Thursday, September 08, 2005

"Short People Got No Reason To Live"

I promised a post today explaining why I think many may find me so far out of the 'norm'. It's simple.

My family has a history of rebellion.

Let me start with Captain Volentine/Valentine Rowell. He was a captain in the Revolutionary War. He was my Great Great Great Great Grandfather. The fact that he was a captain in the revolt against Britain shows that he clearly was a rather rebellious person.

But let me skip forward to the Civil War.

As some of you probably know, the Civil War started in SC when SC succeeded from the Union. The first shots of the war were fired in SC at Fort Sumter in Charleston.
A relative of mine (I'm not sure of his exact lineage in relation to mine, only that he's now, through the generations, a very distant cousin), William B. Rowell was a state congressman for Marion County (which encompassed modern day Marion County, Dillon County, Florence County, and bits of others). He was one of the people to sign the succession of South Carolina from the United States.

So as far as he goes, one of my relatives was one of about 100 men that were responsible for the start of the Civil War.

In a closer and more direct lineage, I had many people in my family to actually fight for the rebel South in the war.

My Great Great Grandfather, David Rowell was a private in the war as were his brothers John H. Rowell, Jeremiah Rowell and Jesse R. Rowell. One of their brothers, James Volentine/Valentine Rowell was a 5th Sgt. and was captured in the battle at Petersburg, VA. He later died in a POW camp in Elmira, NY.

I had many others in my family in the Civil War and probably in the Revolutionary War, too. I know at least one relative on my paternal grandfather's side was supposed to be in the war. His name was Julius Cox.
Many people from my maternal side were in the war(s) as well.

My point in posting all of this is this: Maybe rebelliousness is genetic! That wouldn't explain why so many of my family on both sides are dull and content with 'status quo', but... so? lol.
I wouldn't call myself the 'black sheep' of my family. To me, the 'black sheep' is supposed to be a trouble maker or at least that's how most people see it. I'm just the one that doesn't fit in with the rest of the family. I'm just more of an outcast in my family than a trouble-maker.

And no I'm not 'bragging' that my family was on the Confederate side of the war. But I do feel the need to clarify something that is often mistaken. The Civil War was not over slavery. It was about the rights of states over the rights of the federal government.
A modern example today would be the whole gay marriage thing. The South of then would want states to decide for themselves if it's to be legal in their states while the North would be like Bush and everyone trying to outlaw it in each state regardless of that state's own thoughts.

Given, the South was largely in favor of slavery. But African-Americans fought for the South and while I'm sure some where forced to, some volunteered and were free at the time. But there was slavery in the North, too. It just wasn't as big up there. And slavery changed very little after the war because the former slaves could not find jobs so they stayed with their former masters and worked for small amounts of food just as they had in slavery.

Luckily, I've found no evidence that any of my Rowell family had any slaves. Some of my Jones family did, though, and I've found evidence that one of my Cox relatives may have had one servant.
I'm not defending slavery AT ALL here, people. I'm sure you all know that I'm FAR too liberal for that shit, lol. So please don't mistake my comments for that. I'm ASHAMED that my family owned slaves. It sort of pisses me off. Instead, my comments were simply to tell you all that, in spite of what you were taught, slavery was not the sole or even the main reason for the war.

That's about all I have, folks. Sorry to all of you who actually believed me when I said this might end up being at least SLIGHTLY interesting, lol. But if you're a fuckin' geek like me, maybe you actually did give a damn.

And I forgot to include this in my last post which is kind of silly since it was the reason for my calling it 'Sasquatch'. It's a quote about following your dreams. It'll follow my signature in this post.

And here's that...

-=The Prynce

"It doesn't matter what you look like on the outside, whether you're white, black, or Sasquatch, even. As long as you follow your dream, no matter how crazy or against the law it is... except for Sasquatch. If you're Sasquatch, the rules are different."
-Sire Meatwad of Jersey

2 comments:

The_Sphinx said...

I am remember that episode its the happy time harry episode,it was on recently.Yeah the south needed cheap labor like slavery alot more than the north the north was industrial and the south was agricultural.I mean if any actually thinks it was all about freeing slaves then they should know licoln wasn't a black rights actvist,he thought they should be free and not equal.it was an entirely poltical agenda.I am impressed,of course its not like we haven't had this same conversation so many times in person so i knew you knew this.

The Prynce said...

Lincoln said that if he could end the war and free all slaves, he would. He also said that if he could end the war and free no slaves, he would.
The North did not care about slavery or slaves, they just wanted to preserve the Union. The just knew it would be a slap in the face of the South to end slavery.

Its a little silly. People think Lincoln was a big civil rights dude when in reality, he didn't care about anyone but whites. As you said, the Emancipation Proclaimation was purely political.

-=The Prynce