Silent Sam

I walk past this statue every day I am on campus at UNC-CH (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill). Today, the weather was just gorgeous again, all the trees in full leaf, the sky that perfect "Carolina blue" and the quality of light full of summer potency.

After lunch, I thought to myself, I should take a picture of this fella' and see what he's all about. Apparently the statue is named "Silent Sam" - he is the depiction of a US Confederate soldier from the Civil War, done by John Wilson. It's located in McCorkle Place which is a big green area full of old trees on the heart of campus. My psychology department is adjacent to this wooded park.

The statue was erected in 1913 - as a kind of memorial to the 321 UNC-CH alumni who died as soldiers during the American Civil War. Because NC was part of the Confederacy, naturally all the soldiers join the C.S.A (Confederate States of America) army. My own great-great grandfather Joel MacCorquodale from Black River, NC, was a Confederate veteran and there was a large battle fought not 10 miles from our ancestral home there in Black River (now Godwin, NC, near Fayetteville where Fort Bragg now is).

Apparently, well over 1000 students from UNC-CH fought in our American Civil War either in the Union or Confederate armies. That means about 40% of the then-extant student body fought in the Civil War .... apparently the highest percentage of any US university at that time. That really puts the intensity of the Civil strife into perspective. The Civil War was not like how wars feel today ... distant and only vaguely self-salient. No, the American Civil War impinged upon every single family, every community, wiping out nearly a whole generation of men.

The South still has not recovered from the Civil War. Of course I don't condone slavery (although my family did own slaves and have a small plantation back in the 17th and 18th centuries of early NC and Virginia). But people so often think about the Civil War as a war against slavery ... and forget the vast economic implications it had. The South is probably the poorest area of the US. Our economy here, still rooted in agriculture, has never managed to fully recover and compete with the industrial North and Midwest.

So when you are judging the South as a bunch of "hicks" - and snort with disdain at how uneducated, backwards, prejudiced, fundamentalist, and racist the South is, please remember it's also in part because we as a region and population were devastated.

Racism is still a large concern here though. It bothers me as a very liberal, socially conscious person to confront bigots and small-minded persons here in my home region - and in my own family. But that's why it's important to recognize the deeper implications and connexions of such bigotry and small mindedness. Yes it must change - but demonizing, stereotyping, and demeaning the South isn't going to help heal the wounds of the South and the racism, poverty and ignorance here.

Empathy, understanding, and better education would go a long way, I suspect.