Were African Americans considered the enemy in American history or in the Civil War? 

If they were the enemy there is a reason much of their tragic history is forgotten, covered up, or neglected. 

If they were not the enemy, were they simply not important enough to be honored and spoken of in histories?

We know the answer to this. Their history, their triumphs, their human struggles, were buried by white supremacists who saw Black Americans as less than human, and this only confirms the tragic truth that our nation has continually failed to protect minorities. 

It shows a history of privileged whites stamping out those they consider inferior.

Is racism against black Americans finally over today? 

We live in a world where the current generation of white Americans are unwilling and too cowardly to face the facts of the horrible acts of their ancestors. Racism is in their churches and they refuse to see it. It is in their homes and they welcome it. It is in their schools and they fight to keep their children from hearing the terrible truth. White supremacy has run rampant in America for so long that most don’t want to see its harm, they can’t bare it. So they pretend it doesn’t exist. 

In a world where people are hungry for power, control, and money, I absolutely believe that this battle will never truly be at an end. Like the Republic of America itself, we must continually check the perimeters of our free country for those trying to tear down the fences of equality. Constant honesty, upkeep, and correction will be our savior. When our lives are ending and we pass this world to the next generation, will we look back in peace? The individual conscience will have to answer this question, but I hope to fight this battle while keeping my integrity. This is only way to true inner peace in a tumultuous world. To hell with racism, to hell with white supremacy, to hell with those who seek to harm and take away the rights of others out of fear of losing their treasured, murderous, ill bought, privilege. 

It is amazing to me how often the words of churches, men, and those who claim to  speak for God are linked to white supremacy. 

The words of Southern Confederates pre-date and very often mirror those of Nazi Germany in their ideals about race. 

According to Hitler, it was “the sacred mission of the German people…to assemble and preserve the most valuable racial elements…and raise them to the dominant position.” “All who are not of a good race are chaff,” wrote Hitler. It was necessary for Germans to “occupy themselves not merely with the breeding of dogs, horses, and cats but also with care for the purity of their own blood.”₁

Racism and slavery were absolutely primary causes for the formation of The Confederacy. 

William T. Thompson,  a Savannah editor while talking of the new confederate flag said, 

“As a people we are fighting to maintain the Heaven-ordained supremacy of the white man over the inferior or colored race; a white flag would thus be emblematical of our cause.”₂

Alexander Stephens, Vice President of the Confederacy said the following about their cause.    

“The Confederacy’s] foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests upon the great truth, that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery—subordination to the superior race—is his natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth.”₃

These words also have a long lasting legacy. 

During Federally mandated desegregation Harry Byrd a Virginia senator in 1956 said, 

“If we can organize the Southern states for massive resistance to this order … the rest of the country will realize that racial integration is not going to be accepted in the South.”₄

Reconstruction of the south went poorly and racism became as bad as ever not long after the Civil War. 

Ty Seidule a Professor Emeritus of History at West Point in his book Robert E. Lee and Me said the following. 

“The Lost Cause myth changed not just our memory but our morality, arguing that African Americans were better off in slavery than they were free. Lincoln had it right when he said, “If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong.” Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederacy and a West Point graduate, declared in his turgid and endless memoir that the enslaved were “comfortable and happy.” Margaret Mitchell in Gone With the Wind declared that the better class of the formerly enslaved “scorned” freedom. Slavery, she argued, was for the best.”₅

Why did I write about this subject? 

The following information was taken from the book Robert E. Lee and Me by Ty Seidule. Learning this history nearly broke my heart and loosed my inner rage on this topic. I have written what a general narrative in my own words and will end with a direct quotation from the book. 

In Alexandria Virginia the consequences of slavery are not just for the living. 

Alexandria was once a part of Washington D.C. and was removed just before the civil war. This had horrible consequences for slaves who lived there at the time. Slaves in Alexandria had churches, they could get education, and lived as families. 

After Alexandria was removed and given to the state of Virginia, slaves who lived there lost these freedoms and families were sold off and separated into various parts of the deep south. 

Alexandria was the first location taken back by the U.S. military when the Civil War began. 

After it was taken back it became a safe-haven for slaves who had escaped from the South. 

Even under more favorable circumstances Black Americans were treated as less-than. 

Alexandria during this time period dealt with sickness and disease and many died of sickness there. 

Graveyards were segregated and while graveyards for caucasians were made to last, those of African descent, where graves were marked with wooden crosses and markers, were lost to time. 

It turns out a gas station was built on this grave site.

“In 1987 a local historian found an 1894 article from The Washington Post describing a “graveyard containing defunct colored people [that] was being washed away by the rains and those not washed into the Potomac were ground into fertilizer.” Over the last thirty years, extensive archaeological digs and archival research have identified the cemetery, demolished the gas station, and created a stunning memorial on that location.37 I visited the park recently and it filled me with hope. When we identify our history, we can change the narrative.”₆

Again I ask, why were African Americans treated differently both while alive and in death? 

Here are some words written by men who claimed to speak for God on the subject. Men who spoke for the culture of my childhood. 

Joseph Fielding smith a prophet and known scholar of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints said, “There is a reason why one man is born black and with other disadvantages, while another is born white with great advantages. The reason is that we once had an estate before we came here, and were obedient, more or less, to the laws that were given us there. Those who were faithful in all things there received greater blessings here, and those who were not faithful received less.”₇

Where did men like Joseph Fielding Smith get these ideas? 

In Mormonism’s Negro Doctrine: An Historical Overview It is shown that the church and its leaders made a connection of the Negroes to Cain or Ham and curses were associated with this connection. “It occurred to some that if men were not responsible for Adam’s transgressions, the restrictions on the Negro could not be attributed solely to his genealogy. As early as 1844, Orson Hyde explained the “accursed lineage of Canaan” in terms of the pre-existence: 

“At the tie the devil was cast out of heaven, there were some spirits that did not know who had authority, whether God or the devil. They consequently did not take a very active part on either side, but rather thought the devil had been abused, and considered he had rather the best claim to government. These spirits were not considered worthy of an honorable body on this earth….Now, it would seem cruel to force pure celestial spirits into the world through the lineage of Canaan that had been cursed. This would be ill appropriate, putting the precious and vile together. But those spirits in heaven that lent an influence to the devil, thinking he had a little the best right to govern, but did not take a very active part any way, were required to come into the world and take bodies in the accursed lineage of Canaan; and hence the Negro or African race.”₈

Brigham Young had in his library a book typical to this era: Negro-Mania: Being an Examination of the Falsely Assumed Equality of the Various Races of Men. Brigham Young may have never read this book. “In fact is shows little signs of use. 

This book does show that the “Laws of nature” as used in The Declaration of Independence were interpreted  in the same way by most Americans, Mormons included. The Negro race was seen as inferior to others.”₉

Brigham Young two years after Abraham Lincoln’s emancipation proclamation said the following. 

“Will the present struggle free the slave? No, but they are now wasting away the black race by thousands…

Treat the slaves kindly and let them live, for Ham must be the servant of servants until the curse is removed. Can you destroy the decrees of the Almighty? You cannot. Yet our Christian brethren think they are going to overthrow the sentence of the Almighty upon the seed of Ham. They cannot do that, though they may kill them by thousands and tens of thousands.”

Treat the slaves kindly and let them live, for Ham must be the servant of servants until the curse is removed. Can you destroy the decrees of the Almighty? You cannot. Yet our Christian brethren think they are going to overthrow the sentence of the Almighty upon the seed of Ham. They cannot do that, though they may kill them by thousands and tens of thousands.”₁₀

This essay is not meant to pick on any one group of people. It is abundantly clear that looking at African Americans as “less-than” has occurred often in America. It is also clear that there have always been a few voices speaking out against slavery and racism. 

I do however find it very troubling that those who claim to speak for God often (Not always) are the last to embrace progress and equality. Men like these commonly have a God who hates the same people they hate. 

To me the greatest tragedy of America is that our country and its cause for independence became official with these words, 

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” 

Even with words like this as a guide we Americans have still continuously failed to ensure that these words ring out true to ALL who live within the borders of our country. 

I for one am NOT okay with this. I do not accept this as the default state of this country. It has become abundantly clear in history that humans can be talked into doing terrible things. While I do not believe a perfect Utopia is possible, I believe that humanity can be encouraged to improve, to learn from the past, and even to seek continuous improvement. It should become the duty of every American to be guardians of equal rights. 

In America some have always been “less-equal” than others. 

Why are white Americans so scared of becoming a minority in America? 

One can be sure of one thing, when a group of people are accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression. 

1. Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf(August Pries GmbH. Leipzig, 2016)EPUB  

            Chapter 11. Nation and Race

2. Ty Seidule, Robert E. Lee and Me (St. Martin’s Publishing Group, Macmillan, 2021)EPUB

    Chapter 1. My Childhood: Raise on a White Southern Myth

3. Ty Seidule, Robert E. Lee and Me (St. Martin’s Publishing Group, Macmillan, 2021) EPUB

  Chapter 1. My Childhood: Raise on a White Southern Myth

4. Ty Seidule, Robert E. Lee and Me (St. Martin’s Publishing Group, Macmillan, 2021) EPUB

    Chapter 2. My Hometown: A Hidden History of Slavery, Jim Crow, and Integration

5. Ty Seidule, Robert E. Lee and Me (St. Martin’s Publishing Group, Macmillan, 2021)EPUB

    Chapter 1. My Childhood: Raise on a White Southern Myth

6. Ty Seidule, Robert E. Lee and Me (St. Martin’s Publishing Group, Macmillan, 2021) EPUB

    Chapter 2. My Hometown: A Hidden History of Slavery, Jim Crow, and Integration

7. Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation Volume One (Book craft, SLC, 1954)
8. Lester E. Bush Jr., Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought Vol. 34, No. 1/2 (Spring/Sum 2001)Pg. 253-54
9. Lester E. Bush Jr., Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought Vol. 34, No. 1/2 (Spring/Sum 2001) Pg. 256-57
10. Lester E. Bush Jr., Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought Vol. 34, No. 1/2 (Spring/Sum 2001) Pg. 258