of the jim crow south. during the early 20th century, groups in the confederacy started promoting a revisionist spin on the war. this lost cause was about more than memorializing dead confederates. it was about painting the north as an occupying force. and the south as noble defenders of virtue. all while minimizing the role of slavery. the influence would have the united daughters of the confederacy were especially horrific. starting in the 1890s, they put out many memorials to the confederacy. symbols of the confederacy aren t all copper and stone. for decades, descendants of veterans have connected through the path through these. jeff has been living through this for 25 years. he compares dozens of soldiers to his family tree. when we re looking at here?
gotten beyond. but we don t have, myself for example, we don t have our last names, a religion, my native tongues. this language is not my language either. right, but you benefit. everybody in america has a benefit. it s the greatest country in the world. but not everyone has a benefit of slavery. everybody living in america today has a great benefit. the people of african descent in this country, people descendants of slaves, what benefit do they get from slavery? they re here. what s amazing is you get such a sense of place. this could be any town, usa, but you re surrounded by momentos from the past, including momentos and monuments of the confederacy. how do you grapple with that? there is as much division because different things there is a lack of consideration of how this might make us as americans feel.
not. before leaving town, we hear that there is one more stop we should make if we really want to understand what keep so many southern whites rooted to the confederacy. first, could you do you mind spelling and saying your first and last name for us? my first name is gordon, g o r d o, and and cotton, co tio, and just like you pick. so, with all the confederate statues and the, flag is it time for us to move forward? no, because if we move forward, we re going to leave everything else out of our history. are we going to be selective in what we are going to keep and what we are gonna forget? but, what about this idea that these men were fighting to maintain that system of slavery? that was not it all, they were fighting because our homes were invaded. the whole thing was based on money. most things are. going back to the charlottesville, someone was killed someone was shot and someone else was beaten up. does it surprise you to see that some people are beloved to
site, this is intended to be an intentional response to our silence. we talked to folks around the country about what the confederacy stood for, the monuments, they say black people own slaves to, there were white slaves. there are many reasons beyond slavery. these are all things that are designed to deracialized what happened. and they are aberrations. we ve allowed that to happen because we were fighting these other struggles, right? this site is designed to help people understand that you can t ignore this any longer. you see one county with one name and then one county with two names and then you see a county like this with over a dozen names. do you have any dodge county georgia?
to somewhere where they can be respected, not in a place of public display where it s doing nothing but sending us a certain kind of message. i totally disagree with you. it happened right here, we commemorate it right here. what do you think of jefferson davis? he is my personal hero. i think he is one of the greatest men in american history. what about him, obviously, being someone who supported slavery? should that diminish or tarnishes like a seattle? no, because he was not the only one. i think growing up in this community seven miles from briers feel, going to a school named jefferson davis, can destroy what they can, but they can never destroy the nature of the man. how much trans do you get to the idea that these are men of their time. certainly that they were men of their time, but that it s exactly what we, say that we forget? they re having this conversation is kind of weird with people who are able, somehow, to separate, you know, african slavery and the inf