CHILDREN PAY IN THE MONUMENT TO A RACIST SLAVE OWNER

By Juan Montoya
The father of those two darling little Hispanic babies probably doesn't realize that his children are cavorting around a monument erected to the memory of the man who was president of the southern rebel states who went to war to defend their right to own other human beings.
Smack in the middle of downtown Brownsville – Washington Park to be specific – sits the monument to Jefferson Davis, the one and only president of the Confederate States of America.

The plaque on the monument states it was erected by the United Daughters of the Confederacy. 

Davis, who has some ties to Brownsville when he landed at Point Isabel and joined up and  served under Zachary Taylor as a colonel of a volunteer regiment from Mississippi, was a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He was also Taylor's son-in-law.

His regiment became known as the Mississippi Rifles and fought in the siege of Monterrey and Buena Vista.

From 1853 to 1857 he served as the U.S. Secretary of War under President Franklin Pierce. He was later a Democratic senator from Mississippi.

His biographer wrote that he was an operator of a large cotton plantation in Mississippi with over 100 slaves, and was well known for his support of slavery during his time in the Senate.

Although opposed to secession while back in the Senate, he continued to defend the rights of southern slave states. Davis remained in the Senate until January 1861, resigning when Mississippi left the Union.

In conjunction with the formation of the Confederacy, Davis was named president of the Confederate States of America on February 18, 1861. On May 10, 1865, he was captured by Union forces near Irwinville, Georgia, and charged with treason.
Davis was imprisoned at Fort Monroe in Virginia from May 22, 1865, to May 13, 1867, before being released on bail paid partly by abolitionist Horace Greely.
Other U.S. military men who came here during the U.S.-Mexico war also ended up serving in the confederacy.
Although opposed to secession, while back in the Senate, Davis continued to defend the rights of southern slave states. He remained in the Senate until January 1861, resigning when Mississippi left the Union.
Davis was not the only future CSA officer who served here with Taylor before the Civil War.
Within the army that Taylor commanded were no less than 37 future generals who would participate on both sides in the in the Civil War, not to mention two future presidents, U.S. Grant and Taylor. A third future president – Franklin Pierce – was an officer in the forces of Winfield Scott when he invaded Mexico through Veracruz, as was Robert E. Lee, the future military leader of the Confederate States of America.
Robert E. Lee, who participated in the fighting in Mexico was not at Palo Alto, but was part of a force that left with Winfield Scott to invade Veracruz. He would later serve here in the Civil War chasing Juan Cortina. But 23 future Union generals were, as were another 14 generals who would eventually join the Confederacy.
During the siege of Ft. Brown, nine future CSA generals were also there.
Many critics of displaying the confederacy imagery would probably not agree that a monument exist at Washington Park. But Brownsville – being the backwater that we are – takes it in stride and thinks nothing of it. Monuments at the park include one to Cuba liberator Jose Marti and George Washington, the father of this country. Davis, as leader of the breakaway states bent on splitting the nation seems an incongruous addition to this pantheon of freedom fighters.
Because of the Union blockade of southern ports that resulted from secession, men like Charles Stillman, Mifflin Kenedy and Richard King were able to build empires smuggling confederate cotton through Puerto Bagdad under the Mexican flag made possible by the original Francisco Yturria.
An Palmito Hill was also the scene of the last battle of the Civil War fought a month after the surrender of the CAA under Lee to Ulysses Grant.
Why does this city have a monument dedicated to the president of the rebellion defending slavery?