Within the Southron community, there has been outrage over the decision of the Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond in its dealings with the NAACP. What is of concern is a new museum facility in Spotsylvania. The NAACP will support it if it tells the “whole story”. On the surface I support the idea of telling the whole truth and historic account. But like many of the contemporary groups, what is said and what is meant are two different things.

On the surface, the whole story idea sounds good, but which ‘whole story’? Should one use “Uncle Tom’s cabin” and its mentality to convey the story. It will also be important to discuss white slavery and Indian slavery as well. Slavery in the south is not just a black issue. Slavery is an ugly issue with many aspects that make it controversial.

If one does not use the “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” (which is a fictional story), what do you use for source material? The census records of 1860, show more free blacks in the south than in the north (261,918 versus 226,152). Ooops! That is an inconvenient fact. What about anti-slavery groups? Well the majority were in the south and they began in the south. Ooops again! What about letting the slaves speak for themselves, by using the slave narratives that were collected by the Roosevelet regime? Well, they likely do not convey the story of slavery that the NAACP wants to present. What about using the Official Records of the War? Those are another source of inconvenient truth because they talk of blacks serving in the Confederate fighting forces. So, in telling the “whole story” what source material does one use? The stories associated with a novel or what the bulk of primary source material contained in the eyewitness accounts, slave narratives and Official Records?

This is a situation worth watching. What is the ‘whole’ story?

Free Texas from propaganda!J Murrah

Culture, Current Affairs, Museum of the Confederacy, NAACP, preservation of history, Uncle Toms Cabin

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