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"A textbook distributed to Virginia fourth-graders says that thousands of African Americans fought for the South during the Civil War — a claim rejected by most historians but often made by groups seeking to play down slavery's role as a cause of the conflict. The passage appears in 'Our Virginia: Past and Present,' which was distributed in the state's public elementary schools for the first time last month. The author, Joy Masoff, who is not a trained historian but has written several books, said she found the information about black Confederate soldiers primarily through Internet research…" The last line of this article is pretty killer.
I'm sorry, are you talking about The War Between the States?
You mean The War of Northern Agression.
"War Between the States" – How I heard it while in Georgia last week.
Always good to stand behind your internet research that relies on a single, inherently partial, source.
"They like attribution by Wikipedia generally."
It's not if you're blocked out by a paywall.
I – ugh, you know? There were significant economic elements to the Civil War, and those do tend to get overlooked because, hey, one-word explanations are WAY easier. If this was an honest attempt to look at other contributing factors, that might have been useful. But at the same time, to say the war wasn't first and foremost about slavery makes you an idiot.
“Alright, here’s your last question. What was the cause of the Civil War?”
“Actually there were numerous causes, aside from the obvious schism between abolitionists and anti-abolitionists, economic factors, both domestic and international, played a significant…”
“Hey, hey.”
"Yeah?”
“Just, just say ‘slavery’.”
“Slavery it is, sir.”
I gotta give her credit for describing herself as "a fairly respected writer." Low-key!
Gotta mention one thing–this did happen at least occasionally, if not in battalions of thousands. An African-American friend of mine is the direct descendant of a man who fought in the Civil War on the side of the Confederacy. His family still has the sword the guy (his great-great-grandfather, I think?) carried in the war. And just so this doesn't sound like I'm starting an urban legend or something, the person I'm talking about is Forbes Graham, who has played in the bands Kayo Dot and Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, among others. He wrote about this in Heartattack fanzine back in the late 90s, so if you got in touch with him to check my story I'm sure he'd tell you all about it.
I don't think anyone's saying absolutely zero African-Americans fought for the Confederacy. But there's a huge difference between a handful of people (most of whom, I'm betting, had unusual circumstances that motivated them to fight – free blacks, or slaves who were promised their freedom in exchange for serving, etc) and "battalions of thousands".