I just found your channel and love the content. The unfiltered opinions and comments of your guests are immensely satisfying and informative to me. It's helping me shape and refine my own views on the American civil war and its' characters. To offer a minor critique to the scholar here, I am increasingly finding the value of monuments and statues worthwhile. I think some public display that is easily accessible (museums too obviously) offer a layman's waypoint or foundation stone in learning and understanding human history. The need for tactile evidence is universal to all people. From the Jews marking the crossing into Canaan, to even the statue of Lee formerly in Richmond. From a religious perspective as a Christian myself I understand General Lee's sentiments on his distaste to be immortalized through statues and etc as somewhat vain and fleeting in comparison to the eternity that lies within Christ, I do think such physical markers offer a point on where to begin in learning a out American history.
Hi, thank you so much for your very kind words! The War is such a complex topic, with widely varying viewpoints, and approaches to those viewpoints. It's simply not a simple topic to be sure. Many attempt to boil it all down, which, to a point I understand. In so doing, however, I think context and deeply felt issues are lost, which in turn hurts the study on all sides. I took agree that there is value to the monuments and statues. Drawing from my above comment about context, such scholars as Dr. Varon, in my opinion often don't dig into the documentation/records about said monuments - who built them, why, how.... Who attended the monument's unveiling festivals.... I'm glad you mentioned your Christian viewpoint, because this is personally one area I too wrestle with. I see statues/monuments as valuable historical objects, but I also struggle with God's commandment to not make any graven images. I wish I could say that I've come to a conclusion, but I haven't, other than that many of the men "immortalized" in stone and bronze would be very much so against such creations. Thus, it seems we're in agreement about approaching such works of art at the moment. That is to say, that I'm not so sure I agree with Dr. Varon's assessment. Again, thank you for your kind words, as well as your listening to my podcast! God Bless.
Hi Robert I've recently been researching into my family tree on ancestry, my names Lewis west I live in Bedfordshire in the uk, I've traced my family directly back from my father to Colonel John West, Jr. of West Point, Virginia (1632-1691) who according to my research my family was on of the families of virginia would my family in some way be connected to the videos and stories you tell on here? I've been amazed at some of the stuff I've discovered about my family
Hi Tyrone, Yes, the West family was a major 17th century family in Virginia, and John was indeed a key member of that family. West Point was named for them, as was "West" and Shirley Hundred and Westover Plantation. The John West you mentioned descended from another John West, a huge figure in early VA, as the Wests were early governors of the colony. John was brother of the 4th Baron of De la Warr, Thomas West 3rd Baron De la Warr, Governor of VA for whom Delaware was named. The same John West you named potentially married or at least had children with Cockacoeske, Queen of the Pamunkey Tribe, who famously hid from Nathaniel Bacon during Bacon's Rebellion. This John West settled near West Point and New Kent County on land that passed into the Claiborne family after intermarriage. William Claiborne then built his plantation home Romancoke on the property. Romanocoke eventually passed into the Lee family through marriage, and Robert E. Lee's son lived there after the Civil War. It was such an interconnected place that most of Virginia's leading families passed through the area, and even stayed on site as it was part of an important crossroads leading into the York River. Anyway, that's a very brief run down to be sure, but the Wests were extremely important colony builders, who were very connected to all the leaders of the Colony, and their blood is in the veins of many "First Families of Virginia." Thanks for reaching out!
@@rvanness thanks mate, sorry Tyrone is my friends name I am using his youtube account lol, so my names Lewis Aaron West, as I'm sure you know the west's are of British blood, I live here in Bedfordshire UK, and I am a direct blood relative of John west, I believe he is roughly my 9-10th Great grandfather, and yes I think that's correct regarding his child with the native queen as on my family tree I have links someone with the name totopotomoi
@@rvanness has shocked me what I've discovered about my family and from what I can see they was avid breeders😂 resulting in an almost impossible family tree to follow that branches into america, I had no idea my family had such a big role is British colonial America and further on into American history
@@ty96960 yes, Cockacoeske was married to Totopotomoi (Spelled many ways btw). Totapotomoi and the Pamunkey tribe were allies of the English, but were left exposed in a 1650s battle at a place called Bloody Run in today's Richmond, VA. Totopotomoi was killed, leaving Cockacoeske a widow, who then took control of the Pamunkey nation. She was a very able, powerful leader, and well respected by the English. Interesting side note, a town north of Richmond was named in Totopotomoi's honor, and Patrick Henry lived there for a short while with his first wife. Henry's second wife was a Dandridge, who if you dig deeply enough is loosely related to the Wests as well.
I just found your channel and love the content. The unfiltered opinions and comments of your guests are immensely satisfying and informative to me. It's helping me shape and refine my own views on the American civil war and its' characters.
To offer a minor critique to the scholar here, I am increasingly finding the value of monuments and statues worthwhile. I think some public display that is easily accessible (museums too obviously) offer a layman's waypoint or foundation stone in learning and understanding human history. The need for tactile evidence is universal to all people. From the Jews marking the crossing into Canaan, to even the statue of Lee formerly in Richmond. From a religious perspective as a Christian myself I understand General Lee's sentiments on his distaste to be immortalized through statues and etc as somewhat vain and fleeting in comparison to the eternity that lies within Christ, I do think such physical markers offer a point on where to begin in learning a out American history.
Hi, thank you so much for your very kind words!
The War is such a complex topic, with widely varying viewpoints, and approaches to those viewpoints. It's simply not a simple topic to be sure. Many attempt to boil it all down, which, to a point I understand. In so doing, however, I think context and deeply felt issues are lost, which in turn hurts the study on all sides.
I took agree that there is value to the monuments and statues. Drawing from my above comment about context, such scholars as Dr. Varon, in my opinion often don't dig into the documentation/records about said monuments - who built them, why, how.... Who attended the monument's unveiling festivals....
I'm glad you mentioned your Christian viewpoint, because this is personally one area I too wrestle with. I see statues/monuments as valuable historical objects, but I also struggle with God's commandment to not make any graven images. I wish I could say that I've come to a conclusion, but I haven't, other than that many of the men "immortalized" in stone and bronze would be very much so against such creations. Thus, it seems we're in agreement about approaching such works of art at the moment. That is to say, that I'm not so sure I agree with Dr. Varon's assessment.
Again, thank you for your kind words, as well as your listening to my podcast! God Bless.
Hi Robert I've recently been researching into my family tree on ancestry, my names Lewis west I live in Bedfordshire in the uk, I've traced my family directly back from my father to Colonel John West, Jr. of West Point, Virginia (1632-1691) who according to my research my family was on of the families of virginia would my family in some way be connected to the videos and stories you tell on here? I've been amazed at some of the stuff I've discovered about my family
Hi Tyrone, Yes, the West family was a major 17th century family in Virginia, and John was indeed a key member of that family. West Point was named for them, as was "West" and Shirley Hundred and Westover Plantation. The John West you mentioned descended from another John West, a huge figure in early VA, as the Wests were early governors of the colony. John was brother of the 4th Baron of De la Warr, Thomas West 3rd Baron De la Warr, Governor of VA for whom Delaware was named.
The same John West you named potentially married or at least had children with Cockacoeske, Queen of the Pamunkey Tribe, who famously hid from Nathaniel Bacon during Bacon's Rebellion. This John West settled near West Point and New Kent County on land that passed into the Claiborne family after intermarriage. William Claiborne then built his plantation home Romancoke on the property. Romanocoke eventually passed into the Lee family through marriage, and Robert E. Lee's son lived there after the Civil War. It was such an interconnected place that most of Virginia's leading families passed through the area, and even stayed on site as it was part of an important crossroads leading into the York River. Anyway, that's a very brief run down to be sure, but the Wests were extremely important colony builders, who were very connected to all the leaders of the Colony, and their blood is in the veins of many "First Families of Virginia."
Thanks for reaching out!
@@rvanness thanks mate, sorry Tyrone is my friends name I am using his youtube account lol, so my names Lewis Aaron West, as I'm sure you know the west's are of British blood, I live here in Bedfordshire UK, and I am a direct blood relative of John west, I believe he is roughly my 9-10th Great grandfather, and yes I think that's correct regarding his child with the native queen as on my family tree I have links someone with the name totopotomoi
@@rvanness has shocked me what I've discovered about my family and from what I can see they was avid breeders😂 resulting in an almost impossible family tree to follow that branches into america, I had no idea my family had such a big role is British colonial America and further on into American history
@@ty96960 yes, Cockacoeske was married to Totopotomoi (Spelled many ways btw). Totapotomoi and the Pamunkey tribe were allies of the English, but were left exposed in a 1650s battle at a place called Bloody Run in today's Richmond, VA. Totopotomoi was killed, leaving Cockacoeske a widow, who then took control of the Pamunkey nation. She was a very able, powerful leader, and well respected by the English.
Interesting side note, a town north of Richmond was named in Totopotomoi's honor, and Patrick Henry lived there for a short while with his first wife. Henry's second wife was a Dandridge, who if you dig deeply enough is loosely related to the Wests as well.