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About Southern cross. (Savannah, Ga.) 1963-2021 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 31, 2017)
Thursday, August 31, 2017 Commentary Silence no more J ames Henry Shank was born on April 24, 1830 in Rectortown, Fauquier County, Virginia, the son of John Henry Shank and Mary (“Polly”) Mann. His family was of German extraction on both sides. Both families were Quaker in reli gion and therefore anti-slavery, although his parents had obtained a household slave, Nathaniel. On August 21, 1831, the slave Nat Turner “led a rebel lion of slaves and free blacks in Southampton County.” Nat Turner’s Revolt “resulted in the deaths of 55 to 65 white people... In addition, white militias and mobs attacked blacks in the area, killing an estimated 120.” Late in 1831 or early in 1832— after this “servile insurrection,” but before the Virginia House of Delegates began debating the future of slavery in the Commonwealth— John Henry and Polly Shank and their children left Virginia for Ohio, where they took up a claim to land in Clinton County, to which Virginia had ceded sovereignty to the United States, while its own ership, in order to reward veterans of the Revolutionary War and their descendants. One or both of James Henry Shank’s grandfathers had fought in that war, entitling him or them to claim some land. John Henry and Polly Shank, with James Henry and Nathaniel in tow, decamped for Ohio, a free state. Upon reaching “free soil,” Nathaniel was manumitted (freed) and went his own way, which would not have been possible in Virginia at that time. Little James Henry grew up to work on his father’s farm, to marry Margaret Crosson on October 28, 1852 when he was 22 and she was 19, and to father four sons and a daughter whom he never knew. During the Civil War, sometime before the Enrollment Act of March 3, 1863, James Henry Shank, by then 33 years old, scraped togeth er .$300 (in gold) to purchase an exemption from the draft into the Union Army, not because he was anti-Union (which he was not) or because he was pro-slavery (which he and his entire Quaker family emphatically were not), but because he was responsible for his wife and four sons, whom he could not in good conscience leave to his elderly parents to support and raise. But after that Civil War Military Draft Act had passed both houses of Congress and been signed by President Abraham Lincoln, such exemptions were abolished and the only way that an able-bodied man of a certain age could avoid being drafted into the U.S. Army was to hire a substitute. Before the act went into effect, the going rate for a substitute soldier was roughly $300 (the same as an exemption), but after the act abolished exemp tions, substitutes began demand ing $1,000 or more, which James Henry Shank could not raise. So, in September 1864, my great- great grandfather James Henry Shank left his farm in Clinton County, Ohio, near Blanchester, his wife Margaret and their four sons—the eldest no more than 11 years of age—and joined the Union Army. On November 1864, he fought in the Battle of Franklin (Tennessee) and was captured by the Confederates and taken to the prison camp at Cahaba, Alabama, where he died on January 21, 1865, the day the Union prisoners revolt ed. The cause of his death was said to be pneumonia (Phthitis). On Palm Sunday, April 9, 1865, Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered the army of Northern Virginia to Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant, commanding the armies of the United States. On Good Friday, April 14, the pro-Confederate actor, John Wilkes Booth assassinated President Lincoln in Ford’s Theater, Washington D.C., thus turning the Union’s triumph into tragedy, when Honest Abe died the next day. On May 31, 1865, Margaret Crosson Shank gave birth to her and James Henry’s only daughter, Florence Mae. I seriously doubt that when my great-great grandfather took leave of his family in September 1864 he had any inkling that he had fathered another child, my great-grandmother, my Nonnie— of whom I still have two distinct memories, because she lived for 88 years, dying on April 15, 1953, 88 years to the day after President Lincoln’s death, when I was 3 and a half years old. I mention all of the above as pro logue to what follows. On Sunday, August 20, 2017, the following open letter, which I helped to draft and to edit, was published in the Statesboro Herald, signed by some 20 ministers in the Statesboro area: “The recent events of bigot ry and hatred in Charlottesville, Virginia, by those who identified themselves as White Nationalists and/or White Supremacists have brought to light the very real BIBLE ,-tV. f.« lr 4, ^Saints, iDhamrocKs Filled with engaging photos, clever and fun illustrations by YOUCAT's award winning designer, insightful sidebar quotes from great thinkers, Catholic saints and leaders, past and present, and young people living their faith today. It includes helpful introductions to the books of the Bible and short, easy-to-understand commentaries by some of today's top Bible teachers. Plus, an index of biblical names, terms, and topics. Based on the popular Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition of the Ignatius Bible, the YOUCAT Bible carefully abridges the biblical text to help young people to follow the "story" of the Bible. It also includes a special preface by Pope Francis. Find us on: facebook. www.saintsandshamrocks.com 309 Bull Street Savannah, GA 912 233-8858 Southern Cross, Page 15 need for religious leaders to stand together in opposition to such and similar groups. Grounded in our faith traditions that compel us to love our neighbors as ourselves, we, the undersigned faith leaders in Bulloch County, share our concerns and deeply held convictions, which are rooted in the Gospel of Jesus, as well as in other faith traditions from across our community. While recognizing the right to free speech, we cannot and do not condone the right to use that free dom to foment violence. We grieve over the death of Heather Heyer, who was killed in the attack on counter-protesters last Saturday, and we pray for those injured during that attack. We also grieve for the two Virginia State Troopers, Jay Cullen, and Berke M.M. Bates, who were killed in a helicopter crash while trying to prevent fur ther violence. Their deaths are only the most recent in our nation’s history that have ensued from violence based on the false doctrine of white supremacy that has been passed down from generation to generation from the birth of our nation. The grievous events in Charlottesville have further reminded us that White Supremacists are not the only hatemongers in our nation, so we also unequivocally reject the tactics of fear, violence, and racial division used by any group, regardless of the ideological belief or political perspective from which they come. It is time for us to declare togeth er that we will no longer be silent or tacitly complicit in propagating such racial discord, which contra venes our nation’s foundational belief that all men and women are created equal, and which ignores the fundamental truth that each person is made in the image of God. As a diverse group of pastors, we collectively call upon the members of our congregations and commu nity to join us as we pray for peace among all Americans and for the love of one another that will to enable this great nation to heal its ancient wounds and to thrive as never before.” Father Douglas K. Clark STL is pastor of Saint Matthew Church, Statesboro.
