Thread by @AmericanStudier

The Decoration Day series continues with Frederick Douglass' amazing & crucial 1871 speech at Arlington National Cemetery! #decorationday #MemorialDay #twitterstorians

americanstudier.blogspot.com/2021/06/june-1…

As much as the overt, neo-Confederate Lost Cause narrative and all that came with it became dominant in the post-Civil War US, I would say that another white-centered narrative was & remains just as destructive: that the Civil War was a terrible tragedy.
saturdayeveningpost.com/2020/06/consid…

That tragedy frame relies on another narrative with which I grew up: recognizing the courage & sacrifice of soldiers on both sides, even if we acknowledge the war's true cause. Douglass takes that on directly in the conclusion of his stunning speech:

"But we are not here to applaud manly courage, save as it has been displayed in a noble cause. We must never forget that victory to the rebellion meant death to the republic." That's a true "so what?" of better remembering Decoration Day: reorienting our vision of the Civil War.

The North & nation were in no way free of white supremacy, of course. But nonetheless, the Civil War overall was not a tragic family conflict but a battle against white supremacist extremism, one fought w/particular clarity by the 180,000 US Colored Troops.

& Frederick Douglass' 1871 Decoration Day speech helps us better remember all those crucial histories. (h/t Andy Hall, from whose guest post on Coates' blog I first learned of Douglass' speech.)
theatlantic.com/national/archi…