I bought two slave tags yesterday in an antique store in Alabama.  Amongst these tags were Civil War memorabilia like belt buckles, buttons off of uniforms, a few old guns and bullets etc.  One of my tags said that it was from the plantation of General Robert E. Lee and the other tag was from a plantation in Chattanoga Tenn.  I just read Mr. Hertzog's blog on Fake and Fantasy tags but I can't tell if they are fake.  I still like them even if they are not real.  It is a piece of history and I read the article written in the Smithsonian Magazine about 4 years ago regarding the tags.  As I live in Alabama I have been combing the woods trying to find one or two myself.

Now that I have seen what the real one looks like, I am going back and look harder at the rest.  They still captivate me and I intend on putting them in a shadow box with other articles I have located here.  I managed to find a book written in the 1940's about Varnia Davis, Jefferson Davis' wife that had reproduced all her letters (70 of them) which was very interesting.  She wrote about her life before she married Jefferson and then after he was incarcerated after the Civil War.  I recommend anyone who finds a copy of this book, now out of print, to read it as it is rich in American Political history and the temperment of Washington D.C. and Montgomery during that time period from 1850 to the late 1860's.

I live on land that used to be part of a plantation, and there are mornings when I get up, take my coffee out on the veranda and look across the fields and can almost hear the slaves singing in the morning as they pick the cotton.  Sometimes at night, I imagine looking out onto the plantation and seeing the small fires burning near the slave quarters while the men sit around them at night.  This part of the country is so rich in history from slavery and old plantation property. 

I urge anyone who lives either on old plantation property that has been subdivided to get a metal detector and start looking.  I have found old farm equipment, musket bullets, and came across a cast iron chain that has actually grown into a tree in my yard.  The tree stands about 90 feet in the air and the chain must have been wrapped around the tree and forgotten.  You cannot pull the chain out but I keep thinking someone must have been tied to it or chained to the tree as it is over a 100 years old.  Could be my imagination but still one ponders.

The KKK is still alive here and announces its ralley's in the local newspaper.  As I am from the North, I find these bits of history really fascinating.  A group of Jehovah Witnesses came up here from Florida for 2 weeks and bravely knocked on my door.  They were nice and so was I but I kindly explained to them that this was Baptist country, there were no catholic churches nor any Jewish temples here.  There are still no black families living in this town or any of the nearby towns and the KKK still marches up the street.  They were shocked.  I wished them well as they said the Jehoval Kingdom Halls were very weak here and I can tell you sincerely they never will get in  this part of the country. 

It is not so much prejudice here but a way of life that has existed for over a 150 years.  There is no NAACP here and people still live the quiet life without any desire to see the North or visit the West.  One of the really interesting things I see are chimney's on properties which at one time had wooden houses around them belonging to their grandparents or great grand parents.  They are all that is left of their heritage and they stand proudly on their lawns representing their history.  An old Confederate flag is proudly hung on the wall or an old rifle handed down as well as old cast iron farm implements hanging on the wall.  Pride here is being able to stand on the border of your property that your grandfather or great grandfather cut down the trees to make their homes.

Every one should live at least one year in the heart of the South and experience the wonderful flavor of history that still exists over 200 years ago.  I hope you enjoyed this blog, feel free to write anyone.  Thank you.