Diversity in Dixieland (National Post, October 27, 2004)

SAVANNAH, Ga. and CHARLESTON, S.C. - Everyone asks: Has American politics ever been so divisive? Last week I toured Savannah, Ga., and Charleston, S.C., two solidly Bush states that display scant evidence of an election campaign in furious progress. But in those same cities, America's most divisive historical experience -- the Civil War -- is part of the air one breathes. There's little to compare between a civil war that killed one in 50 of the population (that would be six million today) and today's divisive opinion wars, but the media feeds on aroused passions, and perspective has been sidelined.

Tour the gracious, planned city of historic Savannah, and her lovely neighbourhood squares featuring 300 years of iconic architecture. These enclaves narrowly escaped Atlanta's fate of being burnt to the ground by General Sherman. (They wined and dined him, so he moved on to burn down Columbia instead.)

Or take a stroll through Charleston's historic district and visit the sites where the Civil War began and ended as your tour guide candidly points out, amongst the commemorative statues and cannons, the garage-like restored former slave quarters behind that town's magnificently refurbished waterfront mansions.

Slavery was divisive. Secession was divisive. Most civil wars end in permanent fissure. The American miracle was in the post-war healing. And no part of the United States is more fiercely patriotic today than the South. So take heart. The country will not implode over Bush v. Kerry.

Northerners can't get past the slavery issue when viewing the South. Slavery was so egregiously immoral that whatever else the old South got right flies below the radar of historical interest. Nonetheless something special was done right in the South: religious pluralism.

The subject was on my own radar screen because our tour group had singled out the Jewish presence in the South for special attention. And the religious enlightenment of the old South meant -- a rare historical footnote -- 300 years of freedom from anti-Semitism for the lucky Jewish families who'd settled there. Even by 21st-century standards (anyone been to Europe lately?) that's not something to be taken for granted.

Unlike northern Jews who were frostily received in big cities and who endured two or more generations of overt anti-Semitism, Jews in the South have since the early 1700s enjoyed a remarkably warm relationship with their white Christian neighbours. That is because the Jews of the South were as a matter of policy recruited by English colonizers to come to Savannah and "Charles Town," along with minority Christian groups: Scots Presbyterians, Huguenots, Lutherans, Quakers and English Baptists. According to the Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina (drafted by John Locke), "any 7 or more persons agreeing in any religion, shall constitute a church."

Included in this description were slaves. All religions were accorded spiritual parity and freedom of worship. The First African Baptist Church in Savannah -- planned and constructed by slaves themselves -- has been in continuous service for 226 years.

The Jews who accepted England's invitation felt as though they had arrived in the Promised Land. They could take up any profession, trade and make partnerships with non-Jews, own and will private property, and run for public office. They took advantage of these rights and prospered. Southern Jews held high office and fought in the Revolutionary War of 1776.

(It would be an inspirational story if Southern Jews hadn't also owned slaves. But, sadly, there isn't a single Southern Jewish abolitionist on record. Paradoxically, free and integrated -- though not assimilated -- Jews, who every Passover thanked God for their liberation from Egypt, chose regional mores and social acceptance over natural justice.)

Remember this the next time you hear the Civil War being recounted as a simple morality tale: Collective guilt loves company, and there's plenty to spread around. In 1860, cotton accounted for a full 57% of American exports and literally supported the U.S. economy. Northerners long enjoyed the prosperity they knew slavery had created while claiming the moral high ground. The-near-Armageddon of the North-South clash and their subsequent reconciliation should be a cautionary tale for rabid Bush or Kerry haters who are stoking the flames of exaggerated divisiveness today. Hated policies can and should be resisted through every democratic means, but when half the population in a democracy supports a leader or a party, nobody's side is all black or all white.

© National Post 2004