by James D. ‘Archie’ Howell

Jon D. Pyle wrote about conversations with his grandfather in a recent column. (“We would rock, he would talk,” Sept. 2.)

His great-great-grandfather, born in Kentucky, was a Civil War veteran, first serving in the 1st Kentucky and the 13th Kentucky Cavalry regiments CSA. “My great-grandfather joined the Confederate service to protect his state from invasion….” Interesting.

Kentucky voted to become a neutral state. It was invaded by CSA Major Gen. Leonidas Polk at Columbus, Ky., on the Mississippi River. Kentucky’s governor asked the Union to intercede and drive the CSA forces out. They did. Kentucky became a Union state.

So …does that mean Kentucky was fighting a “War of Southern Aggression?”

Mr. Pyle learned from his grandfather that “We are much gentler and enjoy a slower pace of life and our social interaction is a very important part of Southern tradition.”

Immediately following the Nat Turner event in 1831, local militias and others that joined them, slaughtered scores of black people, slave and free alike, without trial, without any semblance of evidence of complicity.

One Virginia newspaper reported that a “leader” of the Turner group (not specifically named) was beheaded, dismembered, and his head, arms and legs were skewered atop poles at the intersection of Meherrin and Barrow roads. Other heads were added to the grisly exhibit over time. One newspaper reported that 19 heads were so exhibited, to intimidate the black population.

Today Blackhead Signpost Road is a physical landmark. Persons in the county will have to decide whether it continues to be an intimidation.

One newspaper reported that persons in the militias undoubtedly murdered their own (or their friends’) sons. Slaves were useful for many purposes. Many children with white fathers were born to slaves or free blacks.

There were ordinances that covered the event. If the mother was a slave, the child was a slave. If the mother was free, the child was free.

It would be interesting to see a DNA mapping of the citizens of Virginia. You can never tell who might be related to whom. It’s very difficult to distort a DNA profile.

I don’t think I could handle a whole lot of that “gentler pace” and “social interaction,” Mr. Pyle.

His grandfather reported that “Our society, our lifestyles, our religions were different.” Indeed they were.

Approximately three-quarters of the South’s population could not vote. I’m willing to move a percentage point or two. Exact numbers were not kept.

Blacks (free or slave), Indians (a few exceptions here), Mexicans, or women had no vote. That leaves about 25 percent of the population, all white, to write laws and decrees, pass legislation, elect whoever needed electing, and to police whoever needed policing. It was not a cross-section of the population and was not representative government, unless you were a white male. I dare say there are not a lot of blacks, Indians, Mexicans, or women in the SOCV organization.

Full representation did not come after the Civil War. Segregation and post-war hatreds extended to the ballot box. A series of laws prevented cross sectional representation.

From Mr. Pyle’s grandfather, same quote: “We are much gentler and enjoy a slower pace of life…”

On August 20, 1965, at Hayneville, Ala., about 60 miles southwest of Tuskegee, a young seminarian and Virginia Military Institute graduate, jumped between a shotgun bearing racist and a young black girl as she was entering a store — a store she had entered many times before. It was a time of voter registration projects. The seminarian, Jon Daniels, was killed by the blast. The racist was acquitted by an all-male, all-white jury.

Jon Daniels is martyred by the Episcopal Church and is memorialized within the walls of VMI.

That’s over a 100 years after the Civil War, Mr. Pyle. Certainly is a slower pace of life. And gentler?

Indeed, the South was different from the North.

Rocking and reading produces better archival facts than rocking and talking.

JAMES D. “ARCHIE” HOWELL is a Southampton County native and 1955 graduate of Franklin High school. He can be reached at archiepix@kingwoodcable.com