Comments on: Near and Distant Pasts Revisited: My 2001 interview with David Woodbury

By: renegadesouth

renegadesouth — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 14:07:57 +0000

Hi Leroy,

Thanks for your right-to-the-point take on the cause of the Civil War, Leroy. That’s the way men like Jasper Collins saw it, too.

Vikki

By: Leroy Brister

Leroy Brister — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 05:07:33 +0000

Having been personally involved in what some people called a civil war, I much prefer to call the “War of the Rebellion” the “Civil War”. I don’t really cotton to thinking that it was over “States Rights” when the people in charge of the “Rights” were willing to deny rights to over fifty percent of the population, form a government that only represented the wealthy, white, slave-owning population, and then hide behind the bodies of the poor-whites when they started the shooting. But what do I know, I am just a South Mississippi Redneck.

By: Jim Bynum

Jim Bynum — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 00:49:19 +0000

Hi Vikki
Actually, you have been helpful in identifying the father of James M. the doctor. One confusing element was that James M. the doctor was born in 1820, the same year my James M. was born. In the book by Ruby Bynum Sanders, my group was included, but they were orphans, with no connection to her group. Since I am back in Mississippi for the winter, I will work on this some more.
Thanks
Jim

By: renegadesouth

renegadesouth — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 19:05:14 +0000

Hi Jim, it’s nice to meet you!

Yours is a branch of the Bynum family about which I know very little. Obviously, you have been researching it for some time. Based on the names and geographic information you provided in your message, it appears to me that you are descended from Jesse Bynum, b. 1803, one of the several sons of William Bynum, b. 1763. (I descended from William’s oldest son, William !!, born 1795).

According to two very careful Bynum genealogists, Wayne and JoAnn Odom Wingate. who published THE GATHERING OF BYNUMS in 2003, Jesse Bynum was the father of the James and William Bynum that you mention living in Lauderdale County. Jesse would have been only 16 or 17 when he fathered James, admittedly young, but certainly not impossible.

The Wingates identify James M. Bynum, the doctor, as the son of Jesse’s brother, Drury Bynum.

You probably already know all the above, so I’m not sure I’ve helped you. Bynum genealogy is incredibly difficult to sort out because there are so many names “James” and “William” in each generation!

Would love to her more from you and from other Bynum researchers.

Vikki

By: Jim Bynum

Jim Bynum — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 21:35:11 +0000

Hi Victoria,
South Mississippi genealogy gets a little confusing, especially on the Bynum family. As an example, I grew up near Rawls Springs where William Bynum first showed up about 1816. My grandfather Hugh Bynum and his father James M. Bynum Jr. lived near Providence Baptist Church. My problem is that James M. Bynum Jr. and his father James M. Bynum Sr. moved from Neshoba County to Monroe (Eatonville -near providence) about 1870. This is about the time of the deaths of William Bynum (1886) and Mary Bynum (1876) who were members at Providence.

So far I have traced my line back to the 1840 marriage of James M. Bynum Sr. in Lauderdale County. At that time there was a Jesse Bynum there who was 16 years older that James. There was also a William Bynum. Jesse requested the court issue a marriage license in 1842, but did not state the relationship.

It appears Jesse and James are probably brothers, prehaps William is too. While it would be easy to assume there is a connect to the Jesse Bynum of Covington County
in 1830. That may not be the case.

Both side of the Bynum lines in South Mississppi deny any connect. Which creates another puzzle. James Sr `in Neshoba Co. in 1859, James Jr was born in 1860 and there was a James M. that enlisted at Ellisville.

There has been too many James M. Bynums. As an example, There was a Dr. James M. Bynum, about the same age, who came from South Carolina and stayed with the Mixons. A picture of Mr. and Mrs. Bynum was acquired from the Mixons, but it wasn’t my ggrandfather and of course, as you know, there was lots of Bynums in the area.

I am more incline to think I am missing a generation between James Sr. and the Regulator James Bynum who appeared to have disappeared. Any thoughts?

By: renegadesouth

renegadesouth — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 03:26:06 +0000

Hi Frazer,

Thanks for commenting; I appreciate your interest in the Free State of Jones.

I agree with you that most Unionists were not fighting to free the slaves. Still, there was a vibrant abolitionist movement, comprised of both blacks and whites, that always viewed the war as a means for ending slavery (see my recent post on Moncure Conway.)

I also agree that states rights was an important political issue leading to the war. But it’s hard to believe that the nation would have gone to war over states rights alone if the future of slavery in the territories had not been at stake. The way I see it, it was possible to fight for or against slavery’s expansion into the territories as a “states rights” issue, and yet also not be fighting to end slavery. Yet, in the end, slavery stands out as the issue that caused the Civil War.

Hope you continue to visit Renegade South.

Vikki

By: Frazer Crane

Frazer Crane — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 22:28:34 +0000

I have read the book – The State of Jones- Well done I thought. But still very sad what happened in the south after the war. I am giving a lecture on the Reconstuction and found this book very helpfull.
My ancestor William Ashley Frazer – fought in the war- I have his original dairy that I have donated to the public library in Albany , New York. Still today people have much hatred. Educaion is so important. Rember the Civil War – was not to free the slaves – but over State Rights- A few of us call it the War Between the sTates.
Frazer Crane

By: Leroy Brister

Leroy Brister — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 03:15:49 +0000

” He quoted a passage of scripture, calling on Joel Harvey to know if that was not so. Harvey replied as follows: “I have no objection to meeting and praying. That’s all right enough. But I don’t intend to fast and pray just because Jeff Davis tells me to do so. When they were instigating this war, they didn’t call on the Churches to pray them into it; and now they needn’t call on them to pray ‘em out of it. I don’t owe allegiance to Jeff Davis nor Abe Lincoln.” Jason Niles Diary, Tuesday, March 24, 1863