would be incredible were they not buttressedrnby irrefutable evidence.rnThe present book is exactly what onernmight expect from the collaboration of arnbrilliant lawyer and a courageous journalist,rnboth of them motivated by outragernat the atrocities inflicted on innocentrnpeople by crooked and/or derangedrntherapists and prosecutors and theirrncheerleaders from the unhappy alliancernof radical feminists and fundamentalists.rn(Why am I not surprised to find that onernof the worst false convictions outlined inrnthis book was secured by a Florida prosecutorrnnamed Janet Reno?) PresidentrnClinton, who is so keen on having a warrncrimes trial root out the collective sins ofrna community and its leaders, could findrnwork enough in Southern Californiarnwithout venturing into the Balkans.rnThere is blame enough here, and tornspare; blame for thousands of individualsrnand groups; for the true believers, for thernpressure groups who permitted the scandal,rnand—perhaps even more—for thernmedia who consistently failed to standrnup for the truth. The authors end with arnpowerful but presumably futile appealrnfor reparations and redress: “The involvementrnof women’s activists in this effortrnwould also help feminism’s sulliedrnreputation among people who havernsuffered from false charges. Child protectionistsrnand feminists who refuse tornhelp make these amends will ultimatelyrnbe remembered as the deluded commandersrnof a crusade whose enemiesrnwere phantoms, but whose casualtiesrnwere all too real.” Put another way, theyrnwill go down in history as the people whorngave Devil worship and human sacrificerna bad name.rnPhilip Jenkins is head of the reUgiousrnstudies program at Penn State University.rnHis latest book, Pedophiles and Priests:rnAnatomy of a Social Crisis, was justrnreleased by Oxford University Press.rnFor Immediate Servicern• • •rnCHRONICLESrnNEW SUBSCRIBERSrnTOLL FREE NUMBERrn1-800-877-5459rnBlack Confederatesrnby Clyde WilsonrnBlack Confederates andrnAfro-Yankees in Civil War VirginiarnBy Ervin L. Jordan, Jr.rnCharlottesville: UniversityrnPress of Virginia;rn447 pp., $67.50rnBlack Slaveowners: Free BlackrnSlavemasters inrnSouth Carolina,rn1790-1860rnBy Larry KogerrnColumbia: University ofrnSouth Carolina Press;rn286 pp., $14.95rnBlack Confederates! Remember, yournheard it here first. You will be hearingrnmore if you have any interest at allrnin the Great Unpleasantness of the lastrncentury that is the focal point of Americanrnhistory. There are more things inrnheaven and earth, dear Horatio, than arerndreamed of by Ken Burns.rnIn the film Gettysburg appears the EnglishrnColonel Arthur Fremantle, playedrnas a somewhat silly character. Fremantlernwas a real person who accompanied thernConfederate Army on the Gettysburgrncampaign and published a book, ThreernMonths in the Southern States. One incidentrnnoted by Fremantle in his book didrnnot, of course, make it into the movie—rnthe spectacle of a black Confederaternmarching a file of Yankee prisoners tornthe rear.rnReal life is always a lot more complicatedrnthan ideological history. The imagernthat most Americans carry around inrntheir heads of the Old South and thernblack slavery that flourished over muchrnof this continent for two and a half centuriesrnis cartoonish and largely misleading.rn(Just think of Uncle Tom’s Cabinrnand Roots.) It is also, of course, extremelyrncomforting to the mainstream Americanrnconsciousness to think of the heroicrnsoldiers in blue marching forth to strikernthe chains from the suffering black peoplern—setting aside the fact that emancipationrndid not become a war goal untilrnwell after hostilities had begun, and thatrnin many cases it resulted only in destructivernuprooting or a change of masters.rnThe material brought forth in theserntwo recently published works has notrnbeen unknown; it has always been selfevidentrnto serious historians who havernworked with primary sources. Largernnumbers of black people identified thernSouth and the Confederacy as theirrnhomeland and homefolks, and did notrnrush into the arms of the emancipators.rnThis really is not surprising to anyonernwho knows anything about history or humanrnnature, which, of course, does notrninclude Ken Burns. The ConfederaternArmy was vastly sustained by black menrnwho drove teams, cooked, foraged, dugrnfortifications, cared for the wounded,rnand occasionally took up arms. GeorgernWashington Cable, the author, when arnmere youth of 15 or so, served as GeneralrnBedford Forrest’s headquarters clerk.rnAt the beginning of the war, Forrest tookrn50 of his slaves with him, promisingrnfreedom if they served faithfully. Cablernrecords how he was told by Forrest tornmake out emancipation papers for allrnbut one of these. A number of units ofrnfree blacks volunteered for Confederaternservice, and near the end of the war thernConfederacy had decided to enlist blackrnunits. There was much opposition tornthis invasion of private property, butrnthere was also solid support. As in thernUnion Army, they were to receive thernsame pay as white soldiers. It is a factrnthat black men who had been with thernarmy were welcomed at Confederate reunionsrnand received Confederate pensionsrnfrom Southern states.rnDr. Jordan’s book presents a tremendousrnamount of documentation aboutrnthe activities of black Virginians forrnand against the Confederacy. He is farrnfrom a Confederate sympathizer, whichrnmakes the data all the more telling.rnWhen one considers that over large areasrnof the South, the black population wasrn70 to 90 percent and most able-bodiedrnwhite men were off fighting the war, andrnthat nevertheless no uprisings or significantrnoutrages occurred on the homefront,rnone has to take a rather more complicatedrnview of the Civil War than isrnusually passed around. It is true thatrnmany slaves left when they had thernchance, when federal forces came near,rnbut sometimes they had to be takenrnaway by force. (Often they found themselvesrnpressed into harsher service withrnthe Union Army than with the Southern.)rnThis attitude of the blacks was notrndue to ignorance or lack of understanding.rnWhen Sherman burned over 100rnblocks of Columbia, the “winds” thatrn30/CHRONICLESrnrnrn