A Ceremony — God and Mammon

You are attending a ceremony at a university in the American South. A statue is being unveiled. A speaker addresses the crowd.

Read the speech.

Dedication Ceremony

University of North Carolina · June 2, 1913

Address by General Julian S. Carr
Confederate veteran · Philanthropist · Benefactor of the University

From the address

The Confederate soldier was asked to do more than fall in battle. He was asked to endure, to sacrifice, to remain faithful — and he did so with a courage and a steadfastness that few soldiers in the history of the world have equalled.

He gave up everything. He returned to find his land broken, his world destroyed. He rebuilt it. And the spirit with which he rebuilt it is the spirit that this monument is intended to preserve.

The sons of the men who wore the grey, when they leave this university, will, I trust, think of this monument as an inspiration toward the highest civic and patriotic ideals — duty, honour, courage, and fidelity. These are the virtues upon which a civilisation must be built.

What values are being celebrated here?

The speech continues.

Later in the same address

The present generation, I am persuaded, scarcely takes note of what the Confederate soldier meant to the welfare of the Anglo Saxon race during the four years immediately succeeding the war, when the bottom rail was on top.

Their courage and steadfastness saved the very life of the Anglo Saxon race in the South — Praise God.

What is actually being remembered?

Still the same speech. Still the same ceremony. Still the same crowd.

Later still

I trust I may be pardoned for one allusion, howbeit it is not a seemly thing that a gentleman should utter in behalf of himself. One hundred yards from where we stand, less than ninety days perhaps after my return from Appomattox, I horse-whipped a negro wench until her skirts hung in shreds, because upon the streets of this quiet village she had publicly insulted and maligned a Southern lady, and then rushed for protection to these University buildings where was stationed a garrison of Yankee soldiers.

I performed the pleasing duty in the immediate presence of the entire garrison, and for thirty nights afterward slept with a double-barrelled shot gun under my head.

The crowd applauded.

The Confederacy. The story.

1845

Southern Baptist Convention founded to defend the right of slaveholders to serve as missionaries. "The right of holding slaves is clearly established in the Holy Scriptures, both by precept and example." — Richard Furman, 1822

1861

The Confederacy declares itself.

1865

The Confederacy surrenders. Four years.

1865–

Confederate monument construction begins. It peaks between 1900 and 1920 — a generation after the war, during the height of Jim Crow.

1913

Julian Carr speaks at the University of North Carolina. The crowd applauds.

1995

Southern Baptist Convention issues a formal apology for its founding defence of slavery.

2018

Silent Sam — the statue unveiled that day — is pulled down by protesters. The university had declined to remove it.

The Confederacy lasted four years.

How long did the story last?