Scalawag Should Be a Word of Honor
I was telling a liberal friend of mine that I watched the History Channel show of the Lee-Peacock Feud which ended with Scalawag Lewis Peacock being gunned down at his ranch in July 1871 six years after the end of the Civil War. Three gunmen emptied their shotguns into Scalawag Lewis Peacock and since his foot kept on moving then emptied their revolvers into him. He died.
One hundred plus years ago the word “Scalawag” meant a white Southerner who supported northern Reconstruction policies after the American Civil War. Today the primary meaning is rascal or a deceitful and unreliable scoundrel. I made the point to my liberal friend that we should use the word Scalawag as an appellation of honor.
The liberal insisted the definition was and should be “rascal”.
My point was that history has shown the Scalawags on the honorable and correct side of history. In Reconstruction, the Scalawags supported freed slaves and opposed the efforts by Southern states to deny them their civil rights. The Reconstruction policies sought to ensure the freed slaves the right to vote, run for office, be educated, and supported the Freedmen's Bureau efforts to assist former slaves so they could participate in the American economy. During the Reconstruction period, many blacks did serve in the state legislatures and the Congress.
Scalawags were fought by white supremacists who unfortunately prevailed for over 100 years.
Reconstruction did successfully amend the United States Constitution: the Thirteenth, which abolished slavery; the Fourteenth, which granted civil rights to Blacks; and the Fifteenth, which granted them the right to vote. However, that piece of paper did not help much in the South as former slaves and their children were terrorized by white supremacists.
The North won the Civil War, but lost the peace during which blacks were subjugated by segregation and Jim Crow laws.
It does show that terrorists can subjugate moderate people and reign over them for a long period of time. However, with sufficient persistence, right-minded people were able to finally defeat the terrorists and white supremacists in the South so all now have their civil rights protected.
One hundred plus years ago the word “Scalawag” meant a white Southerner who supported northern Reconstruction policies after the American Civil War. Today the primary meaning is rascal or a deceitful and unreliable scoundrel. I made the point to my liberal friend that we should use the word Scalawag as an appellation of honor.
The liberal insisted the definition was and should be “rascal”.
My point was that history has shown the Scalawags on the honorable and correct side of history. In Reconstruction, the Scalawags supported freed slaves and opposed the efforts by Southern states to deny them their civil rights. The Reconstruction policies sought to ensure the freed slaves the right to vote, run for office, be educated, and supported the Freedmen's Bureau efforts to assist former slaves so they could participate in the American economy. During the Reconstruction period, many blacks did serve in the state legislatures and the Congress.
Scalawags were fought by white supremacists who unfortunately prevailed for over 100 years.
Reconstruction did successfully amend the United States Constitution: the Thirteenth, which abolished slavery; the Fourteenth, which granted civil rights to Blacks; and the Fifteenth, which granted them the right to vote. However, that piece of paper did not help much in the South as former slaves and their children were terrorized by white supremacists.
The North won the Civil War, but lost the peace during which blacks were subjugated by segregation and Jim Crow laws.
It does show that terrorists can subjugate moderate people and reign over them for a long period of time. However, with sufficient persistence, right-minded people were able to finally defeat the terrorists and white supremacists in the South so all now have their civil rights protected.
posted by Gene Felder at 9:30 PM
1 Comments:
Trust me it is my friend. It is refreshing to see somebody that know the real meaning of the word.
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