#iron confederacy

[neechees]

Begging people post pow wow music besides "electric pow wow drum" by the Halluci Nation

#thats a pow wow REMIX electric version #listen to Northern Cree / Young Spirit / Midnite Express / Big River Cree / Iron Swing / Blackfoot Confederacy etcetc #pow wow #ndn

[ladysnowangel]

#bookcover #book #read #booklr #Lee McGiffin #nature #Iron Scouts of the Confederacy #book photography #photography

[navree]

power to everyone and their headcanons but it’s kinda impossible for me to take “northern independence endgame” predictions seriously when the series is being written by mr “what was aragorn’s taxation policy” and with that idea in mind

#personal #northern independence would be like.....disastrous for the north #like they wouldn't get the riverlands at all they'd probably get the proper north and that's it #so winters are still gonna be brutal #they're not gonna get food from the other kingdoms because after forcibly seceding whoever's left in charge #isn't going to be inclined to help all that much #the north is now solely responsible for its citizens AND any potential wildling settlers AND manning the wall now #there's gonna be less food after years of war and when the others come let's be honest #it's going to decimate the north first and foremost and if it secedes it's not gonna have as much room to recover as it should #like if they make the jon snow sequel it's impossible for me to think that it wouldn't start with 'anyway the north is full on dying' #'because this isn't actually a kids' series and things like secession when you live in a hostile environment' #'are actually really hard to maintain especially in a war torn land' #like historically a major reason why the confederacy was so weak was that it had NO allies #it obviously didn't have the union (because it had seceded from the union) #and none of the rest of the world's powers would touch it because they didn't know where it stood #and it had literally seceded and they didn't want to give a stamp of approval to that #like northern independence is a bad idea it sucks but that's the situation grrm has set up #and no matter who ends up on the iron throne the results for the north if it manages to fully secede will be the same

[wilwheaton]

Frederick Douglass, who was born into Southern slavery, described the South as “a little nation by itself, having its own language, its own rules, regulations, and customs.” Fewer than 2000 families — six-tenths of one percent of the Southern population — owned more than 50 enslaved people and ruled the oligarchy that we call the Confederacy with an iron fist. The 75 percent of white people in the South during that era who did not own any enslaved persons generally lived in deep poverty. Women had no rights, queer people were routinely tortured and murdered, education for both enslaved Africans and poor whites was generally outlawed, religious attendance was often mandated, and hunger and disease stalked all but those in the families of the two thousand morbidly rich planter dynasties. Modern-day Red states are doing their best to recreate that old Confederacy, right down to state Senator Kathy Chism’s new effort to return the Confederate battle flag to Mississippi's state flag. Ron DeSantis and Mike Pence have both emphasized their presidential pledges to restore the names of murderous Civil War traitors to American military bases, celebrating their armed defense of the “values” of the Old South. Today’s version of yesteryear’s plantation owners are called CEOs, hedge and vulture fund managers, and the morbidly rich. They use the power of political bribery given them by five corrupt Republicans on the Supreme Court — with Clarence Thomas’ tie-breaking Citizens United vote on behalf of his sugar daddy Harlan Crow — to lord over their Red states, regardless of the will of those states’ citizens.

Why are red state 'welfare queen' oligarchs allowed to mooch off of blue states?

[historia-vitae-magistras]

i’d never even considered how the civil war would affect alfred during ww1, that’s a really interesting idea. would you mind expanding a bit more if you haven’t already?

fuck yes I can expand on that. TW for historic nastiness.

Okay to prelude— I don't typically do 1:1 state/gov to character but considering the cession of the south into a separate state and the US itself is the Union, my boy is in blue. In this blog's universe there is no schizophrenia or split personality or Doppelgänger or any other representation of the south. It gutted him and he lost feeling in a lot of his usual area and it severely weakened him but he represented the United States and that means union blue. And considering the north really doesn't have all that much moral leverage on the south especially in matters of racism, it's not much of a jump. If you aren't crazy about that, look away now.

So. Trench warfare. It's as old as humans bashing each other's heads in. Defensive ditches are an archaeological feature across the applicable world. But it's the American Civil War that might hold the gold medal for largest gap between how technology designed to kill had advanced spectacularly over any innovation that might save lives. I won't say deadliest because you do have the Taiping Rebellion around the same time but a lot of that was sièges and counter sieges and river based naval engagements. But anyway— rifled artillery and direct fire techniques had changed the game and soldiers were driven underground behind parapets and sandbags. Around Petersburg especially. And it's towards the end of the war when the Confederacy is increasingly desperate and hand to hand fighting is getting more common and more brutal. Entire regiments were lost in hand to hand mêlée. And if a soldier didn't die instantly, it was off to a field hospital. Guts ripped open by iron shells, lungs hanging from the tips of bayonets, wounds so infected they glowed, limbs hacked off by a surgeon who hadn't washed his hands in six days and sepsis rot so foul someone can taste it on the air even with the mouth closed. Malaria and typhoid so fucking bad the army cots would literally shake apart from how bad men shivered when the chills aspect of the fever cycle hit. I know it's fashionable right now especially on vintage fashion YouTube to say people in history weren't disgusting but like, I've been in archives for years. Yeah it fucken was. Never was medicine so far behind the ability to kill.

So Alfred's probably died a solid dozen times half of which from shitting himself because he's probably riddled with parasites. He's been shot, stabbed, slashed. Shaken, rattled and absolutely steam rolled. And the final part of his almighty trauma is this is happening just up the river from where he was born in Jamestown. Alfred is on his belly in the earth beneath the feet of the people that bore him and then rejected him, begging his Protestant God and any of his own people listening and the very earth itself to protect him, to keep him alive as shell after shell lands around him.

When every battle is over, the dead rot in piles across the fields and trenches. The famous photos of the Antietam and Gettysburg dead are days old, you can see some of the bodies had been looted. There were so many dead and so many dying that upon its tardy entrance into world war one, the US had a more coherent body management and disposal program than any other of the entente powers. Who had already been at war for nearly four years.

So yeah, in my opinion he got ten steps into a front line trench where the British and especially the French were just causally walking on bodies, he vomited so hard New York felt California rattling around in there and said fuck it. My boy was either off to cleaner pastures like Belleau Wood or the air corps. It was too much too soon and he just couldn't keep it together in those conditions. They knew what bacteria were by WW1 and he was a burgeoning world power. So he probably only went full himbo with dysentery twice in France so it wasn't as bad as his civil war flop era but oof. That smell, the screams, pressing himself into soil that is not his own yet again is too recent and too vulnerable. He can't do it again so soon.

#the ask box || probis pateo #hws America #meatsack mechanics || the sociology and biology of nations #I'm back #broke my tablet lol

[cadere-art]

Ghøwout, as a word, speaks of both a nation and a culture. Though they are not the same, Ghøwout's culture is molded by its history as a nation and by its nostalgy for the nation's former glory. This, more than anything, brings together the many different traditions that call themselves Ghøwout, even within states that have cesseded from the once-great Empire.

Despites being a shadow of its former self, Ghøwout's is still the heart of politics south of the Kantishian range. Its historical and cultural weight keep it well centered in the minds of the many nations which surround it. This attention is not all undeserved: although no longer the most prosperous or powerful southern nation, Ghøwout remains the most technologically advanced, be it in terms of military armament, mining technology, or social engineering. In these aspects, Ghøwout still rivals with the rising stars of the Namitan Empire and Oumdashen Confederacy far to the North.

Even there Ghøwout's excellence is waning, as state paranoia mandates extreme secrecy and rejects foreign influences, preserving Ghøwout's technological advances at the cost of its allies' goodwill and knowledge.

Text from the images under the cut.

The Ghøwout live in the shadow of their former glory. Under the 4th Dinasty, Ghøwout held in its power all of the Southern Kantishian, and though its power has waxed and waned many times, it has never again reached this peak. In the current day, Ghøwout is much diminished and surrounded by kingdoms born of its losses. Nonetheless, Ghøwout remains a powerful nation, held together by a strong cultural identity. Perhaps as a reaction to its waning power, Ghøwout culture has grown to be insular and xenophobic, regarding strangers with extreme distrust.

Ghøwout is a strongly stratified society, weighted down by a large nobility and a stagnant peasant class. Nonetheless, its numbers and strong logistics allow it to support a large number of specialists, particularly artisans, professional soldiers, and religious specialists. Ghøwout's populace is both pious and prone to superstition. Though Ghøwout's state tends towards totalitarianism, it does not have centralized religion: it is home to many different regional sets of beliefs supported by local shamans and a few specialist clans of spiritualists and healers. These are highly respected by the populace and clad in beautifully dyed and ornamented textiles, precious stones, and bronze jewelry.

Ghøwout's artisans include some of the best chemists and metalworkers of Uanlikri, and the first to master steel. The use of steel weaponry has allowed Ghøwout's military to remain menacing even as Ghøwout's political power waned, brought low by internal power struggles. To counter its downfall, Ghøwout is always pursuing advances in war technology, fielding experimental weapons and financing scientific research, which it treats with utmost secrecy. Ironically, this drive is part of Ghøwout's downfall, as military spending has brought low the nation's coffers and the fear of spies has fostered a general climate of distrust and suspicion.

#worldbuilding #art by me #antiole world #antiole fashion #ghøwout #mountainfolk #peoples of uanlikri

[gaypirate420]

If jasper had to reassimilate his current canon life, what do you think he'd realize?

I have so many thoughts about Jasper and his self awareness but the first thing that comes to mind is the Confederate part. And I don't mean it as in Racism bad :( kinda way, I mean it as in a true guilty feeling. The Confederacy didn't die after the civil war. I just imagine him seeing the common truck with a confederate flag on it and just feeling a hole in his stomach, feeling guilty.

Realizing how much damage he did, not just in his vampire life but before when he was human. That he just now with the Cullen's it's truly making "amends" about it and how ironic it was that he, a white confederate got killed and basically enslaved by a Mexican woman.

He'll realize he can't just forget about his past. Not like every other vampire he knows, they're no longer human so what does it care? For him, it does, it cares so much.

I think he'll avoid talking about his past to anyone, he'll try to pretend it didn't happen. But he'll realize he can't just live in a delusion or in dissociation.

Is this anything? idk, I have so many thoughts.

#I could talk about this all day #asks #jasper hale #effervescent

[creekfiend]

I think it's veeeery interesting the way people on here talk about media that they perceive as promoting their own ideologies, because like, the language they'll use for people who are enjoyers of that media but who do not subscribe to the ideology is. Funny

There's obviously examples of this where it's like -- yes we can all remark upon how ironic it is that the Confederacy put out their own version of Les Miserables with all the explicit anti-slavery rhetoric excised; surely the ENTIRE REST OF THE BOOK and ALL ITS THEMES are pretty obviously abolitionist ?! Like... that's. It can be an interesting thing to think or talk about.

But also

Sometimes people frame it like PERSONS ENJOYING THE MEDIA I PERCEIVE AS PROMOTING MY IDEOLOGY WHO DO NOT SUBSCRIBE TO THAT IDEOLOGY ARE BEING NONCOMPLIANT! OR SOMETHING. and I think that's extreeeeeemly funny

#extremely funny as a way for leftists specifically to talk about things imo lol

[rupalpspodrace]

🚨 Ep. 78, Don't Cry for Me Confederacy of Independent Systems, is here! 🚨

After a slight delay, our Star Wars VILLAINS episode is here! Each host chose a Star Wars villain we wanted to highlight (and may not have discussed enough before), from the High Republic to the Empire.

POINTS OF INTEREST: Axel Greylark is the Hunter Biden of Star Wars, Darth Dementia, Ventress is on the Toxic Gossip Train, Palpatine's Ukulele Apology, brewed Jar Jar, Darth Maul’s Retail Rage, Dooku’s Iron Lung, Marchion Ro misusing the term “generational trauma”, Marda Ro and Yaddle’s historic beef, Anakin “What’s His Bucket” Skywalker, nepo baby discourse, Count Visage, Dooku vs. Lucille Bluth, and Orson Krennic and Brierly Ronan on the Titanic submersible.

LISTEN NOW in your favorite podcast app!

#rupalp’s podrace #star wars #sheev palpatine #darth maul #marchion ro #count dooku #orson krennic #high republic #clone wars #star wars rebels #thrawn #rogue one

[beardedmrbean]

I don't mean for this to sound rude, but I don't understand the negativity towards Thanksgiving in recent years. Growing up I was always taught that Thanksgiving was about the Native Americans and pilgrims getting together and having a large feast. I always thought that it was generally seen as a positive thing that these two groups of people, who had very different cultures and couldn't even really speak the same language, put aside their differences and enjoyed the year's harvest. Of course, I'm not going to deny all the atrocities that happened to Native Americans, but it seems a bit odd to me personally to say that Thanksgiving is related to those horrible events when to me, it appeared to be about celebrating two cultures coming together. In my mind, it's like saying the 4th of July is bad because America used to have slavery. Or that Veteran's Day is bad because people didn't approve of the Vietnam war. I hope I don't come across as mean spirited, but I guess I just want to understand why people have this sentiment about Thanksgiving.

Not rude at all, polite inquiry is never a issue.

Wasn't as quaint as the simple story you get in 2nd grade or watching the Peanuts special, it did happen and it was a friendly gathering that likely saved the lives of the pilgrims who weren't really prepared for what they'd gotten themselves into.

As for the current year hate, it's not current year folks have been throwing fits about it forever. On of my theories about why it's gotten to the level it has is that the 'activists™' are seeking to out do the people that they've taken the mantle from.

Biggest change is availability of information, which includes false information or shifted narratives.

That and it's popular these days to both shit on white people and infantilize minority groups, that 2nd one is nothing new but it's had a shiny new coat of paint tossed on it that makes it ok for leftists to treat them like helpless little babies.

When in actuality they probably could have held off colonization for a good while if they'd wanted to at the time and they were absolutely better equipped to survive and thrive up there.

Oh they were also really good at killing each other too, did not need the colonists to get that done. Colonists just made it easier since both north and south America, to the best of my knowledge, were still basically in the stone age, don't think they'd managed bronze or copper let alone iron before we showed up. The whole wheel thing is totally different since as the terrain goes there was not really much use for the things.

But ya folks showed up from across the big water with the boom sticks and Algonquins trade whatever for those so the can kill the Iroquois easier, right up till they stopped killing each other and formed a confederacy aimed at killing the various colonists.

Noble Savage shit is so damn racist, they were just as good at killin each other as the folks from Europe, Asia, and Africa were and often for many of the same reasons.

Resources or religion.

#anonymous

[ladysnowangel]

Fall reading: Iron Scouts of the Confederacy by Lee McGiffin

#Iron Scouts of the Confederacy #Lee McGiffin #book #reading #read #read in 2023 #book photography #booklr #photography

[archives-rat]

Reading “Look Away!: A History of the Confederate States of America,” William C. Davis’s internal description of the Confederacy from agitation to secession to reconstruction.  This is probably not what I should be taking away from it, but it’s driving home just how limp the Deadland's portrayal of the Confederacy is/was.  

Confederate society was crumbling from the start.  Gangs of deserters and draft dodgers roam the countryside, stealing from anyone. Cadres of Southern Unionists meeting in secret.  Conscription officers looking to grab any likely-looking man.  Militias made up of the too-young and too-old avoiding big fights.  Militias made up of the well-connected or wealthy looking to avoid any kind of fight.  Clusters of fleeing slaves living in the woods and mountains.

It would be sheer hell - in a good RPG way - to navigate the area. Dodging the Confederate troops as they look to requisition anything not nailed down. Avoiding drawing attention from those loyalists hoping to sniff out Union sympathies. Dodging conscription teams looking to make quota. Trying to make it along crumbling roads as the railways had lost most of their engines to the military.  

The bridge is destroyed.  Was it Yankees?  Unionists? Confederates trying to slow the Yankees?  Bandits trying to slow the militias?  Who knows?  The woods are full of white deserters and escaped slaves.  Some of the slaves probably know the area well enough to show you a ford.  Can you convince them to trust you?  Can they trust you?

Lording over it all and trying to run the country with a rusted iron hand is an oligarchy of aristocrats.  The Lee’s of Virginia, the Rhett’s of South Carolina, the Mason’s of Georgia, the big families of the planter class swap around appointed positions in government and impose poll taxes to keep anyone else from voting.  Their domains are crumbling, their slaves are running off, the peons are starting to rebel, but they still control the government and their younger sons fill the militias.  

They adored Walter Scott but ended up creating a dark fantasy. 

#Confederacy #USCivilWar #Deadlands #History

[communistchilchuck]

You have pre reboot Lonnie reading list? 👀

Lonnie Machin/Anarky/Moneyspider Pre-Flashpoint Reading List

You bet! This is going to get a little long, so I’ll put everything under the cut. Personal favorites will be starred with an asterisk and issues most important to his character/story will be bolded, though I do heavily suggest reading unstarred comics as well. So, without further ado…

(I included a few personal notes that reflect some of my own thoughts and feelings. Feel free to disagree with anything I’ve written, I just figured I’d add them in case anybody was curious about what I have to say.)

* FIRST APPEARANCE - Detective Comics (1937) #608-609

FIRST APPEARANCE AS ‘Moneyspider’/FIRST MEETING WITH TIM DRAKE - Detective Comics (1937) #618-620. Arc also depicts the death of Tim’s mother Janet Drake.

CW: Racist depiction of Haïtian people and misrepresentation of Vodou and Obeah. If you’d like, you can skip or skim the ‘Obeah Man’ arc, as Lonnie is only relevant in the unrelated B-plot involving Tim’s detective case (most prominently in issue #620) or forego the comic entirely. Most essential information is that Lonnie meets Tim, it provides context for some later appearances, and Lonnie is established as a proficient hacker who managed to siphon funds from WayneTech.

* Robin (1993) Annual #1

Batman: Shadow of the Bat #16-18

* FIRST MEETING WITH OLIVER QUEEN (Green Arrow I) - Green Arrow (1988) #89

* The Batman Adventures #31 (DCAU)

Batman Chronicles #1 (second story)

* Batman: Shadow of the Bat #40-41

NOTE: This is sort of where you begin to see Alan Grant (Lonnie’s creator)’s emerging Randian Objectivism and Neo-Tech sympathies show. It gets kind of weird about technology and “enlightenment” among other things. As Lonnie was always meant to reflect Grant’s political beliefs, I will not say this is ‘OOC’, but I will say that I personally am not a fan of the direction. These two issues are massively important for the character, so I will advise they be read.

Anarky (1997) #1-4

NOTE: As stated above, Grant (and thus Lonnie) takes a turn into Neo-Tech Objectivism (which, if I may be frank, is scam pseudo-philosophical garbage). Though this is Lonnie’s first solo comic, I myself have mixed feelings about it for that reason. However, if you want to see more of where the character goes, Lonnie having a cute dog he really loves, developing history and characterization, and a second brush with the occult, feel free to go ahead.

* Batman: Shadow of the Bat #73

NOTE: Though this is a relatively minor appearance, it’s still one of my favorites.

Anarky (1999) #1-8

NOTE: A messy series that nobody wanted (I mean this almost literally, Grant did not want to write it) and got cancelled before they could disprove the Joker paternity arc. I’ve softened on some parts of it over time as I’ve learned more about the editorial mandates and hard situations the creative team went through that resulted in a little bit of disaster, but I still approach it with a healthy amount of criticism from a fan perspective. I will say that the over-the-top antics are relatively normal for a comic book and most of my contempt comes from the fact that the politics are not my favorite and I dislike certain character and writing decisions, etc., but it does feature some characterization I do enjoy so I won’t write it off.

CW: American Confederacy (Mandated “Haunted Tank” cameo appearance) in Issue #7. Issue is skippable without missing anything too important.

Young Justice: Sins of Youth #1

Sins of Youth: JLA, Jr. #1

* Green Arrow (2001) #51

NOTE: One of my favorite Anarky comics of all time and a genuinely wonderful character examination featuring a team-up I adore.

Robin (1993) #180-183

NOTE: Some time between Green Arrow (2001) #51 and these issues, Lonnie was shot in the head, chemically paralyzed, and kept catatonic (comatose? Both are used) by Ulysses Hadrian Armstrong, aka The General. Ulysses would keep Lonnie attached to an iron lung and wire his mind to a digital communications network, forcing Lonnie to work for him. He is able to talk using speech synthesis and explore the depths of the internet/communicate with others as ‘Moneyspider’ once again. This sets up his role in Red Robin (2009). The writer, Fabian Nicieza, does not show what led up to this happening and you’re only told more of the details through inference and research (he detailed that Lonnie got shot on a forum post, for example), so I felt it necessary to go over here.

Red Robin (2009) #13-25

NOTE: Lonnie begins to work with Tim Drake full-time as ‘Moneyspider’ as he recovers in Leslie Thompkins’ clinic. Issue #25 is his last appearance before the DCU’s New 52/Flashpoint reboot.

#asks #if anyone knows of any cws i should go in and add please let me know! i’d be happy to do so

[leesielex]

Awww look. I got more Dany hate for a post that said Dany was Mother of Dragons. And so many of these trolls then theorize or fanfic that THEIR fave hatches their own dragons. Why would GRRM have TWO characters hatch dragons giving the same plot to both? Cersei is already becoming the mad queen with an attraction to wildfire, please tell me how it would make sense to have two mad queen stories in the same series too? Like How unoriginal and boring are you? Obviously you are at least as unimaginative as D&D, ya know the dude bros that claimed to read the books but didn't know Sam was a POV chap and thought a show where the confederacy won and kept slavery was a fantastic idea.

It also shows you completely miss the whole point of the series, that they all bring something to the table, that it's about the collective and greater good, that no one is perfect and it's about the struggle, the journey, the mistakes and learning from them. That they must put aside petty squabbles and the war for the iron throne to defeat the Others and save the realm.

Please tell me how they defeat the Others WITHOUT dragons? They don't. They all die. If you don't like fantasy with dragons then what are you doing here? If you so badly hate a woman with power &are a misogynist, just say that.

Seriously, show me a single character that has better judgement than Dany? That hasn't made a bunch of bad judgements, terrible decisions, been impulsive or let their emotions get the better of them, more than once, in the ASOIAF series? There isn't a single character in the whole story, especially those in positions of power like Stannis, Jon, but even Sansa and Bran that there isn't a list of poor judgements they have made that often result in the deaths of themselves, their loved one, or their people. (Except Bran but he is literally 7-9 in the books and has already committed 2 of the 3 abominations that skinchangers should never do). Like no one gets as much hate as Dany, no one is held to as high as standards as Dany and yet Dany is one of GRRMs fave characters, one of the key five, and the whole world of Planetos would be fucked w/o her and her dragons.

According to GRRM, Dany is a hero. “My own heroes are the dreamers, those men and women who tried to make the world a better place than when they found it, whether in small ways or great ones."

And from Fevre Dream, written by GRRM I never held much with slavery […]. You can’t just go… usin’ another kind of people, like they wasn’t people at all. Know what I mean? Got to end, sooner or later. Better if it ends peaceful, but it’s got to end even if it has to be with fire and blood, you see? Maybe that’s what them abolitionists been sayin’ all along. You try to be reasonable, that’s only right, but if it don’t work, you got to be ready. Some things is just wrong. They got to be ended."

And when asked if the dragons are like nukes-

"it’s often been said that the dragons are the nuclear weapons of my imaginary world. They are the most devastating weapon, and they cause great destruction, massive loss of life. but they’re not necessarily, you know, I mean, this is part of Dany’s storyline and the original novels."

Dany sacks Astapor and takes Meereen and yet she DOESNT USE HER DRAGONS IN THE BOOKS BUT ONE TIME TO KILL BURN ONE PERSON IN THE ENTIRE SERIES SO FAR!

Y'all either never read the books and are going only off D&D's fanfiction show, you haven't read the books in so long that you remember the show scenes better than the books and conflate the two, or you let the Internet forum hate of Dany dictate your thoughts without zero confirmation or critical thinking of your own.

So gtfoh with that "nuke" bs. Even GRRM backtracked on that recently. Prob cause he saw how badly D&D and so many of the fandom has misinterpreted this story due to misogyny and media illiteracy.

#anti antis #daenerys targaryen #daenerys targaryen deserved better #daenerys defense squad #Dany is my queen #the dragons will end the long night

[alphaman99]

HISTORY THAT SHOULDN'T BE FORGOTTEN.

Jefferson Davis was never tried for treason. He was imprisoned for 2 years without a trial, however...

The post-war Jefferson Davis: The famous trial that never was.

By Bill Ward

When the War Between the States ended, the victorious Northerners viewed Jefferson Davis, as the former President of the Confederate States of America, much differently than others who had served the Confederacy.

For example, when Robert E. Lee surrendered to U.S. Grant at Appomattox Court House, the meeting between the two generals was amicable. Lee was received and treated with courtesy as a senior officer. The terms were so apparently lenient, with Grant conceding to Lee’s requests on behalf of his soldiers, the surrender was referred to as “a gentleman’s agreement.”

However, even after signing a loyalty oath, Lee and other former Confederate Army officers and members of the CSA government were later disenfranchised and treated as second-class citizens. But in the eyes of the northern public, Jefferson Davis was set apart for still a different kind of treatment.

On May 10, 1865, about a mile from the town of Irwinville, Georgia, Federal troops captured Davis. With his arrest on that spring morning, his government ceased to exist. His wife, Varina, and their children were sent to Savannah, where she was kept under virtual house arrest and forbidden to leave the city. Because the soldiers, carpetbaggers and Union supporters treated the Davis children so badly, Varina arranged for them to go to Canada along with her mother.

Davis had been taken back to Virginia and imprisoned in Fort Monroe, where he would stay for the next two years. At first, he was bound in leg irons. Guards watched him around the clock but were not permitted to speak to him. He was allowed no visitors; a light burned in his cell day and night; and his only reading material was a Bible. His treatment was a clear violation of the Bill of Rights.

Many Northern Congressmen and newspapers were nothing short of vicious in their public attacks of Davis. They wanted to see him tried for treason and hanged. In one article, and in one very long sentence, the New York Times referred to Davis by every insulting comment and offensive name that was fit to print. Rhetoric far outran legal reasoning.

But if Davis was in an unusual legal predicament, so was the United States government. The dilemma faced by Washington was how to handle the Davis case. The government under Lincoln had created its own major obstacles by spending four years proclaiming that secessionists were “traitors and conspirators.” The U.S. military had silenced opposition to the administration by closing down newspapers that dared challenge the party line or to make the slightest suggestion that secession might be legal. Thousands of Northerners had been jailed for exercising their First Amendment rights, and those thousands had friends with long memories in the Northern bar.

Northern lawyers were angry for having their clients locked in prison with no civil rights as guaranteed by the Constitution; having civilians tried by military courts for non-existent crimes; having a government that ignored the Supreme Court, setting itself above the constitutional plan of checks and balances. They didn’t like having to beg the president for justice for clients convicted by phony courts-martial or locked up for long periods without any trial. Under Lincoln, the U.S. government had become tyrannical, and certainly anything but a free and constitutional society.

The best lawyers of the day were willing to volunteer to defend Jefferson Davis, because they were angry at the way Lincoln’s government had trampled the Bill of Rights and the Constitution for four years. Even those who didn’t believe in secession were repulsed by the conduct of the Republican administration and the U.S. military.

Charles O’Connor of New York, one of the most famous trial lawyers of the era and a man of great stature in the legal profession, volunteered to be Davis’s counsel. Salmon P. Chase, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, would be the trial judge.

But interesting things began to happen, and the government’s dilemma became even worse. University of Virginia Law Professor, Albert Bledsoe, published a book, “Is Davis a Traitor?” Bledsoe methodically took apart the case against secession, delivering a solid blow to the prosecutors and dampening their zeal to try Davis. Prosecutors actually began to look for a way to avoid trying him without vindicating the South.

Then another method was decided on for prosecution. The attorney general would bring in outside, independent counsel, as we have seen in modern times, such as in Watergate or the Clinton scandals. The government needed someone of great standing in the legal community to be the lead prosecutor. It chose John J. Clifford. But after reviewing the case, Clifford withdrew citing “grave doubts” about the validity of the case. The government could “end up having fought a successful war, only to have it declared unlawful by a Virginia jury,” where Davis’s “crime” was alleged to have been committed.

President Johnson, Lincoln’s successor, thought the easiest way out would be to pardon Davis, as he had pardoned many other Confederates. But Davis refused, saying, “To ask for a pardon would be a confession of guilt.” He wanted a trial to have the issue of secession decided by a court of law — where it should have been decided to begin with — instead of on battlefields. Most Southerners wanted the same.

Northerners either forgot or were unaware of a great secessionist tradition in America. Southerners were not alone in their view that each state had the right to determine its own destiny in the Union. The procedure for joining the Union also applied to withdrawing from the Union.

That thought harkens back to an editorial by the Cincinnati (Ohio) Daily Inquirer, in the summer of 1861, after the “traitor” label was let loose by the North: “The Republican papers are great on treason. . . . It is treason to circulate petitions for a compromise or peaceful readjustment of our national troubles . . . to question the constitutional powers of the President to increase the standing army without authority of law . . . to object to squads of military visiting private houses, and to make search and seizures. . . to question the infallibility of the President, and treason not to concur with him. . . It is treason to talk of hard times; to say that the war might have been avoided. It is treason to be truthful and faithful to the Constitution.”

A year after John Clifford withdrew, the government appointed another special counsel, Richard Dana of Boston, who had written the novel, “Two Years Before the Mast.” But after reviewing the evidence, he agreed with Clifford; the case was a loser. Dana argued that “a conviction will settle nothing in law or national practice not now settled…as a rule of law by war.” Dana observed that the right to secede from the Union had not been settled by civilized means but by military power and the destruction of much life and property in the South. The North should accept its uncivilized victory, however dirty its hands might be, and not expose the fruits of its carnage to scrutiny by a peaceful court of law.

Now, over two years after Davis’s imprisonment and grand jury indictments for treason, the stage was set for the great public trial of the century. Davis had been released from prison on a $100,000 bond, supported by none other than Horace Greeley, the leading abolitionist writer in the North and a former Lincoln supporter. Greeley and a host of others were outraged at the treatment Davis had received, being locked up in a dungeon for more than two years with no speedy trial.

Since two famous special counsels had told the government its case was a loser, finally, none other than the Chief Justice, in a quirk of Constitutional manipulation, devised an idea to avoid a trial without vindicating the South. His amazing solution was little short of genius.

The Fourteenth Amendment had been adopted, which provided that anyone who had engaged in insurrection against the United States and had at one time taken an oath of allegiance (which Davis had done as a U.S. Senator) could not hold public office. The Bill of Rights prevents double jeopardy, so Davis, who had already been punished once by the Fourteenth Amendment in not being permitted to hold public office, couldn't be tried and punished again for treason.

Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase secretly passed along his clever argument to Davis’s counsel, Charles O’Connor, who then made the motion to dismiss. The Court took the motion under consideration, passing the matter on to the Supreme Court for determination.

In late December 1867 while the motion was pending, President Johnson granted amnesty to everyone in the South, including Davis. But the Davis case was still on the docket. In February 1868, at a dinner party attended by the Chief Justice and a government attorney, they agreed that on the following day a motion for non-prosecution would be made that would dismiss the case. A guest overheard the conversation and reported what was on the minds of most Southerners: “I did not consider that he [Davis] was any more guilty of treason than I was, and that a trial should be insisted upon, which could properly only result in a complete vindication of our cause, and of the action of the many thousands who had fought and of the many thousands who had died for what they felt to be right.”

And so, the case of United States versus Jefferson Davis came to its end — a case that was to be the trial of the century, a great state trial, perhaps the most significant trial in the history of the nation — that never was.

[kemetic-dreams]

HISTORICAL IGBO TIMELINES:

STONE AGE -MIDDLE AGES.

This is the period dating 1.2million years to 3000BC , the era of homo-erectus found within the areas of ugwuele uturu following the discovery of Archeolean hand axes and stone tools in caves. Clay pots dating 3000BC were recovered at Afikpo and Opi iron slags .Details of this era is buried in archeology .

EARLY HISTORY:

8th-9 th AD : Kingdom of Nri begins with Eze Nri Ìfikuánim.

1434 AD: Portuguese explorers make contact with the Igbo.

1630 AD : The Aro-Ibibio Wars start.

1690AD: The Aro Confederacy is established

1745AD : Olaudah Equiano is born in Essaka, but later kidnapped and shipped to Barbados and sold as a slave in 1765.

1797AD : Olaudah Equiano dies in England as a freed slave.

1807 AD : The Slave Trade Act 1807 is passed (on 25 March) helping in stopping the transportation of enslaved Africans, including Igbo people, to the Americas. Atlantic slave trade exports an estimated total of 1.4 million Igbo people across the Middle Passage

1830 AD : European explorers explore the course of the Lower Niger and meet the Northern Igbo.

1835 AD: Africanus Horton is born to Igbo ex-slaves in Sierra Leone

1855 AD: William Balfour Baikie a Scottish naval physician, reaches Niger Igboland.

MODERN HISTORY:

1880–1905: Southern Nigeria is conquered by the British, including Igboland.

1885–1906: Christian missionary presence in Igboland.

1891: King Ja Ja of Opobo dies in exile, but his corpse is brought back to Nigeria for burial.

1896–1906: Around 6,000 Igbo children attend mission schools.

1901–1902: The Aro Confederacy declines after the Anglo-Aro war.

1902: The Aro-Ibibio Wars end.

1906: Igboland becomes part of Southern Nigeria (the beginning of our problem)

1914: Northern Nigeria and Southern Nigeria are amalgamated to form Nigeria. (escalation of our problem)

1929: Igbo Women's War (first Nigerian feminist movement) of 1929 in Aba.

1953: November Anti Igbo riots (killing over 50 Igbos in Kano) of 1953 in Kano

1960: October 1 Nigeria gains independence from Britain; Tafawa Balewa becomes Prime Minister, and Nnamdi Azikiwe becomes President.

1966: January 16 A coup by junior military officers takes over government and assassinated some country leaders. The Federal Military Government is formed, with General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi as the Head of State and Supreme Commander of the Federal Republic.

1966: July 29 A counter-coup by military officers of northern extraction, deposes the Federal Military Government; General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi is assassinated along with Adekunle Fajuyi, Military Governor of Western Region. General Yakubu Gowon becomes Head of State.

1967: Ethnoreligious violence between Igbo Christians, and Hausa/Fulani Muslims in Eastern and Northern Nigeria, triggers a migration of the Igbo back to the East.

1967: May 30 General Emeka Ojukwu, Military Governor of Eastern Nigeria, declares his province an independent republic called Biafra, and the Nigerian Civil War or Nigerian-Biafran War ensues.

1970: January 8 General Emeka Ojukwu flees into exile; His deputy Philip Effiong becomes acting President of Biafra.

1970: January 15 Acting President of Biafra Philip Effiong surrenders to Nigerian forces through future President of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo, and Biafra is reintegrated into Nigeria.

References:

Understanding 'Things Fall Apart' by Kalu Ogbaa

Wikipedia

Image Credit: Ukpuru, Pinterest

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