Monumental Lies Notes
Commercial Retail Transparency and Clothing Production
Consumer pricing dynamics in traditional apparel retail often involve significant markups that exceed the actual cost of production.
Direct-to-consumer brand pricing models, such as Everlane's, emphasize radical transparency regarding raw material costs, ethical factory operations, and exact profit margins per item.
Essentials produced under transparent manufacturing frameworks offer superior product longevity and aesthetics while reducing retail consumer costs by to compared to traditional retail pricing.
Fall Muster Reenactment and Educational Messaging at Beauvoir
Location and Setting:
Beauvoir is a vast estate and former home of Confederate President Jefferson Davis, located along the Gulf of Mexico in Biloxi, Mississippi.
The annual Fall Muster features civil war reenactments, living history exhibits, and displays of 19th-century artifacts including satchels, binoculars, saddles, muskets, and black powder gear.
Public school field trips bring groups of elementary and middle school students to tour the estate grounds and view mock military demonstrations.
Historical Narrative Delivered to Visitors:
Reenactors dressed in period attire deliver interpretations of the American Civil War that explicitly minimize or redefine the nature of Southern secession.
A reenactor portraying Jefferson Davis asserted to visiting students that a civil war is defined strictly as an attempt to overthrow an existing municipal or national government, stating that Southern seceders were not attempting to overthrow the United States government.
The presentation framed secession as a peaceful desire for self-determination, emphasizing statements such as "We wanted to establish our own country" and requesting only to be left alone by Northern states.
Conflicting reactions were observed among students, particularly African American children, who exhibited visible confusion and discomfort when Confederate battle flags were unfurled directly above their groups.
Methodology of Field Reporting:
Reporters Brian Palmer (an African American journalist) and Seth Fried Wessler (a white journalist) conducted a year-long joint investigation with The Investigative Fund.
The reporters visited nearly Confederate memorial sites, monuments, and historic homes across the Southern United States.
To observe differences in public interactions and institutional openness based on racial presentation, Palmer and Wessler traveled in separate vehicles and conducted independent reporting at sites like Beauvoir.
Spectator demographics at the Fall Muster consisted of roughly attendees who were almost exclusively white, including young families carrying Confederate flags, older men in biker vests with Sons of Confederate Veterans patches, and individuals in military camouflage.
Audience interactions included reenactors shouting non-historical battle cries such as "Run, Yankees, Run!" during mock engagements in which Confederate forces defeated Union units, despite no historical Civil War battle ever taking place on the Beauvoir grounds.
Confederate Heritage Organizations and Ideology
The Virginia Flaggers:
Founded by Susan Hathaway as an activism organization dedicated to protesting the removal or relocation of Confederate statues, monuments, and battle flags.
The group erects large Confederate "mega battle flags" along major interstate highways throughout Virginia and defends historic monuments under public debate.
Hathaway characterizes Beauvoir as "hallowed ground" and a "holy place" for individuals of Confederate lineage, viewing it as a sanctuary to express ancestral affection free from public criticism.
Promotes the concept of "Confederate American" identity, alleging that Southern white heritage is uniquely marginalized compared to Irish American or African American cultural pride.
Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV):
A national genealogical and advocacy organization founded in with dozens of local chapters across the United States.
Membership is strictly restricted to male descendants of Confederate military veterans.
The explicit organizational mandate of the SCV is to vindicate the ideological cause and actions of the Confederacy.
The SCV owns and operates the historic Beauvoir estate in Biloxi, Mississippi.
Historical Revisionism and the Lost Cause Narrative at Beauvoir
Institutional Leadership and Interpretive Philosophy:
Former Executive Director Thomas Payne (a lawyer holding a PhD in adult education) managed Beauvoir on behalf of the Sons of Confederate Veterans.
Office iconography included antique firearms, portraits of Confederate leaders, and a desk display featuring the state flag of Mississippi, the United States flag, and the Confederate flag.
Payne advocated for limiting the historical scope of the site strictly to the years , the specific post-war period when Jefferson Davis resided on the property.
Despite this claimed focus on post-war history, the site maintains extensive physical exhibits, dedicated military display rooms, and full-scale reenactments of Civil War combat from the pre- era.
Docent Presentations and Guided House Tours:
Standard adult tour admission was priced at .
Docent Donna Barnes (dressed in a 19th-century Gone With the Wind-style gown) guided visitors through minute details of house furnishings—such as low-seated chairs and ornate crown molding—while entirely omitting discussions of chattel slavery.
When questioned directly regarding the omission of slavery from house tours, docents asserted that complete historical coverage would take too long.
Barnes articulated revisionist positions on slavery, asserting that chattel slavery was "good and bad," that it benefited individuals who "didn't know how to take care of themselves and needed a job," and characterizing Jefferson Davis as a benevolent owner who treated enslaved human beings like family.
Historical Realities of Jefferson Davis and Enslaved Labor:
Enslaved people were legal property, not family members; Jefferson Davis held dozens of Black men, women, and children in forced servitude.
The historic Beauvoir estate was constructed utilizing enslaved labor.
In his personal memoirs written at Beauvoir, Davis justified slavery by writing that the "servile instincts" of African Americans "rendered them contented with their lot."
Historical documentation refutes narratives of slave contentment: over enslaved individuals self-emancipated by escaping to Union lines during the war.
Ancestral precedent: Journalist Brian Palmer's great-grandparents, Matt and Julia Palmer, escaped slavery in Virginia. Matt enlisted in the United States Colored Troops (USCT), while Julia fled with her family to Union-controlled territory.
Deconstruction of the "Lost Cause" Myth:
The "Lost Cause" is an ideological framework developed by former Confederates post- to rewrite Civil War history, absolve the Confederacy of moral guilt regarding slavery, romanticize the antebellum South, and justify post-war political re-establishment.
Historic site administrator Christy Coleman (CEO of the American Civil War Museum in Richmond, Virginia) highlights the acute cognitive dissonance in 19th-century slaveholders' journals, which expressed shock when long-held enslaved people fled to Union forces despite having been subjected to physical punishment such as whippings.
The Myth of Jim Limber / James Henry Brooks:
A statue situated on the front lawn at Beauvoir depicts Jefferson Davis alongside his son Joseph and a Black child identified as Jim Limber.
Tour docents present a narrative that the Davis family rescued a free Black child from abuse during the Civil War and legally adopted him as a full family member.
Historical reality: The child's name was James Henry Brooks. Historical records regarding his origin are sparse, but the account written by Davis's wife, Varina Davis, explicitly clarifies that the child was brought into the household as a "pet" for their biological children, not as an adopted son or brother.
The statue was originally commissioned for display in Richmond, Virginia, but was rejected by historians and site administrators as historical propaganda before being accepted and placed at Beauvoir by the Sons of Confederate Veterans.
Public Taxpayer Funding of Confederate Sites and Museums
Overall Expenditure Metrics:
Public records, state archives, and tax filings reveal that over the decade spanning , at least in state and federal taxpayer funds were allocated to Confederate sites, battlefields, and heritage organizations across the United States.
Taxpayer Subsidies at Beauvoir:
Beauvoir received a cumulative total exceeding in public taxpayer money between and .
The Mississippi State Legislature appropriates an annual baseline grant of directly to Beauvoir for historic building preservation.
Following Hurricane Katrina, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the National Park Service allocated over in disaster recovery funds to the site.
Almost half of the disaster funding was utilized to construct an entirely new on-site museum and presidential library, which actively disseminates Lost Cause revisionist narratives to the public and school groups.
State-Funded Revisionism in Other Southern Jurisdictions:
A.H. Stephens State Park (Georgia):
Dedicated to Alexander H. Stephens, Vice President of the Confederacy.
State park tour docents tell visitors that Stephens treated his enslaved "servants" like family.
State of Georgia expenditure: Over allocated to the park over a single decade.
Stephen D. Lee Historic Site (Mississippi):
Dedicated to Confederate Lieutenant General Stephen D. Lee.
State of Mississippi allocation: in direct funding.
Docent presentations frame the early Ku Klux Klan (KKK) as a benign protective militia organized to safeguard war widows, omitting the historic lynching of Black individuals in that immediate county.
State Support for Confederate Memorial Day and Cemeteries in Virginia
Institutionalization of Confederate Memorial Day:
Observed annually in late April; functions as an official state holiday in Southern states and an unofficial holiday in several others, including Virginia.
Commemorative ceremonies at sites like Oakwood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia—where Confederate soldiers are buried—feature public recitations of loyalty pledges to the Confederate flag.
Events feature performances of former state songs, such as "Carry Me Back to Old Virginny" (retired as Virginia's official state song in ), containing explicit antebellum racial terminology.
Disenfranchisement and Historical Appropriations:
Dr. Ibram X. Kendi (Director of the Antiracist Research and Policy Center at American University) notes that Confederate monument construction and state funding streams were established during Jim Crow eras when Black citizens were violently disenfranchised and unable to vote out municipal or state officials funding white supremacist memorials.
Direct investment of public tax revenues into Confederate monuments represents institutional state backing of white supremacy, historical revisionism, and chattel slavery.
Legislative Archives and Financial Totals in Virginia:
Legislative reports from the Library of Virginia dating back to reveal that Virginia taxpayers have provided approximately (adjusted to modern dollar values) directly to organizations maintaining Confederate graves and sites.
Direct state grants are regularly funneled to entities such as the Sons of Confederate Veterans for grave maintenance.
SCV members like Edwin Ray (a retired librarian at the Library of Virginia) and Kent Morris publicly defend Confederate property ownership, with Morris explicitly comparing the historical purchase of enslaved human beings to buying a modern automobile.
Political Battles over Confederate Monuments in Richmond
Legislative Challenges and Local Preemption:
In Richmond, Virginia (the former capital of the Confederacy), City Councilman Michael J. Jones introduced municipal legislation aimed at placing major Confederate monuments under municipal control to facilitate their removal.
Obstacle: Virginia is one of Southern states with strict state-level preemption statutes that legally block local municipalities from removing, altering, or relocating historic military monuments.
Historical Antecedent: In , African American Richmond City Councilman John Mitchell Jr. fought unsuccessfully to block municipal funding for the erection of the city's massive Robert E. Lee monument.
Council Vote Result: Jones's resolution failed by a vote of to (Councilman Michael J. Jones and Councilwoman Robertson voting Aye; Councilwoman Larson voting No).
Resistance and Escalation Threats:
SCV representatives warned publicly that while legal and electoral remedies are preferred, municipal attempts to remove Confederate monuments could provoke physical violence or armed conflict.
Civil rights leaders maintain that if private groups wish to honor Confederate heritage, monuments should be moved to private residential property rather than maintained in public space at public expense.
Disparities Between Confederate and Historic Black Cemeteries
Structural Inequity in Post-War Cemetery Preservation:
Oakwood Cemetery (Confederate Section, Richmond, VA):
Features meticulously manicured lawns, pristine headstones, clear signage, and continuous financial subsidies derived from state tax revenue.
East End Cemetery (Historic Black Cemetery, Richmond, VA):
Historical burial site for Richmond's Black community during Jim Crow.
Sufferer of profound state neglect, illegal trash dumping, severe vandalism, and unchecked forest growth.
Historical graves (such as that of Dora Pigram, died October 20, 1919) require physical excavation by volunteer groups (e.g., Friends of East End) using hand tools to remove thick ivy, dirt, and dense tree canopy.
Post-Civil War and Jim Crow public funding models purposefully directed public resources exclusively to white Confederate burial grounds while denying municipal infrastructure and maintenance to Black cemeteries.
Spanish Colonial Monument Controversy in New Mexico
Historical Background:
In , Spanish conquistador Juan de Oñate established the first permanent Spanish colonial settlement in present-day New Mexico, initiating centuries of violence and displacement against Indigenous Pueblo populations.
The Public Art Commission:
In , the City of Albuquerque's Public Art Program initiated a tricultural collaborative art project to mark the upcoming anniversary () of Spanish settlement.
The city selected three artists representing specific regional demographics: a Hispanic artist, an Anglo artist, and Tewa Indian artist Nora Naranjo Morse from Santa Clara Pueblo.
The project was commissioned as a public memorial honoring Spanish colonization, setting off intense regional debates regarding colonial violence, Indigenous trauma, and public historical representation.