Heathen Yankee sacrifice?

Well, Zoe, all I can say is that it was truly astonishing how more people sang along with “Will My Soul Pass the South Land?” than any other song performed all afternoon, even though some were popular enough they were performed by more than one band. At least in the circles attending this festival, it was clearly a #1 hit.

If we let Confederate flags chase us off, we wouldn’t have survived long in the past 20 years. There have been lots of places we’ve gone to where clearly we were out of our <ahem> social circles, , but how are you going to learn about the world if you run away from people who think differently than you do? (Although I will admit the back road in southern Virginia where every other trailer had rows of barrels, each with its fighting rooster chained to it, was more than a little spooky!) Sometimes you just go with the flow and laugh at what a duck out of water you are! And I’ve figured out that in the South, I am definitely a duck out of water!

Mama Tiger,

There’s a CD my brother burned for me that you’d probably find interesting. I will find out the information on it for you if you like.

It’s R&B classics, done bluegrass style.

Signed, Sealed, Delivered.
When a Man Loves a Woman
Reach Out

Whole bunch more. It is simply amazing. And it will make your head spin.

When he’s back from this road trip (musician, blues) i’ll find out the band and how/where he got it.

Thanks, thatDD, sounds interesting! I always enjoy interesting versions of songs, but hadn’t run across any recordings in the bluegrass vein before.

One of our favorite groups here in Louisiana is a group of octegenarians and nonegenarians, the Hackberry Ramblers, who’ve been playing together for 78 years now, but who have updated their performances with their Cajun/western swing versions of more modern songs such as CC Rider and Proud Mary. There’s nothing like watching a 90-year-old man belting out Proud Mary to make you feel really, really young again!

It may have been a local thing. I would be interested in seeing the origin/lyrics of it if you have a link.

I assume you mean differently from. :wink: Teaching was one way for me; having African-American students and Klan students in the same classroom is something to behold! Familiarity with the history is another. SDMB is still another. And of course there are always friends who differ. The Little United Nations that I live in is another. Education, travel, reading have all been helpful.

[quote]
If we let Confederate flags chase us off, we wouldn’t have survived long in the past 20 years.

[quote]

So I guess you already knew what to expect and your OP question about “why” was rhetorical.

Totally rhetorical. That’s why I was kinda surprised to be jumped so hard. I mean, if I seriously didn’t like that attitude, I wouldn’t have stayed in the South so long. But just because I don’t understand something doesn’t mean I’m not capable of living alongside it quite comfortably.

I have no idea where that song came from; I’ll see if I can dig it out. Be warned, though, it’s painfully syrupy, on top of its partisan origins.

And thanks for the grammar correction. :smiley:

I’m not a Southerner but in Ken Burns’ The Civil War, Shelby Foote (a Mississippian, I believe) says, “As a Southerner, I would say that one of the main importances of the war is that Southerners have a sense of defeat which none of the rest of the country has.”

Also, 150 years really isn’t that long ago when you think about it. My ancestors who fought in that war (for the North) are only four generations back. I have living relatives for whom it’s only two generations back.

I think, in at least one state, one in four of the male population of fighting age died. Not one in four soldiers, but one in four of the general male population of that age. Add the loss of life to the general destruction and hardship the South went through that the North didn’t have to deal with, only to have it all be for naught. The North lost a lot of men too, but they won. If you win and your everyday life is otherwise intact there’s not as much to get over.

"Fan-TAS-tic!"

(That’s another Southern joke.)

AllShookDown, my husband is often mistaken for Shelby Foote, my favorite Southern historian. I think that he lives in Memphis, but I won’t swear to it.

In my opinion that particular Ken Burns series on the Civil War is one of the best things I’ve ever seen on television.

My grandfather was a soldier in the Civil War. For a while he lived on the kernels of corn that he could find that remained undigested in horse manure. He was a prisoner of war in the death camp that I mentioned earlier.

As a child my father used to listen to my grandfather and his brothers talk about the war. My grandfather admitted that it would never have done for the South to have won. Neither my dad nor I have taken any pride in the war at all. Neither of us ever attended any re-enactments or flew a Confederate flag or joined a group of descendents of veterans.

Thank you for the sensitivity of your explanation.

Here’s the song if anyone cares:

Ballad Of The Rebel Soldier

Thanks, AllShookDown! I was going to ask somebody at the next festival we’re going to next weekend – I figured my chances were good that it was that well known, but now you’ve saved me the effort!

Were you familiar with it already, or how did you find it, if I may ask? I’ve been doing some browsing today and had had no luck thus far.

Well, that’s not what Mississippi said at the time.

2. In my opinion, the South has never completely recovered economically from the destruction and Reconstruction. Generally speaking, where are the poorest states in the country?

It feels like NH and ME, at least with the state of the economy in the upper Northeast lately, but you’re probably right.

3. You don’t hear people talk much about their “Northern Heritage.” Maybe we are more unified in an interest in our common history in general than Northerners.
Sure you do, but it’s even more area specific. I may not be very patriotic about being a citizen of the US, but by God I’m a New Englander through and through. Don’t let the rumors fool you, in New England we don’t consider ourselves superior to southerners. We’re superior to the entire rest of the country! Kidding, kidding :smiley: In all seriousness, it is considered a fairly big deal to be born and raised here, although not quite as much importance is placed on it as the book set in Derry Maine might lead you to believe- we don’t really throw tourists off of bridges.
5. Someone mentioned this reason previously, but I think it is an important factor. The “main” war in the North was the Revolutionary War. And the North does seem to observe that war quite a bit. The “main” war for most of the South was the Civil War, so it is natural that we are more interested in that.

But I don’t think you hear about the revolutionary war more than civil war here, either. Sure, someone trying to look intelligent might mention that the battle of Bunker Hill didn’t really take place on Bunker Hill, and they drag the school kiddies to historical sites for field trips, but… I can probably go six months or more without hearing anyone broach the subject. It would be even less often than that if book and movie dicussions were left out of the mix. **

Interesting explainations nonetheless, Zoe.

**Mama Tiger, ** You’re welcome. I did a google search for +soul +pass +southland +song (including the + signs). It took me a few tries with different words but that’s the one that found it.

**Zoe, **Shelby Foote is a pretty good looking octogenarian. He must have been killer when he was younger. You’d better keep an eye on that husband of yours. Foote does live in Memphis (or did when the bio on a web page I checked was written) but spent most of his childhood and early adult live in Greenville, Mississippi.

That’s sad about your Grandfather. The war had its effects in my own family. My great-great grandfather, due to what I believe was a combination of depression, post-traumatic stress, and a nagging wife, deserted his family for 17 years and was only found again through the chance forwarding of a letter intended for his brother, to his son. His pension file is a very interesting read.

Clearly you’re a better googler than I am. Hadn’t tried the plus signs.

Family history is fascinating, even when it’s sadness and woe, isn’t it? A couple of years ago I had a chance to visit with a (very elderly) cousin of my grandfather, who told me more interesting family stories in a few minutes than I’d heard for many years. And my grandmother, now 102, has all kinds of fascinating tales to tell about her younger days. The world has changed so much, that sometimes it’s hard to believe the things that happened to our once-or-twice-great-grandparents were that relatively recent in the overall scheme of the world.

The plus signs force the results to include words or phrases (+“pass the southland” would have to include that entire phrase). Minus signs exclude words or phrases.

Sometimes you have to get past the relatives to get to the tales. I’m told that my gg-granfather’s disappearance was just not discussed and was such a taboo subject that my cousin was afraid we’d find out he’d had another family somewhere else.

How true. It wasn’t until the last couple of years that my mother finally admitted her older brother was an alcoholic since World War II, and that he died of a stroke directly caused by his alcoholism. The family story was always that he was “shellshocked.” I’d figured out he was an alcoholic years ago, but it’s not until recently that she finally admits it.

And I recently found a picture of my great-great-grandmother, who I am willing to swear is at least half if not full blooded Native American. But when I asked my 102-year-old grandmother (it was her grandmother, after all), she about had a FIT. I guess marrying an Indian in Texas in the 1880s wasn’t considered proper or something!

Have you checked the
Dawes Roll for her?

Texan here (hubby from Lousiana, his 5 brothers in Mississippi). It’s all mixed up, thank goodness. American Indian/Irish on my side, Black/Cajun French on his side. Oh, man, our boys are gorgeous.

Hey! Texas music rocks – anyone heard of the late Stevie Ray Vaughan?

Texas music does, indeed, rock.

I went to college in Mississippi 2001-02. I observed the war-is-not-over thing - had my state of birth rubbed in my face in my English class, for example, where it was assumed before I’d said anything but my name and hometown that I thought I was smarter than the “dumb hick Southerners who can’t talk right” - the prof’s phrase, not mine. I spoke very rarely in that class.

I’m a Confederate sympathiser, but my Yankeeness tarnishes me.

That professor should have been reported for harrassment. There is no excuse for that behavior.

Blond:

He was so fine! Even someone with my tastes could recognize his talent. I think I first noticed him through MTV videos in about 1983. (That was a phase I was going through.) :wink: