This was a fantastic episode. I thought I knew about Virginia and the military but I thought it ended after the Civil War. I learned that it still continues to this day and so much more. Thanks to Will and Paul for this excellent conversation. I could listen to Will talk and narrate all day!
I loved this episode of the Old Glory Show with Will Tanner and Paul Fahrenheidt! I learned so much I never knew about Virginia’s unique military culture and the differences between the upper and Deep South and their different views on going to war! The Old Dominion is a beautiful state I have visited and enjoyed throughly. I went to Monticello, Mountpelier, Ash Lawn-High Lawn House, Woodrow Wilson’s Home in Staunton, and Harper’s Ferry. Virginia produced some of the greatest Americans to ever live including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, Patrick Henry, George Mason, Richard Henry Lee, Lighthorse Harry Lee, Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, J.E.B. Stuart, “The Gray Ghost” John S. Mosby, George S. Patton, John Randolph, George C. Marshall, Chesty Puller, Matthew B. Ridgeway, John Marshall, Edgar Allan Poe, Booker T. Washington, Arthur Ashe, Dr. Oliver Hill, Winfield Scott, George H. Thomas, John Tyler, Zachary Taylor, George Rogers Clark, Henry Clay, and Meriwether Lewis.
Truly, the Old Dominion has enriched our nation! It’s military culture goes back to the local militias in Alfred the Great’s England. It’s military culture was influenced by the dashing cavaliers of King Charles I’s army in the English Civil War. The Virginia military tradition is like a thread you can find woven into every time in American history. Virginia has always produced in large part, the best of the best in America has to offer in military tactics and courage on the battlefield. Virginia’s prominent families like the Lees, Randolphs, Byrds, Carters, Washingtons, Harrisons, and Masons gave so much to this country. Though it has been diminished, the Virginia military tradition still to some extent lives on. It was fascinating to hear how the Deep South looks down on the Upper South yet the latter always makes good decisions with money and pays the bills. It should also be noted the Upper South was more cautious about secession than the Deep South had been. Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Arkansas didn’t break away from the Union until Lincoln called on them to raise troops to put down the rebellion in the Cotton States.
Whereas, the fire eaters in Mississippi and South Carolina for instance where all ready to break away from the United States at the drop of a hat. Virginia diversifying it’s economy was also most interesting to learn of. They were not as dependent on slavery, as say South Carolina, Mississippi or Texas were for instance. Why didn’t emancipation happen earlier? It’s quite simple really, the fear of a race war in which blacks would rise up and slaughter whites. These fears were caused by the Haitian Revolution and exasperated by Nat Turner’s bloody revolt in 1831. It also was generally thought that a biracial society just couldn’t work. Few believed whites and blacks could ever live together in peace. This is why colonization to Africa was a solution that many prominent Americans such as Thomas Jefferson, Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, Francis Scott Key, Robert E. Lee, and even Abraham Lincoln endorsed. Why modern day people have a hard time understanding is that you couldn’t just have the immediate abolition of slavery overnight.
The Abolitionists thought slavery should be abolished right away because it was wrong. Period. This is true in the abstract but it does not take into account the practicality of such an idea. John Randolph hated slavery but also hated abolitionists. He understood slavery was a disease but one that would not be cured by quacks that had never seen the disease or the patient. He feared the bloodshed to come of emancipation and saw it wouldn’t just be white men, women and children that would die as he said “for shall we not kill too?” Alexis de Toqueville was pessimistic about integrating blacks who were so different in complexion from the majority of the population, into American society as they could not readily vanish by means of assimilation into the broader society as other immigrant groups had done at other times. The disproportionate number of free blacks in prisons also stirred up fears among whites about what might happen when the broader enslaved population was released into American society. Fredrick Law Olmsted encouraged charitable efforts for freed blacks after emancipation lest desperate want drive them to crime and violence.
This was a fantastic episode. I thought I knew about Virginia and the military but I thought it ended after the Civil War. I learned that it still continues to this day and so much more. Thanks to Will and Paul for this excellent conversation. I could listen to Will talk and narrate all day!
Thank you very much!
I loved this episode of the Old Glory Show with Will Tanner and Paul Fahrenheidt! I learned so much I never knew about Virginia’s unique military culture and the differences between the upper and Deep South and their different views on going to war! The Old Dominion is a beautiful state I have visited and enjoyed throughly. I went to Monticello, Mountpelier, Ash Lawn-High Lawn House, Woodrow Wilson’s Home in Staunton, and Harper’s Ferry. Virginia produced some of the greatest Americans to ever live including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, Patrick Henry, George Mason, Richard Henry Lee, Lighthorse Harry Lee, Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, J.E.B. Stuart, “The Gray Ghost” John S. Mosby, George S. Patton, John Randolph, George C. Marshall, Chesty Puller, Matthew B. Ridgeway, John Marshall, Edgar Allan Poe, Booker T. Washington, Arthur Ashe, Dr. Oliver Hill, Winfield Scott, George H. Thomas, John Tyler, Zachary Taylor, George Rogers Clark, Henry Clay, and Meriwether Lewis.
Truly, the Old Dominion has enriched our nation! It’s military culture goes back to the local militias in Alfred the Great’s England. It’s military culture was influenced by the dashing cavaliers of King Charles I’s army in the English Civil War. The Virginia military tradition is like a thread you can find woven into every time in American history. Virginia has always produced in large part, the best of the best in America has to offer in military tactics and courage on the battlefield. Virginia’s prominent families like the Lees, Randolphs, Byrds, Carters, Washingtons, Harrisons, and Masons gave so much to this country. Though it has been diminished, the Virginia military tradition still to some extent lives on. It was fascinating to hear how the Deep South looks down on the Upper South yet the latter always makes good decisions with money and pays the bills. It should also be noted the Upper South was more cautious about secession than the Deep South had been. Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Arkansas didn’t break away from the Union until Lincoln called on them to raise troops to put down the rebellion in the Cotton States.
Whereas, the fire eaters in Mississippi and South Carolina for instance where all ready to break away from the United States at the drop of a hat. Virginia diversifying it’s economy was also most interesting to learn of. They were not as dependent on slavery, as say South Carolina, Mississippi or Texas were for instance. Why didn’t emancipation happen earlier? It’s quite simple really, the fear of a race war in which blacks would rise up and slaughter whites. These fears were caused by the Haitian Revolution and exasperated by Nat Turner’s bloody revolt in 1831. It also was generally thought that a biracial society just couldn’t work. Few believed whites and blacks could ever live together in peace. This is why colonization to Africa was a solution that many prominent Americans such as Thomas Jefferson, Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, Francis Scott Key, Robert E. Lee, and even Abraham Lincoln endorsed. Why modern day people have a hard time understanding is that you couldn’t just have the immediate abolition of slavery overnight.
The Abolitionists thought slavery should be abolished right away because it was wrong. Period. This is true in the abstract but it does not take into account the practicality of such an idea. John Randolph hated slavery but also hated abolitionists. He understood slavery was a disease but one that would not be cured by quacks that had never seen the disease or the patient. He feared the bloodshed to come of emancipation and saw it wouldn’t just be white men, women and children that would die as he said “for shall we not kill too?” Alexis de Toqueville was pessimistic about integrating blacks who were so different in complexion from the majority of the population, into American society as they could not readily vanish by means of assimilation into the broader society as other immigrant groups had done at other times. The disproportionate number of free blacks in prisons also stirred up fears among whites about what might happen when the broader enslaved population was released into American society. Fredrick Law Olmsted encouraged charitable efforts for freed blacks after emancipation lest desperate want drive them to crime and violence.