Bobby Joe Hand & Antonio Gramsci: An Obituary

Bobby Joe Hand in the late 1980s.

My great-uncle Bobby Joe Hand, age 71, is being buried today at Flatwoods Methodist Church near Eva, Tennessee.  I am in Magnolia, Arkansas, and I wish I was there.

I am an academic, so I deal with things in academic ways…in this case writing.  This blog post is about mourning (or paying tribute to) a family member, and (more selfishly), about being away from your family in times of need.

Bob Hand was my mother’s mother’s brother.  This might not seem like a particularly close connection in some families.  However, as both of my parents are only children I have no uncles or aunts.  If you put this together with how young my parents were when they gave birth to me, you have a recipe for great-uncles feeling like uncles (in fact, some of my cousins feel like uncles, too).

Bobby was very dear  to my grandmother–Billie Jean (Hand) Deason.  He was her “little brother,” and, more importantly, he was a quick-witted joker.  You almost never left an encounter with Bob when you did not smirk, smile or chuckle a little. My grandmother always told me that his given name was “Bobby Joe”–not “Robert Joseph.”  As someone who is named “Jamie” (not  short for “James”), this is something I could appreciate.

Now that I sit down to write, I realize that I know surprisingly little about Bob’s early life.  I know that he was a part of a large family deeply rooted in south Georgia peanut farming.  I know that he served in the US Army, that he once lived in San Antonio and that he worked in the construction industry in the Atlanta area.  Bobby and his wife Madge really came into my life sometime in the 1980s when they bought some land and built a “cabin” near my grandparents in Eva, Tennessee.  Bob must have done well in the Atlanta construction business (they are always building in Atlanta, right?), because he and Madge soon came to Tennessee permanently… in a sort of “semi-retirement.”  I say “semi” because they immediately started farming (cows, corn and soybeans) and Bob soon ended up running the local Farmer’s Co-op. When my Grandfather Deason passed away, Bob and Madge came to not only farm their own land, but the 300 acres that my grandparents had farmed before (this is sounding less, and less like retirement, eh?).

Bob Hand was smart and resourceful.  He would challenge whatever platitude you put forth…he was a great debater.  He did not accept received truths.  He loved to hold forth on world affairs, politics, business, and ….well…anything.  We even had a conversation once about how some anthropologists thought that Leviticus was against pigs because they competed against people for food while other animals turned inedible stuff (grass) into edible stuff (meat and milk)…Bob quickly said: “well if that’s it, they’re fine to eat now…they all eat corn these days.”

This is why I want to talk about Bobby Joe Hand and Antonio Gramsci (an unlikely pairing in most regards).

Antonio Gramsci

Every good anthropology graduate student knows a little about Antonio Gramsci…unfortunately, they often know only a little.  Mostly, they read a couple snippets of his work and then attempt to talk with an air of great authority on the subject.  For those of you not chained up in the ivory tower, however, I will say that Gramsci was one of the most influential social theorists of the 20th century.  He was a founding member of the Communist Party of Italy and was imprisoned by Benito Mussolini’s Fascist regime (his “prison notebooks” are his most cited work).  Gramsci’s writings were heavily concerned with culture and the nature of political leadership.

What does an Italian Marxist convict have to do with a Georgia/Tennessee farmer?  Well…I’ll tell you (the anthropologists in the audience already have a clue where I am going…I hope).

Gramsci thought that we had been hoodwinked into thinking that intellectuals were only “men of letters,” professors, and learned clerics.  He thought that there were men who were “organic intellectuals”–folks who did not have “book learnin” but, nevertheless could be important critical thinkers.  “All men are intellectuals,” wrote Gramaci, “…each man..carries some form of intellectual activity, that is, he is a ‘philosopher, an artist, a man of taste, he participates in a particular conception of the world, has a conscious line of moral conduct, and therefore contributes to sustain a conception of the world or to modify it, that is to bring into being new modes of thought.” (Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks of Antonio Gramsci, 1997, p.9).

In this light Booby Joe Hand was a real intellectual–an organic intellectual.  I have a Ph.D., but Uncle Bobby was one of the best critical thinkers I have ever met.  I wish I could bottle the way he thought and make my students drink it (but, then again, they would constantly argue with me after that….I’d better think about this).

I hope the folks at the funeral are making the occasional straight-faced, snarky comment…in honor of Bob.

A more recent photo of the Hand clan: Bobby Joe, his wife Madge & their daughter Leanne.

Bush Pardons Two Tennessee Moonshiners

The Knoxville News Sentinel (and the Facing South blog) reported earlier this month that President Bush has pardoned two Tennesseans convicted decades ago of moonshine charges. The pardons, of course, will restore full U.S. citizenship to the men, including the rights to vote and buy a gun.

My favorite line from this piece comes from Charles E. McKinley, 75, of Pall Mall, Tennessee (one of two pardoned moonshiners):

“I’d almost be a Republican after that.”

No word, however, on granting voting rights to the thirteen percent of African-American men–1.4 million–who are disenfranchised due to felony convictions….the majority of these convictions are, of course, for the possession of (and intent to sell) controlled substances..Apparently not all controlled substances are equal in the eyes of the administration.

Read more about the pardons at:

http://www.southernstandard.net/news.php?viewStory=26654

Nov 4, 1864 : Battle of Johnsonville, Tennessee

I grew up in Eva, Tennessee….on land that was just down the road from Nathan Bedford Forrest State Park. Forrest has, of course, become an icon for Neo-Confederates (e.g., “I Ride With Forrest” bumper stickers), hate groups (he was the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan) and many Tennesseeans in general (there are more historical plaques to NBF in Tennessee than there are to any other single historical figure in all of America). For those who revere him, Forrest is known for his guerrilla tactics–he was one of the first to grasp the doctrines of modern “mobile warfare” that became prevalent in the 20th century. In our historical memories he embodies the image of the renegade rebel, charging into the fray and using unorthodox tactics to win the day.

Others, such as myself, are critical of Forrest–pointing toward historical items such as the controversial Battle of Fort Pillow (also now a TN State Park) on April 12, 1864 (depicted on the right in an 1892 Kurz & Allison print, click on the image for a larger version). In that battle, Forrest demanded unconditional surrender, or else he would “put every man to the sword.” The battle’s details remain disputed and controversial to this day…But what is known is that Forrest’s men stormed the lightly guarded fort, inflicting heavy casualties on its defenders who quickly fell into disarray as the Union command collapsed. Some alleged that the Confederates targeted several hundred African-American soldiers inside the fort, although one battle account says the killing was indiscriminate. Only 80 out of approximately 262 blacks survived the battle, however. After the battle, reports surfaced of captured solders being subjected to brutality, including allegations that they were crucified on tent frames and burnt alive. Whether or not these reports are accurate will probably never be known for certain as both sides used the battle as a political rallying cry and were prone to casting events through their own interpretive lenses.

The fact that I grew up next to NBF State Park probably has something to do with why my anthropological work has centered around race in the nineteenth century…..at any rate, back to why I’m telling you all of this…

Forrest has been associated with Bedford County (TN), Memphis (TN), Hernando (MS), and various other places, but he never lived anywhere near my hometown….so why is it the home of NBF State Park? On this day (Nov. 4th) in 1864, Forrest subjected a Union supply base at Johnsonville, Tennessee, to a devastating artillery barrage that destroyed millions of dollars in materiel. The History Channel describes it like this:

This action was part of a continuing effort by the Confederates to disrupt the Federal lines that supplied Sherman’s army in Georgia. In the summer of 1864, Sherman captured Atlanta, and by November he was planning his march across Georgia. Meanwhile, the defeated Confederates hoped that destroying his line would draw Sherman out of the Deep South.

In the fall, Forrest mounted an ambitious raid on Union supply routes in western Tennessee and Kentucky. Johnsonville was an important transfer point from boats on the Tennessee River to a rail line that connected with Nashville to the east. When Sherman sent part of his army back to Nashville to protect his supply lines, Forrest hoped to apply pressure to that force. Forrest began moving part of his force to Johnsonville on October 16, but most of his men were not in place until early November. Incredibly, the Union forces, which numbered about 2,000, seem to have been completely unaware of the Confederates just across the river. Forrest brought up artillery and began a barrage at 2 p.m. on November 5. The attack was devastating. One observer noted, “The wharf for nearly one mile up and down the river presented one solid sheet of flame.” More than $6 million worth of supplies were destroyed, along with four gunboats, 14 transports, and 20 barges.

The Battle of Johnsonville may not be a part of larger, popular historical narrative(s) about the Civil War, but Forrest is. The American Civil War has never receded into the remote past…It is a point of national trauma, carnage, and emancipation. At the same time, the Civil War is, through historical memory, at the nexus of American national identity, reconciliation and, unfortunately, continued racism and nostalgia for a past that never was. It divides many of us to this day (take, for instance, the current fights over the Confederate battle flag that is incorporated into many state flags throughout the South). In this vein, Jonathan Gianos-Steinberg tells us that “[s]tudying the historiography and social perception of Confederate Lieutenant General Nathan Bedford since the 1860s offers scholars a chance to comprehensively analyze how social undercurrents and memory shape historiography.” Want to know more? Check out Jonathan Gianos-Steinberg’s Assessing Civil War Historiography and Nathan Bedford Forrest’s Place in It (May 12, 2005)

Manifest Destiny From Nashville to Nicaragua…

The Story of William Walker

William Walker was born in Nashville, Tennessee on May 8, 1824. He was a graduate of the University of Nashville, earned a medical degree, practiced medicine in Philadelphia, studied law in New Orleans, and then became co-owner of a newspaper, The New Orleans Crescent–incidentally where the young poet Walt Whitman worked for a short time.

Like much of the nation, Walker headed west in the 1850s in search of a reinvention of identity and a way up the social ladder of a budding modern American capitalism. In California, he first worked as a reporter in San Francisco before setting up a law office in Marysville. Around this time Walker conceived the project of privately conquering vast regions of Latin America, where he would create states ruled by white English speakers.

By 1853 he become the leader of a group plotting to detach parts of northern Mexico (influenced, no doubt, by the success of the Texas Revolution). Recruiting a small army (170 men) and three field guns, he sailed to Baja, California. By the fall of 1853 he was proclaiming independent republics in northern Mexico (shades of the Wild Wild West’s Dr. Miguelito Loveless, eh?). First Walker proclaimed himself president of a “Republic of Lower California”, in La Paz on the Gulf of California. Quickly, however, he abolished the Republic of Lower California in favor of the larger “Republic of Sonora,” with Ensenada as its capitol. A few months later Walker’s army, low on food, retreated to San Diego with the Mexican army close behind. In 1854 he surrendered to U.S. authorities on charges of violating U.S. neutrality laws.

The Republic of Sonora incident, however, was simply a training ground and in 1855 Walker, who had been acquitted of criminal charges, turned his attention to an easier target–Nicaragua in Central America. This region was not only in political chaos but was the perfect site for a railroad linking the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

The leader of the Democratic faction in Nicaragua invited Walker to bring an army and join the struggle against the Legitimists. In 1855, with backing from American speculators and his small army of 58 Americans–dubed “The Immortals” by the American press–he landed in Nicaragua and joined forces with 170 locals and 100 more Americans. Walker’s “Immortals” defeated the national army at La Virgen and took Granada, the capitol. As commander of the army, Walker controlled Nicaragua through puppet president Patricio Rivas. Despite the obvious illegality of his expedition, U.S. President Franklin Pierce recognized Walker’s regime as the legitimate government of Nicaragua on May 20, 1856. Walker’s agents recruited American and European men to sail to the region and fight for the conquest of the other four Central American nations: Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Costa Rica. He was able to recruit over a thousand American mercenaries, transported for free by the Accessory Transit Company controlled by Wall Street tycoon Cornelius Vanderbilt.

As Walker’s power grew, he declared himself first Commander in Chief, and eventually President, of Nicaragua, creating a temporary, uneasy peace within the country. He then legalized slavery, continued to build up his army, and planned to conquer the aforementioned neighboring countries.

Walker also revoked the license of Accessory Transit Co. to ferry passengers overland between the two oceans. He then granted use of the route to Vanderbilt’s rivals in the Accessory Transit Company, Cornelius K. Garrison and Charles Morgan (two former employees of Vanderbilt), who had offered Walker a large sum of money and support for his military campaign in exchange for control of the inter-oceanic corridor. In response, Vanderbilt sent forces to Central America to overthrow Walker, while the British navy, attempting to thwart American influences in the region, regularly harassed efforts to supply him. Soon the other countries of Central America formed an alliance against him, and on May 1, 1857 Walker surrendered to Commander Charles H. Davis of the United States Navy and was repatriated. Upon disembarking in New Orleans he was greeted as a hero. He visited President Buchanan, then went on to New York, all the time seeking support for a return to Nicaragua. But support waned as returning soldiers reported military blunders and poor management and he alienated public opinion when he blamed his defeat on the U.S. Navy. Within six months he had set off on another expedition, but he was promptly arrested by the U.S. Navy.

Still undaunted and seeking support for yet another venture, Walker wrote a book, The War in Nicaragua. Knowing that his best prospects lay in the South, he assumed a strong pro-slavery stance. This strategy proved successful, and in 1860 he once again sailed south. Unable to land in Nicaragua due to the ever-present British, he landed in Honduras, planning to march overland, but the British soon captured him and turned him over to the Hondurans. Six days later, at the age of 36, he was executed by a firing squad. The Walker saga had ended (his grave in Trujillo, Honduras is shown to the left).

Walker is clearly a powerdul symbol for the complex interactions of manifest destiny, imperialism, and capitalism in an America rapidly facing modernity in the latter half of the ninteenth century. The intersetions of his story with race and regional struggles (both within the United States and Central America) are not lost on us either. Here in the United States, Walker has faded from our historical memory, but he is far better known in Central America than in the United States. Costa Ricans, for instance, honor Juan Santamaria, a young drummer boy who became a national hero by torching a fort in which Walker’s army was encamped, and a national park, Santa Rosa, commemorates the battle where Walker’s soldiers were expelled from Costa Rica.

I came across nother interesting twist in the story–a twist demonstrating the interconnectedness of historical narratives. Because I was curious about Walker’s alma matter, the University of Nashville, I did a little digging into that insistution’s history. The University of Nashville closed its doors during the Civil War. When the war ended, the South needed a teacher training school. The University of Nashville was revived due to the generosity of the philanthropist George Peabody. It became the Peabody Normal College at Nashville in 1875 and later the George Peabody College for Teachers. Interestingly, the college merged with Vanderbilt University in 1979. Vanderbilt University, of course, was founded in 1873 as the result of a gift of $1 million by shipping and rail magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt, despite having never been to the South, hoped his gift and the greater work of the university would help to heal the sectional wounds inflicted by the Civil War.

William Walker Pics (including historical monuments):
http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/william-walker.htm

Greetings From the Republic of Sonora:
http://www.mysterious-island.com/aeronef/welcome/bienvenidos.htm

William Walker links from which this entry was drawn:
http://www.sfmuseum.org/hist1/walker.html
http://www.calnative.com/stories/n_walk.htm
http://www.rotten.com/library/bio/historical/william-walker/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Walker_(soldier)
http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/people/A0851333.html

“Andy you’d best skedaddle”…

Civil War grafitti found during rennovation of former President Andrew Johnson’s home in Greenville, Tn.

More at: http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050415/ap_on_re_us/civil_war_graffiti_1

The Cremation of Sam McGee

Yesterday afternoon a colleague of mine gave a colloquium in the Anthropology Department. After the lecture, several folks headed down to the nearest libation-serving outside patio (as it was a nice spring afternoon) to pretend to be intellectual and discuss topics of great importance *chuckle*

This colleague was from Arkansas, but was born in Alaska. . . This had been revealed during his introduction, so I asked him about it and mentioned that it reminded me of a poem that my grandfather used to recite about a Tennesseean who died in the Alaska cold. My colleague immediately launched into Robert Service’s Cremation of Sam McGee line by line without pausing. . . Sure, I know it’s a classic, but the recitation was impressive nonetheless.

Check out the poem at: http://www.wordfocus.com/wordactcremation.html