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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