H.K. Writes Loyal Blacks

Today, Sunday morning, November 19, 2006, I would attend the morning worship at Friendship Presbyterian Church in Black Mountain, North Carolina. It was as if the Pastor had been sent a message to present to me. I had began doodling a message earlier this morning about the loyalty that Southern Blacks ought to have for our homeland, and how folks had come again to ask of us to betray her. Ironically the Pastor’s message this morning was about the betrayal of Jesus Christ by Judas; a man who had walked and laboured with him, a man he had called friend, and almost a kinsman. Have you stooped so low that you would betray me, Jesus asked of Judas ? My thoughts were immediately of the Honourable General Robert E.Lee, General Nathan Bedford Forest, General Patrick Ronayne Cleburne, and the Honourable General Stonewall Jackson, who could have been considered by some of their time to be Nigger Lovers; had it not been for their great stature.

These four men considered some of the greatest fighting men and human beings, loyally stood by the African people, and fought hard for their comforts. Yet here in the 21st century, the descendants of those very same Africans are being asked to turn their backs on them, and accept as truths the much maligned history of a nation of people whose independence they fought so nobly far. Before we become traitors of our Southland, both past and present; their are things that we should contemplate about these men ; for if we do, we will learn much about the Southern people that we came to call family in lieu of the economic institution of slavery.

General Robert E. Lee , a picture of a man of remarkable character set free every slave inherited from his wife’s father, George Washington Parke Cutis according to his will. Only three would leave the estate before it was settled. Their love for the General kept them there. General Lee expressed that he did not think the Negroes ready for complete freedom. He said the painful discipline they are undergoing is necessary for their further instruction as a race , and I hope will prepare them for better things… Their emancipation will sooner result from the mild and melting influences of Christianity, than from the storms and tempests of controversy. Mack Lee, his body servant and cook, would educate himself from the funds given him by the General. He went on to become a Minister, and started churches all over the South and North. Mack later started the first Credit Union in America; helping those slaves who found themselves supposedly freed after the War. Rev.Lee left one important message to the African people. Educate yourselves, buy some property, keep your faith in God and trust only the White man of the South. He spoke from experience, for he had been by the Generals side and knew just what was in the hearts of the men that visited and fought for the General.

General Nathan Bedford Forrest, a man who dealt in the slave trade overcame every attempt to discredit himself, and the disfavour looked upon himself by Southern people because of the trafficking of slaves, simply because he carried on his business with admitted probity and humanity. It is notable that he never sold separately the members of a family; and made it a rule, as far as practicable, after acquiring the heads of a family, to purchase the others, howsoever widely scattered. Habitually kind as a Master, his slaves were strongly attached to him. When he rode off to war, forty two of these Africans men were by his side, and he said of them that no better soldier had done so. In Memphis he rose above any prejudices against his calling, and this is fully attested by his influence in the Black community, where he was looked upon as the first Civil Rights Leader for the African people.

General Patrick Ronayne Cleburne told his peers on many occasions that they should not let the Yankees come us and steal the African, for he is our family and we know him. General Cleburne was the first to suggest (in a circular letter)the arming of slaves and their muster into the military service.

In the 19th century, before the War, Virginia law prohibited white from teaching black’s to read or write. General Stonewall Jackson, an upstanding and law abiding citizen in Lexington, routinely broke this law every Sunday. He organized a Sunday school class every Sunday afternoon, teaching black children to read, and teaching them the way to salvation. There are still churches active today that were founded by Blacks reached with the Gospel through Jackson’s efforts. For my little brother and I to be invited by the Beeton’s of the Dixie Outfitters Store in Madison Heights, Virginia to participate in their and the Historical Society of Amherst County efforts to restore the Packet Boat Marshall that took his remains home, was an honour of huge proportions, and we shall forever be indebted to them. In Jackson’s mind, slaves were children of God placed in subordinate situations for reasons only the Creator could explain. Helping them was a missionary effort for Jackson. Their souls had to be saved. Although Jackson could not alter the social status of slaves, he could display Christian decency to those whose lot it was to be in bondage. He was emphatically the black man’s friend, and we should all contemplate that in lieu of the economic institution of slavery in which the entire world participated in; here in the Southland of America, " we became family and friends, and should never betray that trust.

HK

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