THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, February 22, 1996 TAG: 9602220003
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Medium: 69 lines
Regarding ``Plans for Confederate costume ball shock many'' (news, Feb. 11): Former Gov. Doug Wilder states that the ball would be ``pealing the scab off a sore that is trying to heal.''
I agree that slavery is a terrible stain on America's past which is hard-pressed to be cleansed. What is in conflict is the connection between slavery and the Confederate States. Hundreds of thousands of Southerners went to war to defend their homes, states and country against a foe with 10 times the resources they had. Virginia and the rest of the South were left a virtual wasteland by the Union forces. I would be the first to agree with Mr. Wilder if slavery had been the cause for Mr. Lincoln's war, but it was not. Union Generals Grant and (I say with some bitterness) Sherman said that if they were fighting the war over slavery, they would resign their commands. It is also documented that thousands of federal soldiers went AWOL after the Emancipation Proclamation in protest over the slavery issue.
Something else which seems always to slip people's minds is that African Americans died for the Confederacy alongside whites. The Union Army paid African American soldiers less than white soldiers, but in the Confederate Army, all were paid the same.
Slavery was not the cause for the war of ``Southern Independence,'' nor was the outcome of the war immediate emancipation for the slaves.
W. S. KERR
Virginia Beach, Feb. 15, 1996
Former Gov. Douglas Wilder's reaction to the planning of a Confederate ball is sad. I realize that some people, particularly blacks, may not like portions of the history of this country, but it is our history just the same. Ignoring the past cannot change it.
The majority of Southerners who fought the Civil War did not own slaves. The relatives of these people have the right to be proud of their ancestors, without permission from others. Recreating events gives those attending a better picture of history.
Leaders in the black community have to realize that slavery is as dead as those who ran the institution and that history is open to everyone. Certain time periods cannot be forgotten. In fact, if we pretend slavery never happened, it may be to easy to forget it ever did.
R. H. KELLEY
Hertford, N.C., Feb. 20, 1996
Officials of the White House of the Confederacy are planning a Confederate costume ball, and Doug Wilder and black leaders have expressed ``astonishment and outrage.'' Don't they realize how much the black people of America owe to the Confederacy? If the South had not seceded from the Union, conceivably slavery could still be legal today.
In 1960, there were 15 states in which slavery was legal; the 11 states which did secede plus Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland and Delaware. If we discount Delaware, we have 14 slave states. Since slavery was recognized by the Constitution, three-fourths of the states would have had to vote in favor of a constitutional amendment abolishing slavery; it could not be abolished by simply passing a bill in Congress.
As long as these 14 states would vote against such an amendment, it would require a total of 56 states in the Union to do away with slavery.
This is supposed to be Black History Month, and the black former governor of the state of Virginia doesn't know what a debt he owes to the Confederacy?
JOE C. WILBER
Franklin, Feb. 13, 1996 by CNB