This is a film about storytelling, about how we tell the story of our countrys past. Why do we want to believe one version and not another . Maybe because it makes us feel safe at night. There is one episode of americas history that is told very differently, depending on who you are and where you live. It is the story of our civil war and what came after. The Hot Winds Of War blew across the land. Made of it, a country divided. Friend turned into foe. Brother fought against brother. It was such a long and drawn out struggle. And the feeling on both sides was so intense. Were all just romantics, lost in contemporary times you might say. Every one of us feels like we were born 125 years too late. To introduce myself, my name is rachel boynton. This is nelson walker. We are independent documentary filmmakers. Were making a film about how we tell the story of the civil war. Were filming in different schools all over virginia and were going to place this with a deep connection to this history. What made you choose the civil war and reconstruction . Well, you know, america is kind of like a big family that tore itself apart during the civil war. And in order to make peace, we told ourselves a certain story about it. And for a long time, we had trouble telling the difference between that story and the truth. You can ask me anything you want. What did you want to do when you were little . And you have a backup for that if you couldnt get that . When i was really little, i wanted to be superman. When i got a little bit older, i wanted to be an anthropologist. Do you know what an anthropologist is . Somebody who goes Around The World and studies the ways other people live. Like this . Kind of like this. People are having to come to grips with the civil war, and enslavement, which are sort of the founding bases of the country. Our country is like a really old house that you may not want to go into that basement, but if you really dont go into that basement, its at your own peril. Whatever youre ignoring will be there to be reckoned with until you reckon with it. These voices were all happening on the eve of the civil war. Im Interested In what you think about it, im Interested In who is saying this. And im also gonna give you the Secession Documents from South Carolina. Where is he from . Whats he about . Who is he . Hes a philadelphia congressman, i believe. No, ohio. I think hes from ohio. So he delivers this, when . When is this written, because thats one of the questions that i ask . December 27, 1860. Exactly. And what does he basically say . He doesnt want secession because he knows if there is the secession, there will be a huge war. People will know this war with their own eyes. They will, you know, really experience war amongst ourselves. He sounds scary, doesnt he . Yeah. I think he probably was. What stood out to you in the arguments . So our article was presented by Alexander Stevens in atlanta, georgia. And not once does he talk about slavery, property, and what the war is really about, what theyre really fighting for. Other voices . Yeah. I noticed there seems to be a common idea that the civil war was totally about slavery. Im gonna disagree with that. The south did want to leave the union, because of slavery, but the issue of the civil war was keeping the south in the union. So slavery isnt like, the entire issue. Pushback . Comments . Were gonna continue tomorrow. We have class tomorrow. You are a thinker. That is for sure. The wedge is this labor issue, right . I think were agreed on that. Its just the way of describing it. Good job. Go, go, go. Youre spending a lot of time telling the story of the civil war and reconstruction, in your 8th grade class, why . Because i think we have not adequately, you know, understood who we are as a nation. Theres so much of this history that has been way too difficult for this country to look at. The reason its important to understand this history is because we carry it within us. These things need to be unpacked and looked at, and talked about, and we need to decide what we think about them now. It is challenging, but its where the juice is. [laughs] we call it the war between the states here. We dont call it the civil war. Why is it important to call it the war between the states . Because thats what it was, it wasnt a civil war. The war of northern aggression, the north came down here and invaded us. We didnt go up there. My grandmother was saying they had to had the food in the chimney because of soldiers who came in would take everything they had. They take all their livestock, any food that was in the house, and it was terrible. The war took place in our backyard, for the people up north, the war was a distant thing. Were both members of the local sons of confederate veterans, and we are responsible for taking care of that cemetery. But our generation is that, theres not gonna be anybody around to take care of it. Or to promote the true history of the 1860 1865 time. This class that im filming, the teacher is teaching the cause of the war on slavery. Oh, really . And so, does that offend you . I mean, can you explain to me why. Yes, because its not true. Youre telling stories that are untrue about my ancestors, about my family, about my country, the south. And tell me what the untrue thing is . Slavery. They are not telling the whole story. Slavery was one of the reasons, but for that professor to say that economics had nothing to do with that war is totally false. I would have fought for the south, you know why . It had nothing to do with political reason. Because my home was being invaded. The confederacy lost this war bigtime. No americans have ever lost a war quite like the confederacy lost this war. White southerners are going to need to process what the meaning of that whole collapse of their society really is. And their explanation of their defeat becomes a narrative. It becomes a memory. It becomes the lost cause tradition. And the lost cause tradition was this argument that the confederacy had really fought for noble aims. The war wasnt really entirely about slavery. It was about defending their homelands. Their families, their women, that slavery was not the great issue, that if it had left to them, they would have handled slavery overtime, and maybe even gotten rid of it themselves, they said, which is nonsense. There were alternative textbooks eventually published in the south. And it wasnt just textbooks they were trying to control, it was the stories being widely told in the public arena. And they had a tremendous influence. So, what is at stake in the memory of the american civil war, is who gets to control this narrative, the story. Youve done the hard part. You quit smoking. Now do the easy part and get scanned for lung cancer. If you smoked, you may still be at risk, but Early Detection could save your life. Talk to your doctor and learn more at savedbythescan. Org i tried everything to remove fabric odors, but my clothes still smelled. Until i finally found new downy rinse and refresh it doesnt just cover odors, it helps remove them up to 3 times better than detergent alone find new downy rinse refresh in the fabric softener aisle. I have to move the microphone. Do you have any questions for me . I have one. Forgot what it was. Do you consider yourself a radical person . Am i a radical person . No. Im not a radical person. I think im someone who questions things. Im questioning the stories we tell. Like, in your class, the story about slavery, right . They tell us something about why we are so divided. Do you see us living in a divided country . Every day. I am a member of the Holmes CountyCenter High School family. Education first. The kids that i have here are determined to not follow in the footsteps of what was in the past. Im hoping i can spark something in them to say, i want to know more, i want to learn more. In mississippi, do people talk about slavery as the cause of war . You dont hear the word of slavery or slaves in mississippi. That was an incidental part of it. I guess the simple term is whitewash, as i told my class, that a lot of time, you want to see the good part of the history, especially history that you are part of, and you want to minimize the bad part about it. Slavery is not an easy topic to tackle for black or for white. So how do you tackle the story of slavery . One thing is that the slaves were more powerful than we give them credit for. People said lincoln freed the slaves, but you say, actually, they freed themselves. That was a question. Why couldnt slaves free themselves in a sense before all of this if they freed themselves . You didnt have the abolition movement. You didnt have those people step forward. But those people, to me, were just as brave as the 1960s, probably even more brave. Think about nat turner. To make a change, you have to be able to thats it, he caused people to think. He went from plantation to plantation, killing everybody. He wanted to kill the women and children. He wanted to do that. Why . You expect for a dude to be dead, you expect a mother, three kids, stuff like that of the past, he did. He set the right tone. You want to kill wives, children. Yeah. [inaudible] dont take for granted the lives that were lost. Who is brave enough to try the system when its wrong . That is what makes these guys heroic. We cant devalue what we did. A white guy whose grandfather was confederate. They can keep that memory alive, why cant we . In Holmes County, i noticed how we have the browns and the williams and we also have caucasian people with the same last name. I was always wondering, is there any relation between the two . Then i learned that, you know, slaves got their last name from their slave owners. Its like, did this family own this family . Or did they come from . I always wondered about that. There is this enormous history of slavery in Holmes County. Do people ever talk about that . About . Just the question of the history of slavery here. No. Do you know if your ancestors were enslaved here . I dont know. Would you want to know . Not really. Why . Because i dont want to think about what all they went through for us. How come . Because they are because they worked for all their life, being enslaved and not being treated right. That will just bring me down because they suffered and i wish somebody couldve did something for them back then to help them out. You dont wanna think about because it makes you sad . Yeah. I dont wanna hate people. I want to hate people based on their character towards me now, not what they did hundreds of years ago, or their family did hundreds of years ago. I think white people are afraid its going to make them feel ashamed. Yeah. I think so, too. Thats why theyre probably, when youre teaching i keep going back to the teaching. Its where it all starts because i doubt if a white man would tell his sixyearold daughter we owned slaves, or we did this to slaves. I doubt if that happens. I think we all should learn the real history because, as black people, we think we know but we dont. I never met my great grandmother. You know, they dont talk about slavery, the racial segregation. They dont talk about it. Would you want to ask her about it . I would. But i wouldnt, i think she would say she dont know to avoid the conversation. And why do you think she would want to avoid the conversation . It might hurt her. She might feel mad about it. Its hard to talk about things like that. Yeah. Its personal around here. Were in a southern state. Were talking about the civil war. Im going to have students that are pulling for the confederacy. I was that student. I pulled for the confederacy. They are southern. Im southern, right . Its not about slavery in your mind. Its just like its the cowboys versus the redskins and you want the cowboys to win the football game, right . It is what it is in their head. So, when you throw slavery in there, it complicates it. It is not a football game. This was real. Most History Classes we teach that the winners write history. The civil war, the losers try to write history. When we look at southerners, how they try and twist the narrative what happened, i want to put us in their shoes and learn why. If you can teach empathy when it comes to history, its such a powerful thing for the rest of your lives. All right, boys. In your packet, turn to new perspectives on slavery. What we have here are statistics about slavery. I want you to talk about whats jumps out at you. It says about 1. 1 million southern families owned no slaves. Only about a little over 350,000 owned slaves. Thats only a fourth or fifth. Its actually pretty crazy statistics. Only a handful of people had one or five slaves. Its just probably around the household, which probably wouldve been treated pretty well. It depends. Of course, the southerners were trying to they werent treated like regular humans, but they took care of them because they were a way to make money. Correct. It is an investment. Thats my money. I need to take care of my money. I want that to continue producing money for me therefore i take care of it. I dont take care of it and provide. I mean, its still a dirt floor they sleep on. You know . Im still working them 10 to 12 hours. Lets look at 210. Whippings per person. In the south, where was the wealth . Owning land and owning slaves. If i invested 23,000 in something, i dont want to beat it to a pulp, right . Why did they do it . Fear. You hit on it, thats the word. Heres what American Slavery is about. Money and fear. They are making lots of money. They are terrified of what happens if this goes away. What happens when people talk about abolition and emancipation . What do i start picturing in my head . Getting lynched. Yes. Retribution. Theyre going to come after us. So, you can look at it and say the situation is not great, but i dont want to get lynched. I dont want people throwing rocks through my windows. A. And i wanted to hide from the world. For years, i thought my t. E. D was beyond help. But then i asked my doctor about tepezza. vo tepezza is the only medicine that treats t. E. D. At the source not just the symptoms. In a clinical study, more than 8 out of 10 patients taking tepezza had less eye bulging. Tepezza is an infusion. 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Com to get started. Powered by Innovation Refunds. Classical Piano Music go to getrefunds. Com to get started. [reporter] one of the deadliest Mass Shootings in us history at Pulse Nightclub in orlando. [barbara] walking into the building for the first time after the shooting, it was crippling, but it had to be preserved. If you are an ally of this community, speak out. There are more of us together than apart. It is the power of love in its rawest form. Classical Piano Music the violence, Police Officers pointed their guns into crowds of young people. It was shocking to me. Why are we still in a war in this country over race . Slavery, it lasted 200 years. You have to develop a psychology on the part of the white people who were doing this, that involves enormous acts of denial. We havent even claimed it as the horrific system that it was. She says, slavery is the cause. And so, many white people that we hear say, dont talk to me about slavery. I didnt own slaves. My parents didnt own slaves. The cultural conditioning that began in slavery has continued. The privileges that you see some white people have goes back to, im more than you, im better than you. Why . Why . Why, teresa . Why are they better . Oh, i dont believe that. I know, but why do they think theyre better . Privilege. Privilege has told them theyre better. They dont even know that privilege. And i remember a book i read in seminary i dont buy that they dont know they are privileged. I serve a congregation of over educated white people who dont recognize their privilege. They dont see that you start that its the norm. If you dont feel that you are privileged, how do you account for the differences between white people and disadvantaged black people . Theyre not comparing themselves to black people, right . Like, my white friends are mostly comparing themselves to other highly educated welloff white friends. But when you say, white people cant get it, i dont buy that. I dont know what they cant get . I dont buy that for a moment since the 60s, i have been proving to myself, and there comes a point in life when you say, im done. Its on them now, because i know i am okay. So the way i look at it, is your loss. I dont intend to spend All Of My Life proving to white people that im okay. Dont prove it, i think you need to get educated. No, we dont. What im saying is that they need to open their minds last night, i was at this conversation about slavery being the source of our racial problems. The topic of White Privilege came up a lot. The idea of, you know, white people have advantages in this country, or yeah, i mean, advantages. Or you can flip it around and say, black people have disadvantages in this country, simply because of skin tone. I feel like it kind of goes both ways. Sometimes white people have a disadvantage, i had a friend a couple of years ago. His gpa was like a 4. 26, and then he got a friend that was black. They had like a 3. 9, like a 3. 3, and they both applied to princeton. And the black kid got it. I feel like everyone says, theres a lot of White Privilege, so we have to give others like, other ethnicities adv