Contemporary Conflict

                       For this blog entry I like to go back to my original theme of relating old issues of war to the modern-day. In the Humanities Core lecture that I that I’m attending, some interesting points have been brought up about how the Civil War will be remembered. Professor Alice Fahs, of University of California Irvine has gathered opinions on this subject, and states that “As many historians have pointed out, although the North won the war, by the turn of the century the South had in many ways won the battle for the memory of the war. Thus, history and memory radically diverged” (Fahs).

ISIS fighters in Ramadi ~ Associated Press

                       After reflecting on this topic thought, I considered what wars or conflicts, that taken place over my lifetime, have had a lasting impact, and will be remembered in the future as such. The most notable war is likely the United States invasion of Iraq, and subsequent invasion of other Middle Eastern states. Despite this conflict happening at the beginning of my adolescence, I cannot think of a more contemporary and pervasive military conflict happening than the Islamic State that has been seizing land in Iraq, Syria, and other parts of the Middle East.

ISIS militants are fighting government forces in Syria~ Associated Press

                       Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, also known as ISIS or ISIL, has fiercely taken over towns, cities, and portions of countries. I talked about the history behind the Islamic State’s policies in my very first blog post, but their legacy is something that I briefly touched on. The Real Clear World made a rather bold statement saying that, “The Islamic State will die only when the Middle East is reborn.” They do go on to say that this will not happen in the near future, if it is to happen at all, but with the way that relations in the area have come to be it could very well happen.

                        With ISIS strongholds being contested by recent strategic attacks by local and western military, there is a chance that the caliphate may fall in the near future. ISIS faces growing challenges as they move on to Iraq’s capital, Baghdad and Iraq's Shia south or against the Kurds. They are now threatening an oil exporter, and challenging Iran, and threating to seize other states in the Gulf States. This may force rival states to work together to fight against a common enemy. “Oil is simply too important to let ISIS seize all of Iraq, although creating any kind of unified front or rapid effective resistance to this level of ISIS gains does not seem likely” (Cordsman). As ISIS moves forward, with their stagey with success, they could be a permanent fixture in the future of the Middle East and beyond.

                      

Works Cited

Cordsman, Anthony. "Viewpoint: ISIS Goals and Possible Future Gains - BBC News."

                       BBC News. BBC World News, 12 June 2014. Web. 30 Jan. 2016

Fahs, Alice. "Picturing the Civil War 4: The Memory of the War – Picturing US

History." Picturing US History All. American Social History Project, 16 June 2013. Web. 30 Jan. 2016.

Miller, Aaron David. "5 Reasons the U.S. Cannot Defeat ISIS." 5 Reasons the U.S.

                       Cannot Defeat ISIS. Real Clear World, 6 June 2015. Web. 30 Jan. 2016.

 

Searching Through Seas

Charlie Smith, 1976. Photograph by Peggy Kehoe

            Last week’s entry took a deep look into the relation between imagery and peoples beliefs. For today’s entry I hope to do the same, by bringing back my central goal of relating the topic of discussion to modern beliefs. I will be talking about Charlie Smith’s interview with the Library of Congress that took place during March 17, 1975.

In this interview he talks about the direct contact and relations that he had with other African people, being brought on boats to serve as slaves and how they interacted with him.

            Elmer Sparks, opens up with the following question,

            “…Mr. Smith, what is your full name?”

            To this question Mr. Smith is a lengthy reply. He talks about s the circumstances under which he got on the boat that I brought him to America, along with the conditions and situations he faced on the boat that came over from Galina, Africa.

            The circumstances under which Mr. Smith was brought to the United States were rather odd. He details an account where he asked his mother if he could see the white man landing on shore, and the next thing he knew he was asked to go down the hatch hole of the boat. This makes it clear that he did not have the permission of his mother to go on the boat and that he was largely taken against his will. This appears to have been the case for a lot of Africans that were brought to America as slaves and those were sold as slaves across the continent.

            On the topic of selling slaves, who were brought onto the boats, Mr. Smith that has a rather startling account of the process. He says that all the slaves were constantly harassed while they were on the boat and were threatened with even worse. He was taunted with a variety of punishments by the white ship crew, and was even threaten to be thrown overboard. The actual sales were took place in South Africa. The people who captured the slaves would placed them one by one, regardless of family or grouping, and selling off to the highest bidder.

         

Selling of Slaves ~ Bristol Radical History Group

   After being sold to a slave master that was located in New Orleans, Louisiana, Mr. Smith talks about what would happen to slaves that had run away. He talks about how individual or groups of slave masters would put bounties on a slave or multiple slaves, had their escaped together.

“…[the slave owners], put out the five hundred dollar reward anybody would go get him. There was six men right at the line of the states. You had to get your authorities from them to go over there. Everybody go over there and get them five…hundred dollars, them mens would kill them. Kill them. [unintelligible] They'd kill you.”

With the immense amount of mental and physical abuse of slaves had to endure, it shape their cultural identity in a very unique way. Old tales tell of slaves singing songs together, well working in the fields, and even teaching each other how to read and write. All of this symbiotic behavior appears to have stemmed from the fact that they were stripped of their identities. Their names were changed to that of their masters, their local language had changed, and working with each other was all they had.

           

Works Cited

Sparks, Elmer. "Interview with Charlie Smith, Bartow, Florida, March 17,

1975." The Library of Congress. Library of Congress, 17 Mar. 1975. Web. 24 Jan. 2016.

Cartooning Separation

 Deviating slightly from my normal theme of relating wartime writing to the modern day, I will be exploring how imagery from the Civil War shaped cultural values of the period. Though there are lots of very stunning and historically relevant photos from the civil war, I will be exploring the cartoons and illustrations from the period. The Civil War illustrations are some of the most accurate representations of American’s feelings at the time, while revealing undertones of thought and discrimination.

The source for a lot of the Civil War cartoons is Harper’s Weekly. Harper’s Weekley began publication in 1857 as "a journal of civilization", and contained notable coverage of the US Civil War” (Online Books Page). 

A Man Knows A Man - April 22nd, 1865     Harper's Weekly

                  The first image I would like to look at is a Harpers Weekly illustration titled, A Man Knows A Man. Both the image and the caption are quite powerful in conveying the message of equality and sacrifice. The caption says, “’Give me your had, Comrade! We have lost a leg fro the good cause: but, thank GOD, we have never lost HEART.’” Military service was seen as a “rite of passage” that turned boys into men, particularly during the time of the Civil War. Physical scarring or maiming served as the visible symbol of manhood tested and earned through combat. The message of white and black Union soldiers having made the same sacrifice not only proves that they are equal in manhood, but equal as human beings.
            Despite the largely positive nature of the illustration, it is not entirely accurate with regards to African American involvement with the Union army. Although black men volunteered to serve in the Union armed forces as soon as the Civil War began, many of them were rejected due to a federal law from 1792, which prohibited blacks from bearing arms in the United States military. Even though the Union army was fighting for the emancipation of Blacks, they were still quite prejudiced. Black servicemen were segregated from whites in special "colored" units under the leadership of white officers. In addition, black servicemen were also paid less than their white soldiers of equal rank. A black soldier would make $7 per month versus $13 of his white counterpart (HarpWeek).
            The next illustration comes from Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper. Leslie’s paper often took a strongly patriotic stance and frequently featured cover pictures of soldiers and heroic battle stories.
           

Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper  October 26th, 1861

The image is captioned, “Dark artillery; or how to make the contraband useful.” The origin of the term “contraband” comes from the Fort Monroe Doctrine. Escaped slaves who made their way to Union lines were declared as “contrabands of war,” and not subject to return to their confederate owners. As contraband, runaway Blacks were taken in by the Union Army to serve as field laborers, construction workers, domestic workers, and in a variety of tasks that paralleled their prior status as slaves.

As this cartoon further illustrates, racism was most definitely not confined to the South. Just as the previous image showed comfortable race relations between the white and black soldier, it did not speak to all the underlying policies that Union soldiers employed to further promote segregation and prejudice. Exposing these kinds underlying ideas is the reason that I chose to write this entry about illustrations from the Civil War. It promotes further investigation, while providing the initial platform for research.

Works Cited

"Frank Leslie's Weekly 1852-1922." Accessible Archives Inc. Accessible Archives, n.d. Web. 8 Jan.

2016. "

HarpWeek: Cartoon of the Day." HarpWeek: Cartoon of the Day. Harpers Weekley, 22 Apr. 1865. Web. 8

Jan. 2016.

"The Online Books Page." Harper's Weekly Archives. University of Pennsylvania, n.d. Web. 9 Jan. 2016.