April: Confederate History Month

Eight United States Presidents called Virginia home. But, that was not the end of the southern way of life, enslaved Africans, African-Americans doing the work for free for those who imported them. There were other Presidents who were kin of some of the Southern Presidents who believed in Slavery. Too many years of slavery after the 1808 ban of Africans would backfire on the southern way of life By 1861, an American Civil War was declared and the battle would cut into slaveholding states' right to maintain a non-pay system consisting mainly of African-Americans.

President Abraham Lincoln was forced to use enslaved African-Americans to save union that would become the United States of America.

It was a battle in which slaves were declared free to battle their slave holders to save the Union by President Abraham Lincoln. Folks living in these states were not only shocked to see family member fighting family members. But African-Americans were allowed to legally kill raced white folks. Enslaved African-Americans were now armed and protected by the government to kill those who wanted to uphold the confederacy.


The Union was saved. But those debates about federal rights and state rights continues. Recently, one term Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell issued a proclamatin declaring April Confederate History Month. The Republican Governor suggested that the 150th anniversary next year would draw tourists back to Virginia. Meaning, these states' right advocates would be drawn to a State that celebrates Confederate History Month.

In his proclamation the Republican Governor leaves out any mention of slavery, in essence hinting that the Civil War was not about slavery. With this position, the Governor join many Civil War buffs who argue that million of southerns did not own slaves compared to the hundred of thousands who did own slaves.

The argument is weak.

The millions who did not enslave African-Americans still maintained the system of slavery. These millions had no problem living among the slaveholders who denied millions of African-Americans the right to live where they wanted, to marry, to vote and to work for a decent wage. In Virginia alone, there were over a half a million enslaved persons. These millions of Southerns wants us to believe that they had no problem with millions of African-Americans being set free.


History tells us different. There were so many African-Americans in their presence that an African-American was not counted as a whole person.


Governor Bob McDonnell is playing to the teabaggers, he is rally the troops under his one term. What McDonnell fail to understand is that African-Americans can now disagree with him and not wait for raced white Americans to correct him in his thinking.



Update: 04-08-2010: It seems Governor McDonnell has issued another proclamation embracing the nagging issue that stained the soul of the states and the nation. Yes, the Governor is referring to slavery as being a cause of the Civil War.

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