One of the main reasons that the "Lost Cause" mythology was created was to whitewash the fact that the Confederates fought mainly to preserve slavery as an institution.

Once they managed to convince everyone (with plenty of help from the North, sadly) that the war wasn't really about slavery, it became easier for the Southern ruling classes to re-institute white racial supremecy create the Jim Crow society in the post-war years.

It wasn't until the Civil Rights movement started that we slowly started remembering that African-Americans were, in fact, heavily involved in the Civil War and were totally screwed by collapes of Reconstruction after the war.

There are still plenty people in this country who buy into the "Lost Cause" and various related myths. Including, apparently, the city leaders of Lexington.

Those last two signs don't exactly sound supportive of slavery...am I missing something? Plus they look like they were put up at a different time...notice the word spacing. Probably more recent.

@3: I think you missed that the first two signs are in front of the court house, prominently placed next to a giant statue of a famous slave wrangler. The last two signs are in back of the courthouse next to the dumpsters.

There's a nice history museum in that building. If you have time you should visit it and poke around. Our family checked it out over the holidays when visiting family in Lexington.

@1 The traditional role for blacks in America was to be slaves. Unfortunately, a lot of activist legislators had to go and screw that all up. No respect for what this nation was founded upon and built with.

The statue and the beautifully embelished signs are bad enough, but "Cheapside Slave Auction Block"?! So Kentucky was like the Walmart of slavery or something? Sad to say, but I'm not really that surprised. When called to task for stupidity the only options are to concede and apologize or double down. And as an American I can say we love to double down.

Dan Savage in Lexington? Damn, I didn't know. I hope we show you a good time. Throw in a shout-out to the Wildcats and you'll have them eating out of your hand. Also, I recommend Alfalfa's downtown, or Table 310. Go Cats!

Our country's greatest shame is their source of pride? Do you really have to wonder why Kentucky is listed as one of the most miserable states. Embarrassing in the sight of the world. To say the least.

@7, I don't know this for sure, but I'm guessing Cheapside in Lexington is named after Cheapside in London. "Cheap" means "marketplace" (from "ceapan" "to buy" in Old English) and in this context is not connected to "cheap" meaning "low-priced". Cheapside in Lexington is the public market area, not just for slaves but for everything, and still is today.

@7, we also have a "High Street" which I presume was like the Rodeo Drive of slavery. There are probably similar street names in many American towns, especially in the south. Lexington is just a regular ass college town, we have a Pride Parade that has gone on for several years now right where these pictures were taken

@10 I don't see those signs as a source of pride for Lexington. Would it be better to remove any trace and cover up the past?

The amazing thing here is that Kentucky was a Union state. Morgan was a traitor to both his country and his state.

This "Lost Cause" terminology really needs to hit the dust heap. It can go join such other illustrious phrases such as "thousand year reich."

@ 2, it also became easy for the white ruling class to reestablish itself because Northern aims weren't as radical (for their time) as they've been made out to be in recent decades.

The North wanted to quash slavery, but not because northern plutocrats perceived the evil in the institution, but because they knew that the "free" in "free labor" went by both meanings of the word - it was so much cheaper than slave labor, when the laborers were regarded as easily replaceable, something that wasn't true about slaves that you owned. You couldn't just lay off a slave when you didn't need his services any longer.

Anyway, the point is that the North as a whole were not fighting for the slaves, so they didn't give a fuck what became of them afterward. They had no interest in a social revolution, so they didn't support one.

@14 Maybe you missed the guy on the horse???

@ 15, good point.

The word spacing (is that the right way to say it? It's been along time since my design classes) on the first sign is horrendous.

@4, I think you miss that the sign refers to the whipping post that was located on the northeast corner of the courthouse lawn and the sign is therefore located on the northeast corner. So I don't think the sign was placed there - near the garbage cans - to be hidden from view. Also, for many years, when the building functioned as the Circuit Courthouse, the backside was the main entrance. The front entrance was sealed off.

@20: A classic example of why not to justify everything. Ragged right. Ragged right! RAGGED RIGHT!

In terms of monuments and historical markers go, these are pretty good, folks.

I mean, it mentions selling slaves further South and separating them from parents as well as whippings for being out past 7pm. Often markers sponsored by groups like the United Daughters of the Confederacy don't even mention slavery or simply put the place/time marker with NO historical context. There COULD have simply been a bronze plaque saying On this site was the Cheapside Auction Block circa 1840 with no mention of what, who, and how they were selling human cattle.

Oh, I don't know that it's so lost. Slavery's alive and well today.

All of those signs have been there since I moved here and that was 50 years ago. And since the Farmer's Market is behind the courthouse, as is the entrance to the history museum, a lot more people see the second set of markers than the first.

While you were downtown, Dan, did you stop into to see the mayor? He's openly gay, you know.

Dan, is this all you took away from our city? That monument was put up by the Daughters of the Confederacy in 1911 (and probably funded by his wealthy descendants) and those signs about slavery are not a celebration of it. To be honest, I didn't even know who John Hunt Morgan was until reading this post. Shame on me for being ignorant, but my point is that this is hardly a point of pride for the people of Lexington.

Kentucky was fiercely divided between the Union and the Confederacy during the Civil War. In reality Lexington is quite progressive today, one of the few cities in the country with an openly gay mayor...

And also this about the Morgan family: John Hunt Morgan's nephew, Thomas Hunt Morgan, won the Nobel Prize in medicine in 1933. There is an historical marker about that, too.

@ 25, I kinda doubt that the sign that mentions "African Americans" could be much more than 20 years old. 50 years ago, "negro" was still perfectly acceptable, at least among the "respectable" people who are behind such monuments and markers.

If they updated the sign, I wonder how the previous one was phrased?

Guys, the issue is not the latter two signs. The issue is that the first monument is praising the Lost Cause ideology that specifically sought to sweep under the rug the horrors the latter two signs describe. It essentially describes pro-slavery as a "Cause" worth courageously fighting for.

@18 I didn't miss the photo of a horse but I did miss the whole horse statue when I was there. The plaques about the slave auctions are much more important. You should go there sometime instead of casting judgement from some photos on the Internet. @26 has it right.

@28 I'm wondering when the signs were put there myself. The site was added to the national registry of historic sites in 1997 so I'm guessing the bottom signs were put up then. The signs on top are obviously older. The city should replace them. I lived there for 7 years and never even noticed them. I imagine it's the same for others...

@29 The Lost Cause ideology was intended to distinguish and distance the Confederate cause from slavery, so that Southerners could defend themselves without having to defend the indefensible. I know I'm splitting hairs and I'm not a Lost Cause apologist, but that at least is an admission slavery is not a cause worth fighting for.

@31 Grandma, what did I tell you about posting internet comments before your nap? Turn off Fox News and go back to sleep.

Look in the lower left corner of the signs. The two by the statue went up in 1987, the other two went up in 2000 and 2003.

In Bardstown, KY, where I have roots, they still have a slave auction block on display in front of the court house. And Stephen Foster Story.

@30: His mare has testicles? WTF?

Shaved Bear,

I'm not sure if you meant your example to show that KY is backward or just that there are similar displays elsewhere.

I was just in Bardstown and one of the local elite pointed out the slave auction block...but it wasn't presented as a point of pride. It was essentially pointed out in the same way I'd point out Little Big Horn. A source of national shame.

And I'd assume you do know that there is great debate among historians about Stephen Foster's view on slavery. I recently heard an NPR piece on the fact that "My Old Kentucky Home" is really anti-slaver b/c it's about a slave being sold down south and that the term "darky" was acutally progressive for the time. No less a person than abolitionist and former slave Frederick Douglass liked Foster and the song saying it upheld "the sympathies for the slave, in which anti-slavery principles take root and flourish." So, unless your saying that they whitewash the Stephen Foster Story, I'm not sure what your point was wrt to Foster.

For all, husband and I are both minorities. Sister is gender-queer lesbian (which is very obvious from her appearance and mannerisms). We've never had any issues in KY, even in very rural places. Yes, there is a bit too much "Lost Cause" mentality around the entire US, particularly in the South. I've never felt that it was stronger in KY than a lot of other places I've been. And, as a Native American, I can't say this is any different than the entire culture whitewashing what it did to my people.

So, if you want to say "this should be dealt with comprehensively and honestly" I'm down with that. If you want to use it as an excuse to say Kentucky is backwards and racist, as a minority that has not been my experience. Plus, as a native, it isn't like this entire country and everyone in it isn't participating in the same thing wrt my people.

BTW, One thing I love when I've been at sporting events in KY is to watch the idiot white racists sing the term "darky" in My Old Kentucky Home. The term was officially removed from the song by the KY legislature a few years ago...but idiots who are white racists sing it to be un-PC.....little do they realize they are essentially singing an anti-slavery song. I wonder if they ever even stop to thing about the words. Maybe they are just to privileged to realize it's not about a white guy whose went away voluntarily, but about a slave whose been literally "sold down the river". I have a friend whose descended from slaves from TN and we often just snicker our asses off at the spectacle of these idiots who are too stupid to realize what they are singing.

You know, even in Russia they took down statues of assholes that they generated.

Before everyone starts to feel too superior wrt to the "backward" state...look at all those who celebrate a slaughterer of innocent women and children...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Arms…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Custer_Monu…
http://www.mcccagora.com/features/unveil…

@14- They should tear down the statue. Maybe some place in Slovakia can put it up in their hipster neighborhood like we did with their Lenin.

@30, @41

He spoke at UK's Memorial Hall last night! It was really under-publicized (I suspect due to it being in a not-very-large venue). It wasn't Savage Love Live; just a speech on IGBP. Same talking points that are in all of his youtube videos.

One great line from the Q&A:
Asker: "What else are you doing to combat the rise of Santorum?"
Dan: "...well, just shove it back in."

Sorry, I meant @30, 44

A lot of Southern apologists and Civil War apologists would say that "The Cause" wasn't about slavery at all; they would say that "The Cause" (and the war) were REALLY about States Rights! I was treated to this not-so-reivionist history once during a tour of Jefferson Davis' last home in Mississippi. The film I watched argued--repeatedly--that the southerns states wanted to preserve their sovereignity and autonomy, and that was the cause of the war! It wasn't about slavery at all!

Of course this falls apart if you actually READ Mississippi's Declaration of Secession. The text makes it clear that the "rights" that the Southern states were interested in protecting were the rights to own, buy, sell, and import slaves. Here's the link: http://www.civil-war.net/pages/mississip…

As a the whole argument that the war was "really" about "states rights" sticks in my craw every time some conservative SOB invokes states rights in the name of outlawing abortion, limiting contraception, or defining marriage as one-man-and-one-woman.

P.S. I'm responsible for post 48, and I swear I edited it before posting, but for some reason, the edits didn't save! Trust me, I'm more literate than that post makes me appear.

About 60 miles of Lexington, in the town of Maysville Kentucky, is the National Underground Roalroad Museum. It's the most intense "museum"/historical experience I've ever had- the volunteers who lead it are the descendents of people who were bought, sold and traded in Maysville- as well as of people who used the Underground Railroad to escape to Canada. If you are still in the area, Dan, it's well worth going there. (It's well worth going there if you aren't in the area, for that matter). But it will give you nightmares for weeks.
Kentucky- for what it's worth- was a pretty complicated and conflicted state in the civil war. It's almost like it had it's own internal version of the civil war playing out, over slavery, within it's borders.

@34 The landscape around the west and north sides of the old courthouse was changed in the last decade and the markers were moved. I guess they were re-worded and re-dated, as well. But, Lexington's sordid history as the center of "sold down the river" has been long -remembered and long-regretted.

As someone who was born and raised here, I'm the first to admit that Lexington still has a way to go on racial issues. (I think our cops could do better, for example.) I will say, though, as someone who has lived in quite a few other places - north, south, and west of here - Kentucky certainly doesn't have the monopoly on either racism or shameful history. I'd rather we acknowledge our history so that we learn from it and do better than if we just swept it under the rug and pretended it never happened. Besides, I don't read those plaques as celebrating him with pride. Maybe it's because I have an art history degree and I've written descriptions for an installation at an art museum, but I read them more as setting Morgan in context, historically. This is who he was. This is what he did. This is why he was popular at that time. Not, "Wow! John Hunt Morgan came from here - YAY!" However, I can see how someone who isn't from here and might have some preconceptions about Kentucky might read it that way.

As for the statue, he was part of a very powerful, very wealthy local family, so it's little wonder that someone put a statue to him. Add to that, the Civil War recreation people have a lot of events around here. They wear authentic uniforms, both Union and Confederate, and recreate battles (and there were a number in the area) and tour local historical sites - just like they do in Gettysburg, PA. Even if we now consider this guy a shameful traitor, he's a very famous shameful traitor, historically. Again, just pretending that he didn't exist seems more cowardly than saying, "Yep, here he is."

Finally, other than your trip to Cheapside and to the area around the history museum, I hope you had a great time here in Lexington, Dan. Granted, Lexington isn't exactly a hotbed of entertainment on a Tuesday, but I'm hoping you at least got a nice dinner and some cool people to hang out with after the show.

As someone who was born and raised here, I'm the first to admit that Lexington still has a way to go on racial issues. (I think our cops could do better, for example.) I will say, though, as someone who has lived in quite a few other places - north, south, and west of here - Kentucky certainly doesn't have the monopoly on either racism or shameful history. I'd rather we acknowledge our history so that we learn from it and do better than if we just swept it under the rug and pretended it never happened. Besides, I don't read those plaques as celebrating him with pride. Maybe it's because I have an art history degree and I've written descriptions for an installation at an art museum, but I read them more as setting Morgan in context, historically. This is who he was. This is what he did. This is why he was popular at that time. Not, "Wow! John Hunt Morgan came from here - YAY!" However, I can see how someone who isn't from here and might have some preconceptions about Kentucky might read it that way.

As for the statue, he was part of a very powerful, very wealthy local family, so it's little wonder that someone put a statue to him. Add to that, the Civil War recreation people have a lot of events around here. They wear authentic uniforms, both Union and Confederate, and recreate battles (and there were a number in the area) and tour local historical sites - just like they do in Gettysburg, PA. Even if we now consider this guy a shameful traitor, he's a very famous shameful traitor, historically. Again, just pretending that he didn't exist seems more cowardly than saying, "Yep, here he is."

Finally, other than your trip to Cheapside and to the area around the history museum, I hope you had a great time here in Lexington, Dan. Granted, Lexington isn't exactly a hotbed of entertainment on a Tuesday, but I'm hoping you at least got a nice dinner and some cool people to hang out with after the show.

@38 The way the story was told to me, nobody thought to mention to the sculptor that Morgan's horse was, famously, Black Bess, a mare. The artist assumed apparently that XX generals rode XX horses and so appended the default genitals. See http://www.visitlex.com/idea/civil-war.p… and search for string "Bess."

If we only honor heroes from good wars, entered honestly, where we conducted ourselves honorably ...

...I don't think we could honor anyone at all.

Which may be the right answer.

@11 Thanks!
@13 Glad to know. Still couldn't stand to live there, and not just because of a statue and some signs (if I can't get a good carnitas burrito there, it ain't shit to me). I wasn't suggesting you were all down with that, just commenting on the fact a lot of people can't point at our mistakes, say "we f-d up", and leave it at that. Instead it becomes another tedious arguement of the proper way to frame history to fit our national identity.

I sure home _somebody_ in Lexington told Dan the story of a local hero we _can_ be proud of -- James "Sweet Evening Breeze" Herndon! Here's a brief sketch (that barely scratches the surface of an amazing life: http://tinyurl.com/ahe6ho

@55- It takes a lot of hormone treatments, starting at an early age, to make an XX mammal develop male genitalia.

Around here (Boston) we only have the 54 Massachusetts Infantry Regiment statue, or Col. Thomas Cass (9th MA Inf. Regiment) civil war era statues (in the vicinity of the state house). You know, Blacks and Irish low lifes in a winning cause. Just the kind of people that died to make and keep us free.

Peace.

P. S.: Col. Cass
54th MA

Presumably, if you were in front of the memorial, you were in front of the Lexington History Center, which features the Isaac Scott Hathaway Museum. Walk less than a mile up Main Street, and you'll see the Mary Todd Lincoln House.
For years, most of America's been feeding students a line about the Civil War being a states' rights issue. (It's not just the South; the North is embarrassed that it EVER condoned slavery, even if it wised up earlier.) And it takes time to completely erode these cleaned up versions of history. But if you don't see that erosion happening, you're willfully ignoring the progress that's been made.

@9 - You should register, as your comment is one of the best in this thread, and some users block unregistered users.

Any state that still harbors statues of confederate war "heroes" should be expelled from the Union and all members of their government prosecuted and shot for high treason.

Great post, Dan.

Aren't we glad that it was a "lost cause"? Hopefully homophobia will join it soon.

It used to be a slave market, but now my sweet little bi-racial children run and play on that block - at the farmers market that is held there now. It's good to keep an eye on the past while savoring the present.

One of the things not mentioned on either sign is that the "Thunderbolt of the Confederacy" was a traitor not just to his country, but also to his state. Kentucky never seceded from the Union, though some wags have insisted that it "joined the Confederacy in 1866". This is a man who had to defy both his nation and his state to fight for "one of the worst [causes] for which a people ever fought, and one for which there was the least excuse*".

*h/t U. S. Grant

I grew up in Illinois where there were battles about which side to take - the North or the South. About 20 years ago, my town Veterans group found that a Confederate soldier had been buried in the town cemetary and the Vet group paid tribute to this fallen soldier. My brother and I wrote a letter to the town paper essentially saying: who pays tribute to traitors? There are plenty of heroes around that area, including Elijah Lovejoy. http://www.altonweb.com/history/lovejoy/
These kind of tributes to traitors have no place in this country. They do no honor to any county. The should all be a on a plaque that says "we are ashamed that...."