northern Aggression." They suffer from what psychologists refer to as "motivated reasoning" and therefore are emotionally invested in a belief and are inclined to accept only information that confirms their pre-existing beliefs, while dismissing conflicting evidence. They choose to adhere to a declaration of their values irrespective of others and thus see the world in way that divides along political lines (motivated reasoning is endemic among extremists of all political stripes). There is not much more we can to do to help these folks, who have either quit reading my posts or have severed our bonds of social media friendship.
I not only offer my students both sides of the story--proper historical context--but also allow them to read the primary sources and form their own conclusions. This coming semester we will dive into the debate over Civil War monuments. For example, one of the sources they will examine will include the 1924 unveiling of the statue of General Robert E. Lee that stood at the center of the sad and sick scenes that took place in Charlottesville this past weekend. Only by reading the newspaper accounts and speeches given at the dedication ceremonies (in which the artists, financial backers, officials, and supporters offered commentary), by viewing the monuments for what they say and do not say, and with some historical context of Reconstruction and the Jim Crow South, can one truly understand why these monuments were built in the first place and what purpose they were intended to serve? Only then, with a proper understanding of their historical context, can we as Americans proceed forward with an instructive debate on the place of these Lost Cause monuments in the 21 century.
Front page of the Charlottesville Daily Progress, May 21, 1924, which covered the unveiling of the Robert E. Lee statue at the center of the storm in Charlottesville, Virginia.
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