Archive for the ‘Emancipation’ Category
Levin, Casteel, Williams…Oh My!
August 21, 2009In a recent series of post on both Kevin Levin’s Civil War Memory and Richard Williams’ Old Virginia Blog there as been a great deal discussed and argued over the Casteel statue called “Brothers“. I will not go into a detailed discussion here, for you can follow the links and read it for yourself, but I must make comments on Williams’ latest post about reconcilation at Gettysburg. Here is another picture from the same reunion…
It is a picture of blacks whose job it was to pass out blankets to White veterans North and South. They were not included in the discussion of the war as if the war had nothing to do with their ancestors or their ancestors bondage. I think Kevin is saying that we have enough memorials or statues to this type of interpretation…we get it…now lets move beyond the typical understanding of the war…one that is in the vacuum of race. Let us add race into the picture and then we will have a fuller understanding of why there was a Gettysburg and why there was a reunion.
Lincoln on the Web
February 10, 2009In anticipation of Abraham Lincoln’s 200th Birthday on Thursday, I thought I would provide some easy linking to Lincoln sites on the web. Please feel free to comment on sites I did not include and I will update them.
The Abraham Lincoln Association: Collected Works
The Abraham Lincoln Newspaper Archives
The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum
Lincoln’s Cooper Union Address by Sam Waterston
The Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress
By no means is this list complete, but I think it does a good job of providing some of the quality sites out there on our 16th President and the birthday boy!
Lincoln and Memory
February 2, 2009
I had the opportunity over this past weekend to visit the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum and Library in Springfield as a guest of State Farm and WNET out of New York in order to preview “Looking For Lincoln”… an new documentary from PBS that will air on Feburary 11th. On friday night we were treated to a talk by Philip Kunhardt III on the companion book of the same name that he and his brother and nephew along the same lines as the new documentary. During the dicussion that preceeded the talk by Mr. Kunhardt, we were told by the producer of the documentary that the movie and the book do not follow each other exactly, for the movie was supposed to be four hours but they only received funding for two hours.
Mr. Kunhardt then gave a short talk on Lincoln and Memory and how Lincoln’s myth is more understood today than the real man. Following his talk was a short (15 minute) segment of the movie which dealt with several of the topics in the entire movie. I was supprised to see two very unexpected parts, one interview with Lerone Bennett who said that all he ever believed about Lincoln was a lie. Any student of slavery and the Civil War will know that Lerone Bennett was the author of “Foreced Into Glory: Abraham Lincoln’s White Dream”, which makes the case that Lincoln was really a white supremicist. The other scene that surprised me was the creator of the documentary, whose journey you follow to find Lincoln, Henry Louis Gates attends the 2008 Sons of Confederate Veterans Annual Convention where they honored Weary Clyburn as a black confederate. If you watch this movie on Feb. 11th, you will have to be the judge as to how you think the Clyburn family looked and felt with this “distinct honor” bestowed upon them by the SCV.
The next day the teachers that had attened the “premier” the previous night joined WNET and State Farm for a educational seminar at the Lincoln Presidential Library to learn how to use the companion website and the lesson plans for our classrooms. To be honest this was more helpful and more applicable to my teaching than the previous night for obvious reasons, but it also helped that during the three our seminar we were able to see more of the documentary. I did recieve the entire DVD as I left the museum on friday night but was not able to watch it in my hotel room for lack of a DVD player. After the seminar I had the chance to visit the museum fully and hit the gift shop. There I parted with $50 of my hard earn teacher’s pay and bought the companion book…and I am glad I did.
On monday I was able to set down and finally watch the entire two hour documentary and look through the companion book and I must say the documenaty needed four hours to finish its discussion of the topics it presented. For example, there is the discussion between Gates and Bennett where Bennett says everything he learned about Lincol was a lie…and that is it…no further fleshing out of that idea or argument. The book goes much deeper into why and how the myth of Lincoln developed after his death up until the death of Robet Todd Lincoln in 1926.
All in all the the experience was a great one. I really enjoyed being invited to take part in something connected to the Lincoln 200th Birthday and to visit the ALPLM. I look forward to trying out some of the lessons associated with the documentary and I really look forward to reading more of the companion book.
Rush, Obama, Lincoln, History & Memory!
December 23, 2008
Earlier today I had to run up town to the Post Office to mail some letters to of all places South Carolina. As I drove home I happened to catch a bit of Rush Limbaugh’s show where he was talking about Obama’suse of Lincoln during his campaign and now with the announcement that Obama would use the Lincoln Bible during the Inauguration. Obama’s Inauguration will be the first since 1861-64 to use the Lincoln Bible and Rush seems to think that this is just another way in which Obama is trying to make himself look like a new Lincoln…and according to el Rushbo…the next FDR…but that is beyond my focus here.
What I think Rush my not be taking into account here is the historical connection between Lincoln and Obama. Not that the two men are related or that their politics are the same but how they are connected through the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863. Had it not be for Lincoln, Obama could not be in the situation in which he now finds himself…as President Elect. Maybe, just maybe, Obama’suse of the Lincoln Bible is not to associate himself with Lincoln on the political basis, but on a historically significant basis. One that includes an understanding of the Civil War from the Emancipationist viewpoint.
With Obama being our President during the at least the early part of the 150th Anniversary of The War of the Rebellion we may finally see the war placed in its proper context…and finally out from under the shadow of the myth of the Lost Cause.
Lincoln wanted Gradual Emancipation at $400 a slave.
March 5, 2008Fox News is running this story
Department of Rare Books and Special Collections at the University of Rochester
“To be given a document that plunks you right into a situation that Lincoln was facing, it’s very compelling,” said Brian Fleming, a University of Rochester librarian who is heading the online project, which debuted Feb. 18 — Presidents Day.”
