The Settler Colonialist Narrative

"A Confederate Colonel's ghost haunts the ruins"

C.C. Pegues was wounded in Virginia at the Battle of Gaines' Mills, June 27, 1862.

He died July 15, 1862—still in Virginia, 800 miles away.

But somehow his ghost made it back to Alabama?

325 Years of Violence on Contested Land

October 18, 1540: Battle of Mabila

Up to 5,000 Native Americans killed

(More deaths than 9/11: 2,977)

Chief Tuskaloosa's confederation* massacred by Spanish conquistador Hernando De Soto. One of the bloodiest battles in North American history before the Civil War.

[ 274 years: Creek Indian territory ]

March 27, 1814: Battle of Horseshoe Bend

800+ Creek Indians killed

Andrew Jackson's forces. Largest loss of Native American life in any single battle with U.S. forces.

August 9, 1814: Treaty of Fort Jackson

Creek Indians forced to cede 23 million acres to the United States.

1820s-1860s: Cotton Boom

Cahawba becomes one of wealthiest towns in America. Prime lots selling $5,000 (~$150,000 today).

Built entirely on enslaved African American labor

Two of the bloodiest massacres of Native Americans in North American history occurred on this exact land. Valuable enough to commit genocide for—twice—then immediately convert into a wealth extraction machine.

The Sultana Disaster

April 27, 1865

2,000 soldiers from Cahawba prison camp board the Sultana—a ship meant for 300 people.

The ship catches fire on the way to Illinois.

As many as 1,800 die

Deadliest maritime disaster in U.S. history.

Who Gets Remembered?

One Confederate officer's ghost becomes the story.

Meanwhile:

• Historians still "debate" where 5,000 Indigenous people were massacred

• African Americans built this wealth through enslavement, then claimed political power during Reconstruction

• Jeremiah Haralson—born into slavery, self-educated, went from bondage to the U.S. Congress in a decade. After Democrats used violence and fraud to end Reconstruction, he was convicted of pension fraud and entered a New York prison in 1895. The warden signed his arrival form. Then: nothing. No release record. No verified death. He vanished from history entirely. Alabama didn't elect another Black congressman until 1992.

• As many as 1,800 Union soldiers survived Cahawba prison, then died when their ship exploded on the way home

The Union soldiers who survived Cahawba prison only to die on the Sultana don't haunt this place. Neither do the 147 soldiers who died while imprisoned by Confederate soldiers.

The pattern: Confederate nostalgia replaces Black liberation and Indigenous genocide.