Loyal slaves monument

[5] The monument also represented a new trend in Civil War memorials, that of honoring anonymous common people such as generic soldiers or homefront white women rather than famous leaders such as Lee or Lincoln.

With matchless devotion, and with sterling fidelity guarded our defenseless homes, women, and children during the struggle for the principles of our Confederate States of America.

[10] The main speaker at the dedication of the loyal slaves monument was entertainer Polk Miller, a white defender of slavery, who in his remarks contrasted "uppity" African Americans of turn of the 20th century with the "Negro of the good old days gone by", suggesting that emancipation had been an unfortunate development.

The Milwaukee Sentinel censured and mocked the Charleston News and Courier for its enthusiastic endorsement of the memorial, while the New York Tribune excoriated Southerners for erecting such a monument at the same time as numerous lynchings were being committed.

A. Taylor in the Black-oriented newspaper Indianapolis Freeman, while averring that Smith's motive for sponsoring the monument was noble, held that nevertheless it would be an everlasting source of shame to both African Americans and slave owners alike.

In doing so, they reinforce a myth that ignored the many ways that enslaved people undermined the Confederate war effort, most notably by running off to the Union army and fighting against their former oppressors.Criticism did not fade over time.