They say, it is true the Constitution dictates this, the Bible inculcates that, but there is a higher law than those; and they call upon you to obey that higher law of which they are the inspired givers. Men who are traitors to the compact of their fathers--men who have perjured the oaths they have themselves taken--they who wish to steep their hands in the blood of their brothers; these are the moral law-givers who proclaim a higher law than the Bible or the Constitution, and the laws of the land ... What security have you for your own safety if every man of vile temper, of low instincts, of base purpose, can find in his own heart a law higher than that which is the rule of society, the Constitution and the Bible?"
- Mississippi Senator Jefferson Davis

In the 1999 movie “Ride With the Devil” the Evans family, Missouri homesteaders living on the Kansas border entertain a Confederate guerilla fighter who has sought refuge with them for the evening.
After dinner the Missouri guerilla discusses a wide range of topics with the Evans family, but ultimately everyone’s mind turns to the then raging War Between the States. Mr. Evans, hearing the Missouri guerilla say he’ll “always want to fight them”(Yankees) asks if he has ever seen Lawrence, Kansas. (the frontier headquarters of Abolitionism). When the guerilla answers no, Mr. Evans tells of his days in the Kansas Territory watching New Englanders build Lawrence:

“As I watched those Northerners building that town, I witnessed the seeds of our own destruction being sown. I’m not speaking of abolitionist trouble-making, or even the number of Northerners. It was the school. Before they built the church, they built that schoolhouse. Then they brought in every farmer’s son and every farmer’s daughter and made sure they would think and live the same free-thinking way they do, without regard to station, or stature, or custom, or propriety. That’s when I realized that the Yankees will surely win, because they believe everyone must live and think just like them. We don’t want to make everyone be like us. We shall surely lose because we don’t care how other people live-we just take care of ourselves.”

And so it was. Through the New England created public school systems, millions of American children are indoctrinated every year to think the “correct” Northern way on all matters. This includes such figures as the Abolitionists of the 1840s and 50s. Yes, the Abolitionists- those noble, righteous reasonable men who loved the black man and “peacefully protested” slavery until violent slavocrats forced them to fight. To this end, the modern day left, fighting for drag queen story hour, freeing criminals or reparations from you, often refer to themselves as “modern day Abolitionists”. A prominent Antifa Militia with Chapters across the U.S. even proudly refers to itself as the “John Brown Gun Club”-named for the Abolitionist whose deadly terrorist attacks on Southern families in Kansas culminated in his failed attempted genocide of white Southerners at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia in 1859.(Ironically this man Northern troops idolized in the “Battle Hymn of the Republic” while putting down the “rebellion” was hanged for treason).

As a Southerner, you probably wonder what issue your ancestors could possibly have taken with such a heroic band of missionaries of truth, justice and the American way. Since social media has taught us that operating the cut-and-paste functions on quotes online is the same thing as having a Doctorate in History, I compiled just a handful of quotes from our lovable band of Freedom Fighters on a range of topics.

The Abolitionists on Genocide of your Ancestors:
“you would be instrumental in bringing upon your wives, and your children, a fate too horrible to contemplate, one that would surpass the massacre of St. Bartholemew." -Hinton R. Helper , The Impending Crisis

(John Brown) is the JOHN THE BAPTIST of the New Dispensation of Freedom”-Edward D. Holton of Milwaukee

“if it were necessary, we could clear off thousand million square miles so that not a city or cultivated filed would remain; WE COULD EXTERMINATE NINE MILLIONS OF WHITE PEOPLE(SOUTHERNERS) and re-settle-re-people the lands.” -Newburyport, Massachusetts Daily Herald, May 24th , 1861

“I look for the day when I shall see a negro insurrection in the South, when the negroes will be supplied with British bayonets and commanded by British officers, and shall wage a WAR OF EXTERMINATION AGAINST THE WHITES, WHEN EVERY WHITE MAN SHALL SEE HIS DWELLING IN FLAMES and his hearth polluted”-Congressman Joshua R. Giddings of Ohio

“Resolved, that it is the right and duty of Northern men to incite and aid negroes in the South to rise in insurrection”-Resolution of Senator Henry Wilson at Natick, Massachusetts, 1859

“When I am on the trail of the enemy against whom I have a deadly hate, I will follow him with cat-like tread will not strike until I can strike him dead. I do not wish to give the South notice of our intentions. When the time comes to strike I want the South to have the first notice of the blow in the blow itself”-Governor Andrew Reeder of Kansas

“The logic of bayonets and rifles and pikes will be henceforth used against the South.”-John Andrews, War Governor of Massachusetts, December, 1859

“The Saint whose fate yet hangs in suspense, but whose martyrdom, if it shall be perfected, shall make the gallows glorious, like the Cross.”-Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Old Brown is supposed to have been strangled today, for obeying the Golden Rule.”-Wood County, Wisconsin Reporter December 2nd, 1859

“John Brown, dead, will live in millions of hearts….let none doubt that history will accord an honorable niche to John Brown”-Horace Greeley

“(John Brown) was the impersonation of God’s order and God’s law.”-Wendell Phillips

“You who pretend to care for Christ crucified, consider what you are about to do Him who offered Himself to be the Savior of Four Millions of men” -Henry David Thoreau
On the second day of December he(Brown) is to be strangled in a Southern prison, for obeying the Sermon on the Mount. But to be hanged in Virginia, is like being crucified in Jerusalem — it is the last tribute which he pays to Virtue!” -E.D. Wheelock, Vermont

“and when the time arrives for the streets and cities of this ‘land of the free and home of the brave’ to run with blood to the horses’ bridles, if the writer of this be living, there will be one heart to rejoice at the retributive justice of heaven”- William O. Duvall, New York

“To-day John Brown was hanged by a semibarbarous Commonwealth, as a traitor, murderer, and robber, and fifteen despotic States are rejoicing at his death; while, in the free North, every noble heart is sighing at his fate, or admiring his devotion... or cursing the executioners of their warrior-saint.”-James Redpath

“Brown was the sword in the hand of a high power, the finger of God writing upon the walls of Belshazzar’s palace the doom of tyrants” -Rev. J.M. Manning, Boston

“I would like to live long enough to see every white man in South Carolina in Hell, and the negroes inheriting their territory” -Senator James Lane of Kansas

“Not to be an abolitionist is to be a willful and diabolical instrument of the devil.”- The Impending Crisis by Hinton R. Helper

“It may be that the slaves thus armed will commit some atrocities. We shall regret it. But we repeat, this war has been forced upon us.... We hesitate not to say, that it will be better, immeasurably better, that the rebellion should be crushed, even with the incidental consequences attendant on a servile insurrection, than that the hopes of the world in the capacity of mankind to maintain free institutions should expire with American liberty. - American Review of Boston, Massachusetts

“the negroes(should) be let loose on the whites, men, women and children indiscriminately....”- The New York Courier and Enquirer

“I say, better a boundless waste of territory, filled with owls and bats, than that the Southern States should be occupied with such men”-Richard Busted, Carpetbag Alabama Judge

If I had the power, I would arm…every Negro of the South….and EXTERMINATE every man woman and CHILD south of Mason’s and Dixon’s line” – William” Parson” Brownlow, Reconstruction Scallywag Governor of Tennessee

“Illinois raised 250,000 troops to fight the South, and now we are ready to raise 500,000 more to FINISH THE GOOD WORK” – Illinois Governor Yates

(Republicans) will win the election “even if we have to kill every last white man, woman and child in the entire State!”-1875 aide to Mississippi Reconstruction Governor Adlebert Ames.

To illustrate the conditions that Abolitionists like Hinton Helper, John Brown and Wendell Phillips wished to bring on Southern Whites, a sketch of the Haitian Slave Revolt is helpful:

In an instant twelve hundred coffee and two hundred sugar plantations were in flames: the buildings, the machinery, the farm offices, reduced to ashes; the unfortunate proprietors hunted down, murdered or thrown into the flames by infuriated negroes. The horrors of a servile war universally appeared. The unchained African signalized his ingenuity by the discovering of new and unheard-of modes of torture. An unhappy planter was sawed asunder between two boards; the horrors inflicted on the women exceeded anything known even in the annals of Christian ferocity. Upon the indulgent master young and old, rich and poor, the wrongs of an oppressed race were indiscriminately wreaked. Crowds of slaves traversed the country with the heads of white children affixed on their pikes; they served as the standards of these furious assemblages. In a few instances only, the humanity of the negro character resisted the savage contagion of the time; and some faithful slaves, at the hazard of their own lives, fed in caves their masters or their children, whom they had rescued from destruction.

And do our modern-day Abolitionists realize that had their forefathers succeeded in their mission that you, Southerner, and everyone you love would not exist today? Well of course they do, silly. That’s the point-always has been.

​

South Carolina politics is often hard to understand, but never boring. In the Palmetto State’s storied history, she had given us such unique and talented statesmen as Charles C. Pinkney, John C. Calhoun, James H. Hammond, Robert Barnwell Rhett and Wade Hampton. In the 20th Century she didn’t disappoint, giving us such larger than life personalities as “Pitchfork” Ben Tillman, “Cotton” Ed Smith and Strom Thurmond.

Calhoun’s “gallant little State” has also given us some entertaining moments in political history. Whether it’s Congressman Preston Brooks caning the repulsive Charles Sumner on the floor of the U.S. Senate, Governor Mark Sanford releasing pigs onto the floor of the Statehouse to protest “pork” in the budget, or Congressman Joe Wilson shouting “YOU LIE!” at President Obama during the 2009 State of the Union Address.(Time would vindicate the Charleston-area Congressman when it was revealed that Obama DID lie when telling Congress that illegals would not be eligible for ObamaCare).

This Saturday, voters in the Palmetto State will go to the polls to vote in the Republican Presidential Primary. Barring a massive shift in opinion, former President Donald Trump will easily defeat former South Carolina Governor Nimrata “Nikki” Haley. Despite this embarrassing loss in her home State, which would end the Presidential hopes of most candidates, it is not a foregone conclusion that Nikki Haley will drop out after her loss in the State she governed for six years. After all, she’s been soundly beaten in every Caucus and Primary so far, hasn’t she? Where does one go once they lose their home State Primary, on the heels of getting trounced by “None of the Above” in Nevada?

Haley may well suspend her campaign after Trump trounces her on Saturday. But why she’s stayed in the race long after it was obvious she had no chance may say a lot about Haley-and the people still backing her.

The year was 2010, and South Carolina’s race for Governor was wide open. Outgoing Governor Mark Sanford, whose administration was ending in a sex scandal, was term limited and unable to run again.(Though this scandal would not stop Sanford, two years later, from being elected to Congress). Despite this embarrassment for the South Carolina G.O.P., they stood heavily favored to hold on to the Governor’s Mansion. South Carolina had leaned Republican for decades, and the unpopularity of President Obama in the State as midterms approached was palpable. Initially, the favored candidate to win the Republican nomination for Governor was Gresham Barrett, a former Congressman from the Upcountry. Indeed, when back-bench legislator Nikki Haley of Lexington County(near Columbia) told a former South Carolina Republican party chairman that she intended to run for Governor, the man told her to instead run for State Treasurer; with time, he could make her State Republican Party chair. However, the stars were already in her eyes and Haley pointedly told him “I’m going to be Governor.”

The former Party Chair then promised all the support he could, but time was short. Most of the Palmetto State’s donors had lined up behind Barrett or South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster. But Haley had two important allies-disgraced outgoing Governor Mark Sanford and his now-estranged wife, Jenny. Nikki Haley leaned heavily on Sanford, despite the ongoing investigation into his activities, to push ReformSC, a PAC used by Sanford, to fund her race. Though Sanford later apologized to Henry McMaster for the ads, ReformSC poured over $400,000 into Nikki Haley for Governor ads touting her-somewhat disingenuously-as a Tea Party favorite. With this image created and Haley gaining traction in GOP Primary polls, it was time to bring out the Big Guns.

The Haley for Governor campaign had courted failed Vice-Presidential Candidate Sarah Palin earlier, but not until Haley’s numbers began to rise did the Palin people agree to endorse her. On May 14, 2010 Sarah Palin stood on the steps of the South Carolina Statehouse and declared “She is a fighter and a winner.”

All of a sudden, the media was giving Nikki Haley the attention she knew she always deserved. Nikki Haley was the new rock star of the South Carolina Republican Party, covered by all manner of news media. But of course, with fame, skeletons started coming out of the closet.

In a sworn affidavit, Larry Marchant, an aide to Lt. Governor Andre Bauer, swore that he had an affair with Haley while she was a member of the South Carolina Legislature. The next day, almost as if on cue, State Senator Jake Knotts referred to a “raghead”, presumably Haley, on a local radio show.

The timing couldn’t have been better for Haley. Taking a play out of the left-wing playbook, she denied the affair and denounced anyone as “sexist” for spreading the rumor about a female candidate. (Never mind that the outgoing male Governor was ruined by the revelation of his extramarital affair).

With Palin’s rockstar power and the sympathy vote behind her, Nikki Haley barely needed a runoff to secure victory in the GOP Primary. That Fall, she defeated Democrat Vincent Sheheen 51-47%. On January 12, 2011, Nikki Haley was sworn in as the first non-White Governor of South Carolina.

Under most circumstances, Nikki Haley would’ve probably passed into history rather quietly. Her first term was devoted to rather garden variety Southern G.O.P. policies-taking credit for South Carolina’s economic growth, aggressively opposing unions, and laws targeting anti-Israel boycotts. On the strength of this and another anti-Obama midterm wave, Haley easily won a rematch with 2010 opponent Sheheen in 2014.

But on June 17, 2015, an event occurred in South Carolina that would catapult Nikki Haley into a national rockstar. That’s the evening that 21-year old Dylan Roof walked into the Emanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston and gunned down 10 parishioners (nine died) in a crime that reverberated throughout the State and the nation.

As an aside, I remember talking with a good friend a day after the shooting. After stating our astonishment that anyone would be capable of such and act, I recall saying that “two things will take the blame for this: guns and white Southerners.” At the time, I fully believed the gun-grabbing Obama administration would latch onto the horrific shooting as another justification for gun control. But when images of shooter Dylan Roof in front of a Confederate flag started flooding CNN and MSNBC, it was obvious they were after bigger game.

Initially, like most Southern Republicans, Nikki Haley was indifferent to the Confederate flag on the South Carolina grounds, merely responding to an economic boycott over the flag by saying that not a single CEO had reached out to her concerned about its presence on Capitol grounds. However, by June 19, two days after the shooting, she was doing what most Southern Republicans do-sounding wish-washy, saying “we’ll see where the conversation goes.”

But where a true leader might have welcomed discussion on the massacre, provided context and explained that all of South Carolina(including those who loved their Confederate ancestry)mourned with the parishioners in Charleston, stars once again got in Nikki Haley’s eyes. In her eyes, this was her chance to be a southern John McCain, a Republican even liberals liked, the chance to rise above being an accidental Governor of a backwater Southern State and become a national figure. By June 22nd Haley was siding with those who blamed the flag and those who loved it for the massacre:

“These grounds are a place that everyone should feel a part of . What I realized now more than ever is people were driving by and felt hurt and pain. No one should feel pain…”There is a place for that flag, but it’s not in a place that represents all people in South Carolina”.

Withing two weeks, at Haley’s urging, the South Carolina Legislature voted to haul down the Confederate Battle flag from the State’s Confederate monument, where it had stood since the “compromise” that brought it down from the Capitol dome fifteen years earlier. Despite the promises that the flag would be retired with dignity, the furling was attended by a group of left-wingers jeering, cursing, and chanting “na-na-na, na-na-na. Hey,hey,hey, goodbye!”

The flag was gone, and the symbolism of its demise was felt throughout Dixie. In Alabama, Governor Robert Bentley(soon to be chased from office by a sex scandal of his own) ordered the Flag at the Alabama Capitol lowered as well. Across the South schools banned the Battle flag from being displayed on shirts and belt buckles, and Amazon eBay, Etsy and Wal-Mart banned sales of the flag and items with its likeness. Not to be outdone, all streaming services banned shows like the Dukes of Hazzard which favorably feature the Confederate Battle flag from being shown. But the most prominent result of Haley’s actions during the summer of 2015 are still with us: the destruction and melting down of monuments of to the Confederate dead, the calls to dynamite the carving on Stone Mountain and the renaming of everything from streets to military bases are part of the culture the South Carolina Governor greenlighted.

And what was Haley’s reward for these actions? Being named to the highly coveted spot as the Republican responding to President Obama’s State of the Union Address the following January. The “Party of Lincoln” who had no better friend than the Southern white male, was impressed by Nikki Haley’s bashing of their core voters- and the fact that as a non-white, she played against Republican stereotypes.

Among other garden variety Republican topics in the response, Haley proudly touted her anti-Southern credentials: “we removed a symbol that was being used to divide us , as we found a strength that united us against a domestic terrorist and the hate that filled him” Presumably “we” meant South Carolina, except the South Carolinians who did not blame the flag for the massacre and still revered it as a sacred hereditary symbol, but hey, they voted Republican anyway, so they didn't count.

The Republican Party was generally impressed with Haley’s January 2016 Response to Obama’s State of the Union. She was even on a list of potential 2016 Vice-Presidential candidate in the eyes of many. But she was about to bet on the wrong horse.

Haley frequently criticized then-Candidate Trump during the primaries and thereafter. She vehemently opposed Trump’s proposal to build a Border wall stating that “Republicans need to remember that the fabric of America came from these legal immigrants.” Ahead of South Carolina’s early Republican Presidential Primary, Haley stated that Trump was “everything a Governor doesn’t want in a President” and endorsed Florida Senator Marco Rubio.(In spite of Haley, Trump easily won the Palmetto State’s Primary) When Rubio dropped out, Haley endorsed Texas Senator Ted Cruz as an alternative to Trump.
By Fall, Haley reluctantly admitted she intended to vote for Trump, though she was “not a fan”. Within weeks of his surprise election victory, Haley was contacting Trump’s transition team about a Cabinet appointment. By December Nikki Haley was named U.S. Ambassador to the U.N.

In typical Nikki Haley fashion, she was a loyal Cabinet member to President Trump-until she wasn’t. While supporting most of his policy positions, Haley gave credence to the Russia hoax, stating that “when a country can come interfere in another country’s elections, that is warfare”. Haley also at least expressed a willingness to believe the endless train of women accusing Donald Trump of sexual harassment, none of which have been substantiated. Haley resigned her position with little comment in 2018, but stated during her book tour the next year that “In every instance I dealt with him, he was truthful, he listened and he was great to work with”. Two years later would be a different story.

On a cold, cloudy January day in 2021, thousands of Americans crowded into Washington D.C. to protest irregularities in the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. Without going into gory detail, the official narrative is that several stormed into the U.S. Capitol and briefly occupied it. In the ensuing chaos that followed, Capitol police killed U.S. Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt, one of the Americans who had entered the Capitol.

Despite the fact that outgoing President Trump had urged the crowd to proceed “peacefully” to the U.S. Capitol, establishment Republicans rushed to blame him for the attack. The political winds were shifting, and nobody knew how to shift better than Nikki Haley.
“I think he’s lost any sort of political viability he was going to have….he’s fallen so far….We need to acknowledge he let us down”.

By late 2021, Haley had reconsidered stating that she would support her former boss if he ran for President in 2024. But by 2023, no candidate had emerged in the G.O.P. as an “anti-Trump” alternative and Nikki Haley again had stars in her eyes. By September, she was announcing her candidacy for President of the United States.

Haley started out poorly, barely polling in single digits in early States like Iowa and New Hampshire. But in December 2023, the billionaire community started rallying around Haley as the “never Trumper” candidate. Left-wing LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman chipped in $250,000. JPMorgan and Chase CEO Jamie Dimon followed suit and urged business leaders who were “liberal Democrats” to support the Haley campaign. Finally, Republican Megadonor Charles Koch’s SuperPAC endorsed Haley, bringing on board other billionaires such as Home Depot founder Ken Langone. With this bankroll behind her, Nikki Haley got out of the basement in the GOP Primaries and managed a close third in the Iowa Caucuses (despite Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ constant presence in the Hawkeye State, he only narrowly edged out Nimrata)

Yet, all the money in the world can’t save Nikki Haley from the occasional gaffe. Questioned a couple of months ago about the cause of the “Civil War”, Haley, realizing she had to win at least a few of the “rednecks” she bashed on her way to fame in order to win the South Carolina Primary, stumbled and said something about “how government was supposed to run-the freedoms and what people could and couldn’t do”. Immediately the media pounced, especially “conservative” media who worship Lincoln, Grant and Sherman.

She further erred when asked about Texas secession, stating that “it can if the citizens decide to do so”, quickly adding that Texas “isn’t going to”. Neoconservative media loved her if she was bashing Southern whites, but quickly turned on her when she said things, well, like a South Carolina Governor would.

Sensing danger, Nikki Haley quickly did what a liberal does: she played the race card. On the eve of the New Hampshire Republican Primary, Haley told NBC Sunday about being "the only Indian family in our small Southern town. I was teased every day for being brown" and "how hard it was to grow up in the Deep South as a brown girl". In Nikki Haley's eyes, she might lose some of the friends and neighbors she had growing up in Bamberg, South Carolina, but New Hampshire Yankees might eat this garbage up.(luckily, they didn't)

Thus stands the case of Nimrata Randhawa a.k.a Nikki Haley in February 2024.

After February 24th, there will be only one rationale for a Nikki Haley candidacy-the hope that Donald Trump will either die or be convicted of a felony before the Republican National Convention in July. I doubt the first will happen, but look closely for the second. When and if Donald Trump is convicted on felony charges(fraudulent as they might be), the RNC, seeing that Trump’s convicted felon status bars him from the ballot in numerous States, may be able to deny him the nomination even with a majority of delegates. According to the Associated Press "longstanding party rules allow the RNC to free a State" from delegate-binding rules "if compliance is impossible". Being barred from numerous State ballots for being a convicted felon would seem to fit the bill. This would be a test of how much power RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel(niece of Mitt Romney) has. This could throw the RNC to an open convention, where the edge will go to the candidate who by far had the next highest amount of delegates-none other than ex-Gov. Nikki Haley. And if you believe that the Republican Party would never do such a thing, afraid a demoralized Party will re-elect Biden in the Fall, remember that there is a small, but powerful minority of them who would do just that rather than allow a second Trump term.

All things considered, I’m entering this weekend with a pretty positive attitude, convinced that South Carolina will redeem herself and correct a terrible, if understandable mistake. Like most in the Southern heritage world, I will continue to enjoy Nimrata’s State-by-State humiliation.

But I will never underestimate the ability of Nikki Haley to slither her way into positions of power. It’s what she does.

​"If all else fails, I will retreat up the Valley of Virginia, plant my flag on the Blue Ridge, rally around the Ulster Scots of that region, and make my last stand for liberty amongst a people who will never submit to tyranny whilst there is a man left to draw a trigger".
-General George Washington

ULSTER-SCOTS: Scotch-Irish (also called Scots-Irish), Rednecks, Covenanters, Hillbillies and Irish Protestants comprise the Ulster-Scots. They are not a homogeneous people but rather a mixture of Irish Protestants, Border Scots (the English along the north-western border of Scotland) and Scots, although the Scots make up only 9% of the DNA of those who call themselves Scotch-Irish. They are Presbyterians, Episcopalian, and in America, Baptists and Methodists. What they do have in common is a good work ethic, strong families, stable communities and the ability to survive and thrive in harsh, isolated environments. Ulster-Scots you may be familiar with are Brad Pitt, Alec Baldwin, Tallulah Bankhead, Kim Basinger, Mel Gibson, and Agnes Moorehead.
    Most Scotch-Irish came to America following the Williamite War (1689-1691) fought in Ireland between England's Catholic King James ll and Protestant King William lll, also known as William of Orange (The College of William and Mary was named for him and the Mrs.) for the throne of the United Kingdom. Unlike the Cavaliers,the Ulster-Scots sailed into America's northern ports and moved inland, past the already claimed and settled parts, to the Appalachians. They settled along the ridges of the mountains from New York to Georgia, preserving and developing their own unique culture over many generations. They couldn't have known then what we know now: that the hills of northern Ireland and Scotland were the northern parts of the same Appalachian Mountains millions of years ago. No wonder they were so at home in western Virginia and Tennessee. Ulster-Scots refused to adopt the Episcopal (Anglican) Church's form of government and were called Covenanters and Rednecks. They wanted to keep their form of government using elders rather than the Episcopal form of church government which uses bishops, so they signed covenants in their own blood protesting any change. To show they had signed the covenant they wore red bandanas around their necks. For nearly 300 years Redneck was a proud name. Their descendants in America continued to boast of themselves as Rednecks and proudly used the name in events from revivals to weddings. Then starting in 1912 and ending in 1936, West Virginia engaged in a series of bloody conflicts between the Southern miners and the northerners who had owned the mines since the end of the War Between the States. The Southern miners, being descended from The Presbyterian Covenanters, wore their red bandanas and called themselves Rednecks as their ancestors had done. The northern mine owners fought the strikers in every way possible to defame their Southern workers in the public eye, including defaming the miners' religious faith and national background. The word "Redneck" has yet to regain a term of honor and pride of sacrifice it originally held. 
   Another term for Scotch-Irish is "Hillbilly". In the 1600's people thought it clever to substitute a word that rhymed with the intended word. A fad at the time, we've lost most of the "rhyme game" names but retained it in some cases. For example, Bob is a nickname associated with Robert; Rob is short for Robert; Rob rhymes with Bob; Bob, which meant to jerk, is still commonly used for Robert. Another was Richard, or Rick; Rick rhymes with Hick (possibly short for hickory, a term no longer used for Richard) and Dick. Dick, which meant friend, is still used. So, when the Ulster-Scots fought for William lll, or "Billy", in the hills of northern Ireland, they became known as Hillbillies. Billy, like buddy, derives from "brother" and means "friend".
   The Scotch-Irish and the Crackers have a similar way of speaking because they are both Celtic people and have a very dry, non-nasal way of vibrating their sinus cavities that is unique to the Celts. Also, the Crackers and Ulster-Scots word selection is sometimes different. Scotch-Irish say "waspers" for wasps. Or "yuns" instead of y'all. Or "warsh" for wash. The Ulster-scots also gave us Bluegrass, and many Country music stars have Ulster-Scots backgrounds.

"Cast me not off in the time of old age; forsake me not when my strength faileth."
-Psalms 71:9

If you've lived in town all your life, you probably know 'ol Joe. He was born, raised and lived his whole life here. He ran a bicycle shop for 30 years down on Main Street, just across the railroad tracks from what used to be the Jackson County Jail. Maybe he sold you your first bicycle, was your Scoutmaster and coached you in Dixie Youth baseball. Joe was probably on the Chamber of Commerce, the Rotary Club, and every Church committee Mt. Sinai Baptist Church had to offer. Maybe he even ran (but didn't win) for mayor or town council. You played with his kids at his house, where he was always made sure to treat you just as well as his own. (Ok, let's face it, parents always treat neighbor kids a little NICER than their own kids)

He's still a friendly face around the sleepy little town nestled in the gentle rolling hills of the Southern Piedmont. You can find him talking over a cup of coffee at the Waffle House, attending Fall Festivals and still involved in civic affairs. He's proud as a peacock of his service in the Army and raises the slightly larger than regulation U.S. flag at his house every morning with pride. You can still find him every here and there at the VFW, in charge of the 4th of July fundraising cookout, swapping stories with veterans of every war from Vietnam to Afghanistan, though the membership seems fewer and older than when you were a child.

But over the last few years, you’ve noticed little changes in Joe. He’s still the friendly, generous old boy he’s always been, but he’s a bit more quick-tempered, a bit shorter with people he disagrees with than usual. His mood turns to downright sour when subjects like politics or the state of the country come into play. As a child you remember Joe’s booming drawl drowning out everyone’s voice with the confidence of a King as he came up with the solutions for the country’s woes. Now Joe more often than not just shakes his head in frustration and disbelief that this country-his country- could even force him to think of solutions to such mad problems.
Joe and his wife, Evelyn, worked and saved and squeezed every penny out of the business they could so they could send the children to college-give them the chances they never had. Many late nights, if you were walking the Main Street square, you could see a lone light in the window of the shop, and know Joe was working on something big. It was a proud day in Joe and Evelyn's lives the day their son, Taylor went off to college, the first in the family to do it! Again, they beamed with pride two years later when their daughter, Kayla headed off to join her big brother.

It stunned Joe and Evelyn when the kids came home from State college one Thanksgiving and informed Joe that the only reason he was able to build a successful business and pay off the house they grew up in was his "white privilege", and asked an astonished Evelyn how she could have betrayed other women by submitting to Joe's "toxic masculinity" all these years? The meeting ended with both children storming out and swearing they’d never speak to Joe again for supporting “That orange fascist.” Only two tearful phone calls from Evelyn saved the next couple of Holidays.

Joe was on cloud nine the day he became a grandpa for the first time. After the loss of his precious Evelyn the year before, Joe had found a new purpose in life again. He looked forward to taking his new grandson fishing, hunting, camping-all the things he did with his kids and you, but now with more time! Now he's devastated Kayla no longer brings the grandkids around because they don't want Papa's "hate" and "fascism" rubbing off them.

Last Christmas, Joe tried to make peace by inviting them over on Christmas Day. For the first time since Evelyn died, Joe decorated, with multicolored lights in the windows. He even dragged the plastic Santa and reindeer out of the basement and put it in the yard, hoping they would come by, and his Grandkids would love it the way Kayla once had. By 9 that night, Joe was at the Waffle House, drinking a cup of coffee and shaking his head in silence. Maybe next year.

That isn't to say Joe hasn't tried to change with the times. He's been accepting of the recent wave of immigrants to the little town because both his Pastor and the Chamber of Commerce told him it was the right thing to do-even if he had to ignore the fact that he can't leave his door unlocked in the daytime like he used to. Joe resigned his membership in the Sons of Confederate Veterans because a man in his position in the community couldn't be part of a "hate group". Besides, his new Pastor from Poughkeepsie, New York assured him, no one can display the Confederate flag and call themselves a Christian. Even the gentle Piedmont Southern drawl you remember him having as a child has sunk into a low, strained voice which, but for Joe’s pronunciation of certain words, could make you believe he’s a native of the Midwest rather than Dixie.

This morning Joe bristled when Fox News blared out Joe's "conservative" Republican Congressman saying that the January 6 insurrection "wasn't like the Confederacy, who tried to overthrow the U.S. government to preserve slavery" while calling for the acceptance of transgender officers into the Army-his Army- where he enjoyed some of the proudest moments of his life. Though still silent, he deeply resents such betrayals from pretended friends. "Oh well," Joe mumbles into his coffee cup, "at least he's not a Democrat."

You saw Joe a couple of months ago at the town's yearly Apple Festival. He was in good spirits, talking about needing some rain for his garden, the evenings getting cooler, the high school football game the night before-"we might go to State this year!", he beamed with pride. But his mood turned sour when the subject of politics came up. Suddenly gone was the Midwestern business voice and out came the Piedmont Cracker. "They're letting the country go down the toilet!" he exclaimed, his face becoming flush with anger. They've got trannies running the military, they've left the borders wide open, their teaching the kids that they're bad for being white! Pretty soon the money won’t even be worth anything! How can we keep going on?"

It was at this moment you saw your opportunity. Not wanting to overplay your hand, you half-jokingly suggested "maybe it's time we seceded and let them go on by themselves".
Joe's face changes as quick as you can flip a switch. He gives you a quick, astonished look, as though you just suggested going to Mars- then a brief glance around to make sure no one else is looking. Finally, a stern glare at you, as a father scolding a child just caught stealing. In a low, serious voice he instructs "Get a grip, son. What you're talking about was tried a long time ago and the War settled it. We are one Nation under God and proud of it. Me and the boys over at the VFW, we’ve fought all over the world under the Stars and Stripes to keep America safe and free. The fact that you can even stand here and talk this foolishness without getting locked up is because we live in a nation that lets you!”

Again, being cautious, you simply state the obvious to you "well, clearly the system's broken beyond repair, we can't vote our way out, and the Government the Founding Fathers left us more closely resembles Sodom of the Bible than Philadelphia 1776. If a married couple got along the way Americans do, they'd get a divorce citing irreconcilable differences. Maybe we should consider doing the same".

The low voice is giving way to a louder and more indignant tone. “Son, you used to lead the Pledge of Allegiance when I was your Scoutmaster. We learned God, Duty and Country, just like I learned in the service. The day after 9/11 you and me stood next to each other singing the “Battle Hymn of the Republic”, both of us fixin’ to cry. I was disappointed when you didn’t go off to serve your country like me and your Daddy did, but I wrote it off as you needin’ an education. Now I see some time in the service was about what you needed. You’da learned more important things- being willing to die for your country, loving it no matter what, and knowin’ better than to go for some half-baked notion from a hundred years ago!”

Then, catching himself, Joe returns to the fatherly tone and says "You're just overreacting to these things. Keep a cool head like we learned in the Scouts. We’re a nation under God, and a nation that blesses Israel. God will save us; all we gotta do is turn out harder for the Republicans next year and He’ll set it right”.

It's now that you feel obligated to point out the blatant South-bashing by the GOP-at the national and State level. The failure to defend flags, monuments and the Confederate monument at Arlington all the while proudly proclaiming themselves the "Party of Lincoln and Grant."
Joe again bristles, and says sternly, "We're all Americans now son. That's all in the past."

A thousand thoughts, facts and figures race through your head in a matter of seconds. You want badly to convince your mentor of the rightness of your position, and the deep sincerity it came from. You know Joe’s arguments are mostly slogans, symbols and government fluff. But you can also see that these are things Joe holds just as deeply as you hold your secessionist beliefs-and now in the twilight of his life, he can’t imagine questioning them.

Just then, a cold gust of wind sweeps through the valley and hit the tiny Apple Festival, triggering a memory. Suddenly you’re looking at Joe through different eyes- the same eyes you did on that chilly April night years ago, when your Dixie Youth team was down 14-0 in the 3rd inning. In spite of the 40-degree temperature and the mercy rule about to be in effect, Coach Joe was still standing on the steps of the dugout, the gentle Southern drawl still cheering you on to finish and do your best. Neither of you wants to end such a deep friendship of four decades like this, so you casually say you hope his tomatoes fare better next year.

Already knowing the answer, you invited Joe to eat Christmas dinner with you and the family.
“I appreciate it bud, but I reckon I’ll stay close to the house in case the young’uns come by.”
He thanks you and tells you to your kids hello and Merry Christmas “maybe I can tell it to mine soon” Joe says wistfully as he ambles toward his old ’92 Silverado.
Joe went home that evening and watched FoxNews till dusk, lowered the Stars and Stripes another time, and one by one the windows with the multicolored lights gave way to a dark, cold December night.
Alone with your own thoughts, your mind wanders back to Joe. You're disappointed at his response, but never in him. You hate what's been done to him, not just being trained to abandon the South, but for the fact that the world he abandoned it for to be a "Good American" could treat him like this. A footnote, just an old white man barely worth mentioning in "our Democracy".

Alone in the darkness, all you could do was raise your glass of bourbon and drink a toast to him. “Merry Christmas, Joe. Hope this one treats you right.”

Joe may never see eye to eye with you on Southern culture and independence. He may eventually quit talking to you, almost like an alcoholic avoiding a family intervention. But you're fighting for Joe and generations of Southerners like him. Somewhere Joe's ancestors are smiling down on you-and someday so will he. After all, men like him made you who you are today.


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"Who could not conquer with troops such as these?"   
Lt. General Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson on the Army of Northern Virginia

A genealogy company recently noted that the Mason-Dixon Line marked a genetic boundary usually occurring due to an ocean or mountain range. Southerners are a unique people with little in common with other US citizens. Southerners have built a wonderful civilization with beautiful towns and wonderful music. We have contributed greatly to the world's arts and literature. Southerners even managed to build a strong, world-class economy, overcoming an economy that had over 20% of its infrastructure destroyed by northern invasion, and the remains plunged into hopeless debt by corrupt carpetbag governments. Truly, as General Jackson noted, this is a uniquely Blessed and resilient people. This is the story of how that people came to be.
 
   Jamestown, Virginia, established in May of 1607, was the first permanent English colony on the North American mainland. The Mayflower wouldn't land at Plymouth Rock until 1620. Jamestown was named for and founded during the reign of King James l of England and Vl of Scotland.(He's the same King James who commissioned the King James version of the Bible)

Jamestown had a tough time surviving. Of the 630 first colonists who came that first year 510 perished during the first two and a half years. Next for the beleaguered survivors came "the Starving Time", winter of 1609-1610, during which only 60 of the colonists survived. 
These few survivors decided to abandon Jamestown. They sailed a ship from Jamestown to the mouth of the James River to meet Lord Delaware, who brought them the bountiful supplies they had prayed for during those bitter years of starvation.

2) These men, women and children were the first Southerners. Strong. Creative. Imaginative. The young colony would continue to struggle until 1649, which is when the ancestors of most modern Southerners left England for North America. King Charles I had been overthrown and beheaded, and those who had supported the King were in mortal danger from "Lord Proprietor" Oliver Cromwell and his fanatical Puritan supporters. Meanwhile, Sir William Berkley and the beautiful virgin soil of Virginia were beckoning-and Royalists answered the call.
 
   CAVALIERS: This is the political term that is used for the two largest, and earliest, groups of white Southerners. What they had in common was that they fought for the Episcopal (Anglican) Church and King Charles l(for whom the Carolinas were named) during England's Civil Wars, fought from January 1642 to December 1651. Unlike America's War for Southern Independence, the English War was an actual Civil War, fought between two factions for control of the same government.
 
   If you are a Southerner with an English background, you likely have an ancestor who was a Cavalier. Cavalier comes from the French word "Chevalier" which means Horseman and is also used as the French word for knight. Cavalry also comes from Cavalier. Cavaliers were known for their long hair, fancy attire and, well, their cavalier disregard of danger. They were outnumbered by the Puritans who were called "Roundheads" because of their short hair. They were given that name by Queen Henrietta Maria de Bourbon (Mrs. King Charles l) for whom Maryland was named. When she saw her first Roundhead, she asked who the round headed man was. The first Civil War was a draw but the second was a victory for Oliver Cromwell and Parliament. King Charles l was beheaded and Oliver Cromwell was instated. Cromwell is best remembered for coining the phrase "Warts and all" when giving his portrait painter instructions on how the dictator wanted an honest image of himself. The end of the second Civil War ended in Oliver Cromwell's Roundheads winning which resulted in large numbers of Royalist and Episcopalians leaving England for Virginia rather than live under Cromwell's Puritan rule.
 
   This was the South's biggest emigration event and it involved two very different types of Englishmen. The largest group was Celtic. They lived in Britain from the earliest times, before a monster tsunami washed away the land bridge around 8,200 years ago. They were isolated for thousands of years until about two thousand years ago when people from Europe began coming to the Island. The newcomers generally tried to exterminate the native Celts. For instance, when the Saxons invaded Sussex County, they killed all the native Celts. It was the invading Saxons gave the Welch their name; it means foreigner in Saxon. By 1600 the surviving Celts had been pushed to the west of England.

These Celts/Cavaliers have another name; Craykers or Crackers. A Crayker was a talented storyteller who was much loved and respected as storytelling was the main form of entertainment in an age before tv and movies. Crackers made up about 68% of Cavaliers. They, as well as their descendants today have the Southern accent that is not too different from the standard American accent. They pronounce their "R"'s.  It's the accent of Andy Griffith, Elvis Presley and Georgia's Governor Kemp. Craykers say "Merry is r church organist" very much like Midwesterners but much less nasal. The other Cavalier group, The Southern Anglo-Normans, sometimes known as the people with the "Gone with the Wind" accent, about 25% of Cavaliers, would say "Mayree is hour chuch awganist". These two people lived in the same small towns but didn't interact with each other on a daily basis because their lives were so separated. Craykers had successful smaller farms and would be the carpenters, the tool makers, and tradesmen whereas the "Gone with the Wind" people would have the plantations or be the lawyers and cotton brokers of the town. This wasn't a deliberate separation, but it kept two groups as distinctly separate groups until the latter part of the 20th century. Famous Southern Anglo-Normans would include Paula Dean and Rue McClanahan's character Blanch Devereaux on "Golden Girls". You might also know the Anglo-Normans of 100 years ago from Downton Abbey, in the characters of Lord and Lady Crawley- if you traced their trace them back 10 generations or so, you would likely find their ancestors as Anglo-Norman supporters of Charles I at the time of the English Civil War - this is the time the Southern Anglo-Normans separated from the Anglo-Normans. The English Anglo-Normans had huge land holdings and the eldest son inherited everything, leaving the younger sons to find another way of making a living. The limitless lands of Virginia were a perfect match for the younger disinherited sons, and the poorer Crayker Cavalier soldiers needing someone to pay their passage to Virginia was great opportunity for the Southern Anglo-Normans to acquire farm labor for the price of the voyage. A steep step down from dandy soldier to farm laborer perhaps, but it worked and most Cavaliers were able to acquire their own land. This is when the plantation system of the South was born.
 
The migration of Cavaliers to America took place between 1649 and 1652. The halfway year mark between 1652 and 2023 is 1836. This means that the Southerners who voted for independence in 1860 and today's Southerners, are living in the second half of the Cavalier family's existence in America.
 
MORE SOUTHERNERS in the future:
 
Rednecks, Ulster-Scots, Hillbillies, Covenanters.
 
Black Southerners
 
Creoles
 
Cajuns
 
American Indians
 
 
 
1)AN AMERICAN HISTORY by Nathaniel Wright Stephenson. Ginn and Co. Boston. 1913. p.28
 
2)An American History p.28