www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall Fleur-di-Lis

Could this Alabama city be the next target of the political correctness crowd’s ire?
WRITTEN BY ELIZABETH BESHEARS ON JULY 10, 2015 AT 12:31 PM CDT


MOBILE, Ala. — In the aftermath of the Charleston Shooting, many have turned their attention from the 9 victims of the deranged racist to the Confederate battle flag and other symbols of the Civil War. Now a new symbol is in the crosshairs.

Mobile, Alabama’s oldest city, was once the capital of the French colony of Louisiana, and much like its cultural sister New Orleans, prominently features many of the emblems of that country even today. Now some are targeting the fleur-de-lis—one of the most recognizable French symbols—as racist.

According to slave historian Dr. Ibrahima Seck, slaves in the colony of Louisiana would be branded with the fleur-de-lis if they were caught running away.

“As an African I find it painful, and I think people whose ancestors were enslaved here may feel it even harder than I do as an African,” Seck said of the symbol.

The momentum to remove any remnants of the Confederacy from Southern culture has increased dramatically in the last several weeks, even growing to prompt the Birmingham city government to remove a 110-year-old memorial erected by the Daughters of the Confederacy from city property, and the Memphis city government to propose disinterring Confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest.

But Tulane University professor Terence Fitzmorris says the fleur-de-lis should not be compared to the Confederate battle flag.

“The fleur de lis was the symbol of a monarchy. The United States of America was a slave-holding republic, not just the south. Where do you stop? Do you get rid of all symbols?”

The Iconoclasts ride again.

Kyrie eleison.

Amen!

Before there were African Slaves there was Irish Slaves: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_immigration_to_Barbados

While we are at it lets remove the monuments of Jefferson, Washington, and other founding fathers. All were slave owners.

The Fleur-de-lis is, first and foremost, a religious symbol of the Most Holy Trinity and also of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

It became a monarchical symbol because the Royal banner of France had a field of blue or white which was covered by Fleurs-de-lis. This was primarily, once again, a religious symbol and the republican governments of later France exchanged it for their tricolour.

The flags and coats of arms of Canada and Quebec have the fleurs-de-lis . . . and Upper Canada's Lt. Governor John Graves Simcoe, a student of William Wilberforce, enacted his first pieces of legislation to curtail slavery just prior to Emancipation Day in 1834.

And it is said, by way of legend, that the daughter of St Yaroslav the Wise of Kyiv, Queen Anna of France, herself influenced the design of this French emblem based on the . . . Royal trident of St Volodymyr the Great . . . (this weekend, Ukraine celebrates "Anna-fest" in her honour . . .).

So one reason for not touching the fleur-de-lis is that it may upset Ukrainians.

And you don't want to upset Ukrainians nowadays . . .

Vive la France! Vive le Roi!

Alexandre

Alex,

Thank you for the post.

Similar education is needed--not so much on this forum as with the wider world--regarding the "St. Andrew's Cross" which forms the blue center of the embattled "Confederate flag".

Dear Thomas,

And please don't tell anyone that Canada is a Confederation . . .

That would cause a whole new range of issues . . .

Alex

The United States Articles of CONFEDERATION which governed this new nation until 1789 were adopted while Congress was meeting in my home town.

There was an old film of a group of Civil War veterans "of the blue and the grey" who ran down a slope towards each other where they had, as young men, attacked on horse-back.

When they reached one another, they shook hands and hugged. One of the Confederate veterans gave out a shout, while a Union veteran turned to the rolling camera and said, "Now that's a rebel yell . . ."

God bless America!

Alex