Feds want secrecy on ICE facility for Wake (NC)

Via Michael

The federal government has offered western Wake towns a double-edged deal. The General Services Administration will divulge details about an immigration-law enforcement and short-term detention facility slated for the area, but the towns must agree to keep quiet.

GSA officials say they're being as open as possible under federal laws that require secretive planning for the 19,000-square-foot facility, which could land anywhere from Garner to Morrisville. But some local leaders say the offer is a Catch-22, and they're unsure whether they could oblige without breaking state public records laws.

"If you sign the contract, then you can't tell citizens what's going on. And if something bad comes up, then you're screwed," said Cary Mayor Harold Weinbrecht. "If you don't sign the contract ... if something comes up, people get ticked off and you're screwed."

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From Free North Carolina

Stonewall Jackson's Prayer Oak Stolen

Old Virginia Blog
Verbatim Post

The famous oak tree was toppled by high winds this past June. Now, thieves have stolen the "remains."

"A 350-year-old oak known as the Stonewall Jackson Prayer Tree was reported stolen Tuesday, the Augusta County Sheriff's Office said."

The owner had donated the tree from which items were to be crafted and sold, with the funds being donated to the Wounder Warriors project.

I'm curious as to why someone would steal it though. They can't sell it without being caught. Perhaps some ole boy is, as I type this, warming his feet by a log fire. Oh, perish the thought. Let's all pray the thief/thieves get caught.

Fellow CW blogger Robert Moore gives a good summation of how the tree came to be known as "Jackson's Prayer Tree" here.

More here.

From Free North Carolina

NC Sheriff Attacked by Atheists for Putting Religious Ad in Newspaper

Godfather Politics

Verbatim Post

For atheists, the First Amendment is a one-way street. They don’t believe in “freedom of religion” but “freedom from religion.” The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) sent a letter to the Onslow County Board of Commissioners on Nov. 16, asking the board to stop Sheriff Ed Brown from creating any more ads about religion.

Sheriff Brown published an advertisement in The Daily News in Jacksonville, N.C., written in letter format and addressed it to “All Decent and Respectable Citizens of a Decent and Respectable Society.” The FFRF wants the Board of Commissioners to stop him from publishing similar advertisements in the future. The FFRF also wants Brown to issue an apology, and says the board should take disciplinary action against him.

The First Amendment, if it even applies to the states, states the following:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

As you can see, the prohibition is addressed to Congress not to the state of North Carolina or its counties. In fact, the first Amendment was demanded by the states to keep the national government and its courts out of the religious business of the states. Even if the First Amendment does apply to the states, there is this line: “Congress shall make no law . . . prohibiting the free exercise” of religion. So what the FFRF is attempting to do is have the county commissioners violate the Constitution.

Then there are the provisions that prohibit the government from “abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.” So it seems to me that Sherrif Brown is on solid constitutional ground.

North Carolina’s constitution has an interesting history when it comes to religion. Article XXXII of North Carolina’s 1776 Constitution is specifically Christian by stating the following qualifications for public officers in the state:

“No person who shall deny the being of God, or the truth of the Protestant religion, or the divine authority of the Old or New Testaments, or who shall hold religious principles incompatible with the freedom and safety of the State, shall be capable of holding any office or place of trust or profit in the civil department within this State.”

This provision remained in force until 1835 when it was amended by changing the word “Protestant” to “Christian,” and as so amended remained in force until the Constitution of 1868 which describes North Carolina as a “Christian State” (Art. XI, sec. 7). The present Preamble reads:

“We, the people of the State of North Carolina, grateful to Almighty God, the Sovereign Ruler of Nations, for the preservation of the American Union and the existence of our civil, political and religious liberties, and acknowledging our dependence upon Him for the continuance of those blessings to us and our posterity, do, for the more certain security thereof and for the better government of this State, ordain and establish this Constitution.

The following was included in Sheriff Brown’s ad: “When America turns back to God’s Law and man’s standards established from God’s Law, good and decent things will turn around for All Americans.” How is this statement a violation of the North Carolina Constitution when it describes God as “the Sovereign Ruler of nations”? A sovereign ruler has rules. Rules are laws.

Is their historical precedent for government officials publishing religious statements in newspapers?

George Washington’s 1789 “Thanksgiving Proclamation” was published in the October 14^th issue of the Massachusetts Centinel and includes the president’s signature. The Preamble states that “it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor.” Like North Carolina’s present constitution, Washington’s Thanksgiving Proclamation describes God as “Lord and Ruler of Nations.”

If Sheriff Brown’s advertisement violates either the Federal or state of North Carolina constitution, then President Washington, who was present at the drafting of the national Constitution and the First Amendment, was a significant violator of the law. I guess that puts Sheriff Brown in good company.

Just so you know, Sheriff Brown paid for the ads with this own money.

The people at the Freedom From Religion Foundation are either ignorant of this history or hope that the majority of people who read The Daily News in Jacksonville, N.C. are. They are also playing the “fear factor” card. They’re hoping that a threat of a lawsuit will persuade the commissioners to issue a reprimand to the sheriff. I’ll keep you posted.

From Free North Carolina

Friends of North Carolina History:

The Cape Fear Historical Institute will have an information table at this Saturday’s Christmas Open House at Harmony Hall, Noon to 6PM -- one of the few remaining plantations of the colonial era of North Carolina and which is experiencing an ongoing restoration. The plantation was self-sufficient and raised crops and livestock for the inhabitants and export, including turpentine shipped down the Cape Fear River to Wilmington.

The circa-1768 house and property was the 12,000 acre home of Col. James Richardson, with outbuildings typical of a plantation of that era and into the nineteenth century – it remained in the Richardson family till 1874. On display are weapons of that period and working blacksmith shop, music in the nearby Chapel, storytellers, tours of all buildings – as well as costumed guides in colonial through antebellum planter attire. Please plan to attend.

The address is 1615 River Road in White Oak, near Elizabethtown. See www.HarmonyHallNC.com for more info.

From Free North Carolina

Magnolia Cemetery, Charleston, SC

Tom is down there visiting his daughters and trying to convince the city to open fire on Ft. Sumter again........
========

From Free North Carolina

I fought for Virginia

LINK
From Free North Carolina

Slave Trading New England

Slaver Captain Nathaniel Gordon of Portland, Maine and his ship, the Erie, was captured at the mouth of the Congo River by the USS Mohican in 1860. Loaded with nearly 900 slaves, the Erie was built in Swansea, Massachusetts about 1850, and owned by a New York City partnership.

Bernhard Thuersam, Chairman
North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial Commission
www.ncwbts150.com
"The Official Website of the North Carolina WBTS Sesquicentennial"
=========

Slave Trading New England:

“Ironically, an opportunity for strict enforcement of the slave trade laws was available to the United States almost from the beginning, but it meant collaborating with the British. [In 1807] England, the world’s largest slaving nation, outlawed its own slave trade. Britain’s motives were not especially altruistic [and] in reality, the British were trying to protect the commerce of their colonies by denying slave labor to their competitors, chiefly Spain, France, Portugal, Brazil, and the United States.

Had the United States cooperated with Britain at any point, the slave trade would certainly have ended earlier. As it was, the trade flourished throughout the first half of the nineteenth century, as Yankee captains continued to fit out their ships in Providence; New York City; Portland, Maine; Rio; or any of a dozen other sympathetic ports, and sail to the west coast of Africa for slaves. The Brazilian and Cuban markets were strong, the risks low, and the potential for profits enormous.

Meanwhile, the record of convictions in the courts was as poor as that of seizures at sea. In New York City, where most of the prosecutions took place, only one-sixth of those indicted were convicted. The rest were either acquitted, forfeited bail, escaped from custody, or were released because of hung juries or the court’s unwillingness to prosecute.

From 1837 to 1861 (when Captain [Nathaniel] Gordon alone made at least four slaving voyages), around 125 accused slave traders – officers and crewmen – were prosecuted in New York City; only 20 were given prison sentences, averaging two years apiece. Of these men, 10 received presidential pardons, and 3 more – indicted for capital crimes under the piracy act of 1820 – were allowed to plead to lesser charges. One was briefly convicted of piracy, but the conviction was overturned on a technicality. Clearly, no one in power wanted to hang a man for trafficking in slaves.

[In 1846, the] USS Boxer seized the Malaga, a ship fitted out with all the obvious goods and accoutrements for slaving and chartered to a known Brazilian slave trader. A New England judge ruled that there was nothing illegal about selling goods to a slaver, the charges were dropped, and the Malaga immediately left port on another slaving voyage.

New York had been a slaving city from its inception as a small Dutch settlement. The West India Company delivered eleven Brazilian slaves to tiny New Amsterdam in 1626…New York saw its first slave revolt in 1712, when an armed group of slaves murdered nine whites. Retribution was swift and savage: the gallows claimed thirteen, while three were burned at the stake, one was broken at the wheel, one was starved to death, and another was cooked over a slow fire for an entire day. Whether in the Caribbean, West Africa, or Madagascar trade, there were always New York slave ships, financed by New York capital. The slave traders were well known to the city’s business community; some ranked among the city’s most prominent members of society, frequently meeting at such places as the Astor House hotel to plan their voyages. The money behind their expeditions was provided secretly by many of New York’s most respected merchants.’

(Hanging Captain Gordon, The Life and Trial of an American Slave Trader, Ron Soodalter, Atria Books, 2006, pp. 7-9; 43; 70-71)

From Free North Carolina

Immortal Six Hundred

Via Cousin John

Immortal 600 Monument "Ceremony"
October 27, 2012
Make plans now, to attend!


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From Free North Carolina

Carolina Beach Music: Tams - I've Been Hurt (Original Stereo)

From Free North Carolina

Fletcher Hall, Carolina Theatre, Durham, Nov 29, 2011

From Free North Carolina

The Lost Colony DNA Project

Via Jeanie, Belle Grove

CNBC
Verbatim Post

Roanoke Colony, North Carolina was a colonial settlement on Roanoke Island off the coast of present-day North Carolina, which was spearheaded by Sir Walter Raleigh. In 1590, following a three-year break in contact with the settlers, Governor John White returned to Roanoke Island from England. The buildings of the settlement and all 100-plus settlers had vanished. The only clues were the word “Croatoan,” carved into a post, and “Cro” carved into a tree.

Numerous theories have been floated regarding the fate of “The Lost Colony,” including integration with the local tribes, or that the colonists perished at sea or at the hands of cannibalistic tribes or the Spanish. The Lost Colony DNA Project is underway by the Lost Colony Center for Science and Research in Williamsburg, Va., with hopes of finding descendants of lost colonists who survived.

From Free North Carolina

Christmas in Dixie

From Free North Carolina

Carolina Beach Music Medley: The Embers

From Free North Carolina

Old Soldiers’ Day in Catawba County

A wonderful late-nineteenth century recollection of North Carolina’s Senator Sam Ervin, Jr.

Bernhard Thuersam, Chairman
North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial Commission
www.ncwbts150.com
"The Official Website of the North Carolina WBTS Sesquicentennial"
========

Old Soldiers’ Day in Catawba County:

“During the 1890s the people of Newton, the county seat of Catawba County, North Carolina, set aside a day in August of each year which they designated as Old Soldiers Day, to pay tribute to Confederate veterans. After all the Confederate veterans had pitched their tents on fame’s eternal camping ground, the people of Newton continued to celebrate Old Soldier’s Day, and to this day use it as an occasion for honoring all the soldiers who have served in all America’s wars.

Charles F. McKesson, a beloved member of the Morganton bar during my youth, was affectionately called “Cousin Charlie” by all the people of the community. He was a silver-tongued orator, in the parlance of the day, and was in great demand as a public speaker on occasions of patriotic rejoicing.

I told Cousin Charlie that he always spoke with grace and ease and that I sometimes wondered if he had ever lost his composure while speaking. He responded, “Yes,” and added, “I lost it completely years ago when I was keynote speaker at the Old Soldiers’ Day in Newton.”

“At that time multitudes of Confederate veterans were still in the land of the living. Before the speaking, the Daughters of the Confederacy provided them with a bountiful barbeque on the courthouse square. Others added to their pleasure by bringing a supply of moonshine from the Catfish section of Catawba County.

“After the eating and drinking, the old soldiers repaired to the auditorium in the courthouse, and I delivered my speech, which I had prepared with meticulous care. An old soldier who sat on the front bench gave me the most rapt attention I have ever received from any member of an audience. He seemed to hang on every word I uttered.

“I reached the climax of my speech. I said, “I saw you undergo your baptism of blood at Bethel, I saw you storm Cemetery Ridge at Gettysburg, I saw you fight the Battle above the Clouds on Lookout Mountain.”

At this juncture the most attentive member of the audience staggered to his feet and shouted, “That’s a damned lie. You weren’t there!”

I lost my composure completely, and had the greatest difficulty regaining it.”

(Humor of a Country Lawyer, Sam J. Ervin, Jr., UNC Press, 1983, pp. 45-46)

From Free North Carolina

Oh My Sweet Carolina

From Free North Carolina

Northerners v. Yankees

Via Bazz

Franklin Sanders (The Moneychanger) Gold and Silver market report.

Several Northern readers wrote yesterday chastising me for referring to Washington as the "yankee government." I need to make plain the exactness of that expression, for I fear that I might otherwise unwittingly and unwillingly give offense to some Northern folk of good will and sound sense, which would deeply grieve me.

So I'll take a minute here before Thanksgiving to explain.

There are two kinds of people from up North: Northerners and yankees, not at all the same thing. Not even all New Englanders are yankees.

Northerners are normal human beings who mind their own business, and are pretty much like us except they don't eat grits, collards, or turnip greens and sometimes wear black socks with shorts. Yankees, on the other hand, are tyrants who must re-make everyone in the world to their own self-righteous image, who know better than anyone what is good for everyone and don't mind killing you to enforce it. Behind them, they leave a desert and call it peace. Most if not all the politicians sent to Washington from the South are yankees.

I will momentarily drop my mask of the unlettered fool -- Oh, I still don't claim to be anything but a natural born fool, but in fact I am not an uneducated fool -- and try to explain the tragedy playing out in history, the destruction of human freedom under the guise of liberty.

Lincoln's war against the South was based on One Idea alone: if a man insists on his right to self-government, he has earned a death sentence. That is the heart of all Revolution, and the root of freedom's annihilation in this country. Washington today believes The Idea as strongly as Lincoln and the Radical Republicans. If you don't understand this root, you won't understand events: why Janet Reno was willing to kill the children at Waco to save them, or why the US had to destroy Iraq & kill hundreds of thousands of Iraqis to spread democracy, or why the War on Terror overseas means the end of rights at home, or why sellers of raw milk must be raided with SWAT teams.

I don't think most Northerners believe in The Idea, but still it runs America, in the hands of yankees (remember my definition above). So if you are from the North and not a yankee, don't let me rile you when I use the word yankee to describe the tyrants in Washington, because I'm not referring to you. I have as good a will toward you as I do toward any Southerner.

With sorrow I concede that the myths of American history inculcated in government schools contradict everything I've written, & that may make you mad, but I'm not trying to make you mad, only to tell you the truth.

On 4 November 1866 that great English lover of freedom, Lord Acton, wrote to Robert E. Lee, "I saw in State Rights the only availing check upon the absolutism of the sovereign will, and secession filled me with hope, not as the destruction, but as the redemption of Democracy. . . I believed that [the Confederacy's] example would have blessed all the races of mankind by establishing true freedom. . . Therefore I deemed that you were fighting the battles of our liberty, our progress, and our civilization, and I mourn for the stake which was lost at Richmond more deeply than I rejoice over that which was saved at Waterloo."

On 15 December 1866 Lee replied to Acton, that he considered the "maintenance of the rights and authority reserved to the states and to the people" as the "safeguard" of a free government's survival, "whereas the consolidation of the states into one vast republic, sure to be aggressive abroad and despotic at home, will be the precursor of that ruin which has overwhelmed all those that have preceded it."

Truth is the daughter of time. What is the United States today but "aggressive abroad & despotic at home"? Abroad its armies wage countless wars. At home, its agents steal your money, fondle your wives and daughters at airports, stop and search your cars without warrants, and meddle and regulate every act and even every thought of your life.

So if you are one of those criminals who insist on your right to self-government, even if you were born north of Mason & Dixon's line, you are my friend and ally, but I would never call you a yankee.

And y'all don't bother writing me one of those "The War's over, get over it" letters, because I have a handy delete key on my computer, & I will use it. Besides, the War is NOT over, & they're still waging it -- against YOU and me.

Y'all have a happy and blessed Thanksgiving, & remember that the FIRST American Thanksgiving was not celebrated in New England in 1621, but farther south at Berkeley Plantation in Virginia on 4 December 1619.

From Free North Carolina

The Franz Family Arkansas Home School

Via The Bonnie Blue Blog

From Free North Carolina

State Sovereignty: America's Final Solution to Tyranny

At the end of this article is a copy of the proposed state sovereignty amendment that Ron and Donnie Kennedy are promoting as the final solution to federal abuse. They believe that anything less will only continue the course of federal supremacy and the ultimate destruction of real American liberty. I sadly agree with them.

Just following Congress, the 2012 presidential campaign and the inability of citizens to influence government policy makes it clear to every American how broken the US political system has become. A few powerful interests run the entire show and the American people are being forced down a dark road to economic destruction. History shows us that Washington is immune to conventional national political action under the present system. What can freedom loving Americans do?

• We can't change Washington because Congress is owned and controlled by special interests.

• Neither can we take over the establishment control of either political party as the media elites can break, sideline or ignore any candidate that threatens the elite interests.

• Third party efforts at the national level are doomed to failure and an ineffective tool for promoting freedom principles when compared to the successful Ron Paul campaign effort inside the GOP.

• Finally, education, although important, is not a fast enough solution to save our nation when more than 50% of the electorate lives off the looting of taxpayers through government benefits or make-work jobs.

So do freedom advocates just give up or wait for the eventual collapse of the economy and the US political system? While this is a prevalent view in freedom circles, hyperinflation and economic collapse even if you are invested to financially benefit from this outcome is certainly not a recipe for restoring limited government and liberty to our country. Fascism and wealth confiscation are the probable result, just look at what followed the failed German Weimar Republic in the 1930's.

There is only one effective, democratic and peaceful tool left to Americans to defend their liberties and restore the original republic of our founding fathers. It is the right of state sovereignty and nullification, so effectively explained by Tom Woods in his book Nullification: How To Resist Federal Tyranny in the 21st Century. http://www.tomwoods.com/books/nullification

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From Free North Carolina

Gray Ghost Winery!

"Mosby Country" Friends

John Singleton Mosby Museum Mosby Mosby Troop Disbandment Monument Mosby Site I Spied Black Horse Cavalry, So I Run Like A Deer........... Mosby Quotes John Singleton Mosby's Revenge

Exceptional Wines, Southern Hospitality

Special Weekend Hours!
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Open: 11:00 am to 5:00 pm

Closed Thanksgiving Day

Friday, November 25, 2011
Open 11:00 am to 6:00 pm
Live music: 3:30 to 5:30

Saturday and Sunday
November 26 and 27, 2011
11:00 am to 5:00 pm

Voted 2011 Favorite Virginia Winery of the Year!
presented by: The Farm Wineries Council

Awarded over 100 in medals in 2011 to date!
The 9th consecutive year of surpassing 100!

A visit to Gray Ghost offers a knowledgeable staff, southern hospitality, beautiful picnic grounds and spacious indoor facilities. Ask about Gray Ghost's famous winery events, entertaining tours and the most popular volunteer harvest program in the state!

To register to receive Gray Ghost email updates, please visit theowned and operated winery, is placing Virginia on the international wine map by producing internationally acclaimed wines from immaculate vineyards. All grapes are hand-picked and wine is aged in premium oak barrels. Full-bodied reds are unfiltered and lighter-styled wines are fermented at lower temperatures to enhance fruit character. This emphasis on quality resulted in Gray Ghost being named "Best of the East" by Vineyard and Winery Management Magazine four consecutive years!

A visit to Gray Ghost offers a knowledgeable sff, southern hospitality, beautiful picnic grounds and spacious indoor facilities. Ask about Gray Ghost's famous winery events, entertaining tours and the most popular vunteer harvest program in the state!

To register to receive Gray Ghost email updates, please visit the Contact Us page.

Gray Ghost Vineyards
14706 Lee Highway
Amissville VA 20106
Phone: 540-937-4869
Fax: 540-937-5091
www.grayghostvineyards.com

Content copyright 2003-2011. GRAYGHOSTVINEYARDS.COM. All rights reserved.

From Free North Carolina

What Americans Can Learn Today From The Politics Of Confederate Secession

Via Matthew

Needless to say, by no means all VDARE.com readers are Confederate sympathizers, or think that partition of the U.S. along demographic lines is desirable or inevitable—although this dark expectation is more widespread among Americans than you’d expect from MSM reporting.

It’s crucial to note, however, that this article by "Generation 5" is ultimately not about any specific political situation, but an analysis of the different personality types involved in creating any political change—making the key point that all of them necessary. Personally, I guess I’m a “Rhetorical Radical”—I am temperamentally inclined to what I’ve called the “Thick End of the Wedge Theory”. I gather that “Generation 5” doesn’t think that Rhetorical Radicals get much credit. Probably that means I won't get invited to the signing of the Immigration Moratorium & American Jobs Protection Act. Hey ho—I'm sure I'll be able to ask my old friend David Frum how it went!]

This year I have read a book that has changed some of my thinking on politics: The Road to Disunion, Vol. II: Secessionists Triumphant by William W. Freehling. This book is particularly valuable because it attempts to showcase the real-time experience and success of an explicitly ethnonationalist and conservative revolution on American soil.

For most of the 1850s, the secessionists were a largely marginalized group. Most of the South was enjoying extreme economic success due to King Cotton, and the hardcore secessionists, mostly concentrated in South Carolina, were often seen as an embarrassment, extremists who made mountains out of molehills and got in the way of making money.

Though secessionists were the first to warn their fellow Southerners of the logical implications of abolitionist rhetoric, their concerns were seen as irrelevant because both of the national parties, the Whigs and Democrats, had Southern members who were able to reach acceptable compromises with their Northern brethren.

Similarly, contemporary ethnonationalists have been warning of the demographic collapse of the United States for thirty years or more, and of the noxious result for white America when our ideology of punitive equality is extended to a black and brown majority. But most Americans, like most ante-bellum Southerners, have ignored our warning. The typical person simply does not think about much beyond the next year or so.

In most times and places, not thinking is an “adaptive strategy”—but overused strategies are subject to sudden realignments. Like ecological die-offs, political revolutions are never seen in advance by those who are its victims.

The Southern secessionists can be divided, in my view, into four main groups:

1. Rhetorical Radicals—the hard core;

2. the Reformed Radicals;

3. the Revolutionary Insiders; and finally

4. the Opportunists.

Rhetorical Radicals—The hard core

The hard core of secessionists arose from the unique culture of South Carolina. As early America’s most aristocratic state, South Carolina despised the system of party politics. Its legislature only allowed men of significant property to hold office, and it was the only state where the legislature took the prerogative of selecting the governor and the recipient of the state’s electoral votes for president.

Politicians in South Carolina were typically chosen by the state’s elites based mostly on a person’s character and family, and a key trait desired was a general disinterest in politics. Competitive races were rare outside of the upcountry, and the state usually declined to send representatives to national party conventions.

This aristocratic mindset was wounded by the realities of market forces in the mid-1800s. South Carolina’s soil was depleted, and the profitability of its operations declined as the capital costs of slaves went up due to demand from Deep South cotton planters. Thus South Carolina became the perfect incubator for a conservative revolution: a deeply conservative elite with wounded pride.

The nullification crisis exemplified this mindset. South Carolinians were barely able to come to grips with a popularly-elected president, Andrew Jackson, who was willing to make compromises on principles to some extent to achieve political ends. The nullification crisis further humiliated and radicalized South Carolina, by bringing into focus the state’s relative weakness despite its aristocratic contempt for the rest of the country.

Out of the nullification crisis rose the hardcore secessionists, most notably Robert Barnwell Rhett. Rhett’s rhetoric was constant during this period, demanding secession at each Northern flouting of Southern honor. He was a rhetorical radical in every sense of the word. A typical quote from Rhett:

“Let it be that I am a Traitor. The word has no terrors for me…I have been born of traitors, but, thank God, they have been Traitors in the great cause of liberty, fighting against tyranny and oppression. Such treason will ever be mine whilst true to my lineage. No, No, my friends! Smaller States before us struggled successfully, for their independence, and freedom against far greater odds; and if it must be, we can make one long, last, desperate struggle, for our rights and honor, ere the black pall of tyranny is stretched over the bier of our dead liberties. To meet death a little sooner or a little later, can be of consequence to very few of us. “

Robert Barnwell Rhett: Father of Secession, by Laura A. White (1931) p.109

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From Free North Carolina

The First Thanksgiving = Berkley Plantation, Virginia

Sunday in the South
VERBATIM POST

Despite popular American nostalgia that the first Thanksgiving was held by the Pilgrims after the arrival of the Mayflower at Plymouth Rock, it actually had its English beginnings along the James River at present-day Berkley Plantation in Charles City County, Virginia.

The year was 1619, twelve years after the establishment of Jamestown, when a group of thirty-eight settlers aboard the ship Margaret arrived after having made a ten-week journey across the Atlantic. Upon their landing, they knelt and prayed on the rich Tidewater soil, with their Captain John Woodlief proclaiming:

“Wee ordaine that the day of our ships arrivall at the place assigned for plantacion in the land of Virginia shall be yearly and perpetually keept holy as a day of thanksgiving to Almighty God.”

As historically recorded, this event was a first English Thanksgiving in the New World.

Thanksgiving is not just an American holiday. It is a Christian holiday.

Beginning on December 4, 1619, Berkeley Plantation (Charles City, VA), celebrated an annual thanksgiving to God on the anniversary of their safe arrival in the New World.

The 1621 Pilgrim Thanksgiving in Massachusetts was a time of thanks giving to God. Governor William Bradford proclaimed the month of November to be dedicated to "Thanksgiving unto the Lord." Bradford wrote in his diary that their voyage and settlement was motivated by "a great hope for advancing the Kingdom of God."

In 1623, after a severe drought that ended at the conclusion of a colony-wide day of prayer and fasting, Bradford proclaimed another Thanksgiving - the Thanksgiving most Americans picture:

In as much as the great Father has given us this year an abundant harvest of Indian corn, wheat, peas, beans, squashes, and garden vegetable, and has made the forests to abound with game and the sea with fish and clams, and inasmuch as he has protected us from the ravages of the savages, has spared us from pestilence and disease, has granted us freedom to worship God according to the dictates of our own conscience; now I, your magistrate, do proclaim that all ye Pilgrims, with your wives and ye little ones, do gather at ye meeting house, on ye hill, between the hours of 9 and 12 in the day time, on Thursday, November ye 29th, of the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred and twenty-three, and the third year since ye Pilgrims landed on ye Pilgrim Rock, there to listen to ye pastor and render thanksgiving to ye Almighty God for all His blessings. William Bradford, Ye Governor of Ye Colony.

Thanksgiving is not just an American holiday. It is a Christian holiday.

On December 18, 1777, at the recommendation of Henry Laurens, President of the Continental Congress, the Thirteen Colonies celebrated Thanksgiving to God for their victory at Saratoga.

George Washington declared a National Thanksgiving Day November 26, 1789, to thank God for the New Nation.

Celebrations of “thanksgiving” would become a deeply rooted American tradition, usually brought on by periods of great hardship.

During the American Revolution, the Continental Congress proclaimed days of Thanksgiving every year from 1777 to 1784. Likewise, George Washington issued the first Presidential proclamation of Thanksgiving in 1789, and a few of his successors followed suit. Interestingly, Thanksgiving was not a specific day or even month, and apparently was issued on the whim of whoever was in office. Sporadically between the years 1789 and 1815, days of Thanksgiving were recognized in January, March, April, October, and November. This recognition of Thanksgiving ended in 1815 following the term of President James Madison, and a President would not issue such a proclamation for another forty-six years.

That President was Jefferson Davis, who recognized a day of thanks, humiliation, and prayer for the Confederate States of America for October 31st, 1861. Not to be outdone, President Abraham Lincoln resurrected the forgotten day in the United States as well, and issued a similar proclamation in April of 1862. In 1863, Thanksgiving was made a national holiday, and in 1866, the tradition of recognizing Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday of November was started by President Andrew Johnson. In 1939, Franklin D. Roosevelt signed legislation making fourth Thursday in November Thanksgiving Day. From that time on, every sitting President has recognized Thanksgiving as a national holiday. But there were thanksgivings before the one in 1619 Virginia.

In 1607 Virginia, the first permanent English settlement was established in Jamestown. As elsewhere, settlers were motivated by profit opportunity and faith. Rev. Robert Hunt led the Englishmen in a Eucharist of thanksgiving and praise - consecrating the colony to God.

On August 9, 1607, English settlers in Maine under Captain George Popham held a harvest feast and prayer meeting on the Kennebec River with the Abnaki Indians.

On September 8, 1565, Pedro Menendez de Aviles, a Spanish explorer, invited the Timucua Indians to dinner in St. Augustine, FL, after a thanksgiving Mass celebrating the explorers' safe arrival.

Thanksgiving is not just an American holiday. It is a Christian holiday.

An earlier Thanksgiving was June 30, 1564, when French Huguenot colonists celebrated near Jacksonville, FL. Prominent Huguenot leader, Admiral Gaspard de Coligny, envisioned America as a refuge for persecuted French Protestants. He sponsored a group of Huguenots to found Fort Caroline on Florida's St. John's River. The settlement struggled, but reinforcements came just in time to save it. On June 30, 1564, the group celebrated their first Thanksgiving Festival. Sadly, the Huguenots were massacred by soldiers who claimed Florida for Spain.

The first recorded Thanksgiving was May 23, 1541, in the Texas panhandle when Spanish explorer Francisco Vasquez de Coronado held a service of thanksgiving for finding food, water, and pasture for his animals.

Thanksgiving is not just an American holiday. It is a Christian holiday.

Gratitude to God is expressed in all U.S. state constitutions. Click here to read the God-honoring preamble of your state . . .

From Free North Carolina

A few flags of liberty!

This flag too, was a flag of liberty. In fact, it was the last flag used in the fight for liberty!

Week 7 of flagging the VMFA

Southern Nationalist Network
VERBATIM POST

Today marked the 7th week of flagging the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and the grand opening of “Mummy – Secrets of the Tomb” at the museum. The crowds were large, especially in the afternoon, and we had the opportunity to speak with more people than ever. In fact, often several of us were engaged with different folks at the same time! Response was overwhelming positive, with most people we talked to in favor of returning the flags.

First time flaggers Brian Atkins and Douglas Whitehair drove in from Hadensville and received a warm welcome!

It was a busy week for us, with a new blog post on Monday, which led to a TV interview Tuesday and much publicity for our efforts! Eight flaggers came out today and flags were flying in the breeze for all to see! The weather was a bit chilly, but did not deter those who were standing for our ancestors and our flag!

Nine year old Virginia flagger Grace Lewis shares a flagging story here.

Our cause is gaining momentum, but we need to keep up the pressure,
PLEASE…call (804) 340-1500,
email: director@ vmfa.museum (without the space),
or write: Alex Nyerges, Director
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
200 N. Boulevard
Richmond VA 23220-4007,
and tell theVMFA to return the flags to the Pelham Chapel, and if you are able, join us on the Boulevard!

Contact Susan Hathaway vaflagger@ comcast.net (without the space) for more information.

RETURN THE FLAGS!
RESTORE THE HONOR!

From Free North Carolina

Puh-kahn or pee-can: Right pronounciation is tough nut to crack

Via Billy

It's pee-can! Goodness, gracious, sakes a live, don't y'all know anything:) And then there is my tomato peeve.:)

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This Thanksgiving, after you've finished off the turkey and dressing, you'll surely save some room for a slice of pecan pie for dessert.

And depending on where you're from and how you were raised, you'll either call it a "puh-kahn" pie or a "pee-can" pie.

Down in the Mobile County town of Theodore, home of the Alabama Pecan Festival, they like to say "puh-kahn."

But over in south Georgia, where pecans are almost as precious as peaches, you'll find some folks who prefer "pee-can."

And even a few who like to have it both ways.

As executive director of the Alabama Pecan Festival, Theodore pecan grower Billy Bolton doesn't really care how festival-goers pronounce it, just as long as they keep coming back for more.

"I say 'puh-kahns,' but I grew up right here saying that," Bolton says. "I have people that call and want to buy 'pee-cans,' and I tell them we have those, too.

"We don't discriminate," he adds. "We just load 'em up on whatever they want."

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From Free North Carolina

Patrick Henry College: Live Christmas Webcast Dec. 3, 2011

The service will also integrate carols sung by the congregation and candle lighting for everyone, allowing all to share “the true light, which enlightens every man…” No charge for admission. The 7:00pm (Eastern time) service will also be webcast live.

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From Free North Carolina

Causes of the Civil War (Sic)

Both my great grandfather and great uncle surrendered under General Gordon.
The Attack On Fort Stedman, And (My Great Grandfather)

Lee's Surrender, By My Great Grandfather

Video Of Dead My G.Grandfather/G.Uncle Had Fought Alongside

THE LAST HOURS/DEATH & FUNERAL OF GENERAL JOHN B. GORDON

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"Reminiscences Of The Civil War", (Chapter I)
By John B. Gordon, Maj. Gen. CSA

Looking In The Mirror
VERBATIM POST

For anyone interested in the Southern point of view with regards to the Civil War, this is a great place to visit.

From a Southern soldier;

I apprehend that if all living Union soldiers were summoned to the witness stand, every one of them would testify that it was the preservation of the American Union and not the destruction of Southern slavery that induced him to volunteer at the call of his country. As for the South, it is enough to say that perhaps eighty per cent. of her armies were neither slave-holders, nor had the remotest interest in the institution. No other proof, however, is needed than the undeniable fact that at any period of the war from its beginning to near its close the South could have saved slavery by simply laying down its arms and returning to the Union.

Seems to be a lot of talk and imo, a revision of history in the man Abraham Lincoln.

Anyone truly interested in hearing from both sides ought to take time and listen to a Southern soldiers perspective of how it really was.

Very few places offer this view of history.

And that is sad.

Igorance is truly dangerous.

Mozart

From Free North Carolina

The Carolina Dog – aka: The Native American Dog

Fascinating. I had never heard of this breed until yesterday.
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Link

During the last thirty years, the capture and study of free-ranging dogs in remote areas of South Carolina and Georgia has revealed the existence of dogs of primitive appearance fitting the typical long-term pariah (i.e. primitive dog) morphotype. Their physical appearance suggests a dog created by and preserved through natural selection to survive in the remote lowland swamp and woodland areas of the southeastern United States. They closely resemble types of dogs first encountered by Europeans near Indian settlements in the region as is evidenced by paintings, drawings and written descriptions made by these early explorers and settlers.

........we may have in the Carolina Dog a domestic dog that evolved in North America from crosses of the aboriginal dogs that came across the Bering Strait (with the Paleolithic hunter bands) with North American wolves and/or coyotes. This could be a type of dog domesticated solely from North American wild canids, developed free of Asian or European genetic composition up until the introduction of Eurasian domestics by European settlers.

..........The Carolina Dog would represent domestication in reverse. This would be a situation where a completely domesticated animal would have turned its back on modem human society and fled to the wilds to evolve as a completely new type (breed) free of direct human intervention and/or supervision. Long dormant instincts would have reemerged in the wild to aid/allow their survival. Those domestic physical and behavioral traits not suited for survival in the wild would have been selected against and removed from the gene pool. This would represent a reemergence of the "original dog type" which first emerged over 12,000 years ago. Should this hypothesis prove true, we would have in our midst a dog unique in the world in that it would represent a case study of domestication/evolution in reverse, i.e., a return to the original dog type. No other breed of dog could/can make that claim.

From Free North Carolina

Our mortar in the Morehead City Veteran's Day Parade

Via Tom

Two of the Carteret Grays

From Free North Carolina

I'd Rather Be in Carolina

Most unfortunately, the Chairman of the Board recently went to "Rock and Roll Heaven" where he is singing with Bobby Hatfield, James Brown and a host of others.
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From Free North Carolina

New York Slave Traders’ Matured Arrangements

In June 1861, Captain Nathaniel Gordon of Portland, Maine, stood trial in New York City for engaging in the slave trade – apprehended by the USS Mohican off the Congo with 900 slaves aboard the Erie. His trial revealed the financial base of the slave trade in New England, and the great difficulty in obtaining convictions. Like Lt. Dunnington below, famed Southern blockade running Captain John Newland Maffitt was busy capturing New England slavers off the coast of Cuba in his prewar US Navy days.

Bernhard Thuersam, Chairman
North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial Commission
www.ncwbts150.com
"The Official Website of the North Carolina WBTS Sesquicentennial"
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New York Slave Traders’ Matured Arrangements:

“[The slave trade] at this time [did not] impact the slave population of the South; slaves were being conveyed mainly from the Congo to Cuba, not to Richmond or Charleston.

The first issue to be addressed was that of Gordon’s citizenship. [An] old Portland sea captain named Richard Crockett testified that he knew Gordon, as well as his parents and siblings, [and that he had] “never heard that Gordon was born anywhere but in Portland [Maine] till to-day I heard he was born in the Mediterranean.”

The next issue to be determined was the nationality of the Erie….proof that the Erie was an American-owned ship would clear the prosecution’s way for conviction. [A] witness was Mason Barney, a shipwright from Swansea, Massachusetts, who had built the Erie, but testified he had not seen the ship since he finished her in 1849 and sold her to New York businessman Ralph Post. And though he had had a financial interest in her until seven or eight years previous, he “didn’t know who owned her in August, 1860.” What no one involved in the trial seemed aware of – except perhaps Gordon – was that Ralph Post was one of the partners…who had turned over the Erie to Gordon in Havana [to sail for the Congo].

Lieutenant John W. Dunnington was the ranking officer who boarded the Erie, arrested Gordon and his crew, and ultimately commanded the Erie on the trip to Monrovia [to free the slaves]. [When] the Civil War commenced, Dunnington resigned his commission to return to his home in Kentucky and serve in the Confederate navy.

It is difficult to imagine how any honest, intelligent juror could have harbored a reasonable doubt [of Gordon’s guilt]. They stood seven to five for conviction, with no hope of a unanimous verdict. [Judge] Shipman…declared a mistrial, on June 30 [1861], and dismissed the jury.

Horace Greeley’s [New York] Tribune was…caustic in its condemnation of the jury’s findings. “It is a remarkable fact that the slave-traders in [New York City] have matured their arrangements so thoroughly that they almost invariably manage to elude the meshes of the law. Now they bribe a jury, another time their counsel or agents spirit away a vital witness…The truth is, the United States in Chambers Street, under the influences which have been brought to bear here, have become thoroughly corrupt.

(Hanging Captain Gordon, The Life and Trial of an American Slave Trader, Ron Soodalter, Atria Books, 2006, pp. 108-115.

From Free North Carolina

Looking For A Love

Carolina Beach Music at it's best = Billy Bonds - Looking For A Love
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From Free North Carolina

Tough times: Life inside the hardest hit county in the U.S.

Via Survival

Not long ago, Rowan County, NC was home to 31 millionaires, the highest per capita number in the entire country. Today it has earned a counter-distinction: Rowan has been hit harder by the recession than virtually any other place in the United States.

When the doors open at the local homeless shelter at 6 p.m., Kevin Parham, 47, is among those first in line. He has been laid off three times in five years, and suffered two heart attacks since he moved into the shelter a year and a half ago. He has been unable to land any kind of job.

“The thought of people living in their cars in my county takes my breath away,” said Kyna Foster, executive director of Rowan Helping Ministries, a collective of Christian churches that runs the shelter. Her organization has helped 23,000 families in the past three years, a figure that represents nearly half of this county’s 53,000 households. She took the job 18 months ago when she herself was laid off from a corporate job at Food Lion, a major grocer that was founded here in 1957 and helped generate its original wealth.

Rowan County is not the poorest in America, but it is among those that have experienced the most stunning loss during Barack Obama’s first term. Once a blue-collar county, Rowan has morphed into an unemployed one, where everything from federal stimulus money to state home loans to government retraining programs have failed to impede a deeper slide into poverty.

“Everything has been reset. Like we have to start all over again,” said Susan Kluttz, a Democrat who has served as mayor of Salisbury for seven terms, or 14 years.

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From Free North Carolina

Bicentennial marker dedicated to Confederate general

Via Southern Nationalist Network

A little bit of “Dixie” was on hand in Centerburg, Saturday, Nov. 12, as the Ohio Historical Society marker honoring Centerburg native Brig. Gen. Daniel Harris Reynolds, C.S.A., was unveiled in the village park at the corner of Main and Clayton streets.

Members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, Roswell S. Ripley Camp 1535, the group that sponsored the marker, were joined by members of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, Civil War re-enactors, and many members of the community. Also present were several members of the Reynolds family.

The marker honoring Reynolds is the fourth sponsored by the local SCV group and the third to honor one of the six Ohio-born generals that served the Southern cause during the Civil War, or as is known in the South, “The War for Southern Independence.” Other markers sponsored by the group include one marking the escape of Gen. John Hunt Morgan from the Ohio Penitentiary, located in Columbus’ arena district; one honoring Gen. Roswell S. Ripley, located in Worthington; and in Malta, a marker honors Gen. Otho Strahl, who was also a close friend of Gen. Reynolds.

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From Free North Carolina

The Women of the Confederacy Monument, Raleigh NC

The mothers of the South had sent their sons to the front as the Spartan mother when she delivered the shield to her son with the command:
“Return with it or upon it.”

I cannot count the number of times my mother said this to me.
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The Legacy of the Confederacy:

(North Carolina Governor Locke Craig, accepting the Monument to the Women of the Confederacy, unveiled at Raleigh, June 10, 1914)

“The State accepts this monument with grateful appreciation.

It is the tribute of a knightly soldier to the Women of the Confederacy. The statue is epic: Arms and the Man. Its theme is heroism and devotion; the inheritance of the children of the South. To the earnest beholder, the statue is illumined with unfolding meaning. His vision will determine its revelation.

As we look upon it, there rises out of the past a time when the spirit of war moved upon the depths of human thought, and summoned the elemental forces to titanic strife. We feel the throes of the mighty upheaval. We see “the marshaling in arms, and battle’s magnificently stern array.” Lovers say good-bye with tokens of plighted troth; the young mother and the father in uniform, kneel together, weeping over the cradle of their new born babe; there are tears and everlasting farewells; the cavalcades are filing off; the tramp of innumerable armies is heard. In secret the mother – this Woman of the Confederacy – prays and weeps with breaking heart for the boy who marches away to the wild, grand music of the bugles.

At home alone, the wives and mothers, these Women of the Confederacy, in patience and suffering, are listening for the coming of those who will never return – will never return, but march on forever in the militant hosts of the heroic of all kindred and nations, that have redeemed and glorified the world.

We dedicate this monument as a symbol of our veneration. We dedicate this monument as a covenant that we too, in blessed remembrance of them, shall strive for fidelity and courage.

That people survives, gathers strength, becomes puissant in human destiny that has the faith and the courage for the supreme issue. The immediate result is not the final judgment. Who won at Thermopylae, the Persians or the Spartans? Who was victorious at the Alamo, Santa Anna or Travis? Who triumphed, Socrates or his judges; Jesus or Pontius Pilate?

The glory of France is the Old Guard at Waterloo. The noblest feelings of the English heart are stirred by the Light Brigade charging to death at Balaklava. Lexington and Guilford Courthouse are as dear to us as Trenton and Yorktown.

Disaster does not always destroy. Armies may be destroyed, “Far called, our navies melt away”; yet from a land consecrated by the blood of the brave, from a soil enriched by glorious tradition, tried and purified by fire, a nobler, stronger race will come. Upon a land blighted by the cowardice of those who should defend it, there is the judgment of decay and death.

The heroic past is our priceless inheritance. Our armies were destroyed; our land was smitten by war; our homes were ravaged by avenging armies. We were plundered by the hordes of reconstruction. But standing in this land that has suffered, amid this throng of grey-haired veterans, and their kindred and descendants, I declare that the legacy of the war is our richest possession.

I utter the sentiments of every maimed soldier; of every soldier who gave the best of his young life to “the storm-cradled nation that fell,” of every bereaved widow and mother; and if I could speak for the dead, I would utter the sentiment of the forty thousand sons of the State who fell upon the fields of battle, when I declare that they would not revoke that sacrifice.

Some of you can remember when the young soldier was brought home dead when the maiden was clothed in her first sorrow, and the old gray head was bowed in the last grief. The mothers of the South had sent their sons to the front as the Spartan mother when she delivered the shield to her son with the command: “Return with it or upon it.”

They wept in silent desolation, but in their grief there was exaltation, for they knew that their sons had done a soldier’s part, that in the tumult of historic days they had fought and fallen beneath the advancing flag; that in strange lands, wounded and neglected, they had suffered without complaint, and bequeathing a message for home, had died, as conquerors, without a murmur.

Hail to you, Women of the Confederacy, that bore them and nurtured them, and offered them for sacrifice! In you and in your descendants is vouchsafed the promise to Abraham: Henceforth all generations shall call you blessed.

From the shadow of war we sweep into the grander day. The earth is hallowed because it is the sepulcher of the brave; not men whose victories have been inscribed upon triumphal columns, but men whose memorial is, that in courage and loyalty for conviction, they were steadfast unto death; men who have been stoned and scourged, and quailed not before the mighty.

“Their heroic sufferings rise up melodiously together to Heaven out of all lands and out of all times, as a sacred Miserere; their heroic actions as a boundless everlasting Psalm of Triumph.” They are the conquerors. The South has forever a part in that chorus of victory.”

From Free North Carolina