Black Confederate Myth?

Were “black Confederates” a myth?

If you listen to Kevin Levin, then yes. In fact, he wrote an entire polemic, published by the University of North Carolina Press, on the topic.

Problem is, he didn’t really write on the topic.

Most of the book is a screed against “neo-Confederates” and in particular the UDC, SCV, and UCV and anyone who dares utter a sentence that might be construed as “Lost Cause” mythology.

This New Englander decided to write the book because he was concerned that too many Americans believed that black people actually served the Confederacy in some capacity and that organizations like the SCV wrote that there were, in fact, black Confederate soldiers! Gasp!

This irritated his righteous cause Yankee mentality, and it had to be disproved.

Levin centers his argument on semantics. You see, until 1865, the Confederate government did not recognize blacks as soldiers, even if they did things soldiers do. In fact, they vehemently rejected the notion that blacks were serving in the army.

That is Levin’s proof. That’s it.

Even when he found that blacks wore the uniform or did things that soldiers do, they didn’t willingly do this because they were slaves. Slaves can’t do things willingly so they weren’t soldiers.

I wonder about conscripts in the Union army?

If slaves or free blacks seemed to do something in favor of the Confederacy or white Southerners in general, he chalks it up to coercion or some self-interested motivation.

For a book that purports to be searching for black Confederates, Levin didn’t do a whole lot of searching. The first three chapters are based almost exclusively on secondary sources. Those are the chapters that document the “myth” of black Confederates. It’s hard to take someone seriously who didn’t do any serious research.

One chapter in particular had me laughing out loud. Levin cites his own articles as evidence in nearly half the notes. And by articles I mean blog posts.

But it’s peer reviewed, something Levin proudly states any time you attack this worthless piece of garbage.

So what? Most of his “peers” are also worthless establishment hacks who agree with him based on ideology and not evidence.

I have one question in particular for Levin: why does he want to deny black people their history? If in fact many blacks served the Confederacy in some fashion, even as slaves, why does he want to tell them their story doesn’t matter? That seems very racist.

Simple answer, because that is what Yankee imperialists do.

But since Levin keeps insisting I haven’t read his book, I decided to review it on episode 613 of The Brion McClanahan Show.