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Loyal Slave narrative

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The statue Sons of St. Augustine depicting Alexander Darnes and Edmund Kirby Smith.

The Doctor and the Confederate

A historian’s journey into the relationship between Alexander Darnes and Edmund Kirby Smith starts with a surprising eulogy.
by Cynthia R. Greenlee via Smithsonian on January 10, 2023

The Patriot Slave

The dangerous myth that blacks in bondage chose not to be free in revolutionary America.
by Farah Peterson via The American Scholar on June 2, 2020

The ‘Loyal Slave’ Photo That Explains the Northam Scandal

The governor’s yearbook picture, like many images before it, reinforces the belief that blacks are content in their oppression.
by Kevin M. Levin via The Atlantic on February 13, 2019

The Pernicious Myth of the ‘Loyal Slave’ Lives on in Confederate Memorials

Statues don’t need to venerate military leaders of the Civil War to promulgate false narratives.
by Kevin M. Levin via Smithsonian on August 17, 2017

The Echoes of America's 'Faithful Slave' Trope in Lola's Story

How Alex Tizon’s essay echoes a trope with deep roots in American history
by Micki McElya via The Atlantic on May 31, 2017
Film still of Hattie McDaniel as Mammy in "Gone with the Wind."

The Mammy Washington Almost Had

In 1923, the U.S. Senate approved a new monument in D.C. "in memory of the faithful slave mammies of the South."
by Tony Horwitz via The Atlantic on May 31, 2013

Mildred Rutherford’s War

The “historian general” of the United Daughters of the Confederacy began the battle over the depiction of the South in history textbooks that continues today.
by Adam Hochschild via New York Review of Books on November 16, 2023
Illustration by Kat Brooks of Stephanie Gilbert and her great grandfather Oliver Cromwell Gilbert and his home.

She Cherished the Home Where Her Family Fled Slavery. Then a Stranger Bought It.

Would the new owner of Richland Farm let a Black woman continue to visit to pay tribute to her enslaved ancestors?
by Sydney Trent via Washington Post on August 5, 2023
Plantation house in the snow.

The Grim History of Christmas for Slaves in the Deep South

"If you read enough sources, you run into cases of slaves spending a lot of time over Christmas crying."
by Olivia B. Waxman, Robert E. May via TIME on December 21, 2021

Race, History, and Memories of a Virginia Girlhood

A historian looks back at the legacy of slavery and Jim Crow in her home state.
by Drew Gilpin Faust via The Atlantic on July 18, 2019
African American re-enactor dressed as a Confederate.
partner

How the Myth of Black Confederates Was Born

And how a handful of black Southerners helped perpetuate it after the Civil War.
by Kevin M. Levin via Made By History on July 17, 2019

“My Dear Master”: An Enslaved Blacksmith’s Letters to a President

This document is the rarest of items in the Library of Congress's manuscript collections: a letter written by an enslaved person.
by Adam Rothman via Library of Congress on February 5, 2019

Kanye’s Brand of “Freethinking” Has a Long, Awful History

His condemnation of enslaved people’s failure to rebel is drawn from a dangerous ideology that’s older than the United States.
by Rebecca Onion via Slate on May 2, 2018
original

Encountering the Plantation Myth Where You'd Least Expect It

Well off Savannah's tourist trail, there's a replica of an antebellum plantation home in the middle of a public housing project.
by Kevin M. Levin on January 19, 2018

Myth of Black Confederates Won't Go Away

Two South Carolina lawmakers dust off a familiar trope in an attempt to fight back against Confederate monument removals.
by Kevin M. Levin via Post and Courier on October 11, 2017

The Myth of Robert E. Lee And The "Good" Slave Owner

According to Lost Cause mythology, Lee was a benevolent slave owner who fought for states’ rights. His slaves said otherwise.
by Glenn David Brasher via The Daily Beast on September 23, 2017
Painting of Hannah.

Hannah, Andrew Jackson’s Slave

A favorite of Old Hickory, she made him seem kinder than he was. Why?
by Mark R. Cheathem via Humanities on March 10, 2014
A crane removes the Robert E. Lee statue from Monument Avenue in Richmond, 2021.

The Question of the Offensive Monument

A new book asks what we lose by simply removing monuments.
by Erin L. Thompson via The Nation on December 5, 2022
"The Washington Family," painting by Edward Savage, c. 1789–1796. (National Gallery of Art)

The Silence of Slavery in Revolutionary War Art

Artists captured and honored the intensity of the American Revolution, but the bravery and role of Black men in the war was not portrayed.
by Edna Gabler via Journal of the American Revolution on July 13, 2021
An illustration of an accordion being played.

The "Good Old Rebel" at the Heart of the Radical Right

How a satirical song mocking uneducated Confederates came to be embraced as an anthem of white Southern pride.
by Joseph M. Thompson via Southern Cultures on January 21, 2021

A Very Lost Cause Love Affair

Is it possible to write a good Civil War romance?
by Sarah Handley-Cousins via Nursing Clio on December 5, 2019

Time to Expose the Women Still Celebrating the Confederacy

The United Daughters of the Confederacy is still a functioning organization with white supremacist roots.
by Kali Holloway via The Daily Beast on November 2, 2018
original

What the Viral Media of the Civil War Era Can Teach Us About Prejudice

A recent photography exhibit at the Getty Center raises difficult questions about our capacity for empathy.
by Allison C. Meier on June 12, 2018

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