As we look to the past, we might be familiar with wording similar to what follows:
Africa, the pride of antiquity, and the original seat of the arts and sciences, has for three hundred years been visited with every act of oppression which could be devised by the tyranny or injustice of mankind. After improving the condition of the ancient nations of Europe and Asia, by instructing them in the principles of civil government and the maxims of philosophy, she has, in modern ages, been rewarded for her services by a system of cruel, inhuman persecution, unparalleled in the annals of the world. By means of the slave trade of Africa, the countries bordering on her sea coast have been desolated, her virtues blasted, her peace destroyed, her civilization retarded or converted to barbarism, and her intercourse with foreign nations annihilated, except in the diabolical traffic of human flesh! Our own country is blackened with the victims of slavery, already amounting to nearly two millions of souls; and to contemplate their increase through the vista of futurity is alarming to the patriot and the philanthropist.
That slavery is an evil no one can deny. All must desire to cure the disease or mitigate its ravages. If the evil be of fearful magnitude now, what will it be fifty years hence?
I just selected a couple passages, but, most certainly, it seems, such words had to be written by a New England abolitionist organization. The mistake, however, is to assume that as a certainty. In fact, these words came from Virginians in the Shenandoah Valley. No, not Quakers… not Brethren… not Mennonite. As to who it was who subscribed to these words… who signed their names under such words, deserves our attention. For that matter, for those among that same number, who saw the dawning of the American Civil War, it might be equally interesting to see which side they chose, and their thoughts as to why.
If we are to “face our history”, we should truly do so without blinders. We need to be conscious of the fact that, at this time, too many people (to include some Southerners) are affixing stereotypes to antebellum Southerners, and because of one thing that continued to thrive in the region… slavery.
For about a year now, I’ve been working through various texts looking for something that tears holes in the stereotypes of Southerners… or more importantly, to me, the Southerners of the Shenandoah Valley. Even after a year, my notes are crude and still a work in progress. Nonetheless, it seems like a particularly good time to wheel out a little of what I have, considering it, maybe for just a while, in a public forum.
Follow along with me, if you’re interested, in examining more of the texts from this document, and where it might lead.
Cenantua's Blog 
Cotton Boll Conspiracy
July 8, 2015
Your project is a good one, Robert. I strongly suspect that very few people fully understand the institution of slavery, myself included. To portray it, as many do, as white Southerners, enslaving black Africans, is a very simplistic view of what was a complex societal aspect that involved far more individuals than the white Southerners who ended up buying the slaves. If we ever hope to begin to understand some of the racial divides in our country, we need to fully examine how we got to where we are today, and it wasn’t simply by Southern whites kidnapping Africans and enslaving them.
Robert Moore
July 8, 2015
Thanks, CBC. Hoping I can wade through my notes and provide something of value.
Cotton Boll Conspiracy
July 8, 2015
I’m sure you will, Robert.
Richard Williams
July 8, 2015
The following is from a National Public Radio interview in 2004:
“The slave trade could not have endured for four centuries and carried nearly 12 million people out of Africa without the cooperation of a huge network of African rulers and merchants,” says Dr. Robert Harms, a professor of African History at Yale University who has extensively researched the trans-Atlantic slave trade.
Harms is the author of The Diligent: A Voyage Through the Worlds of the Slave Trade, an award-wining book detailing the day-to-day routine on a French slave vessel in the 1700s.
“Most Americans think that ships would come from the United States or from Europe to Africa and the sailors would just get off and run out and grab a shipload of people and stuff them in the ship and bring them back. And I think that is a very condescending view of Africans.
“That view suggests that Africans were so disorganized that they could let that happen year after year after year after year,” Harms says. “I think we need to see African societies as well-organized societies that participated in the slave trade, because the ruling classes often thought they had something to gain from it.”
Source: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1833314
Robert Moore
July 8, 2015
One of the things I’m really challenged by is the discussion of what “could have” beens. I usually don’t like to even go there because there are simply too many variables. That said, it’s interesting to see how Dr. Harms suggests what he does. I also challenge the idea of an expanded slave trade after Confederate victory, because, honestly, 1) I’m not sure the world would have continued to tolerate it, and 2) the numbers of slaves present could have easily fueled a demand for an expanded labor force (at least up until the time the Confederacy became imperialistic. After all, I’ve seen where Southerners bantered the idea of expansion into Cuba, and even Mexico). What impresses me more, however, is evidence of morality within Southerners (don’t ask me to give a percentage, because that’s a dissertation in itself) that suggests that that segment might deal with the issue after the war. Of course, that goes into another realm of speculation, which might even include a divided South after Confederate victory. As that snowball rolling downhill gets even larger, best not even go down that path. 🙂
Let’s stick with that morality in Southerners, during the antebellum period… that demonstrates that, no… not all Southerners were happy with seeing slavery thrive.
Richard Williams
July 9, 2015
“I’m not sure the world would have continued to tolerate it”
Nor am I. Recently, another blogger suggested that slavery could have existed until present day without a Union victory. I find that notion preposterous – for a lot of reasons.
Robert Moore
July 8, 2015
As a matter of fact, Richard… as you well know… Mr. Randolph had something to say about slavery and morality, and crossed paths with some of the folks who were behind the society I mention in the post.
Mulberrygrrl
July 8, 2015
I look forward to following along, Robert.
Robert Moore
July 8, 2015
Thanks! Glad to have you following.