Columbia City Paper

Calling Out Liberty: The Stono Slave Rebellion and the Universal Struggle for Human Rights by Jack Shuler, University of Mississippi Press. 217 pages. $50.00.

Review by Will Moredock

Most of the important ideas spawned on South Carolina soil have been discredited by history: nullification of federal laws, as espoused by John C. Calhoun; romanticism of plantation culture, created by novelist William Gilmore Simms; celebration of the “Lost Cause,” first proclaimed by Charleston clergyman John L. Girardeau.

Yet, another idea, one which is coming to shape the course of national and international relations, one which may provide a framework for future world order, had an early and forceful shout out right here in the Lowcountry. That, at least, is the argument of of Denison University scholar and Orangeburg native Jack Shuler.

On September 9, 1739, a group of slaves broke into a storehouse 15 miles south of Charleston, killing two storekeepers and arming themselves with guns and powder. This was the opening act of the Stono Rebellion, a brief and violent uprising that left 23 whites and some several dozen slaves dead. The revolt was put down in less than 24 hours and has been largely forgotten in popular history and memory. Yet it has reverberated for nearly three centuries through the subconscious mind of the South, taking the form of racial fears, racist laws, and the politics of regional extremism.

With some evidence, Shuler makes the argument that the Stono rebels – recent arrivals from Portugese West Africa – were Catholic converts with an understanding of the Portugese language. As such, they would have been able to communicate with Spanish agents from Florida, who infiltrated the wilderness plantations on the periphery of the colony, mingled with the slaves and promised freedom to all who could escape their bonds and flee to St. Augustine. He also argues that communication among slaves was more sophisticated than most scholars have assumed, including the use of drums, flags, shouts and perhaps written messages.  White accounts of the rebellion do indicate that as the Africans moved across the countryside, killing, plundering and recruiting more participants, and later as they stood and fought a hopeless battle against white militia, they used flags and battle formations. What is not as easy to accept is that they were “calling out liberty” as they marched along.

The idea of liberty – as in “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” as in “Liberty! Equality! Fraternity!” — was part of an 18^th century dialog, to be sure, but it was a dialog of intellectuals, aristocrats and bourgeoisie.  Shuler expounds at length on the evolution of Enlightenment thinking through the 17^th and 18^th centuries, including the writings of John Locke, who also created the founding constitution for the Carolina colony.

There is no question that the slaves of St. Paul’s Parish wished to escape their bondage, to flee the rice plantations and make their way south. There is no question that they were enraged at their white tormentors and wreaked a bloody vengeance on them. But Shuler argues that they were imbued  with some 18^th century bourgeois notion of liberty and that the rebels were deliberately striking at the social and economic infrastructure of the colony. His evidence is sketchy and circumstantial, to say the least.

It is much easier to believe that the Stono slaves did what slaves have done from the beginning of history – took any opportunity to rise up against their masters and flee toward the light of freedom. The Roman slaves who revolted with Spartacus in 71 B.C. certainly had not heard of John Locke or any other modern political thinkers. But they possessed the one requisite for a slave uprising – human nature in the face of unyielding oppression.

Shuler is much more affective in arguing that the Stono Rebellion fed the rising 18^th century conversation about political rights and personal freedom. He writes: “Rebellions were truly human reactions to capture and enslavement, but such actions take on added significance in America because they were the first steps n the development of the abolition movement – the first international human rights campaign.” Of course, at the same time the Revolutionary spirit was rising in this country, terrified whites were passing ever more repressive laws to control their slaves.

There are a number of incidents cited in Shuler’s book that the reader can see reflected in modern attitudes and behaviors. The South Carolina Gazette, the colony’s only newspaper in 1739, felt that its first responsibility was to protect the image of the colony, and so blacked out the story of the rebellion from its pages altogether. After the rebellion, colonial leaders insisted that the only reason their slaves had revolted was that they had been provoked by Spanish agents. Their argument anticipated by more than two centuries those white southern leaders who insisted that racial strife in their fiefdoms was the result of “outside agitators.”

Fundamentalism began as reaction to modernism

Much has been written this year in observance of the birth of Charles Darwin in 1809 and the publication of his monumental work, On the Origin of Species, in 1859. Another important date – one which has gone largely unnoticed, yet which is also important in its perverse way to the ideas of our modern world – is 1909, the year in which a couple of oil tycoons met and hired theologian A.C. Dixon to produce a series of books called The Fundamentals.

Conceived as a reaction to Darwin and the other voices of modernism, The Fundamentals were a collection of 90 essays by prominent American and British clerics, compiled into 12 volumes and published between 1910 and 1915. They became the intellectual basis of modern fundamentalism.

For the past three decades the political and cultural movement collectively known as the Christian right has been powered in large part by the ideas of fundamentalism. Adherents of these principles generally will tell you that they are following ancient doctrine; in truth, much of their ideology – including the Rapture and Second Coming – is actually quite recent.

“(Fundamentalism) is the intellectual underpinning of a lot of modern social and political ideas,” according to Elijah Siegler, assistant professor of religion at the College of Charleston. “George W. Bush was the high-water mark of fundamentalism in American society.”

The fundamentalist movement has had a long and twisting path since it was launched a century ago.

Lyman and Milton Stewart were oil magnates and founders of the Union Oil Co., who took it  upon themselves to finance seminaries, missionary work and the publication of Bible tracts and Christian books. Lyman Stewart’s most ambitious project was the publication of The Fundamentals, which encapsulated a lot of free-floating ideas that had been inhabiting the fringe American theology for generations.

Fundamentalism was riding high in the decade after publication of its manifesto. It fueled the Red Scare of the 1920s, made war on Catholics and immigrants, imposed Prohibition on the nation. But Prohibition was a disaster, and the Scopes “Monkey Trial” was a deep embarrassment to the movement. Fundamentalism withdrew from the mainstream, becoming politically and culturally marginal until it reemerged a half-century later as the Christian right.

A chief characteristic of fundamentalism is its obsession with the End Times and Second Coming. Those cryptic passages from Revelation, which mainstream Christians have scratched their heads over and generally placed on the shelf with mysticism and witchcraft, became the centerpiece of fundamentalist ideology. For the  fundamentalist, the end of the world is imminent and nothing else matters.

One consequence of this peculiar world view, Siegler said, is that most fundamentalists disregard environmental warnings and eschew almost all forms of social and political reform. The important thing for the fundamentalist is to get right with god and prepare to be whooshed up in the Rapture. The world and the people in it are not worth saving.

You can understand how this theology would have a deep appeal to political and economic conservatives. In fact, Siegler suggests that the nexus of big business and religion at the launch of the fundamentalist movement is no accident. It has been repeated a number of times in the past century, including in the rise of the Christian right and the emergence of a secretive sect of wealthy and powerful Christian politicians who operate out of a house on C Street in Washington, D.C. In his book, The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power, Jeff Sharlet describes how this group worked against FDR’s New Deal in the 1930s and supported rightwing dictatorships around the world during the Cold War.

In American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America, Chris Hedges describes how the Republican Party joined forces with Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell and other fundamentalist leaders in the 1970s in a bold grab to put traditional Republicans in control of Washington, and put fundamentalist Christians in control of American culture.

Their scheme almost worked. George W. Bush served two terms as president (whether he was elected is still debated) and GOP leaders spoke just a few years ago of a permanent Republican majority in the Congress. A number of factors contributed to the fact that Democrats now hold the White House and the Congress – not least of which was the fact the the fundamentalists overplayed their hand after the 2004 election and scared a lot of moderates away.

Fundamentalism is in eclipse as a political force today, but it is still alive and well. And like a cancer, it can always return. It is an authoritarian ideology, an intrinsic and intractable enemy of peace and freedom. All freedom-loving people should know its signs and be wary of its dangers.

See Will Moredock’s blog at www.charlestoncitypaper.com/blogs/thegoodfight.

No Wasted Motion
DJ Evelfaery

DJ D

Lets be honest, nothing says the Christmas season like industrial (someone was telling me the other day that all “industrial” bands that followed the demise of Industrial Records were technically “post-industrial” bands…please give me a fucking break)  I mean after all that cheery happy crap with Santa Claus and your family it’s good to have a break.  This show provides that outlet.  The headliner Prognosis is a quality synth industrial band out of the ATL.  Think Covenant, Funker Vogt or even old FLA or Haujobb.  Plus, there are going to be some DJs so there is bound to be a darker dance party emerging.  And that is what makes this a more fun show to go to than if it was a metal show on the 26th.  It’s dark but still danceable as opposed to just something you can bang your head to.  It’s not like industrial bands roll into Cola on a weekly basis so please get out there and support the acts from this region.  Sadly, the last industrial show in Cola that jumps to mind for me was Sister Machine Gun and that was a while ago (I am sure I am missing some other shows but no one’s perfect).

-Norbet Sykes

By Todd Morehead

We’ve gotten comments –some good, some not so good—about our holiday themed cover art over the years. Last issue we ran a photo of Jesus squaring off nose-to-nose with Santa to tie into the theme of our liberal/conservative gift list and to illustrate the dichotomy of the holiday itself. Of those readers to whom I’ve spoken, none seemed more affected than a young boy at the West Metro Parade of Lights in West Columbia. He actually had Christmas issues from the last two years stuffed into his jacket pockets. City Paper, it seemed, had driven the little guy to a crossroads.

I was on my third doughnut when I saw him standing nearby and staring down at a crumpled copy of the December 3 edition. The boy, slight for his age, had a shock of thin brown hair that had been mussed, I assumed, by the Spider Man toboggan he had tucked under his arm. His large brown eyes seemed to be transfixed on the cover image and his lips worked silently while he tried to make out the words.

“Hey, little fella,” I said walking up to him. “Where’d you find that?”

Without looking up, he cocked a mittened thumb over his shoulder to the dumpster behind Zesto. I noticed, then, that he also had the December 3, 2008 edition rolled up and hanging out of his jacket pocket. Even partially hidden, I recognized the cover illustration of a brutalized Santa Claus hanging from a cross.

“Wow, kid, you must be a fan.”

“Not really. My dad says these guys hate Jesus.” He wiped his nose on his jacket sleeve. “Santa Claus, too.”

“Actually, I think that image was supposed to represent the ailing American construct of Christmas in this bleak economic landscape; an ode to modern capitalism, if you will.”

He shrugged. I noticed that he had a small piece of notebook paper in his other mitten and when I squinted at it I made out a few items listed in green crayon. It was his Christmas list! He had written in big red letters that he hoped Santa visited him this year, because he didn’t come last year.

Before I could comment on the list, a youth group from a local Pentecostal church began to sing carols from the bed of a pickup truck. One caroler started to toss candy canes toward us, but I waved her away. The boy ignored the float, too. I followed his gaze to a small terrier that was wagging his whole back end and tugging playfully on a bright red leash, while a little girl laughed gaily and fed it bits from her cookie. The little boy’s eyes lingered on the dog and an expression of familiarity and recent grief seemed to pass across his face. He pulled out the bloodied image of Santa begging for death from the cover of City Paper and stared at it for a long moment.

“Mister?” he asked finally, tugging on my pant leg. “Do you think Santa is in heaven with my dog Patches?”

“Nah. Dogs don’t go to heaven, silly.”

I got down on one knee, took the toboggan from under his arm and pulled it onto his head to keep his ears warm.

“Listen,” I said, “You know how your grandma has been asleep in the hospital for a few months with the beeping machines and tubes? Santa’s kind of like that right now.”

“Oh.” The boy’s voice cracked and his bottom lip began to tremble. He looked away toward the parade to gather himself. After a moment, he looked up and his eyes were filled with tears.

“I only did one bad thing this year, mister, I swear! I – I thought maybe it would make Santa mad at me again.” The boy’s eyes widened and he seemed to physically stoop under the weight of some dawning, unnamed horror. “Do… do you think because of me?” He brought a mitten up to his mouth and gaped at the mutilated image of Santa. “Did I do this to Santa?”

“Come on, kid.” I took a bite of doughnut and stared out at the street. “Don’t beat yourself up over it.”

A passing fire engine blared its horn and I thought I heard the Shriner mini cars buzzing in the distance. I needed another nip from the flask in the porta john to properly enjoy them.

“You should, uh, run along now, kid. And find yourself a good spot. You don’t want to miss Andre Bauer do you? I hear they’re gonna have him propped up in the back of a convertible.”

“Whoopee,” he said flatly.

He hung his head, turned without a word, took a few steps and stopped with his back to me. Silhouetted against the glow of twinkling lights, he looked like a North Pole elf who’d been around the block one too many times. He seemed to gather himself to turn and ask another question but it never came. After a moment he let the Christmas list fall from his hand. It fluttered briefly on the curb amid the glitter and confetti and then it dropped silently between the grates of a sewer drain. Once it had drifted out of sight, the boy walked away without looking back at the parade.

I watched him make his way past the brightly lit snowflakes and candy canes hanging from the telephone poles, the smell of hot cocoa wafting on the breeze. He kicked a trash can near the corner, then shuffled past laughing families lining the sidewalk, the copy of City Paper still clutched tightly in his little fist.

I sighed at the image and smiled. Man, I love Christmas.