Bob McDonnell's civil war -- and ours

Ignoring slavery is an argument for racial inequality, and sorry or not, conservatives are still fighting for that.

By Gabriel Winant

It's nice that Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell has apologized for omitting any mention of slavery in his proclamation of "Confederate History Month." Apologizing is better than not apologizing.

But this isn't forgetting to turn off the lights. It's not really the kind of thing for which you can smack yourself on the forehead and say, "Man, I am so sorry I forgot about that." The proclamation didn't just fall out by accident, or happen automatically. The last two governors, both Democrats, made a point of not proclaiming a Confederate History Month. And even the Republicans before them had made some acknowledgment of the evils of slavery, even amidst their celebration of slavery's defenders. McDonnell was consciously reversing both policies.

Moreover, somebody actually asked him, after the controversy broke, why he'd skipped over slavery in urging citizens to "understand the sacrifices of the Confederate leaders, soldiers and citizens during the period of the Civil War." The governor replied, "There were any number of aspects to that conflict between the states. Obviously, it involved slavery. It involved other issues. But I focused on the ones I thought were most significant for Virginia."

This is the point where a hundred amateur Civil War buffs always jump up and start offering their pet theories about the origins of the conflict. So let's be clear, and wave them off now. Any attempt to downplay the role of slavery in the origins of the Civil War is historically uninformed at best, and white supremacist revisionism at worst. To imply that slavery was not "significant for Virginia" begs the question of just who, exactly, counts as Virginia.

A very, very abbreviated history lesson: Virginia's origins as the seedbed of American liberty are the same as its origins as the birthplace of slavery. Freedom was possible for poor white people exactly because black people were made into property. You can't imagine antebellum Virginia -- or, for that matter, antebellum America -- without slavery, and by 1860, one-third of the state’s population was enslaved. Nor is the significance of the Civil War separable from slavery and emancipation. Slavery's why it started, and the end of slavery is what gives the war its most profound meaning. The conflict looms so large in our memory because, when slaves claimed their freedom, they were engaging in revolution on a scale that makes that other Virginian, George Washington, look downright small-time.

Of course, when you think of "Virginia," you probably think of the state on the map, and the people who live in it. That's not really what McDonnell was talking about. What his proclamation celebrates is more like Ol’ Virginny -- the political entity in which African-Americans were not only not citizens, but legally speaking, not people.

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http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2010/04/08/mcdonnell_slavery_virginia