Yesterday President Joe Biden delivered a campaign speech at the Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, where on June 17, 2015 nine church members were murdered by a young white supremacist. Biden’s speech, along with recent comments on the Civil War by Nikki Haley and Donald Trump, have solidified the two major political party’s positions in relationship to the legacy of the Civil War and its use for political purposes.
Thank you so much for this piece. I've added a link to it in a piece I just finished on the Neo-Confederate Movement as a force to be reckoned with in the contemporary Republican Party, which explains why Trump and Haley are so cagey about the civil war. My view is that the Old South will rise again if the neo-Confederates come to power in a second Trump administration. https://jimbuie.substack.com/p/nikki-haley-the-causes-of-the-civil
Re "I don’t believe that comparisons between the Lost Cause and the 'Big Lie' (election denialism in 2020) are particularly helpful":
I see what you mean, but I note that that's not the only possible framing. What about comparisons between the Lost Cause and the grotesque 1/6 nobility myth evolving in the violence-cheering radical nihilist party (that displaced my late dad's honorable Republican Party)?
You know--the new Big Lie that presents 1/6 criminals as political prisoners and "hostages"--they came to the Capitol in peace; they are "patriots"; the criminal that the Trump crime cult still calls "President Trump" sings patriotic songs with their Trump crime cult prison choir.
Framed that way, it seems to me that the perniciousness is quite analogous. Same motivation as the original Lost Cause: perpetuate a myth that is also a Big Lie.
I admit to a bias. A few nights before the president made the comparison in the church speech, David Blight--who as some may not know is the Douglass biographer who directs Yale's Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition--brought it up with Lawrence O'Donnell. Last night, O'Donnell had Professor Blight back to talk about the analogy's use in the speech. (The professor disclaimed all possibility of credit.)
Among the reasons I follow Professor Blight is that he has his heart in it, bigly. That showed again last night, when he interjected his appreciation that the lead-in had included a clip of the Obama 2015 "Amazing Grace" moment at the spot in the church where the new president spoke yesterday. You could see that the professor had been moved all over again. I've seen that in him before.
I am a huge fan of David Blight. No one has had more of an influence on how I think about the past than David. That said, I just don't see these comparisons as helpful. The "Big Lie" and Trump's influence over the past few years, seem to me, to have more in common with people like Sen. Joe McCarthy and his accusations of communists in the State Department and other sectors of the country. He had an enormous influence in promoting doubt about communist influence in many people, but it was also temporary, which may be how we look back at Trump and the election of 2020. It's too early to say.
The Lost Cause is a different kind of beast altogether. Thanks for the comment.
You might already know that Professor Blight today, under the headline "Trump’s ‘lost cause,’ a kind of gangster cult, won’t go away," has contributed a Los Angeles Times op-ed to the proliferating commentary on this.
I'll quote the final paragraph: "Lost causes can turn lies into common coin and forge deep and lasting myths. We are a long way from knowing how much staying power the Trumpian 'lost cause' will have, regardless of whether he survives his criminal charges and the election campaign. What we do know is that we have already witnessed its formative years."
I'm traveling but plan soon to post further about the new lost cause at The Self-Emancipator.
I admired the President's speech and was, incidentally, glad to see something of the inside of Mother Emanuel. I had seen the outside on my visit to Charleston, which unfortunately took place before the opening of the new museum. I had to satisfy myself with a walking tour and a visit to the slave market museum, which was very impressive.
"As a historian I sometimes worry that the Democratic embrace of the legacy of emancipation has distorted the extent to which white Americans supported emancipation during the war and racial justice during the postwar period."
Kevin, this is exactly right, and is why your work on Shaw looms so important. It's too easy to look to obvious places--slavery and the South--to explain the durability of white supremacy in American society. It's a much more complicated story than that--racism rooted deep in the North as well--as your work with Shaw and others' work on the minds of the Union armies will help show.
Oh that history was simple.... It used to be, when we practiced it mindlessly!
Well said, John. Shaw's views on race were typical for mid-nineteenth century white Americans. Add to that a strong sense of entitlement and class superiority.
There was certainly nothing inevitable about Shaw's decision to take command of a Black regiment. The odds were against it right up to the point where he agreed, but his story is a testament to the ways in which the changing conditions of war forced decisions that few could have anticipated. Interestingly, the clearer this picture comes into the view, the more I admire Shaw. His military career offers a wonderful case study for the incremental change that ultimately led to the end of slavery.
I've also created a mini-course: The Civil War Lives On In Contemporary American Life. A Mini-course.
It explains American identities, doesn't feel 160+ years ago. https://jimbuie.substack.com/p/the-civil-war-lives-on-in-contemporary
Thank you so much for this piece. I've added a link to it in a piece I just finished on the Neo-Confederate Movement as a force to be reckoned with in the contemporary Republican Party, which explains why Trump and Haley are so cagey about the civil war. My view is that the Old South will rise again if the neo-Confederates come to power in a second Trump administration. https://jimbuie.substack.com/p/nikki-haley-the-causes-of-the-civil
Thanks for sharing, Jim.
Re "I don’t believe that comparisons between the Lost Cause and the 'Big Lie' (election denialism in 2020) are particularly helpful":
I see what you mean, but I note that that's not the only possible framing. What about comparisons between the Lost Cause and the grotesque 1/6 nobility myth evolving in the violence-cheering radical nihilist party (that displaced my late dad's honorable Republican Party)?
You know--the new Big Lie that presents 1/6 criminals as political prisoners and "hostages"--they came to the Capitol in peace; they are "patriots"; the criminal that the Trump crime cult still calls "President Trump" sings patriotic songs with their Trump crime cult prison choir.
Framed that way, it seems to me that the perniciousness is quite analogous. Same motivation as the original Lost Cause: perpetuate a myth that is also a Big Lie.
I admit to a bias. A few nights before the president made the comparison in the church speech, David Blight--who as some may not know is the Douglass biographer who directs Yale's Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition--brought it up with Lawrence O'Donnell. Last night, O'Donnell had Professor Blight back to talk about the analogy's use in the speech. (The professor disclaimed all possibility of credit.)
Among the reasons I follow Professor Blight is that he has his heart in it, bigly. That showed again last night, when he interjected his appreciation that the lead-in had included a clip of the Obama 2015 "Amazing Grace" moment at the spot in the church where the new president spoke yesterday. You could see that the professor had been moved all over again. I've seen that in him before.
Anyway, I hear you, but I hear him too. Thanks.
I am a huge fan of David Blight. No one has had more of an influence on how I think about the past than David. That said, I just don't see these comparisons as helpful. The "Big Lie" and Trump's influence over the past few years, seem to me, to have more in common with people like Sen. Joe McCarthy and his accusations of communists in the State Department and other sectors of the country. He had an enormous influence in promoting doubt about communist influence in many people, but it was also temporary, which may be how we look back at Trump and the election of 2020. It's too early to say.
The Lost Cause is a different kind of beast altogether. Thanks for the comment.
You might already know that Professor Blight today, under the headline "Trump’s ‘lost cause,’ a kind of gangster cult, won’t go away," has contributed a Los Angeles Times op-ed to the proliferating commentary on this.
I'll quote the final paragraph: "Lost causes can turn lies into common coin and forge deep and lasting myths. We are a long way from knowing how much staying power the Trumpian 'lost cause' will have, regardless of whether he survives his criminal charges and the election campaign. What we do know is that we have already witnessed its formative years."
I'm traveling but plan soon to post further about the new lost cause at The Self-Emancipator.
Thanks.
Very well said. Thanks.
I admired the President's speech and was, incidentally, glad to see something of the inside of Mother Emanuel. I had seen the outside on my visit to Charleston, which unfortunately took place before the opening of the new museum. I had to satisfy myself with a walking tour and a visit to the slave market museum, which was very impressive.
The inside of the church is impressive. I am looking forward to visiting the new museum next time I am in town.
"As a historian I sometimes worry that the Democratic embrace of the legacy of emancipation has distorted the extent to which white Americans supported emancipation during the war and racial justice during the postwar period."
Kevin, this is exactly right, and is why your work on Shaw looms so important. It's too easy to look to obvious places--slavery and the South--to explain the durability of white supremacy in American society. It's a much more complicated story than that--racism rooted deep in the North as well--as your work with Shaw and others' work on the minds of the Union armies will help show.
Oh that history was simple.... It used to be, when we practiced it mindlessly!
Well said, John. Shaw's views on race were typical for mid-nineteenth century white Americans. Add to that a strong sense of entitlement and class superiority.
There was certainly nothing inevitable about Shaw's decision to take command of a Black regiment. The odds were against it right up to the point where he agreed, but his story is a testament to the ways in which the changing conditions of war forced decisions that few could have anticipated. Interestingly, the clearer this picture comes into the view, the more I admire Shaw. His military career offers a wonderful case study for the incremental change that ultimately led to the end of slavery.
Great to hear from you.