The Wall_Spring 2023_Issue 9

Tymon Zbierski , (he/him), LVI, explores the legacy of the Confederacy and how it is still celebrated in Southern society due to the pervasion and rewriting of the civil war, and the impact it still has across the USA.

see as “Northern treachery.” This pseudo-historical theory is called “The lost cause of the Confederacy” and supports the idea that the American civil war was fought over States’ rights and against tyranny, not for the preservation of slavery. This theory appeared immediately after the civil war ended in 1865, but only became established in society during the 1890s-1910s, when groups such as the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) which, in addition to constructing hundreds of monuments to the Confederacy (including a massive one inWashington DC) began writing History textbooks to be used in schools in the Jim Crow South.These textbooks emphasised the Lost cause, making no direct mention to slavery and even writing that slaves on plantations were content, or even happy with their condition. Organisations such as the UDC grew to several hundred thousand members by 1914, and even after their decline following the first world war, their influence on Southern education remained steadfast.Youth organisations such as the Children of the Confederacy fed into the myth, educating and rewarding children for committing to memory key elements of the Lost cause, such as pledges to defend segregation and Southern heritage. These textbooks were used until the late 1970s, but do not be relieved; since then, they have merely been

Everybody knows the famous Churchill quote:“History is written by the victors.” And, in most cases, it holds true, however there is a case where the exact opposite is the truth, where History was perverted and rewritten to suit the interests of the losers, not the victors.This was, or should I say is, the case for the public perception of the American civil war, not just in the South but throughout the country. For you and me it may seem bizarre, everyone knows that the American civil war was fought over slavery, right?Well, whilst that may be the History we are taught, US History has been completely redrafted and it has been taught this way for decades, leading to widespread impacts on the social climate of America. First, let us establish exactly what I am discussing when I describe how History has been altered. Here in the UK, we are taught that slavery was the sole cause of the civil war, with this view being supported by historical evidence such as the declaration of secession from South Carolina, which explicitly states its reason being the “institution of slavery.” Written below are the unedited lyrics of “The Bonnie blue flag,” a song still widely popular throughout the South today, not uncommon to hear at Southern football games, bars, and many households: Nowhere does it mention the horrid and revolting institution of slavery

that the Confederacy proudly fought to protect, but instead claims that they had struggled for “liberty” and “Southern rights,” a theme that is often advanced by Southerners as a justification for their ancestors’ resistance to what they

Fighting for our liberty, with treasure, blood, and toil. When first our rights were threatened, and the cry rose near and far We raised up high the Bonnie Blue Flag that bears a single star! Hurrah! Hurrah! For Southern rights, hurrah! Hurrah for the Bonnie Blue Flag that bears a single star! As long as the Union was faith ful to her trust Like friends and like brethren, kind were we, and just But now, when Northern treachery attempts our rights to mar We hoist on high the Bonnie Blue Flag that bears a single star.

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