Defending History

Rebel on Main

On a warm Monday morning, a week after protests broke out in front of the courthouse, a man with short-cropped hair stands beside the statue. Legs astride with an enormous handgun in a holster on his left side, Brandon is guarding “history.” When I approach him, he explains that the statue is not a monument to slavery. Referencing the inscription on the statue’s foundation, he says that it honors “soldiers who have fought and died in this country.”

The second episode of Rebel on Main investigates Brandon’s claim by recounting the bizarre origins of Jessamine’s statue. Initially ordered, but not paid for, by a different town that wanted a Union statue, the unclaimed monument was purchased at a 90 percent discount by the county fathers and then regalvanized into a Confederate identity. Before a raucous crowd of 3,000 supporters shrieking rebel yells, the statue is unveiled. The Lost Cause has won Jessamine County.

A century later, conditions have changed. Brandon still believes in the Lost Cause, but critics are denouncing it as heresy. He feels embattled by gay activists, Black Lives Matter, and woke historians who want to “erase history.” Frustrated and angry that his Civil War narrative is being threatened, he stands vigil, guarding the statue from protesters who want to destroy memories of Confederate courage.

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Timestamps

00:00 David talks with Brandon, armed defender of the statue

05:56 Story of Bennett Young, the model/architect of Jessamine’s statue

09:00 Sam Flora of the Sons of Confederate Veterans tells the story of St. Albans Raid.

25:35 Story of how the statue was conceived, built, and dedicated

39:29 David wrestles with Brandon’s political opinions

40:32 Robert P. Jones analyzes the “end of white Christian America”

42:42 David analyzes the social context of the statue in the 1890s and how it mirrors conditions in the 2020s

51:51 David wrestles with whether his historical analysis is condescending to Brandon—and the architects of the statue

53:30 David, Brandon, and Judge West have a conversation

Transcript: Visit http://www.rebelonmain.com/episode2.

Resources

• For photos of the statue, the St. Albans raiders, and other historical artifacts, head to rebelonmain.com/episode2.
• Michelle Sherburne, The St. Albans Raid: Confederate Attack on Vermont
• Anne Marshall, Creating a Confederate Kentucky: The Lost Cause and Civil War Memory in a Border State
• Gaines Foster, Ghosts of the Confederacy: Defeat, the Lost Cause, and the Emergence of the New South, 1865 to 1913
• For a fascinating PRRI study about how residents in thirteen southern states think about memorials in public spaces, see “Two Histories, One Future.”

Production team

• Writer and Host: David R. Swartz
• Original Music, Sound Design, and Mixing: Barry Blair
• Story Editor: Stephen Smith
• Artistic Design: Josh Smith and Lisa Weaver Swartz

Next episode: In Episode 3—Ghosts of Jessamine—David tells excruciating stories of lynchings, rapes, and violence.