Having The Talk

I knew the day would come when I would have to have The Talk with Fiona. No, not about boys; that will happen soon enough.

As a resident of Virginia, even Northern Virginia, even Union-occupied Arlington (our dog park is right next to the remnants of Fort Ethan Allen) I knew that there would need to be a discussion of the way the Civil War is taught in our otherwise exceptional school system. I was tipped off to this when reviewing her teacher's summary of the Civil War study section. There they were: those innocuous, even noble words "states' rights," included in a commonwealth-provided list of several causes for the Civil War.

Let's cut to the chase: "States' rights" is bullshit. Those who yammer loudest about "states' rights" are the first to run to the federal government to impose their will on the country, then (Fugitive Slave Act etc.) as now (marriage definition amendments etc.).

The sole cause of the Civil War was slavery. Full stop. All other causes cited are subordinate thereto.

Fiona told me that she had answered "slavery" to a quiz question asking for the cause of the war, and got it back with the teacher's notation "and states' rights." Fiona's teacher is great and we are thrilled she is in her class, but I explained to Fiona that her teacher has to teach in the manner prescribed by the Commonwealth of Virginia. I also praised Fiona for giving the correct answer, but advised her to provide the looked-for answer while understanding that the truth may be somewhat at odds with that. (Hell, any adult can do that, right? Piece of cake. Hoo boy.)

Think I am over-reacting to something safely in our past? Think again.

He Bayoneted Me - With Science! or, Bill and Jon's Excellent Experiment

As a history buff I know a fair bit about the US Civil War, but I was unaware of the phenomenon of glowing wounds after the Battle of Shiloh, whose anniversary was just a couple of weeks ago last week (damn backlog). As this story relates, the cause of this was unknown until 2001, when two enterprising youths took up the case. It turns out that some of the soldiers subject to the appalling neglect inherent in 19th-century battlefield medicine (think of it as Extreme Triage) acquired a colony of bioluminescent bacteria via being left in the mud for a couple of days. These bacteria created more hospitable consitions for themselves by killing off other bacteria, thus lowering the infection rate of these soldiers and improving their chances of survival. (Manufacturers of anti-bacterial-in-everything products, take note.)

JJV, who brought this to my attention, is probably wondering, as I am, why the whackaloon reenactor who plagued us during our last Civil War B & B weekend in 1998 didn't mention glowing wounds as part of his spiel. On the other hand, we were touring the Wilderness/Spotsylvania battlefield so I guess we should count ourselves lucky he didn't gut-shoot us then set the surrounding brush on fire.

I Intend to Blog on This Line If It Takes All Summer

In a comment to my previous post on the Civil War, friend and frequent commentor Dave P. asserted that "the war wasn't about slavery until it was politically expedient." No sooner had I drafted a response (which had to wait until now to be posted) than another friend and frequent commentor JCC weighed in with a better version of my response:

If you read the actual secession documents passed by the Southern States attempting to leave the Union, it's very clear that the was was about slavery. South Carolina, Mississippi, etc - they knew what the war was about.

Was the North fighting to free the slaves? Nope. They were fighting to defend the Union (short for "the United States of America"). But the reason the Union was threatened? The Southern states seceded to defend the right to own slaves. It wasn't even States' Rights, because among the things that they objected to was the actions of non-slave states to impede slavery (slavery transit, blocking the recovery of runaway slaves, etc).

To expand briefly on this, I would also refer readers to the Cornerstone Speech of Confederate Vice-President Alexander Stephens. "States rights," meanwhile, was the 19th century's version of "activist judges," in that the slave states were more than happy to use the Federal government for their own ends (Fugitive Slave Act, Dred Scott decision).

So, to recap (and in so doing I do not ascribe any particular view to anyone else):

1) The cause of the Civil War was slavery.
2) The right side won.

I'm glad we had this little talk. And Mr. P., I will see you tomorrow!

Conveniently, the Response to Both is "We Won"

Today marks a couple of rather different milestones. Fifty years ago today Yuri Gagarin became the first man to orbit the Earth, a perceived Soviet victory in the Cold War. One hundred years prior to that man shot 'round the world, a less cutting-edge (but for its time impressive) ballistics demonstration was initiated against Fort Sumter, resulting in victory for those endorsing the right to buy and sell other human beings. We know how well that turned out, don't we.

It's late and I am negotiating the terms of surrender to tree pollen, but I did not want to let the double anniversary pass without snide comment.