Roland Martin on AC360: Confederate History Month Debate Part 1

Thanks,Thanks,Thanks for saying what should have been said years ago, you are a breath of fresh air.

The Confederacy lost the civil war. Their actions were very wrong and calling the slavery movement terrorists is a correct statement. It may hurt people who are descendents of those slavery owners and the confederacy but people need to realize that the action was wrong and shameful and it is time to begin healing those old wounds. Now Roland how can we all make peace? We cannot be held responsible for the actions of our ancestors.

I believe there is a great deal of truth in your claim. Terrorism was big part of the border wars in Kansas and Missouri prior to the Civil war. Jesse James got his start there and continued shooting people until he was gunned down by a hired gun after the war. Irregulars on horseback were a significant part of the Southern strategy during the war and they killed unarmed civilians. Executing captured black soldiers was certainly an act of state terrorism by the South. Many Southern officers wanted to continue the war as insurgents in the mountains after Lee surrendered so they were certainly willing to do the Al Qaeda dance. Terrorism against newly liberated black citizens began just a few years after the war ended and of course it lead to the creation of the KKK which lost its main function when reconstruction ended and the state governments were able to institutionalize racial persecution as another version of state sponsored terrorism where black men could be killed at random with no criminal prosecution.
There were however honorable men who fought on the Southern side and in fact were against the succession before the war broke out.
I read a disturbing book about the outbreak of terrorism in the South after the end of the war called “The Bloody Shirt”. I grew up in the Midwest and this story was never taught in the public schools which of course is true of many unpleasant facts detrimental to American mythology.
Interesting note: Augusta, Georgia was the scene of one of the great massacres in the history of the post war South. A whole new town of freed slaves were gunned down and the town burned to the ground just a few miles away. The name of the town was then wiped off the map.

Roland,

I read your piece on the Confederacy, and some of the repsonses from others. One response in particular needs corrected. It was claimed that Confederate soldiers never damanged northern property or persons. This is simply untrue. Confederate general John Hunt Morgan invaded the north, and did considerable damage to northern crops, civilian structures, and other non-military targets. Although he was quite careful not to injure civilians any more than he felt absolutely necessary, the damage he ultimately did was considerable. We must also not forget that the north made similar raids–Andrew's raiders is one notable example.