Blog #11

Honors History Writing #1

“The Civil War is often known as the beginning of ‘modern’ America, ‘America’s 2nd Revolution.’”

Although most would think the events that brought on the Civil War and things closely following it are dead and gone, lost and kept in history not to be brought up again, it is quite the opposite. Even though the Civil War was the end of an epidemic nationally, the epidemic of slavery and inequality in America, it was the beginning of a new Revolution in America. If you think about it, a controversy large enough to split a nation apart and pit brother against brother is not something easily forgotten. In this case, it lead to even more issues and disagreements nationally. Think: If suddenly your house slaves who had no point in life other than to serve you thanklessly suddenly became a citizen, as equal as you, it would be quite difficult to adapt to. Even now, almost 150 years later, the subjects of such an old controversy are still hot topics and disagreeable by many.

The well-known southern story of a man literally “dying for Dixie” is an example of such. The story of a man being shot down and allegedly murdered for the mere fact of being seen as a racist on the Kentucky-Tennessee border is still hotly talked about. The confederate flag, seen as a symbol for racism and white supremacy in the south, triggered the shooting (the man was driving a truck the with the flag attached, and from there, a car chase which ended in a death). So, when did this feud take place? Certainly, you may think, such racism and prejudice should’ve died decades ago, yes? No, this took place not even 20 years ago, in 1995. That’s right, 1995. Even after the civil rights movement had taken place 30 years before, people still saw inequalities in others. After these events, there were reported 5 cross burnings in nearby towns along the Tennessee-Kentucky Border, performed by the infamous white supremacy group, Ku Klux Klan.

The KKK is a prime example of disagreements to the civil war’s outcome. Created less than a year after the Northern won the civil war, the KKK consisted of mainly veterans of the civil war on the confederate side. At its peak, it had 6 million members, secretly killing blacks and scalawags that supported the civil rights act. This white supremacy group is not the only of its kind; the White league and the Red shirts are well known for mass killings to anyone who got in their way. These groups are still active today, going behind the scenes, meeting and sharing their bizarre ideals and thoughts over the internet. It needs to stop, soon.

But it doesn’t stop here. How about interracial marriages still banned in a state until recently? That’s right, it was illegal for an African American and a Caucasian to get married in the state of South Carolina until November of 2007, when a statewide poll was taken. The majority voted for removing the law, however, the majority barely was. 33% of South Carolina residents were against removing the ban.

In a way, some towns in the South have always been seen as an old world. For example, in public schools, children are taught that the Civil War was secretly won by the south. You would’ve thought this age died in the 18th century, along with slavery and all the prejudice that came with it. But this isn’t the case. The veterans of the war and the citizens that had lived during that time were not welcome to the change Many spent their life angry, prejudiced, racist, and not willing to take a second to see how the other men saw it. They taught their young with their “old world” views and died with their hatred. Their young grew up believing everything that their predecessors had told them. This process lived on, now thousands of citizens – Americans – see this society as a corrupted and soiled one.

These situations pose difficult questions. When can racism and prejudice be ended for sure? Can it be ended by just another civil war? Or will hatred between different skin colors never, really, end? Although the civil war created a new revolution in America, from the revolution emerged a people still strongly believing in the previous world America had lived in.