The Confederate Legacy Burns Bright: Shenandoah School Naming Controversy

A moral & political evil…a greater evil to the white man than to the black race…The painful discipline they are undergoing, is necessary for their instruction as a race, & I hope will prepare & lead them to better things…While we see the Course of the final abolition of human Slavery is onward, & we give it the aid of our prayers & all justifiable means in our power, we must leave the progress as well as the result in his hands.

Historians debate the extent to which Robert E. Lee supported slavery. Source: NY Times

He neither apologized for nor spoke in favor of the practice of slavery. He probably opposed the institution. Yet in his mind the Creator had sanctioned slavery, and man had no moral right to challenge its existence. The good Christian slaveholder was one who treated his servants fairly and humanely at all times.

The first extract comprises quotations from Robert E. Lee, the military leader of the Confederacy during the American Civil War. The second is a biographer’s summation of Thomas ‘Stonewall’ Jackson’s views on the institution of slavery. Jackson was one of the South’s most gifted generals, his nickname arising from his refusal to back down, his fearlessness inspired by a fanatical religious faith.

Thomas ‘Stonewall’ Jackson died in 1863 after suffering a mortal wound from friendly fire at the Battle of Chancellorsville. Source: Encyclopaedia Virginia

It would be reasonable to assume that Lee and Jackson had internally conflicting views of slavery, as opposed to many of their compatriots who wholeheartedly believed in the righteousness of the practice. Yet, these generals fought a bloody campaign in the name of preserving slavery, their loyalty to their native state of Virginia failing to mask the nature of their war.

A few days ago, the Shenandoah County School Board voted to restore the Confederate names of two schools in Quicksburg, Virginia. Stonewall Jackson High and Ashby-Lee Elementary have returned, only four years after being renamed in the wake of massive racial justice protests following the Police murder of George Floyd. Whilst many locals in this White-dominated area appear to favour the naming return, it was undertaken without public consultation.

Some protested in vain against the school renamings. Source: The Guardian

The naming of institutions after historical figures, likewise streets, not to mention the maintenance of statues, is a controversial topic. Few people from history are universally acclaimed, few are untainted. One person’s hero is another’s villain and passing judgement on whether to publicly commemorate an individual invites dispute.

For many in America’s South, Lee and Jackson – along with cavalry commander Turner Ashby, whose name also features in one school’s title – fought to uphold states’ rights, opposing the tyranny of a national government that refused to listen to their legitimate economic and political concerns. For others, they are symbols of a racist system that survived the Civil War and helped subjugate Blacks as second-class citizens in a country that proclaims itself the leader of the free world.

Turner Ashby won success in the Shenandoah Valley before dying in battle in 1862. Source: WVTF

In the USA, the legacy of the Confederacy has become increasingly politicised in recent years. Many who fly the Confederate flag or advocate the naming of schools after Confederate leaders probably have little idea about the causes of the Civil War, its bloody course, and the equally bloody Reconstruction that followed. They take pride in the anti-government connotations Confederate symbology carries, decrying a political class they believe has failed them. Moreover, they seek to direct their disenchantment against others, with Black people an often-convenient target. The ‘Heritage Not Hate’ moniker stamped on some Confederate flags is hard to buy.

Names and statues should not be reserved for the victors or the saintly. But whether you believe that naming schools after defeated Confederate generals is agreeable, the renaming of Stonewall Jackson High and Ashby-Lee Elementary is an overtly political act. These names were changed in 2020 to try and cool racial tensions and to recognise the offence they caused the Black community. To revoke this decision is a signal that racism is acceptable and will be permitted in Shenandoah County. It is an incendiary move that will further divide an already frayed populace, feeding into a warped political narrative in an election year that threatens chaos.

The historical significance of the Confederate flag and the Confederacy more broadly has become lost in a highly-charged political climate. Source: Daily Beast

The Carreira da India Lives On:Houthi Red Sea Attacks Prompt Shipping Rethink

There is an apocryphal tale of how the Portuguese captain Vasco da Gama subdued a potential mutiny amongst his crew. Having rounded the Cape of Good Hope at the tip of southern Africa in 1497, the realisation of reaching India from Europe via a sea route was close. Yet, assailed by Muslim traders and buffeted by fierce weather, da Gama’s men wished to turn for home. In an act of righteous grandeur, the captain dispensed with the ship’s instruments and navigational maps overboard, imploring his men to trust in God, whose helmsman he claimed to be. A few months later they made landfall in Calicut and the history of the world changed.

Vasco da Gama arrives at Calicut, India in 1498. World History Encyclopaedia

The Portuguese sea route to India (the Carreira da India) would usher in an era of European colonialism in the east. Trade with sultans and emirs would mature into military conquest and subordination, the colossal voyages (giant ships travelling six months each way) awaited with eager anticipation by the rulers in Lisbon and continental merchants. Having seen Christopher Columbus claim the New World for Spain in his attempts to find a sea route to the ‘Indies’, da Gama had charted a course for the smaller Iberian power to create the first global empire.

Da Gama’s voyage was the culmination of over a century of progressive exploration and technological improvement. After Gil Eannes rounded the infamously treacherous Cape Bojador on the West Saharan coast in 1434 (Parry, p.146), subsequent Portuguese navigators charted increasingly southerly courses towards the base of the African continent, a region still shrouded in mystery. In early 1488, Bartolomeu Dias rounded the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Agulhas (the Cape of the Needles), breaching the Atlantic-Indian Ocean divide. He initially named Africa’s southern promontory the Stormy Cape, only for Portuguese King Joao II to rename it the Cape of Good Hope, ‘because it promised the discovery of India, so long desired and sought for over so many years’ (Crowley pp. 31-33).

The Carreira da India. Source: Wikimedia Commons

Until the construction of the Suez Canal in the 1860s – connecting the Mediterranean with the Red Sea – maritime traffic between Europe and the East passed around the Cape of Good Hope. Fortunes soared and foundered on the treacherous passage. And yet despite Suez and the rise in long-distance air and rail freight, this lengthy southern route is still plied. Indeed, it is increasingly so due to the political instability of the Middle East.

Houthi rebels continue to attack commercial shipping in the Red Sea with a combination of missiles and drones. Despite retaliatory strikes by American and British forces, the Yemeni group appears undeterred and their Iranian patrons either unwilling or unable to rein them in. Consequently, commercial shipping lines are taking the almost unthinkable move of rolling back the clock a century-and-a-half and committing more cargo to the journey around the Cape of Good Hope.

Backed by Iran, the Houthis are causing chaos in the Red Sea. Source: Politico

Danish shipping giant Maersk has ruled out using the Red Sea route for the remainder of 2024. It is sending more ships southwards at great cost, with a 40% fuel increase required both due to the greater distance and speeds needed to get cargo to and from eastern ports in a commercially viable timeframe. The economic costs get passed on to consumers, whilst the environmental costs from increased fuel consumption are at this stage incalculable.

It is a reminder that our reliance on maritime trade networks is still very much comparable to bygone eras. Crucial chokepoints in shipping routes are blatantly evident, as demonstrated by the chaos caused when the Ever Given ran aground in the Suez Canal in 2021 and closed the waterway for 6 days. The Strait of Malacca, meanwhile, is the most critical shipping route between the Indian and Pacific Oceans and yet is only 40 miles wide at its narrowest point. Concerns regarding China’s intentions in the South China Sea give cause to fear a potential closure of this waterway, with alternative routes few and far between.

The pioneers of the 15^th and 16^th century made international trade possible. And yet despite substantial technological advancement, our desire for global goods remains undimmed and our reliance on historic transport routes amazingly high. The opportunity such a reliance gives nefarious state actors, rebels and terrorist groups is clear to see. Without a concerted transnational effort, the Carreira da India will live on beyond the 21^st century.

An Indiaman in a North-Wester off the Cape of Good Hope by William Daniell. Source: Royal Academy of Arts

Additional reading

Crowley, R. Conquerors: How Portugal Seized the Indian Ocean and Forged the First Global Empire (2015)

Parry, J. H. The Age of Reconnaissance (1963)