Boarded-up memorial to American traitors.
A memorial to the 13 Confederate soldiers who died while held on Georges Island - out of some 1,000 kept prisoner there - is now covered with wooden boards as the Baker administration determines if and how they can just get rid of the thing.
The state can't simply remove the marker - placed there in 1963 by the now defunct Boston chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy - because Georges Island is considered a "national historic landmark" due to its role in US military history, from early coastal defense to housing all those Confederate soldiers, officers and even politicians during the Civil War.
When WGBH took a look at the only Confederate memorial in Massachusetts in June, a spokesperson for the governor said he'd rather the thing be gone, because it's hardly something that would "support liberty and equality for the people of Massachusetts."
Before it was boxed up, visitors to the island could see a relatively anodyne memorial that listed the names of the dead - but one with the Confederate seal and motto - the Latin for "With God as our defender."
As with other chapters, the Boston chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy did its part to drum up the legend of the Lost Cause, of a noble band of freedom fighters set upon by evil Northerners, rather than the South being a construct aimed at enslaving millions and starting a war that killed hundreds of thousands of Americans.
In 1927, for example, the Globe reported on the chapter's new president, Mrs. Cecil B. Taylor (ladies of means back then used only their husband's name), who said
I shall endeavor to serve faithfully and well this organization, and I promise the same degree of devotion which animated those who, 65 years ago, gave lasting evidence of such courage and high purpose that the world still holds in affection the men and women who fought for the "lost cause."
The year before, the chapter erected a flagpole on Deer Island to fly the Confederate flag, over the grave of a Southern naval officer shot while trying to escape Georges Island, according to a Globe account at the time.
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Comments
Lechmere and Faneuil
By Bob Leponge
Wed, 08/16/2017 - 2:19pm
Lechmere and Faneuil were not traitors who took up arms against the nation.
Further
By anon²
Thu, 08/17/2017 - 9:50am
They're not twice removed from a rebellion and the people that named these places were not openly trying to rewrite history to put a spin on their ownership of slaves or rebellion against their country in the name of slavery.
This isn't hard people. It's not about payback for slavery, and it's not about people owning slaves.
It's about what the DOC was very specifically trying to do. And judging by this thread, was pretty successful doing.
You guys like being played for fools? Because the DOC has your ticket.
Who all has even been to
By anon
Wed, 08/16/2017 - 9:36am
Who all has even been to George's Island? School field trips don't count.
I have, many times
By Ron Newman
Wed, 08/16/2017 - 1:10pm
though I never noticed the Confederate POW monument during any of my visits. I don't think it is in a prominent location.
Many times
By Bob Leponge
Wed, 08/16/2017 - 2:19pm
I go regularly.
Before calling them traitors,
By Omri
Wed, 08/16/2017 - 9:48am
Before calling them traitors, I'd want to know how many of the 13 were conscripts.
It doesn't matter
By anon
Wed, 08/16/2017 - 2:00pm
The Daughters of Confederacy weren't celebrating their lives or memorializing their deaths - they were using these monuments to perpetuate propaganda and make sure those people they felt that they should still own didn't get ideas about being more uppity than they were being with all that "there's violence on both sides" civil rights stuff.
Yes, yes, yes!
By Gary C
Wed, 08/16/2017 - 4:19pm
Clicking agree is not enough.
These poor guys were not pro-slavery ideologues, they were most likely just poor farmers who left their families to fight with their neighbors. Removing this small monument to a dozen men who died only sends the message that their lives didn't matter. They were humans who died, it's appropriate to acknowledge that they existed and that they died.
This memorial is not a grave marker
By cinnamngrl
Wed, 08/16/2017 - 4:36pm
And no one is trying to erase these people. But the united daughters of the confederacy placed this marker to erase to war against slavery.
What about the numerous
By CCD
Wed, 08/16/2017 - 10:11am
What about the numerous statues of Vlad Lenin currently erected in NYC, Seattle and LA? His history of involvement in political repression/mass killings is well known. Why should he be honored? Should "honored" with statues? I wonder if any of those Antifa folks wanna tear his statue down...
I have no problem with removing memorials/statues of confederate soldiers etc but where does it stop? Its a slippery slope if people just start running around destroying things them deem offensive; is a dangerous precedent. Where will it stop?
Mmmmm ... okay
By anon
Wed, 08/16/2017 - 9:54am
Is this what the "alt-right" is calling "universities" now?
If there are lenin statues in NYC
By anon
Wed, 08/16/2017 - 9:55am
Antifa would have ripped them down a while ago.
They are anit "all" fascism and do not mince words about it.
Lenin statue in Manhattan
By Ron Newman
Wed, 08/16/2017 - 1:12pm
was on the roof of an apartment building called Red Square, and now has been moved to another building.
I would love
By SamWack
Wed, 08/16/2017 - 1:42pm
to have a statue of Lenin on my roof. He would be eating a hotdog with chopsticks while riding a unicycle. At another corner of the roof, Winston Churchill would be sitting on a toilet, watching him suspiciously.
A slippery slope! Where will it all stop?
Whataboutism
By lbb
Wed, 08/16/2017 - 10:03am
'Facts don't matter': How Trump uses one of Putin's favorite propaganda tools
How does it feel to be a real tool, CCD?
In our household ...
By anon
Wed, 08/16/2017 - 10:08am
That particular bit of bullshit, a mainstay of young children, is known as the "but Older Brother stomps in puddles" defense.
Most parents are familiar with this, as are most elementary school teachers. Why supposed adults are buying into it when it isn't tolerated when little kids try it, I don't know.
Wow, that's civil of you. Did
By CCD
Wed, 08/16/2017 - 10:11am
Wow, that's civil of you. Did I say something offensive? Why did you resort to name calling and assumptions? So you rather just slander someone than provide serious commentary or refute my comment? Do I not present valid conjecture?
Honestly, man uncalled for.... Pretty sad and discouraging response. Hope you feel better about yourself.
If you want civility, try intellectual honesty first.
By MC Slim JB
Wed, 08/16/2017 - 10:34am
As was pointed out, yours is a logical fallacy as well as a tactic favored by Soviet propagandists and our racist President.
Do better, and maybe you won't be accused of being a propaganda tool.
"valid conjecture"
By lbb
Wed, 08/16/2017 - 10:53am
Nope.
HTH, HAND.
Learn to Spell!
By anon
Wed, 08/16/2017 - 2:36pm
[img]https://thesouthsentinel.files.wordpress.com/2012/...
National Historic Landmark
By anon
Wed, 08/16/2017 - 10:19am
I'm curious about the process and difficulty of removing something from a National Historic Landmark. I don't remember exactly, but back when The Partisans statue was removed from the Common it seemed like the process was swift.
Enemy soldiers
By SamWack
Wed, 08/16/2017 - 10:25am
Giving enemy soldiers a proper burial and treating their graves with dignity is a decent and honorable thing to do. The problem that I see with this memorial is that it exploits theses soldiers' deaths to honor, not them, but the cause they are claimed to represent. If the Confederate seal at the top and the revolting propaganda at the bottom were erased, leaving only the descriptive paragraph and the list of names, it would indeed be a mere historical marker, and a statement that these men once lived, and died and were buried in this place.
Exactly
By anon²
Wed, 08/16/2017 - 10:54am
No one is trying to erase history here.
The DOC propaganda should be erased.
The Commonwealth can very easily remove or replace what needs to be done and rededicate the site without the revisionist propaganda. Done.
Yes
By SamWack
Wed, 08/16/2017 - 11:26am
That is exactly what I was advocating.
Nazi and Confederate soldeier memorials have no place
By Trump-Baker 2016
Wed, 08/16/2017 - 10:59am
Would the people who think confederate memorials and statues honoring confederate soldiers are ok feel the same way if descendants of Nazi German army soldiers wanted to put up memorials across Europe and the US, with Nazi imagery heralding their time fighting, decades after the war? The confederate statues and memorials were just intimidation and a re branding of the civil war by the KKK and their sympathizers. Saying you are erasing history without putting or keeping up memorials to Nazi or Confederate soldiers is ridiculous and an obvious backhanded way to promote hate.
Heroine or villian
By anon
Wed, 08/16/2017 - 12:38pm
What about the statue of Hannah Dustin of Haverhill who is pictured with an axe after she took the scalps of an indian family including children. For that matter many American indians see Plymouth rock as a racist symbol and the seal of the commonwealth depicting a white arm holding a sword over a peaceful indian is as racist as the stars and bars
Whataboutism
By adamg
Wed, 08/16/2017 - 12:43pm
Yes, you're right. And go ask state Rep. Byron Rushing, who for many years fought a losing battle to get the state seal changed for just that reason (the seal, in fact, used to be worse - go down to the Old State House sometime and look up from the Washington Street end and you can see the original version, which had a thought balloon over the Indian saying something like "Come help me!").
But let's get through one symbol of a racist past in this discussion before moving onto the next ones.
That seal was colonial. and really an advertisement
By cinnamngrl
Wed, 08/16/2017 - 5:50pm
In 1629, King Charles I granted a charter to the Massachusetts Bay Colony, which included the authority to use a seal. It featured an Indian holding an arrow pointed down in a gesture of peace, with the words "Come over and help us," emphasizing the missionary and commercial intentions of the original colonists. This seal was used until 1686, shortly after the charter was annulled, and again from 1689-1692.
when the revolutionary war started
The design adopted was that of an English-American man holding the Magna Carta. The seal was engraved by Paul Revere, whose original signed bill for the work is located in the Massachusetts Archives. A motto in Latin was also chosen - "Ense petit placidam sub libertate quietem" - which remains the motto of the Commonwealth today. Freely translated this means, "By the sword we seek peace, but peace only under liberty."
on December 13, 1780, the Council and Governor John Hancock accepted Nathan Cushing's design for a new seal. Paul Revere was once again commissioned to engrave the seal, which returned to its original design of a native American Indian.
Wow, revise much?
By Kaz
Wed, 08/16/2017 - 4:00pm
You mean the woman who was captured, saw her family killed before her, and was imprisoned on an island by Native Americans who were goaded into attacking Haverhill by the French as a way of keeping the English colonies under control? Then, led a rebellion against her captors and used the scalps to claim a bounty from the English crown to repair her home and town? That Hannah Dustin?
Yeesh, "took the scalps of a family including children"...wow.
What our nation did to the people living here wasn't right and we have yet to embrace the failures of our predecessors in all of that, but that was just an absurdly selective way of describing why her statue exists.
In Santa Fe, there's a
By Omri
Wed, 08/16/2017 - 1:06pm
In Santa Fe, there's a monument honoring a cavalry officer for leading an expedition against "savages". Right next to it is a plaque explaining why the monument is still there: so we don't forget that this was how we spoke once.
I'd say that should guide what to do with this plaque. Put one right next to it, to remember 100 years during which Reconstruction was postponed.
Thank you so much for
By starstrewn
Wed, 08/16/2017 - 5:49pm
Thank you so much for providing a really constructive (in my opinion) suggestion. I think bringing context to a monument like this could be really beneficial.
I wanted to do some
By anon
Wed, 08/16/2017 - 4:38pm
I wanted to do some renovations to my house but because there is an access easement in the title to a contiguous historic landmark, I had to shell out all kinds of cash and go before various municipal boards of government to get approval and I had to conform with the local architecture. How come nobody had a say in the removal of this historic landmark?
It hasn't been removed.
By Lee
Thu, 08/17/2017 - 4:47am
It has been boarded up pending a decision on what to do about it.
CONFEDERATE SOLDIERS
By GROVER
Wed, 08/16/2017 - 6:55pm
I can understand the position taken relative to the leaders of the CSA but why can't we have some sympathy for the "grunts" who actually did what they were told by R E Lee at al
Well
By anon²
Thu, 08/17/2017 - 10:00am
I think you'll find very few arguing against that.
The issues isn't the history. The issue is the Daughters of the Confederacy dedicated this memorial and that it has know DOC propaganda on it.
Many of us see that actually lessening the history of the soldiers, and know it was a swipe at our African American brothers and sisters.
Again, a marker of history is fine. Context is fine. A memorial by the DOC, a SPLC defined hate group, when we know their stated goal, is not.
Let the Commonwealth remove it and put in something FROM US.
Lady in Black.
By Lee
Thu, 08/17/2017 - 4:46am
I wonder if one of the Confederate soldiers memorialized is the Lady in Black's husband?
It was placed there in 1963..
By anon
Thu, 08/17/2017 - 8:20am
It was placed there in 1963... it should now be removed in 2017. Reuse the memorial material to create a piece that educates people about the horrific history of slavery instead of memorializing soldiers that fought to keep slavery an institution.
This is out of control!
By Foxrox
Thu, 08/17/2017 - 8:24am
Anybody want to help tear down
Theodore Parker statue in Westie?
He hated Irish emigrants.Time
to call a halt to this nonsense.
Book burning next?
Idea
By blues_lead
Thu, 08/17/2017 - 6:34pm
Keep the stone, but:
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