Confederate History Month

Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell has graciously allowed Virginians all across the state to spend a few moments remembering the historical significance of the Confederate States of America, declaring April to be an official 'Confederate History Month'

Unfortunately, he forgot to mention that small formality of slavery, an omission he has since apologized for, which is rather like a vicious wife beater apologizing to his neighbor for his wife’s terrible screams.

“I just had no idea she would make that much noise.”

Well, she has. And rightfully. The Confederacy would never have existed without slavery, and the civil war –which to date is the largest war on our continent –would never have occurred without an institution whose defining characteristic was classifying one race of humans as property to be owned, traded, sold and used by another, without pay or any formal recognition of humanity.

In fact, from 1789 onward it was forbidden in many Confederate states to teach any black person how to read for fear of a slave rebellion. Here’s Georgia’s constitution on the matter:

11. Punishment for teaching slaves or free persons of color to read. -- If any slave, Negro, or free person of color, or any white person, shall teach any other slave, Negro, or free person of color, to read or write either written or printed characters, the said free person of color or slave shall be punished by fine and whipping, or fine or whipping, at the discretion of the court.

During the period up to and including the Confederacy, it was common to have slaves mated and their off springs sold or handed down to a white daughter or white son as part of their inheritance. Babies were taken away from mothers, who were forced to work shortly after giving birth.

As Yale Historian, Jack Balkin has pointed out the Constitution of the Confederate States of America specifically provide protection for the slave trade, insisting that no state could bar people from transporting their slaves across state lines. Slavery was seen to be that important. It also very specifically, and very blithely, defined human beings as property, or, to use the term of the day, chattel. And all of these barbarities stem from the simple logic of treating blacks not as humans but as property: exactly what the Confederate States of America sought to embody in their constitution.

From Article IV, section 3, clause 3, Balkin quotes a section on what is to happen should the Confederacy acquire new territory:
In all such territory the institution of negro slavery, as it now exists in the Confederate States, shall be recognized and protected be Congress and by the Territorial government; and the inhabitants of the several Confederate States and Territories shall have the right to take to such Territory any slaves lawfully held by them in any of the States or Territories of the Confederate States.
From Article I, section 9, clause 4:
No bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law denying or impairing the right of property in negro slaves shall be passed.
Simply put, there would have been no Confederacy, no Confederate History Month and no civil war if the institution of slavery had not been central to the lazy and arrogant planters of the South who chose to degrade and defile another race rather than pay a decent wage, or get their own hands dirty.

Next up, I hear Germany is going to proclaim May, “Nazi History Month.” I’m looking forward to meeting all the Jewish survivors who will happily participate, and point out that, after all, Nazism wasn’t all about killing Jews, now was it?

Jack R. Johnson