“We never agreed on the outcome of the Civil War and the direction the country should go in." Judith Giesberg professor of history Villanova University & editor of the Journal of the Civil War Era.
Friends, that's why Reconstruction matters. Monuments specifically erected in largely public spaces two to three generations after the Civil War are not history of the conflict itself or southern herit...age, but rather were intended to glorify an imagined past and perpetuate the notion of Confederate nationalism. These mostly early 20th century monuments are beacons of southern defiance and racial segregation--a history of the time in which they were erected, the Jim Crow South.
Read the speeches given by the builders and supporters of these monuments at their dedication ceremonies and you will discover for yourself within the scripted homage to southern chivalry and heritage, the primary motivation behind these relics of the Lost Cause (Gone with the Wind) understanding of the Civil War and its aftermath.
Should these Lost Cause monuments be torn down? NO! But rather than remain within public spaces where they may come crashing down sooner rather than later (as in the case of Durham, North Carolina), perhaps these monuments should be moved to public history spaces (museums/cemeteries) where they can be safely preserved and proper context can be attributed to them to help us better understand Reconstruction and our nation's 150 year struggle to come to grips with the outcome of the Civil War and the direction that the country should go in.
.Friends, that's why Reconstruction matters. Monuments specifically erected in largely public spaces two to three generations after the Civil War are not history of the conflict itself or southern herit...age, but rather were intended to glorify an imagined past and perpetuate the notion of Confederate nationalism. These mostly early 20th century monuments are beacons of southern defiance and racial segregation--a history of the time in which they were erected, the Jim Crow South.
Read the speeches given by the builders and supporters of these monuments at their dedication ceremonies and you will discover for yourself within the scripted homage to southern chivalry and heritage, the primary motivation behind these relics of the Lost Cause (Gone with the Wind) understanding of the Civil War and its aftermath.
Should these Lost Cause monuments be torn down? NO! But rather than remain within public spaces where they may come crashing down sooner rather than later (as in the case of Durham, North Carolina), perhaps these monuments should be moved to public history spaces (museums/cemeteries) where they can be safely preserved and proper context can be attributed to them to help us better understand Reconstruction and our nation's 150 year struggle to come to grips with the outcome of the Civil War and the direction that the country should go in.
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