Difference between revisions of "471A3--Week 4 Questions/Comments--Thursday"
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Do you think a symbol such as the John Brown Fort has a rightful place among the memorialization of the Civil War? Do you think that since white people had thier own monuments African Americans were entitled to also have something that could be viewed as a "symbol of their abolitionist struggle?" (pg. 65) -Avanness | Do you think a symbol such as the John Brown Fort has a rightful place among the memorialization of the Civil War? Do you think that since white people had thier own monuments African Americans were entitled to also have something that could be viewed as a "symbol of their abolitionist struggle?" (pg. 65) -Avanness | ||
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| + | Shackel discusses the lack of interpretation of the John Brown Fort, and how it is left to the individual park interpreters. Lacking the experience of actually going to the fort, what are the ways in which the interpretation of the John Brown Fort may be improved? -DRadtke | ||
How do you think ex African American Union soldiers, newly freed black people, and black people in general during the late 1800s felt about the Shaw Memorial? Especially since it was supposed to be honoring a group of black soldiers yet was named only after their white leader and hardly even featured the black soldiers? Why do you think people didn't question it sooner? Do you think they were happy just to be included at all? -Avanness | How do you think ex African American Union soldiers, newly freed black people, and black people in general during the late 1800s felt about the Shaw Memorial? Especially since it was supposed to be honoring a group of black soldiers yet was named only after their white leader and hardly even featured the black soldiers? Why do you think people didn't question it sooner? Do you think they were happy just to be included at all? -Avanness | ||
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| + | Is it the location or the building that is revered by visitors? The John Brown Fort was dismantled and rebuilt in several different places. Each time bricks would be stolen by scavengers so that the Fort is now made up of mostly new bricks rather than the ones in the fort at the time of John Brown’s raid. I feel as if the specialness is kind of ruined if the historic building is simply a reproduction or even moved to a different location. –Megan Mc. | ||
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| + | The Heyward Shepherd memorial became a symbol of the Lost Cause and the embodiment of the former southern class system, ie. slaves subordinate to the Southern whites. Why do you think groups like the UDC and SCV were motivated and persistent in commemorating/displaying a monument of this particular moment in Civil War history? How do you think confederate veterans would have felt about this monument? -ABratchie | ||
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| + | John Brown's Fort exchanged many hands during its movement from West Virginia, to Chicago and back to West Virginia. What role do you think this movement and reassembling of the fort did to the memory of the event? Also, the fort was symbolic for African Americans as a symbol of their struggle for freedom and equality. Do think this was lost at all during its various moves and rebuilding? -ABratchie | ||
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| + | Some members of the African American committee who discussed updating the Shaw memorial were against the addition of the names of the individual members of the regiment, saying that their absence would serve as a "reminder of the racial prejudice that had characterized the late 19th century" (137), something that apparently was not suggested concerning the recently ongoing controversy surrounding the Shepherd memorial. Is there anything different about these two circumstances or monuments? --Erin B. | ||
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| + | The introduction of African American troops troops into the Civil War was influential in changing the tide of the war onto the Union possessing the advantage but despite this there is a lack of Civil War monuments dedicated to African Americans. Why were there so few Civil War monuments dedicated to African Americans erected?- Nick | ||
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| + | What did Shaw mean to northerners? Why would a memorial be built for him, and why would he be so celebrated even during a time when north and south were focused on rreconciliation instead of the war's moral cause, when any emancipationist motivation for the war was being downplayed? -GStan. | ||
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| + | Is it better to leave monuments as they were originally erected in order to preserve the history of "memory" or should monuments be updated in order to be more inclusive and appropriate?- aaskins | ||
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| + | This reading has illustrated among many things, that blacks have not been paid due homage with monuments. How else (not monuments) has their memory been preserved and honored?- aaskins | ||
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| + | We tend to view the Shaw story as one about a heroic act (starting an African American regiment) amid a sea of racial and sectional tensions. Is this reputation deserved? We have become accustomed to cynicism regarding the motives of others in the study of Civil War memory. Is this one of the few that is cut-and-dry? -DRadtke | ||
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| + | Heyward Shepard was a /freeman/ when he was killed, why was his death used to support the Faithful Slave monument at Harper’s Ferry? –Megan Mc. | ||
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| + | How successful is the author in presenting the differing views of Saint-Gaudens Shaw Memorial? What opinion have you formed of the memorial? -- R.King | ||
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| + | Do the United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Sons of Confederate Veterans truly believe their own rhetoric? -- R.King | ||
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| + | On page 107 the author quotes Viginia H. Sollers-Hoffmaster of the UDC, "I cannot imagine how long it will take to educate so-called historians that one cannot, I repeat, cannot re-write or alter history." Isn't that what the UDC and SCV are all about? Rewriting history to justify their lost cause? -- R.King | ||
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| + | On page 59 the the author talks about the Baltimore & Ohio Railroads plans to move their railroad tracks and that they would them cut through the John Brown's Fort, was this decision made because they saw little value in preserving it? Why would they then a year later offer to move it back to Harpers Ferry from Chicago and rebuild it near it's original site? --R. King | ||
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| + | The moving of the John Brown fort all around the country reminds me of the story of Davis and Lincoln’s log cabins. Like the John Brown fort they to were bought and sold. They also were put on display and shown in different parts of the country. They were disassembled and put together so many times that the logs got mixed up. Both cabins are mixed together now. Why has Harper Ferry become the Colonial Williamsburg of Civil War sites? Logan T | ||
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| + | Why is the 54th Massachusetts regiment the only black regiment remembered when talking about the Civil War? Like the book said there were other black regiments before the 54th. There were black regiments making assaults against Port Hudson just as heroic in Louisiana around the same time. Why have we chosen to remember the 54th incorrectly? The 54th was made up entirely of free blacks that had never been slaves. The War department did not trust ex slaves as soldiers because of an irrational fear that slaves would not fight against there owners and could be convinced by them to quit the army. The 54th was made of smart men that had a literacy rate higher than most confederate regiments. Why has this part of the 54th memory been forgotten? Logan T | ||
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| + | Is Shackel's description of the John Brown Fort as a civil war memorial correct? It was certainly an abolitionist monument and occured around the same time but the even was two years too early for it to have occured during the civil war and, aside from being a rallying point for northern troops, wasn't a important place during the war. AJ L. | ||
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| + | On pg 107, I find the comment by Virginia H. Sollers-Hoffmaster of the UDC very amusing. She comments that she is outraged that the monument dedicated to Heyward Shepherd is covered at that moment in time and how questioned how long it would take historians to realize they couldn't simply rewrite history (referring to the argument of what should be done with the Monument), however the monument itself was essentially an attempt to rewrite history by the Confederate veterans societies by trying to cast slavery in the south in a different light than what it was truly like. AJ L. | ||
