“It is hard to love the gasoline station where the honeysuckle used to grow.”

 

Early this past summer the historic Steele Creek Presbyterian Church, near the city of Charlotte, North Carolina, closed its doors for good. The church, the second oldest in Mecklenburg County, having been founded in 1760—nearly 259 years ago—by hardy Scots settlers to the region, merged with another Presbyterian Church in the area, Pleasant Hill. The classic 1889 Gothic-revival style brick structure was abandoned, purchased by nearby expanding Charlotte Douglas International Airport.

As late as the early 1970s Steele Creek counted 1,000 members, but the encroaching airport and the constant deafening roar of supersonic jets every moment of the day speeding off to Munich, London, Latin America and all points in between, plus the precipitous decline in the Presbyterian Church USA, which has gone the way of all mainstream Protestant denominations and embraced the liberal social gospel, had brought the membership down to around 350, many of them adults who held on to the memory of a Presbyterianism that once boasted of a Reverend Robert Lewis Dabney…but now could only grasp for scraps from a barren progressivist table.

More @ The Abbeville Institute

The Entrepreneurial Spirit

 

Bernhard Thuersam www.Circa1865.org  The Great American Political Divide

The Entrepreneurial Spirit

Though much of his background is based on oral history and tradition, Thomas Day is believed to have been born near Milton, North Carolina in either Halifax or Pittsylvania County. This son of free black mother Morning S. Day, was born in 1801, and his father is unknown.

On 27 November 1851 Thomas Day wrote his daughter: “I am perfectly satisfied regarding Milton – I came here to stay four years & am here 7 times four [28 years] I love the place no better no worse than [the] first day I came into it.” It can be inferred from this that Day arrived in Milton about 1823, and in 1827 when he was listed in tax records as a property owner.

He appears in a March 1, 1827 advertisement in the Milton Gazette & Roanoke Advertiser as “Thomas Day, Cabinet Maker” thanking his customers for the business received from them as well as hawking “a handsome supply of mahogany, walnut and stained furniture, the most fashionable and common bedsteads, etc.”

Prior to arriving in Milton, Day appears to be a 22-year-old trained and an apprenticed cabinetmaker, and only four years later has accumulated sufficient wealth to purchase property and a Milton business address.

Thomas married free black Aquila Wilson of Virginia in 1830, but could not bring her into North Carolina which in 1827 had forbid the immigration of free blacks into the State. This was the result of inflammatory anti-slavery rhetoric and publications emanating from the North – ironically from those whose neighbors and fathers had engaged in the transatlantic slave trade which no doubt brought Thomas Day’s ancestors in chains from Africa.

Day petitioned the North Carolina General Assembly to allow his wife to join him, and was supported in this by sixty-one white citizens who desired a special act on his behalf, noting him as “a free man of colour, of very fine character – an excellent mechanic, industrious, honest and sober in his habits – in the event of any disturbance amongst the Blacks, I should rely upon him with confidence upon a disclosure from him – as he is the owner of slaves as well as real estate.”

On the eve of war in 1861 Day was a free black who owned three slaves and also trained white apprentices in the art of cabinetmaking. Other free black owners of slaves were Catherine Stanly of nearby Craven County with 7 black slaves, Henry Vaughn of Hertford County with 1 slave, Thomas Jones of Anson County with 5 slaves, E.H. Revel of Cleveland County and Will Evans of Granville County with 2 slaves each – and in Franklin County Thomas Blacknall owned 3 slaves and John Hogwood owned 1 slave. The 1830 census showed many more free black owners of slaves.

Thomas Day was a member of Milton’s predominantly white Presbyterian Church, and sat in a front bench that he had hand-carved. In 1841 he and his wife became full members of this Church.  Day counted among his clients Attorney General Romulus M. Saunders, later United States minister to Spain, and Governor David Settle Reid. His carved furniture for the Governor’s mansion in Raleigh, it is said, was rejected due to its high cost.

Sources: The Free Negro in North Carolina, 1790-1860, John Hope Franklin, UNC Press, 1943. Dictionary of NC History, Vol. 2, William S. Powell, UNC Press, 1986.

Massive Chinese Fraud Suspected in OPT Visa-Worker Program

 

 The OPT program allows 300,000 foreign graduates to get work permits lasting one to three years if they pay tuition to U.S. universities. The matching Curricular Practical Training (CPT) program gives 100,000 work permits to students each year. These two huge programs offer work permits to 400,000 foreigners each year, even as 800,000 Americans graduate from four-year colleges with skilled degrees.

Numerous U.S.-based companies that got Optional Practical Training (OPT) work permits for Chinese graduates have quietly closed their doors following an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) crackdown and media investigations, according to a report by NBC Bay Area.

“NBC’s efforts to contact officers at 14 suspicious companies [who got many OPT work permits] were met with a series of dead-end business addresses and disconnected phone numbers, ” said the NBC Bay Area report. The report continued:

More @ Breitbart

UNC’s Board of Governors Apparently Agreed to a $2.5M Silent Sam Settlement Before a Lawsuit Existed

Via Dixie Digest

 

As fair-elections advocate and attorney Aylett Colston noted on Twitter, the BOG is appointed by the General Assembly, which is controlled by Republicans who have received $21,500 over the last two years from the Sons of Confederate Veterans’ PAC, NC Heritage. 
That’s quite a return on investment. (Thank you! )

On Wednesday—before the long Thanksgiving weekend—the UNC Board of Governors agreed to settle a lawsuit filed by the North Carolina division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans over Silent Sam, the monument demonstrators had toppled in August 2018. 

WRAL published a story on the settlement at 2:13 p.m.

Under the terms of the consent decree—which the BOG had approved during a closed session that morning—the neo-Confederate group would receive the 106-year-old monument plus $2.5 million in “non-state funds” for a “charitable trust” to care for it. The charitable trust can build a permanent home for the monument, just not near a UNC campus.

More @ Indy Week

This map shows how the US really has 11 separate 'nations' with entirely different cultures

Via Marc Marshall

 

Author and journalist Colin Woodard identified 11 distinct cultures that have historically divided the US.

His book "American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures in North America" breaks down those cultures and the regions they each dominate.

From the utopian "Yankeedom" to the conservative "Greater Appalachia" and liberal "Left Coast," looking at these cultures sheds an interesting light on America's political and cultural divides.

More @ Business Insider

M1A™ Tanker

 Can't count how many times I've taken one apart to clean.

Inspired by the shortened “Tanker” Garand rifles of WWII, the M1A™ Tanker combines handiness and maneuverability with full-size firepower. The Tanker configuration of our famous SOCOM 16 features a vintage walnut stock that pays tribute to those who have carried Springfield Armory® rifles into battle for over 200 years.

More @ Springfield Armory

"Well, Govan, if we must die, let us die like men." Gen. Patrick R. Cleburne

Via Billy Bearden 

 "Life......A Small Matter With Me When Duty Points The Way"

Battle of Franklin.

Pvt. Sam Watkins of Columbia, TN would survive and write about the battle and his experiences in the war, entitled “Company Aytch’. I would like to share a few of his dramatic words.

***************************************
Kind reader, right here my pen, and courage, and ability fail me. I shrink from butchery. Would to God I could tear the page from these memoirs and from my own memory. It is the blackest page in the history of the war of the Lost Cause. It was the bloodiest battle of modern times in any war. It was the finishing stroke to the independence of the Southern Confederacy. I was there. I saw it. My flesh trembles, and creeps, and crawls when I think of it today. My heart almost ceases to beat at the horrid recollection. Would to God that I had never witnessed such a scene! I cannot describe it. It beggars description. I will not attempt to describe it. I could not. The death-angel was there to gather its last harvest. It was the grand coronation of death. Would that I could turn the page. But I feel, though I did so, that page would still be there, teeming with its scenes of horror and blood. I can only tell of what I saw...

It was four o'clock on that dark and dismal December day when the line of battle was formed, and those devoted heroes were ordered forward, to Strike for their altars and their fires, For the green graves of their sires, For God and their native land.

As they marched on down through an open field toward the rampart of blood and death, the Federal batteries began to open and mow down and gather into the garner of death, as brave, and good, and pure spirits as the world ever saw. The twilight of evening had begun to gather as a percursor of the coming blackness of midnight darkness that was to envelop a scene so sickening and horrible that it is impossible for me to describe it. "Forward, men," is repeated all along the line. A sheet of fire was poured into our very faces, and for a moment we halted as if in despair, as the terrible avalanche of shot and shell laid low those brave and gallant heroes, whose bleeding wounds attested that the struggle would be desperate. Forward, men! And the blood spurts in a perfect jet from the dead and wounded. The earth is red with blood. It runs in streams, making little rivulets as it flows.

Occasionally there was a little lull in the storm of battle, as the men were loading their guns, and for a few moments it seemed as if night tried to cover the scene with her mantle. The death-angel shrieks and laughs and old Father Time is busy with his sickle, as he gathers in the last harvest of death, crying, More, more, more! while his rapacious maw is glutted with the slain.

But the skirmish line being deployed out, extending a little wider than the battle did -- passing through a thicket of small locusts, where Brown, orderly sergeant of Company B, was killed--we advanced on toward the breastworks, on and on. I had made up my mind to die--felt glorious. We pressed forward until I heard the terrific roar of battle open on our right. Cleburne's division was charging their works. I passed on until I got to their works, and got over on their (the Yankees') side. But in fifty yards of where I was the scene was lit up by fires that seemed like hell itself. It appeared to be but one line of streaming fire. Our troops were upon one side of the breastworks, and the Federals on the other. I ran up on the line of works, where our men were engaged. Dead soldiers filled the entrenchments. The firing was kept up until after midnight, and gradually died out. We passed the night where we were. But when the morrow's sun began to light up the eastern sky with its rosy hues, and we looked over the battlefield, O, my God! what did we see! It was a grand holocaust of death. Death had held high carnival there that night. The dead were piled the one on the other all over the ground. I never was so horrified and appalled in my life.

Horses, like men, had died game on the gory breastworks. General Adams' horse had his fore feet on one side of the works and his hind feet on the other, dead. The general seems to have been caught so that he was held to the horse's back, sitting almost as if living, riddled, and mangled, and torn with balls. General Cleburne's mare had her fore feet on top of the works, dead in that position. General Cleburne's body was pierced with forty-nine bullets, through and through. General Strahl's horse lay by the roadside and the general by his side, both dead, and all his staff. General Gist, a noble and brave cavalier from South Carolina, was lying with his sword reaching across the breastworks still grasped in his hand. He was lying there dead. All dead! They sleep in the graveyard yonder at Ashwood, almost in sight of my home, where I am writing today. They sleep the sleep of the brave. We love and cherish their memory. They sleep beneath the ivy-mantled walls of St. John's church, where they expressed a wish to be buried. The private soldier sleeps where he fell, piled in one mighty heap.

Four thousand five hundred privates! all lying side by side in death! Thirteen generals were killed and wounded. Four thousand five hundred men slain, all piled and heaped together at one place. I cannot tell the number of others killed and wounded. God alone knows that. We'll all find out on the morning of the final resurrection.

Let us heed the dramatic impact of this day, and the rest realize the intensity of the dramatic struggle of these gallant, Patriotic defenders of their homes, their family and their rights. May you be empowered to re-double your conviction to fulfill the charge by learning more about your ancestors and his participation and teach others about the heroism of these American Veterans.

2019 Christmas Decorations at the White House +

President Trump and the First Lady Participate in the White House Christmas Tree Delivery

"It's Colder than a Whore House on Strike" - Sh%t Southern Women Say, Episode 14

What is +P Ammo?

Ammunition rated +P generates a chamber pressure higher than the cartridge’s published standard, but the level is less than those produced when proof rounds initially torture test a firearm. Increased bullet velocity is the result—an advantage for some self-defense handguns—but not all guns can safely run the hotter loads. In those cases, the added stress can prematurely wear parts, void some warranties or, worse yet, lead to catastrophic failure and personal injury.

Owners of firearms rated for its use, however, can run the ammunition with confidence. Improved performance on target is the biggest advantage. Flatter trajectory is another, although +P is primarily handgun ammo, where reduced holdover at 100 yards isn’t a huge concern. That benefit, however, may be of interest to anyone with a pistol-cartridge carbine.

More @ Wideners

Judge Jeanine: Sen. McConnell, please force a trial if impeachment gets to you