One man’s rebel is another man’s patriot
As a historian, I must be analytical when it comes to events, activities, personalities and issues. Yes, I know that bringing logic into discussions today is often not considered polite or politically correct. But I think it is more important for us to be historically correct than it is to be politically correct.
As historians, we do not say things to hurt, injure or offend but to relate fact of analysis. However, we must understand that when people are offended, it is not because of what was said but of how it is perceived. And perceptions are based on each individual’s personal experience or knowledge.
Let’s consider the terms “rebel,” “terrorist,” “insurgent” or “radical.” When you look back at the early history of our nation, those whom we today call “patriots” were in fact considered these very terms by the prevailing British government. To the British, the Tories, or those loyal to the king, were the patriots. But the colonists considered the men who dressed as Indians and dumped merchants’ tea in Boston Harbor as patriots. Was that an act of terrorism or an act of patriotism?
Francis Marion, the venerable “Swamp Fox” of our American Revolution, was an officer in the British army and defended the American colonies in the French and Indian War. Yet, he gave up his British uniform for that of the Continental Army and fought against the British in the American Revolution. Traitor or patriot?
Historians know the victors of conflicts write the history; thus, their perceptions and beliefs usually prevail. But we must look at the history for guidance and bring forth the facts.
One job of historians is to help others see history in its logical context so that they can rationalize and move forward. We can move forward with understanding, knowing that there have been what we now see as bad people and bad ideas in every era of history.
History is fact. We cannot erase it. Neither should we ignore or try to pretend it did not happen. This hits close to home in Louisiana, one of the 11 states that seceded from the United States and became part of the Confederate States of America. When South Carolina began the movement in December 1860, the United States was composed of 33 states with Kansas added as the 34th in January before the war began in April 1861.
By June, with the last secession, the United States was reduced to 23. Those in the South were called “rebels.” Yet, many of them considered themselves to be patriots, like their ancestors from the north and east who had fought against British oppression. They believed they were fighting on behalf of their state a government that had oppressed their state. They saw a big business mentality that used the fruits of their labor to support economic interests outside the South. Was slavery an issue? Of course. That’s a fact we cannot deny. But it is equally hard to deny the patriotic fervor of these Southerners who held a disdain for big government, one that remains today.
Abraham Lincoln in 1865 concluded in his second inaugural address: “With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”
Bidding farewell to his troops, the defeated Lt. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest said: “The attempt made to establish a separate and independent confederation has failed; but the consciousness of having done your duty faithfully and to the end will in some measure repay for the hardships you have undergone. ... Without in any way referring to the merits of the cause in which we have been engaged, your courage and determination, as exhibited on many hard-fought fields, has elicited the respect and admiration of friend and foe. ... You have been good soldiers; you can be good citizens. Obey the laws, preserve your honor, and the government to which you have surrendered can afford to be and will be magnanimous.”
The Confederate soldiers to whom he was speaking and all of the others who fought, most of them not slave owners but rather men fighting for their ideals and values, were Americans just as surely as were the Union soldiers. Reconciliation took decades, and among the healing activities were reunions where former enemies met, talked and acknowledged their respect for each other. President William McKinley helped to shine light on the healing, indicating in a speech in Atlanta that “every soldier’s grave made during our unfortunate civil war is a tribute to American valor.”
Rather than abolishing the Confederate or Civil War sites, statues and parks found in the South, where the bulk of the Civil War took place, we should use them as teaching tools, as reminders of our history. One man’s rebel is another’s patriot and that in the U.S. Civil War all were ultimately Americans. I pray the healing begun more than 100 years ago will continue and that the lessons of history will guide us to a level of respect for each other.
Dr. Gary Joiner is the Leonard and Mary Anne Selber Professor of History at LSUS, where he is also director of the Red River Regional Studies Center. Questions for “The History Doctor” may be addressed to editor@ theforumnews.com.
