On rare occasions, the Ancient Romans practiced damnatio memoriae, which meant removing from the public eye all reminders—paintings, statues, coins—of a public figure who had fallen into disgrace or whom a successor wished dead in the memory of the people.
This past spring saw the removal of four Confederate statues from public squares in New Orleans. In Texas, two universities have removed statues of Jefferson Davis. Attempts to remove the General Lee statue from a public park in Charlottesville, Virginia, have met with fiery protests. Several years ago, citizens of Memphis attempted to remove the Nathan Bedford Forrest statue and the general’s remains from a public park, but found the law forbade such an excision. Faced with the protests of some students, Washington and Lee University is removing Confederate battle flags from Lee Chapel. Duke University officials recently changed the name of Aycock Hall, once an appellation of honor for a governor who now stands accused as a white supremacist.
The reasoning behind these erasures of history is that the statues, flags, and names commemorate men who were either slaveholders, fought for the South in the Civil War, or supported Jim Crow laws.
Hmmmmm.
Well, if we are going to take that approach, where exactly do we stop?
Washington and Lee University is named after two men who in their own way supported slavery. Maybe we could rename Washington and Lee Lexington University after the town, which was in turn named for the Battle of Lexington, that skirmish of the Revolution fought by dead white guys.
Nearby James Madison University is named for a president who owned slaves. Name change, anyone? Maybe we could name it Harrisonburg after the town in which the university is located. Oops. Harrisonburg is named after Thomas Harrison, who may also have owned slaves.
Columbia University is named for Christopher Columbus, who brought white people to the New World and so displaced native Americans. Dozens of towns and the District of Columbia are also named in memory of the Italian sailor. What to do?
George Washington owned slaves. In addition to Washington D.C. and Washington state, there are over 80 American towns and cities named for Washington. Do their names offend their inhabitants?
Virginia is named for the Virgin Queen, Elizabeth I, who established white colonies in North America.
North Carolina, South Carolina, Maryland, West Virginia, Louisiana, and Georgia are all named for European monarchs who helped whites enter the New World.
Hundreds of towns and counties of Southern states bear the monikers of numerous men and women who were slaveholders.
The Eastern seaboard, North and South, is littered with graveyards honoring men who fought Native Americans and who fought for the South.
Battlefields, museums, court squares, and graveyards memorialize the feats of soldiers fighting for the South as well as for the North.
Native Americans—the Choctaw, the Cherokee, and others—owned black slaves. Other tribes enslaved their rivals. Should we banish these tribes from our history books?
In Africa, black tribal chieftains sold hundreds of thousands of human beings to the slavers. They also kept slaves of their own. Recently, a civil rights commission in Nigeria urged traditional chieftains to apologize for the actions of their ancestors. Should this circumstance temper our view of slavery and the American South?
My point? Nearly every country on the face of the earth has practiced slavery. Some still practice slavery.
Moreover, it wasn’t China or Nigeria or Saudi Arabia that ended slavery. It was the West. Some of us have forgotten that inconvenient fact.
And why stop with statues and place names? Writers like Mark Twain, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, and hundreds of others all used the “N-word” in their books. If the argument for banishing statues from the public square is that these memorials bring painful reminders to certain people, then shouldn’t we follow that argument to its logical conclusion and banish or revise books as well?
Americans have a past, both noble and ignominious. To judge those who have gone before us is a dangerous game. Such pronouncements create in the judges a feeling of superiority, a blindness to their own defects both as a society and as individuals.
Often those calling for the measures mentioned above are those who have little sense of either nuance or history. If they look ahead another hundred years, these arbitrators of morality might find their descendants wondering about the following:
Study history, and you at least gain perspective and an understanding for the past. More and more these days, a growing number of Americans no longer know or care about their history. They condemn without the ability to imagine a past different from their present. They point a finger and bark a curse without walking in the shoes of those who came before them, a lack of imagination stemming in large part from ignorance.
Ignorance of the past often comes with a steep price. Best be prepared to pay it.
Addendum: I have just discovered that Walter Williams, a professor of economics at George Mason University (George was another slave owner) wrote a column similar to my own. An excellent piece that I include here: https://www.creators.com/read/walter-williams/06/17/rewriting-american-history
The reasoning behind these erasures of history is that the statues, flags, and names commemorate men who were either slaveholders, fought for the South in the Civil War, or supported Jim Crow laws.
Hmmmmm.
Well, if we are going to take that approach, where exactly do we stop?
Washington and Lee University is named after two men who in their own way supported slavery. Maybe we could rename Washington and Lee Lexington University after the town, which was in turn named for the Battle of Lexington, that skirmish of the Revolution fought by dead white guys.
Nearby James Madison University is named for a president who owned slaves. Name change, anyone? Maybe we could name it Harrisonburg after the town in which the university is located. Oops. Harrisonburg is named after Thomas Harrison, who may also have owned slaves.
Columbia University is named for Christopher Columbus, who brought white people to the New World and so displaced native Americans. Dozens of towns and the District of Columbia are also named in memory of the Italian sailor. What to do?
George Washington owned slaves. In addition to Washington D.C. and Washington state, there are over 80 American towns and cities named for Washington. Do their names offend their inhabitants?
Virginia is named for the Virgin Queen, Elizabeth I, who established white colonies in North America.
North Carolina, South Carolina, Maryland, West Virginia, Louisiana, and Georgia are all named for European monarchs who helped whites enter the New World.
Hundreds of towns and counties of Southern states bear the monikers of numerous men and women who were slaveholders.
The Eastern seaboard, North and South, is littered with graveyards honoring men who fought Native Americans and who fought for the South.
Battlefields, museums, court squares, and graveyards memorialize the feats of soldiers fighting for the South as well as for the North.
Native Americans—the Choctaw, the Cherokee, and others—owned black slaves. Other tribes enslaved their rivals. Should we banish these tribes from our history books?
In Africa, black tribal chieftains sold hundreds of thousands of human beings to the slavers. They also kept slaves of their own. Recently, a civil rights commission in Nigeria urged traditional chieftains to apologize for the actions of their ancestors. Should this circumstance temper our view of slavery and the American South?
My point? Nearly every country on the face of the earth has practiced slavery. Some still practice slavery.
Moreover, it wasn’t China or Nigeria or Saudi Arabia that ended slavery. It was the West. Some of us have forgotten that inconvenient fact.
And why stop with statues and place names? Writers like Mark Twain, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, and hundreds of others all used the “N-word” in their books. If the argument for banishing statues from the public square is that these memorials bring painful reminders to certain people, then shouldn’t we follow that argument to its logical conclusion and banish or revise books as well?
Americans have a past, both noble and ignominious. To judge those who have gone before us is a dangerous game. Such pronouncements create in the judges a feeling of superiority, a blindness to their own defects both as a society and as individuals.
Often those calling for the measures mentioned above are those who have little sense of either nuance or history. If they look ahead another hundred years, these arbitrators of morality might find their descendants wondering about the following:
- Why, given that society was awash in birth control devices, did their anscestors abort millions of babies?
- Why did governments throughout the West continue spending money beyond their resources?
- Why did the United States find it necessary to interfere, often violently, in the affairs of countries that had no bearing on its own national security?
- Why did the “land of the free and the brave” lose its liberties?
- Why did a prosperous country with the oldest written constitution in the world fracture into so many opposing camps?
Study history, and you at least gain perspective and an understanding for the past. More and more these days, a growing number of Americans no longer know or care about their history. They condemn without the ability to imagine a past different from their present. They point a finger and bark a curse without walking in the shoes of those who came before them, a lack of imagination stemming in large part from ignorance.
Ignorance of the past often comes with a steep price. Best be prepared to pay it.
Addendum: I have just discovered that Walter Williams, a professor of economics at George Mason University (George was another slave owner) wrote a column similar to my own. An excellent piece that I include here: https://www.creators.com/read/walter-williams/06/17/rewriting-american-history
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