I grew up in a military family, constantly moving from one place to the next. A few years ago, my father was stationed in Quantico, Virginia so we once again packed up and left, moving from New York City to a southern town with hazy edges. Some of the county bled into the City of Fredericksburg, known to history buffs as the location of one of the largest and deadliest Civil War battles, the “Battle of Fredericksburg”. The Confederate victory came at the price of over 18,000 casualties in only four days. Somehow, over 150 years removed from the pattle, Fredericksburg residents seem to have a selective memory. Though many inhabitants are transplants, nomadic members and children of the armed forces like myself, many others have lived in my hazy town and neighboring Fredericksburg for generations. Their ancestors had fought in the Civil War– most on the Confederate side.
Although the Battle of Fredericksburg was declared in favor of the Southern Army, the Union ultimately won the war. The battle was fought in the downtown area, and some of the historical houses have been altered to accommodate for damages in the war. Many of the houses have half addresses, as a building that was once one had been split into two. The plantation economy which once thrived during the Antebellum Era crashed following the end of slavery, devestating the economy of this heavily slave-dependent town which was now riddled with Confederate cemetaries. Those cemetaries contained family members of many people who hold bitter grudges about the results of the Civil War to this day. Confederate memorials throughout the cities are cultural shrines to this section of the population, who take pride in their southern heritage and commitment to upholding the beliefs and ideologies of their Confederate forefathers. During the early summer months, many high school students choose picturesque backgrounds to take professional pictures, often in the middle of battlefields or plantations on a plot of land where blood was shed. As a person living outside the city looking in, I recognize I will always have the lens of a tourist and as a person who did not grow up in the area. Due to my experiences as a person of color living in a town with deep southern roots and Confederate ideologies, I often looked at the pride held by the town with a critical eye. I was often dismayed by the celebration of structurally racist figures and symbols, such as the buildings and roads names after slave owners and the slave block in the middle of the town square that stood standing until last year. Even though I have always been a tourist in this area, appreciating the amenities of the closest movie theater, sephora, and YMCA, I will always be able to recognize the sickening perfume of antebellum nostalgia by doing nothing more than looking at the design of the city, what is glorifies, and its infrastructure.
Women in a carriage in Fredericksburg
Visit fred home. (n.d.). VisitFred. Retrieved February 18, 2022, from https://visitfred.com/