Saturday, January 23, 2016

Federal Occupation Breeds Resentment



I’m not a fan of comprehensive histories.  They’re usually too broad in scope, prone to the author’s biases and rarely provide insight into regional aspects that pertains to the subject at hand.  The War of Northern Aggression and occupation is a perfect example of how history can be politicized and distorted.  The American Civil War is probably the most bastardized epoch in our relatively short existence.


Judkin Browning’s, Shifting Loyalties is a welcomed example of a microstudy that focuses on two eastern counties – Carteret and Craven –  in North Carolina that fell under Union occupation for most of the war.  Sympathizers to the Southern cause fled, except those who couldn’t afford to, and pro-unionist who welcomed the Yankee invaders.


Shifting Loyalties documents Southerners’ attitude towards a foreign military occupation, an invasion of Yankee do-gooders and thousands of contraband slaves that sought sanctuary behind Union lines.  By the end of the war, even pro-unionist resented their Yankee masters’ superiority complex and their meddlesome social engineering and when the Yankees finally left, collaborators would be ostracized or run out of town.






Today’s Americans can identify with certain aspects of a federal occupation.  Westerners are subjected to capricious bureaucrats who forsake personal property rights and laws for their version of the greater good which usually means what’s best for their agency.  This same kind of attitude happened in New Bern when soldiers stole, damaged property and assaulted citizens against direct orders with impunity. 


 We’ve witnessed standoffs by ranchers who have been seriously aggrieved by the Bureau of Land Management.  Our wannabe lords and masters should remember Federal occupation breeds resentment.  Representative Greg Walden addresses these abuses in the below video:





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