Ho boy, so much to write and so little time..Kat, keep uppermost in mind that we agreed to disagree, and if I cannot agree with your logic it doesn't mean I think any less of you. I respect your opinions, all of them and understand the reasons for your opinions. In answer to your question about discussing the music in question with folks of color, I can answer YES, and they sang right along with us! However I will qualify this and say that the black people, both male and female, ranging in age from 12 to 42 are fellow Civil War reenactors. It seems here in the South attitudes are different, at least in the contacts I have had and friends I know in the black community. The black reenactors portray part of the 54th Massachussets, the all black regiment immortalized in the movie "GLORY"
I would probably not go into a diverse audience and play some of the material written in those times, except that the audience was prepared to hear it in the historical content. I am NOT racist. Lets face it, we of (using your words) white European descent have as many or even more bad apples in our own midst. I believe this fits my thoughts into Seans CONTEXT thought.
Note to all the lovers of Fosters' "Hard Times", it is also one of my favorite songs. Has a beautiful melody and lyrics.
I still feel, and probably won't change, that history should not be rewritten to suit the needs or wants of any one group. History belongs to us ALL, and we should all study and understand it as written. That is NOT to say we should relive it, nor carry on some of the ugly events that occured. We should instead, honor our historical heritage, and show those whose forebears were wronged that we are not proud of what our ancestors did and learn to be one community. I think we all are looking for the same goal, but by different paths.