The Preservation of American History

The Preservation of American History

Charlottesville Confederate Statue, Economist

    You may be asking yourself, "What are confederate monuments? Why are they so important?" Confederate monuments are statues that commemorate a person or event and serve to display influential moments or people in American History. In America, there has been an ongoing debate over whether or not our country should remove confederate monuments because some people find them offensive. But if we take down these confederate monuments, are we putting our understanding of American history in danger? The short answer-yes.

 

    One might argue that confederate monuments are offensive and unnecessary. But, by taking these monuments down, we are erasing parts of our American History and, therefore, putting both our and future generations’ understanding and awareness of significant historical events at risk.

Protestors arguing,  The Washington Post

    The debate to remove confederate statues and monuments in America became especially heated following the tragic killing of George Floyd in 2020 after police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for over 8 minutes. George Floyd’s death led to widespread protests over removing confederate statues and the vandalism of many monuments. Ultimately, this led to the removal of over 200 confederate statues and memorials.

“A great nation does not hide its history, it faces its flaws and corrects them.”—President George W. Bush, Opening of the NMAAHC, September 24, 2016
 

    So, what makes confederate monuments so important? Furthermore, why should we keep them from being removed? First things first, monuments serve to to educate the public. Confederate monuments have the power to tell us so much about our own American history, and events in history that have built the present-day nation that we have the privilege of living in. This means they have the power to teach not only the nice aspects of our American past, but also the sucky aspects of our past.

     It is no secret that many if not all confederate statues and memorials display white, slave-owning leaders of the confederacy. What these leaders did was totally not okay, but that is just another reason as to why we should keep their statues up. Our monuments should stay standing so that we can learn from the mistakes our predecessors made and grow as a nation. In an NBC article titled “Opinion: Don't Take Down Confederate Monuments. Here's Why,” Sophia A. Nelson writes,

    “Remembering is powerful. Remembering, forces us to become wiser. We think of the words Never Forget and we instantly remember 9-11 or the Holocaust. We connect because we remember. We look. We learn. We discover. And hopefully, with a little faith, self-discovery, and humility we grow into better, more loving human beings.”

 

    Through the removal of these monuments, we are not only erasing the history of the confederacy, but also the history of those who fought to create a nation built on liberty and freedom. In her article titled, “Why we Need Confederate Monuments,” Caroline E. Janey, professor at the University of Virginia and author of “Remembering the Civil War: Reunion and the Limits of Reconciliation,” argues that “in removing monuments, we not only eliminate memorials to the Confederacy, but also erase the history of those who fought against the values the monuments claim to represent."

New Orleans Confederate Statue Vandalized, Liberal Forum 

 

    On one hand, some people may argue that the removal of these statues would help in healing our nation and ridding it of racism and inequality. But why are we focusing on the removal of the statues of 19^th century Confederate leaders when we should be focusing more on modern day conflicts surrounding inequality?

    In Ari Helo’s peer reviewed journal article titled “Bidding Farewell to ConfederateStatues: Landscape, Politics, and American History”, he argues that “it is high time for the Americans to find some more recent political figures than the dead slaveholders of the antebellum era to answer for the current situation,” and that “Mass incarceration, police violence, and the current sociopolitical problems result from much more recent historical developments than American slavery or the rise of segregation in the South at the turn of the twentieth century.”

 

   

    Another reason we should not allow for the removal of these confederate statues is because they are typically done forcefully and violently. Not only are the monuments treated with disrespect, but many protestors have attempted taking them down in extremely dangerous ways, resulting in injury. One example of this was caught on tape in 2020. Viewers of the video can witness the moment a protestor was crushed underneath a confederate statue in Portsmouth, Virginia, when it fell on top of him. Surrounding protestors had been attempting to pull the statue off of its stand using a rope. They succeeded. But, unfortunately, the man that had been standing underneath the statue was seriously injured.

Patriotic GIF, Foolish Watcher

    Confederate monuments educate us about the past and tell us how to build our future. What is important is not that we idolize leaders of the Confederacy, but that we understand their historical significance and learn from their very major screw-ups. If we remove these statues, we are not only erasing the past, but we are removing the proof of how far we have come as a nation that is, now, truly built upon a foundation of liberty and justice for all.