TNC's Civil War Research Circle

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I am also very interested in the people who lived in that time, in the ground level experience of slavery, the Civil War and Reconstruction. Moving toward that discussion, let us consider the following resolved:
1.) Slavery was an evil oppressive institution.
2.) African-Americans, as a people, did not like being slaves, (I hate having to say that) and resisted slavery in various ways throughout the period of their enslavement.
3.) The unifying cause of the Confederacy was slavery.
4.) Primary documents are useful, but like all sources, limited. They are helpful and useful, but not God's word.
These points--in this space--are officially beyond the realm of debate. We can come back and tease them out. We can examine how they proceed in interesting directions. But we don't need to repeatedly reaffirm them points. In our discussions--as we conversate forward--they are the baseline. They are the given.
--- Ta-Nehisi Coates
  1. October 2, 2008 -- About that John Brown Analogy
  2. October 15, 2008 -- A Rambling Post on Race and History
  3. November 17, 2008 -- Team of Bitter Enemies
  4. December 12, 2008 -- Pragmatism and Evil
  5. December 15, 2008 -- Naming Parks after Klan Founders
  6. April 22, 2009 -- Capitol Men
  7. April 23, 2009 -- The Problem of King, Obama, and Heroic History
  8. April 27, 2009 -- The Civil War Wasn't about Slavery
  9. April 28, 2009 -- Ill Visions
  10. April 28, 2009 -- Heritage not Hate
  11. April 29, 2009 -- A Black Man on White People's Money
  12. April 29, 2009 -- The Battle Flag
  13. April 30, 2009 -- The Book List
  14. June 2, 2009 -- Personhood
  15. June 5, 2009 -- John Brown, Abortion, And The Limits Of Historical Analogy
  16. June 5, 2009 -- Rambling about Reading
  17. June 8, 2009 -- History through the Veil
  18. June 8, 2009 -- Where Comic Book and Civil War Nerds Meet
  19. June 9, 2009 -- For the Slavery/Civil War/Reconstruction Buff in You
  20. June 9, 2009 -- Something to Consider
  21. June 11, 2009 -- Don't Marry a Writer
  22. June 17, 2009 -- Bottom Rail on Top
  23. June 17, 2009 -- Nathan Bedford Forrest Has Beautiful Eyes
  24. June 17, 2009 -- One Last Civil War Thought for the Day
  25. June 18, 2009 -- Thank Him for Taking the Pistol from You
  26. June 19, 2009 -- Rambling about the Language of Slaves
  27. June 19, 2009 -- Senate Apologizes for Slavery
  28. June 23, 2009 -- In Every Black Man's Eyes -- Death to the Rebel
  29. June 24, 2009 -- Leaving the Lost Cause to Others
  30. June 24, 2009 -- Homecoming
  31. July 2, 2009 -- The Lincoln Connection
  32. July 3, 2009 -- The Practical Limits of Knowledge
  33. July 6, 2009 -- A People's History of the Civil War
  34. July 6, 2009 -- Obsessed with the Accidental War for the Freedom of Black People
  35. July 9, 2009 -- Dumb Question Time
  36. July 10, 2009 -- Civil War Booklist
  37. July 14, 2009 -- The War inside the Civil War
  38. July 14, 2009 -- Civil War/Slavery Readings
  39. July 15, 2009 -- The Year of Lincoln
  40. July 15, 2009 -- The Myth of Black Confederate Soldiers
  41. July 16, 2009 -- The War Against Spousal Agression
  42. July 17, 2009-- If You Got a Racist Mind
  43. July 21, 2009 -- Race in 2028
  44. July 22, 2009 -- Taking Myself Way Too Seriously
  45. July 30, 2009 -- The Civil War Report
  46. July 31, 2009 -- Confederate Emancipation and Gay Marriage
  47. August 5, 2009 -- In the Name of White Divinity
  48. August 7, 2009-- Only Built for Civil War
  49. August 7, 2009 -- The Day They Drove Old Dixie Down
  50. August 12, 2009 -- The South Rises Again
  51. August 17, 2009 -- Virginia I: Petersburg
  52. August 17, 2009 -- Virginia II: Richmond
  53. August 19, 2009 -- Virginia III: Shirley on the James
  54. August 19, 2009 -- In the Mail Today
  55. August 21, 2009 -- Virginia IV: The Wilderness
  56. August 21, 2009 -- The Wit and Witticism of Slaves<
  57. August 25, 2009 -- A Little More on Virginia
  58. September 10, 2009 -- You Lie Part 3
  59. September 10, 2009 -- The Civilized World
  60. September 11, 2009 -- And South Carolina Shall Rise Again
  61. October 7, 2009 -- Some Vaguely Coherent Thoughts
  62. December 8, 2009 -- The Magical Negro Extended
  63. December 29, 2009 -- With a Little Help from my Historian Friends
  64. December 30, 2009 -- A Shocking Reversal
  65. January/Februrary 2010 -- Walmart and the Civil War
  66. January 4, 2010 -- Not Picking a Fight
  67. January 4, 2010 -- 2009 A Memoir
  68. January 5, 2010 -- From New Market Road to the Wilderness
  69. January 6, 2010 -- Classic Material
  70. January 7, 2010 -- Billy Dee Williams Says "Be a Credit to your Race..."
  71. January 12, 2010 -- Southern Road
  72. January 13, 2010 -- Professional Bigot Pat Robertson Does it Again
  73. January 20, 2010 -- Again with the Black Confederates
  74. January 25, 2010 -- Your Chance to Go to School on TNC
  75. February 5, 2010 -- The Big Machine
  76. February 9, 2010 -- How We Read
  77. Febrary 11, 2010 -- There Are No Desperados. There Will Be No Rosewood
  78. March 18, 2010 -- OK, This Is Just Wrong
  79. March 22, 2010 -- Civil War Fact Check
  80. March 31, 2010 -- I Just Got Grant's Memoirs in the Mail
  81. April 2, 2010 -- An Absurdist Take on Both Sides
  82. April 2, 2010 -- The Victors Write History
  83. April 7, 2010 -- Proud of Being Ignorant
  84. April 7, 2010 -- Proud of Being Wise
  85. April 8, 2010 -- Hair Tonic and Alchemy
  86. April 9, 2010 -- One Last Thought on McDonnell and Confederate History
  87. April 12, 2010 -- Haley Barbour Doubles Down
  88. April 13, 2010 -- The Ghost of Bobby Lee
  89. April 14, 2010 -- When You Don't Honor The Confederacy The Terrorists Win
  90. April 14, 2010 -- Heroic Memory
  91. April 14, 2010 -- Honoring Confederate History Month: One Drop
  92. April 15, 2010 -- There Are Always More of Them before They Are Counted
  93. April 16, 2010 -- Honoring Confederate History Month: One Drop, cont.
  94. April 16, 2010 -- Honoring Confederate History Month: One War Three Sides
  95. April 16, 2010 -- The Wit and Wisdom of US Grant
  96. April 22, 2010 -- Commemorating Confederate History Month: The Jourdan Anderson Edition
  97. April 22, 2010 -- One of Those Days
  98. April 21, 2010 -- Commemorating Confederate History Month: White Supremacy Killed Lincoln
  99. April 21, 2010 -- Commemorating Confederate History Month: Grant on the Early Days of the Lost Cause
  100. April 16, 2010 -- Honoring Confederate History Month
  101. April 28, 2010 -- Grant on Slavery
  102. April 27, 2010 -- Civil War Nerdism
  103. April 27, 2010 -- Commemorating Confederate History Month: The Fourth Side
  104. April 26, 2010 -- Commemorating Confederate History Month: Remixing the Flag of Treason
  105. April 23, 2010 -- Commemorating Confederate History Month: They Too Needed Emancipation
  106. May 1, 2010 -- Go to School on TNC: Fredericksburg
  107. May 3, 2010 -- "Ifs" Defeated The Confederates at Shiloh
  108. May 3, 2010 -- Commemorating Confederate History Month: Terrorism
  109. May 5, 2010 --CHM Epilogue: Cassius Clay
  110. May 10, 2010 -- Confederate History Month Epilogue: The Spotswood Rice Edition
  111. May 14, 2010 --Serious Gaming
  112. May 18, 2010 --'Strangers Crowded His Open Coffin...'
  113. May 25, 2010 --The Wit and Wisdom Of U.S. Grant
  114. May 25, 2010 --Radical Hindsight
  115. May 27, 2010 --The Superior Military Genius of Jefferson Davis
  116. May 31, 2010 --Sacrifice
  117. June 1, 2010 --How Did Ulysses Grant Become a Caricature?
  118. June 10, 2010 --Talk to Me Like I'm Stupid: Hunting in the Late Antebellum Era
  119. June 11, 2010 --On 19th Century Hunting
  120. June 22, 2010 --'Battle Cry of Freedom' Discussion Group
  121. June 24, 2010 --Slaves Who Liked Slavery
  122. June 25, 2010 --Walking the Blood
  123. June 28, 2010 --These Are Our Overstated Years
  124. June 28, 2010 --The Civil War on Tape
  125. June 29, 2010 --These Are the Last Days of U.S. Grant
  126. June 29, 2010 --Advice From the Pros
  127. June 20, 2010 --'Battle Cry of Freedom' Discussion Group, Chs. 7 and 8
  128. June 25, 2010 --Conversating Forward
  129. June 21, 2010 --This Is a Man's War
  130. June, 2010 --The Civil War as Revenge of the Nerds
  131. June, 2010 --The Readers You Want
  132. June, 2010 --Because There Are No Racists...
  133. June, 2010 --The Miscegenation Ball
  134. June, 2010 --Ulysses Grant, Trouble Man
  135. June, 2010 --Uncle Billy's Racism
  136. June, 2010 --The Wilderness Campaign
  137. June, 2010 --Crowdsourcing the Civil War
  138. June, 2010 --Rolling Through Jordan
  139. June, 2010 --Especially the Blacks and the Irish
  140. June, 2010 --Especially the Blacks and the Irish, Cont.
  141. July, 2010 --Effete Liberal Book Club: Chapters 13 and 14
  142. July, 2010 --What Cotton Hath Wrought
  143. July, 2010 --Race, Forgetting, and the Law
  144. July, 2010 --Bullets in the Dining Room Table and Such
  145. July, 2010 --No Power in the Verse Can Stop Me
  146. July, 2010 --On Lacking All Conviction
  147. July, 2010 --Signed, Little Girl, Cont.
  148. July, 2010 --Effete Liberal Book Club: Chapters 10 and 11
  149. July 13, 2010 --Effete Liberal Book Club: Chapters 9 and 10
  150. July, 2010 --The Language Police
  151. July, 2010 --Effete Liberal Book Club
  152. July, 2010 --Primary Sources
  153. July, 2010 --U.S. Grant on the Move
  154. July, 2010 --"Battle Cry of Victory" Discussion Group, Chapters Ch. 7 and 8
  155. August, 2010 --A Soldier Looks at Politics
  156. Augsut, 2010 --They Lay as Thick as Autumn Leaves
  157. August, 2010 --Union Solider Recounts the Burning of Atlanta
  158. August, 2010 --Arlington, Bobby Lee and the Peculiar Institution
  159. August, 2010 --Endorsement Deals
  160. August, 2010 --The Woods
  161. August, 2010 --The Woods, Cont.
  162. August, 2010 --Effete Liberal Book Club, Chapters 20-21
  163. August, 2010 --One Envies the Distinguished Dust
  164. August, 2010 --You Are Not Harriet Tubman
  165. August, 2010 --Effete Liberal Book Club: Chapters 15 and 16
  166. August, 2010 --You Are Not Harriet Tubman, Cont.
  167. August, 2010 --'Union Solider Recounts the Burning of Atlanta'
  168. August, 2010 --'Reb Considers Grant'
  169. August, 2010 --'He Died Without a Struggle'
  170. August, 2010 --A Soldier Looks at Politics
  171. August, 2010 --'They Lay as Thick as Autumn Leaves'
  172. August, 2010 --Susie King Taylor
  173. August, 2010 --Reporting to the Generalissimo's Tent
  174. August, 2010 --Small Truth Papering Over a Big Lie
  175. August, 2010 --"We Have Received Provocation Enough"
  176. August, 2010 --Effete Liberal Book Club, Chapters 17-19
  177. August, 2010 --A History of Deceitful Hopes
  178. August, 2010 --'We Are All Officers Now'
  179. August, 2010 --The Great Lie
  180. August, 2010 --Arlington, Bobby Lee, and the 'Peculiar Institution'
  181. August, 2010 --The Woods
  182. Agusut 16, 2010 -- The Woods, cont.
  183. August 17, 2010 -- The Effete Liberal Book Club Chapters 21-22
  184. August 20, 2010 -- Endorsement Deals
  185. August 20, 2010 -- Andrew Jackson's America
  186. August 23, 2010 -- The Woods
  187. August 31, 2010 --What Hath Feminism Wrought
  188. August 31, 2010 --Effete Liberal Book Club: Chapters 24-26
  189. September 2, 2010 --Effete Liberal Book Club: Next Up
  190. September 7, 2010 --Effete Liberal Book Club: The End
  191. September 15, 2010 --What Hath Ladyhood Wrought
  192. September 15, 2010 --The Business of War
  193. September 17, 2010 --Compassion
  194. September 27, 2010 --Stolen Legacy
  195. September 24, 2010 --The End of Confederate History Month
  196. October 1, 2010 -- Not Quite To Terms with the Civil War
  197. October 5, 2010 --Northeastern Intellectual
  198. October 6, 2010 -- Why Are Black People so Forgiving
  199. October 13, 2010 --A Post That Does Not End Where It Starts
  200. October 19, 2010 --An Intellectual History
  201. October 20, 2010 -- Understanding Virginia's History Textbook Lie by Cynic
  202. --