King on the World House – Part 2

King on the World House – Part 2

Thomas Allen

To solve international poverty, King writes “The rich nations must use their vast resources of wealth to develop the underdeveloped, school the unschooled and feed the unfed.” (P. 189.) (In other words, reverse colonialism: Instead of Whites countries exploiting nonwhite countries, nonwhite countries exploit White countries. This exploitation has been extended to allow nonwhites to invade White countries without restrictions or limits while granting these nonwhites the privilege to plunder, oppress, rape, maim, and kill Whites with little or no penalty. On the contrary, Whites who complain about being maltreated by nonwhites are penalized.)

Continuing, King states that the great and rich countries must “provide capital and technical assistance to the underdeveloped areas.” (P. 188.) These countries need to provide much more aid than they have provided — enough to sustain economic growth. Wealthy countries “must promptly initiate a massive, sustained Marshall Plan for Asia, Africa and South America.” (Pp. 188-189.) (Although not at the level that King wanted, rich countries, especially the United States, have provided an enormous amount of aid. However, they send aid to the government of the recipient country; consequently, only a small portion goes to the people who need it. Most of the aid goes to enrich officials of the recipient government and to the politically connected in the country receiving the aid and the country sending the aid. As for the Marshall Plan idea, European countries that received the most aid, e.g., Great Britain, under the Marshall Plan took longer to recover than countries that received little or nothing, e.g., Germany.)

Continuing, King writes, “The aid program that I am suggesting must not be used by the wealthy nations as a surreptitious means to control the poor nations.” (P. 189.) (That is, aid must be given with no conditions attached and no oversight.) Moreover, aid must be given with “a compassionate and committed effort to wipe poverty, ignorance and disease from the face of the earth.” (P. 189.) (Thus, if aid is given with an inappropriate motivation, it does the recipient country no good. How absurd! Despite the motivation, the recipient will use his lucre the same way if it comes without conditions.) Nevertheless, King implies that much of the aid will be wasted instead of improving the health, education, and wealth of the people. Such waste is caused by these colonies becoming independent countries. 

King credits the economic growth of the West to being relatively underpopulated and an abundance of iron ore and coal. (If true, when the Europeans landed in the Americas, they should have found a level of economic prosperity similar to what Europe had. The Americas were relatively underpopulated and coal, iron ore, and other natural resources exceeded that of Europe. Likewise, with Africa, when the Europeans landed in sub-Sahara Africa, they should have found a level of economic prosperity similar to Europe’s. Like the Americas, Africa was relatively underpopulated and had natural resources that far exceeded Europe’s. King errs because he fails to account for nonphysical genetic differences.)

Because the emerging new governments of former colonies, “confront staggering problems of overpopulation. There is no possible way for them to make it without aid and assistance.” (P. 190.) (Thus, King admits that nonwhites are inferior to Whites because Whites made it without aid and nonwhites cannot. Moreover, the primary reason that these new countries were “overpopulated” was that the European colonial powers created conditions conducive to population growth.)

King declares, “that we must use our resources to outlaw poverty.” (P. 191.) (Thus, King declares that Jesus erred when he said that the poor will always be with us. Jesus did not mean that we should not help the poor from our personal estates, which we should. However, one should not plunder [tax] another person and give the loot to the poor — as King wanted to do.)

About one thing, King is correct: “A final problem that mankind must solve in order to survive in the world house that we have inherited is finding an alternative to war and human destruction.” (Pp. 191-192.) (On this point, King-idolizing conservatives, especially neoconservatives, ignore the greatest conservative ever, the archconservative King. Most of these conservatives adore every war that they have ever seen. People with the right connections can make a great deal of money from war.)

Continuing, King writes, “There is no need to fight for food and land. Science has provided us with adequate means of survival and transportation, which make it possible to enjoy the fullness of this great earth.” (P. 192.) (King sounds like a proponent of free trade.) He detests the notion of fighting wars in the name of peace and condemns leaders who do so. These leaders seek “a peaceful world order, a world fashioned after their selfish conceptions of an ideal existence.” (Likewise, King sought a peaceful world order fashioned after his selfish conception of an ideal existence.) He contends that peaceful ends must be pursued through peaceful means.

Then, King suggests “that the philosophy and strategy of nonviolence become immediately a subject for study and for serious experimentation in every field of human conflict” (p.194) including relations between nations. (King seems to want countries to resolve conflicts among themselves following his method of “nonviolent” protests. For decades, the CIA has been following King’s method. If a government [a segregated State or city] does not bow to the CIA’s [King’s] demands, the CIA supports the opponent’s [openly violent civil rights groups] of the government and brings it down via a coupe, civil war [riots], etc.)

Then, King states, “The United Nations is a gesture in the direction of nonviolence on a world scale.” (P. 195.) (If true, the United Nations is a failure. As many, and probably more, violent conflicts have occurred since its creation than before. However, the real purpose of the United Nations is not to prevent violent conflicts. Its purpose is to serve as a foundation for a despotic world government that a few oligarchs control.)

Next, King writes that “true nonviolence is more than the absence of violence. It is the persistent and determined application of peaceable power to offenses against the community.” (P. 195.)  (What is this application of “peaceful power?” It looks a lot like the application of legalized coercion, i.e., war. Covert war is what King used to destroy the South.)

King argues for “a revolution of values to accompany the scientific and freedom revolutions engulfing the earth.” (P. 196.) (King had a warped sense of freedom. Traditionally, freedom means that the government does little beyond the minimum to protect life, liberty, and property. Freedom means no welfare state, no guaranteed income, no affirmative action or quotas, no public school system, and none of the many other things that King wanted governments to do. Concerning race relations, just about the only acts that a government could take are those necessary to prevent or discourage genocide.)

Continuing, King declares, “We must . . . shift from a ‘thing’-oriented society to a ‘person’-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.” (Pp.196-197.) (King-idolizing conservatives take note: You need to oppose the free market economy. Either King is exposing his ignorance of a free market economy or he hates it. A free market economy is people-oriented. If producers do not provide people with what they want or need at a price that they can afford, they make no profit. Without property rights, i.e., the right to use their property as they think best, producers are hampered in providing people what they desiderate. The foundation of a free market economy is cooperation. Moreover, a free market economy does a better job of conquering the great triplets than does King’s approach of massive governmental intervention that is based on envy and the lust for power.)

Then, King describes capitalism and Communism. (His description of Communism is accurate. His description of capitalism is what happens when governments interfere in a free market economy for wars, favorites, or picking winners and losers.)

King argues for a fascist economy — the melding of capitalism and Communism. “The good and just society is neither the thesis of capitalism nor the antithesis of Communism, but a socially conscious democracy which reconciles the truths of individualism and collectivism.” (P. 197.) (This is a description of fascism: the concatenation of the collective and the individual with oligarchs deciding what is a good and just society. Moreover, King should be rolling over in his grave with joy since nearly every country in the world today has some form of fascist political economy, and most did at the time he wrote.)

With his Luddite tendencies, King declares “With righteous indignation, it [the true revolution of values] will look at thousands of working people displaced from their jobs with reduced incomes as a result of automation while the profits of the employers remain intact, and say: ‘This is not just.’” (P. 198.) (King seems to want nonwhite countries to industrialize. Yet, industrialization, i.e., automation, costs people their jobs. Over the centuries many jobs have been lost to automation. Most automation has replaced people in grueling, dangerous, or monotonous jobs that most people dislike doing. Automation has freed them to perform more interesting work. The industrial revolution has been built on automation. Besides, if everything is so automated that no jobs exist, then companies would quickly go out of business because no one could buy their products. What King and most other people fail to realize is that the final customer decides what jobs are needed and the pay of workers and not employers, capitalists, etc. If the government intervenes to fix wages, prices, etc. shortages occur, and the country as a whole is poorer. Nevertheless, King has a point about companies taking much more money out of a community than they invest there — this is an argument to favor small businesses over multinational corporations.)

King complains, “There is nothing but a lack of social vision to prevent us from paying an adequate wage to every American citizen.” (P. 199.) (As noted above, the final customer decides the pay that a worker receives by what he is willing to pay for the product or service. Obviously, King did not know much about economics. But, here, he is promoting his guaranteed income for every family. That is, he wants the government to plunder producers and divide the stolen loot among families or individuals.)

Then, King states, “that our greatest defense against Communism is to take offensive action in behalf of justice.” (P. 200.) (That is, the United States need to flood the world with money with no conditions attached.)

Continuing, King declares, “These are revolutionary times.” (P. 200.) (True. It was the revolution of tyranny and despotism over freedom and liberty. In the name of King’s social justice, tyranny, and despotism won.)

Next, King writes, “Our only hope today lies in our ability to recapture the revolutionary spirit and go out into a sometimes hostile world declaring eternal opposition to poverty, racism and militarism.” (Pp. 200-201.) (If this is our only hope, we are doomed. Poverty is still with us as Jesus said it would be. Black racism, Yellow racism, and Brown racism have supplanted White racism, which is mostly dead. Militarism is as prevalent today as ever before as the United States seek to impose democracy and King’s social justice on every country in the world.)

King was a cosmopolitan and a globalist. He urged everyone to place humanity as a whole above his particular tribe, race, class, and nation (a people as opposed to a country). Further, he calls “for an all-embracing and unconditional love for all men.” (P. 201.) (That is, all tribes, races, classes, and nations must sacrifice themselves on the altar of globalism under the rule of the global oligarchs. Now, it becomes clear why White oligarchs supported King and his destructive work.)

In conclusion, King states, “We can no longer afford to worship the God of hate or bow before the altar of retaliation.” (Pp. 200-201.) (Where Southerners were involved, King never did stop worshiping the God of hate or bowing before his altar of retaliation.)

For decades, the White oligarchs have been flooding the country with legal and illegal nonwhites. This flooding of nonwhites greatly threatens the hold that Negroes have on America. Because they are not White, these nonwhites are demanding and receiving the same benefits and privileges given to Negroes. Consequently, Negroes are beginning to lose their control of America to these nonwhites. Unfortunately for Negroes, they cannot control these nonwhites with guilt as they have controlled Whites. When these nonwhites reach a critical mass, they will push the Negro to the lowest rung of society. Then, Negroes will look at the days of segregation and Jim Crow as the days of privilege and prosperity. For this dismal future, Negroes can think King and his civil rights movement and social justice.

After reading his book, I discovered that I have much more confidence in the American Negro than King did. He believed that the Negro was incapable of bettering himself without the aid of Whites. Therefore, according to King, Negroes need Whites to solve their problems, to support them, and to give them special privileges and benefits. Although Whites gave the Negro everything that King demanded and more — except ending wars and a guaranteed income, many Negroes still have a slave mentality, however, a perverse slave mentality. Like the traditional slave, they remain dependent on Whites, but unlike the traditional slave, they expect Whites to serve them. By obeying King’s demands, Whites have greatly damaged the Negro. The Negro as a whole would have been better off today if King and his followers had not created the turmoil that they did in the 1960s and if the Negro had been left alone to solve his problems.

To resolve his problems the Negro should free himself from his dependency on Whites. Ironically as it may seem, especially to King, Negroes would have advanced further in a more segregated society. The Black Power folks were going in the right direction, but King subverted their movement. As a result, the Negro is not much better off today than in King’s day except economically. In many social respects, the Negro is worse off.

If the Negro had followed the Black Power road instead of King’s road, he would have had the satisfaction of knowing that he raised himself up and that he is responsible for his achievements. Because he followed King’s road, he will always question his achievements since Whites gave him just about everything that he has.

When King said that he had a dream, his dream was the genocide of the White race after all its wealth had been plundered. At least, that is the result of the policies that he advocated and promoted. Moreover, King-idolizing conservatives have been working diligently to achieve his dream — except in the economic realm where most continue to oppose guaranteed income and reparations.

Copyright © 2023 by Thomas Coley Allen.

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King on the World House – Part 1

King on the World House – Part 1

Thomas Allen

In “The World House,” Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? (Boston: Beacon Press, 1968), pages 177–202, Martin Luther King, Jr., discusses the American Negro uniting with nonwhites around the world in their struggle for freedom, racism, colonialism and economic exploitation, poverty, war and peace, and foreign aid. The following is a critical review of King’s essay.

(First, I must remind the reader that most conservatives and nearly all conservative commentators consider King a conservative. Furthermore, many conservative commentators assert that King is an archconservative and the greatest conservative ever. Some have even deified him. Hereafter, all these conservatives are referred to as King-idolizing conservatives. Since King is an archconservative, these King-idolizing conservatives should advocate everything that King advocated.)

King supports a world welfare system. He writes that “we cannot ignore the larger world house in which we are also dwellers. Equality with whites will not solve the problems of either whites or Negroes if it means equality in a world society stricken by poverty and in a universe doomed to extinction by war.” (P. 177.) (King-idolizing conservatives need to stop objecting to nonmilitary foreign aid and start opposing military foreign aid.)

Then, he mentions the inventions and discoveries made during the previous 100 years. (He fails to mention that Whites are responsible for these inventions and discoveries.)

Next, King states that “what is happening in the United States today is a significant part of a world development.” (P. 179.) That is, the civil rights movement needed to spread across the planet. (Neoconservatives have accommodated King by forcing his civil rights movement on the world. When necessary, they use war to impose King’s civil rights movement. White countries outside the Muslim world have surrendered to King’s civil rights movement with little resistance. However, war has been required in the White and nonwhite Muslim world. So far, most of East Asia and India have avoided having King’s civil rights movement imposed on them.)

Erroneously, King declares that what “we are seeing now is a freedom explosion” (P. 179.) (On the contrary, except for the defunct Soviet block, most countries are much less free today than they were before King’s civil rights movement. Ironically, freedom has been dying faster in the United States, the White Anglophone countries, and Western Europe than anywhere else on the planet, and these are the countries where the civil rights movement has advanced the furthest.)

Continuing, King remarks that “the era of colonialism, is at an end. East is moving West. The earth is being redistributed.” (P. 180.) (What are the American Negroes going to do when China conquers the United States? The only use that the Chinese will have for most Negroes is manual labor. They certainly will have no use for them as whining welfare recipients and habitual complainers who are never satisfied.)

Next, King claims, “Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever.” (P. 180.) (Anyone who cares about the White race, especially Southerners, who are now the oppressed, needs to hope that King is right. Negroes, who are the oppressors, need to hope that King is wrong.)

Then, King compares the biblical story of Moses demanding that Pharaoh let the Israelites go with the American Negro. (However, King does not complete the analogy. When Pharaoh let the Israelites go, the Israelites left Egypt. To complete the analogy, the American Negroes would have to leave the United States. Moreover, if King envisioned himself as Moses delivering his people from bondage, then King should have led his people to the promised land in Africa.)

King remarks that the American Negro “has been caught up by the spirit of the times, and with his black brothers of Africa and his brown and yellow brothers in Asia, South America and the Caribbean, the United States Negro is moving with a sense of great urgency toward the promised land of racial justice.” (P. 180.) (Now, many Negroes are probably having second thoughts about uniting with their black, brown, and yellow brothers flooding America and claiming rights and privileges that Whites had given the Negro. Also, their promised land of racial justice seems void of any racial justice for Whites.)

Then, King writes, “Together we must learn to live as brothers or together we will be forced to perish as fools.” (P. 181.) (King seems to have omitted Whites from his brotherhood — except White Communists, White liberal Negrophiles, and White oligarchs. He certainly omits Southerners and White segregationists.)

Correctly, King states, “The richer we have become materially, the poorer we have become morally and spiritually. . . .  Enlarged material powers spell enlarged peril if there is not proportionate growth of the soul.” (Pp. 181-182.)

King writes, “Among the moral imperatives of our time, we are challenged to work all over the world with unshakable determination to wipe out the last vestiges of racism.” (P. 183.) (White racism has mostly vanished from the world. However, the racism of the other races is as strong as ever, and even the racism of the American Negro has been growing stronger ever since King inflamed it.)

According to King, economic exploitation is the perennial ally of racism. (If true, then the Negro’s economic exploitation of Whites proves that Negroes are racists — in spite of the accepted definition of “racist” that declares that Negroes cannot be racists.)

Then, King comments on the racism of South Africa and claims that “the economic policies of the United States and Great Britain” (p. 183) make possible “the racist government of South Africa.” (P. 183.) (Yet, the economic policies of the United States and Great Britain brought down the White racist government of South Africa and replaced it with a Negro racist government. Ever since South Africa has been deteriorating while the Afrikaners are being genocided.)

Next, King comments on Rhodesia and the aid given to Rhodesia by “British-based industry and private capital, despite the stated opposition of British government policy.” (P. 184.) (In 1979, the White government of Rhodesia fell. The country changed its name to Zimbabwe, and Negroes gained control of the government. After the Negroes drove most of the Whites from the country, the Negroes of Zimbabwe became poorer and more oppressed than they were under White rule. However, if he had lived to see this happy moment, King would rejoice knowing that Whites no longer oppress Negroes in Zimbabwe while complaining that Whites are not given Zimbabwe ever more money.)

King writes, “Nothing provides the Communists with a better climate for expansion and infiltration than the continued alliance of our nation with racism and exploitation throughout the world.” (P. 184.) (Being a Communist sympathizer, King should not have objected to anything that aided Communist expansion.)

Then, King declares, “And if we are not diligent in our determination to root out the last vestiges of racism in our dealings with the rest of the world, we may soon see the sins of our fathers visited upon ours and succeeding generations.” (Pp. 184-185.) (The only racism that has been rooted out is that of Whites while racism in the rest of the world is healthy, strong, and growing. As a result, the Whites of the United  States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Europe, and the rest of the world are fading away as they lose the countries that they founded and built to nonwhites.)

After discussing the exploitation of Latin America, King states, “The Bible and the annals of history are replete with tragic stories of one brother robbing another of his birthright and thereby insuring generations of strife and enmity.” (P. 185.) (King’s statement is correct. However, he confounds who is exploiting whom. King asserts that Whites are exploiting nonwhites, especially Negroes. On the contrary, Negroes and other nonwhites have been exploiting Whites for decades. By that, they create strife and enmity as they war among themselves for the spoils of Whites.)

King notes that most of the revolutionaries of Africa, Asia, and Latin America were educated in the West. Before then, many had been trained in Christian missionary schools. (Thus, Communists and Communist sympathizers had infiltrated and gained controlled universities and religious organizations even before King’s civil rights movement.)

King shows that envy is a significant motive for nonwhites to claim what Whites have. “In recent years their countries have been invaded by automobiles, Coca-Cola and Hollywood, so that even remote villages have become aware of the wonders and blessings available to God’s white children. . . . Either they share in the blessings of the world or they organize to break down and overthrow those structures or governments which stand in the way of their goals.” (P. 186.) (In other words, either Whites give Negroes and other nonwhites what they demand or they will steal it.)

Then, King declares, “And when they [colored people] look around and see that the only people who do not share in the abundance of Western technology are colored people, it is an almost inescapable conclusion that their condition and their exploitation are somehow related to their color and the racism of the white Western world.” (P. 186.) (King fails to realize that Whites obtained what they have through their intelligence and other innate attributes and traits, hard work, delaying gratification, sacrificing, etc. Erroneously, King and most other nonwhites, especially Negroes, believe that most of what Whites have, they got through exploiting nonwhites. However, Whites did not have to exploit anyone to create the wealth that they have. As for colonialism, most natives of the colonies, especially in Africa, became wealthier, healthier, and safer after the Europeans arrived than they were before the European arrival.)

Next, King asserts, “If Western civilization does not now respond constructively to the challenge to banish racism, some future historian will have to say that a great civilization died because it lacked the soul and commitment to make justice a reality for all men.” (Pp. 186-187.) (No civilization has ever come as close as Western Civilization in banishing the racism of its race, i.e., the White race. As a result, the White race has lost its soul and is dying. When the White race perishes along with its  great innate innovative intelligence, the nonwhites of the world will plunge into a dark age of poverty, tyranny, and oppression.)

Then, King declares, “Another grave problem that must be solved . . . is that of poverty on an international scale.” (P. 187.) He believed that Whites had the resources to rid the world of poverty. He states “that famine is wholly unnecessary in the modern world.” (P. 187.) (This is mostly true. When a natural disaster causes a famine, international aid usually arrives quickly to alleviate the problem. However, most famines are political. That is, the government of the country where the famine is occurring is the cause, and foreign aid offers little relief since the offending government receives the aid. War is another political problem that causes famine. The elimination of war and oppressive governments, like nearly every country has today, would eliminate most famines.) He offers several solutions for eliminating famine. (However, he fails to recognize that governments often prevent some of the solutions that he offers. King believes that governments are altruistic and benevolent, except in the South, whose governments are malevolent. Moreover, before Whites were driven from Africa, they were improving and increasing agricultural production.)

Furthermore, King favors controlling the population growth of the planet. He notes, “Most of the large undeveloped nations in the world today are confronted with the problem of excess population in relation to resources. But even this problem will be greatly diminished by wiping out poverty.” (P. 188.) Economic security and education lead to smaller families. Stabilization of the population depends on stabilizing economic resources. (One technique that the White oligarchs have used for population control besides easily available abortion is to inject people, especially Negro women, with sterilants disguised as medicine.)

Copyright © 2023 by Thomas Coley Allen.

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The Batchelor Brothers

The Batchelor Brothers

Thomas Allen

[Editor's note: Unfortunately, the formatting system for this blog is not suited for poetry. It inserts a line for a hard return.]

May twentieth, eighteen and sixty-one,

Independence declared their beloved State.

To a deadly war in a fiery din

Volunteered the valiant Batchelor brothers

Of Nash County—Jackson, Henry, and Van.

To defend family, loved ones and home,

To fight for precious liberty and God,

Is what they sought, not glory, wealth, or fame.

To repel the invading horde of blue

Is why they fought a bloody war so grim.

In North Carolina they joined and trained.

Under the great General Lee they fought.

In war-torn Virginia they took their stand.

The Batchelor brothers of Company I,

With the thirtieth, fought for blood-soaked ground

Of the Virginian towns, forests, and fields.

From these sacred pure lands they strove to drive

Satan’s great regiments from their strongholds

Back into hell across the Potomac

Into the odious vile northern wilds.

After defending the town of New Bern

From marauding Yankees, Jack, Henry, and 

Van marched to the sound of the battle horn,

North to Virginia to the Seven Days’

Battle with little chance to pause and mourn.

Mechanicsville, Cold Harbor, Malvern Hill,

They slew the evil Yanks driving them back.

Henry and many good Southerners fell

Wounded that day in July on the field

Before Malvern Hill that stretched half a mile.

Two months later to Maryland they went—

Jack and Van. To Sharpsburg they did travel.

The battle they encountered was no feint.

Blood flowed free as they faced twice their number.

Green turned red before the fighting had quit.

This one day, September seventeen, was

The bloodiest day of the four-year war.

So withdrew Satan’s cruel soldiers en masse

Taking a wounded Van with them but soon 

Paroled him. To Virginia they would cross.

The devil’s thirst was nearly quenched with blood

And his hunger satisfied with bodies

Down the Bloody Lane where gullies flowed red.

With landscape carpeted with blue and gray,

The first cost of tyranny had been paid.

Many a good Southerner had been lost, 

But their struggle for priceless liberty

Had just begun against the Northern beast.

Thus ended the summer of sixty-two.

To Virginia they returned undisgraced.

The year of sixty-three, the year of great

Battles—Chancellorsville and Gettysburg—

The three brave Batchelor brothers went to fight.

With the great General Lee, they marched. With

Stonewall Jackson’s foot cavalry they fought.

At Chancellorsville, victory they won

When Jackson’s famed foot cavalry outflanked

The Devil’s flanking horde and spoiled his plan. 

Intense combat had broken the Devil’s

Back; northward fled the swine without rapine.

But good Lee’s greatest victory came dear.

His most eminent general he lost.

How horrible is the nightmare of war!

Henry gave an arm while Jack fell wounded

As his fame grew for coolness under fire.

Lee had lost his right arm and Henry his.

For Henry the combat ended, and Jack 

Was out the remainder of the year as

Was many other good Southern soldiers;

For this miscreant they had to oppose.

Northward to Gettysburg Sergeant Van marched

Through Maryland to Pennsylvania.

For the despot’s heart, he now boldly searched

In the bowls of hell in a Northern town.

He drove the foe from Gettysburg but torched 

It not. For two more long days he remained. 

The carnage of those two days, he was spared

As Satan’s lust was fed and good men pined.

Once more death was king and agony queen.

Against metal, mortal man cannot stand.

Then back to sweat Virginia Van retired.

Pursued by the Devil’s heartless horde through

The land until they met at Kelly’s Ford.

Here the thirtieth suffered large losses.

Many were captured including Van. Feared

They the worst, and the worst certainly came.

To prison they went. Van to Point Lookout.

The fighting had drawn to an end for him.

Here he stayed until the last year of war,

But he would surely suffer in this tomb.

His brutal captors dragged him off to hell.

In a damp cell he was forcibly thrown.

Hunger and cold he endured in this hole

While his fat guards burned bodies for their warmth.

Disease and death filled this sadistic hall.

Deprived of medicine, clothing, and food

In the land of plenty, this want friends were

not allowed to alleviate with aid.

As their hopelessness grew, their life became

Filled with despair. All suffered; many died.

The year of sixty-four had arrived with

One brother in prison and the other 

A cripple; Jack alone stood in their path.

With his ragged clothes and empty belly,

He would keep on fighting the behemoth

Of the North, for he held liberty dear

And knew it was not free. He continued

The struggle against Satan’s great empire.

Disease and want reared their ugly faces.

With fortitude the men in gray stayed pure.

The Great Slaughterer had taken command

Of Satan’s horde. To send his troops against

Southern lines till their shoot was spent, he planned.

He would turn his blue Yankees red, for no

Simpler or deadlier plan could be found.

What did death matter to him. His foe weak,

And he strong. At his beckoning, he had

The world; surely he would make the South shake.

He could sacrifice ten of his to kill

One of theirs. Southern blood the ground would soak.

In the Wilderness Jack met him and fought

At Union and Mule Shoe the battle raged.

With death all about, would it be his fate?

Line after line, wave after wave, on they

Came, bleeding and dying as they were shot.

On to Cold Harbor move the Southern men

Where the fighting intensified. More died

As the Great Slaughterer forced his troops on, 

But the Southern lines held, and the massive

Bloody assault proved futile while death won.

Summer came and into Maryland crossed

Jack with Early’s corps. To Washington, the 

Tyrant’s capital, they hastily raced.

He began to see the buildings and lights

Of Satan’s place as the distance closed.

Panic filled the wicked hearts as the front

Came to the Sodom on the Potomac

Where he heard depravity’s mournful rant.

But victory was not theirs. With evil’s

Strength too strong, back to Virginia he went.

To the defense of Petersburg, he came

In the last year of war. Here he would

Make his last great stand against the vile crime

That had destroyed his homeland. As he faced

The enemy’s siege, he long to be home.

Attack and counterattack, on he fought

Though he knew he had lost. But liberty

He held dear, so he continued to fight.

Weary and tired of cold and hunger, of 

Sweet home he thought. Would he die here and rot?

Then came spring, and the last great march he took.

To Appomattox Jack went. The advance

Guard was he of a future black and bleak.

On the Yankees he fired that dark morning

Of April nine, the day the South was struck

Down, the end of time, the day the South died,

The day Lee surrendered. Jack lingered on

Another weary week before he laid

Down his arms and received his parole at

Bunkeville Junction. He gave his lifeblood.

Four years they had lost, Henry, Jack, and Van.

Home they now returned to rebuild their lives

From the ruins of war. Much had to be done.

The great joy of reuniting with their

Families was short-lived, for much more pain

They would suffer. That which they had feared most

Came to past. Yankee oppressors swooped down

To devour them with a great vengeful thirst.

Allying themselves with the black horde and

White Southern traitors, the South they would waste.

Their State was reduced to a province with

No self-government. Black ignorance filled

The land. They were governed by the black death.

Their homes were pillaged; their women were raped.

Their lands burned beneath Satan’s evil wrath.

With their liberties gone, despair filled all.

They would have perished if it were not for

The hooded white knights coming forth to heal

A dying nation by driving Satan’s

Worse out of the South and back into hell.

From the Glory of War by Thomas Coley Allen (Franklinton, NC: TC Allen Co., 2006)

Copyright © 2006 by Thomas Coley Allen

[Note: Jack Batchelor is the author’s great grandfather.]