Why Are There So Many Confederate Vampires? 

My wife asked me this a few months ago, and I thought the answer was pretty obvious: because the vampires in the North were all hunted and killed by Abraham Lincoln.

Abe Lincoln: Vampire Hunter has a surprisingly thoughtful take on this idea. The Confederate leadership were vampires and they wanted to keep the slave trade going so they could have an everlasting supply of people to eat. It's not a perfect parallel, but slavery and the vampire myth are both based on stripping people of their agency and identities to become commodities and fuel for the powerful's gain.

I never got very far into the Vampire Diaries but the whole time I just felt so so bad for Bonnie, the one black girl in a town with like 75 confederate re-enactment based holidays. Like even without the vampires, RUN GIRL.

Shout out to Wolverine for fighting for the North. Not a vampire, but just an old Canadian with a heart of gold.

It’s kind of funny how the most prominent defenses for the Confederacy can essentially be boiled down to “they’re not evil, they’re just stupid.”

I think Logan from the X-men series is the only immortal fictional character I’ve seen who fought for the Union in the Civil War.

What's most sad about this to me is that slave owners are a fairly good analogy for vampires if you wanted to actually dig into it. They use the lifeblood of others to survive. But it's hard to examine that when you want to make your vampires good guys instead of the vicios and morally depraved creatures that were in the early stories.

I find it fascinating that, from what I understand, Anne Rice made her vampires confederate slave owners to show that they're inhumane and don't care about humanity, and then everyone else after just took the idea of vampires during that era and just made them confederate propaganda. Very great video! as a non-american who knew nothing about the civil war and just likes vampires, I found it very informative and easy to understand!

Part of why Anne Rice hits so different is because she's literally writing gothic horror. Her vampires are monsters. Complex characters but still monsters. The 2000s pop vampire era is def bringing the Anne Rice angst but seem to drop the strict horror element and lay right into teen romance. They are usually edgy enough for the angst factor, but the Edward style vamp is still supposed to be read as a hero, not a monster. Really loses the thread of what a character like Louis is supposed to be imo. Vampirism is inherently exploitative - and I'm glad that the new show didn't want to touch the slave owner stuff for obvious reasons, but still had him wrestle with the morality of his exploitative career as a human.

How does a film titled “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter” handle this better than all of these other media? The confederate slaveholding vampire does work on the level of “this dude was a vampire even before he was turned into one” metaphor but so few of these media want to confront this.

I can't believe Abraham Lincoln Vampire hunter portrays confederate vampires more responsibly than most other vampire media.

Here's an interesting question for True Blood: Did anyone sue the vampires that hold slaves? The main argument against reparations for slavery is that "it was a long time ago", which carry even less water when the slave holders are still alive.

It’s also really weird to me that Jasper served in the confederacy because he has the power of physical empathy. Like, would not the suffering of slaves immobilize him or drive him to fight for the union? ESPECIALLY after reading Midnight Sun where we see not only can he effect the emotions of others, but other peoples emotions physically effect him 🧐🧐

“My black friend keeps asking my vampire boyfriend if he owned slaves 🙄🙄 God she’s so embarrassing!!” Is such an absolutely buck wild tone to take about something so serious. I feel like if there was a possibility my sexy boyfriend was like….a slaveowner, I’d want to know ASAP!! ???? I think the parallel between vampirism and slavery is theoretically interesting (as other comments have mentioned) but only in a more thoughtful piece of media because it runs into a bit of a snag when your vampires are cool and sexy and #damaged while also being proxies for *gestures broadly at the history of American exploitation, slavery, and colonialism*

As a Romanian, the idea of vampires spawns from our folklore of moroi (basically twilight vamps) and strigoi (basically dracula monster esc) and they were always propsed to be the rich or royalty, thoes in power essentially. Even in its base structure, vamparism has always been about lableing thoes with unequal amounts of power as "blood suckers" of the rest of the population. I assume the usa took this historical meaning, and like it does to most things, took its meaning non seriously but also in a positive sense, essentially trying to make the far right vampires seem "romantic" or "powerful". Classic propaganda taken from actual history and distorted. Dracula was always supposed to be depicted as a dying disgusting foul wealthy man, that barley even looks like a man, he meerly has power in money and mystery, but powerless in everything else.

... Holy shit you're right. If someone wanted to make a Civil War era soldier who is sympathetic, there's so many options to explore besides this problematic one. A former slave who escaped that horror and fought back against a very personal tragedy, a volunteer from another country who sympathized with the slaves, a southerner who remained loyal to the Union for any number of reasons and might well have wound up fighting their relatives. So many options to explore!

What’s crazy is that they didn’t need to be Confederate Soldiers they could have just been Soldiers from any other era on any sides. Having Confederate Soldiers in these stories as vampires kinda symbolizes this “Long Live the South” message. It’s was disappointing to see Jasper to not only feel any regret or remorse for being in the Confederacy but to be proud of it. These Pro-Confederate written color blind authors don’t see the problem these characters could represent to racism.

I think Jasper being an empath would be an incredible form of divine punishment. Imagine being involved in the deadliest war in American history and all that raw pain surrounding you. Then all the pain and suffering from the people you helped to suppress during the horrors of Reconstruction and you have to feel every bit of that suffering. If they had framed it as an ordinary man who stood by and did nothing to stop or uphold the cruelty around him then made unable to die and forced to feel all that pain he was apathetic to, that would actually be a really interesting character and story. But alas we didn't get that.

It literally never occured to me, that Tara was supposed to look antagonistic when confronting Bill there. I thought it was supposed to show, that many people (including the Stackhouses) are ignorant about the past and that Bill is able to handle it... I always just saw it as an understandable reaction from Tara. I will watch this scene with more intent the next time around. :)

Dominic Noble’s review of Interview With the Vampire has him say something along the lines of “Fortunately, his vampirism made him realize that there was no real difference between black people and white people and they’re all human; *unfortunately,* this comes with Louis no longer having respect for *any* humans”. And I still think that’s a really interesting way to handle this whole subject, honestly. I was a Twilight kid when the books were cool, but being European I had basically no historical context for the Confederacy, aside from “US south?” and “Fought in the civil war”. It came as a shock when I found out more about them later and realized during the Twilight Renaissance a few years back that none of this was ever addressed at any point.

The thing that gets me about Jasper in particular is because the Mexican-American war happened not too long before the American Civil War, and would have made far more sense given that he was turned by a Mexican trio of vampires. Literally nothing would have changed about his backstory, except you know, not a Confederate soldier.

I still have FEELINGS about The Vampire Diaries. They are: 1. Bonnie

This is still one of my favorite video essays out there covering this weird trend in Vampire fiction. That being said, I would absolutely kill for a video essay unpacking all the messed up sh*t in True Blood specifically, especially when it comes to the disproportionate amount of violence and torture that characters of color had to endure, the odd framing of positive masculinity (in the form of Werewolf Love Interest beating the crap out of some other guy with the confederate flag hanging behind him), the bizarre handling of the show's first gay couple (featuring a black man and a latino man) whose lives are brutally devastated by a Sad White Woman -- and whose ghost then gets babied and forgiven into reaching heaven??? Not to mention just... Tara in general. All of that. Oh, Tara.

Tara: Did you owned any slaves? Me a white woman (who has not seen the show): Fair question, you go girl. She was meant to come across antagonistic. Me: what???

My church had a class on helping people escape abusive relationships, and there is one line that really stuck with my from the whole thing: "The abuser's story will ALWAYS be better than the truth." When it's people we know, we always want to believe that it all is just a misunderstanding or an accident. That we don't live among monsters. The Lost Cause rhetoric is the same thing on a cultural level. It is painful to realize exactly how depraved your ancestors and your country was, so instead people continue to believe the cultural abuser. The Lie is much prettier than the truth. There will be people who believe it as long as we let them.

Woah as someone who’s been obsessed with twilight, true blood, vampire diaries and firefly I needed to see this. One of the best analyzes I’ve seen in an insanely long time. I never realized that so much pop culture had romanization of people who were pro slavery. I’m Danish so American history is not something I know a lot about, so in fact my first introduction to this part of American history was through twilight’s Jasper as a thirteen year old. Imagine how much of an impact Meyer could’ve had if she’s actually written about Jasper being a former confederate soldier in a critical and honest way. Cannot imagine how frustrating it must be as a black American to see this romanticization of fucking pro slavery soldiers. Yikes. Thank you for this video.

I always hated Jasper being a uniformed man, bc I’m Chilean I had NO IDEA that he was a confederate and what it meant. Thanks for explaining ✨

Tara was truly the voice of reason in True Blood. The way the show sidelined her (and Lafayette) was criminal!

I always loved Tara and could never understand how some of my friends quite literally despised her. Now 10 years later it all makes sense.

This was so interesting. As a Brit, I wasn't ever taught about the Civil War, outside of the Confederates were racist, so I never understood HOW confed vampires KEPT being a thing.

This video was so good and academic. As a black person AND vamphile (is this a word?) I’ve definitely recognized and acknowledged the depictions of historical backstories of iconic vampires AND the erasure of black voices within the vampiric power structure has always bothered me although, like many others in the comments, I couldn’t articulate it. I love LA Banks’ series but I read it years and years ago and didn’t see it as problematic then. Perhaps I need to read it again 😳

Speaking as someone who dug into their ancestry and discovered that I have an ancester who was a slave owner...it's really telling to me that Ben Affleck would pay to have that information suppressed. He could have pulled an Anderson Cooper and disavowed his ancester, but he'd rather hide the information than make a stand. Really gross, but not surprising.

Twilight specifically has always annoyed me for these reasons. It was at the height of its popularity when my family was moving my grandfather into a care facility and cleaning out his and my grandma's house. He was from Ohio originally, and his parents were older when they had him. He was also a bit of a hoarder from a long line of hoarders. Therefore the house was full of stuff, including tons of old letters that dated from as far back as the 1890's. What really struck me reading through a lot of those old letters is that there was A LOT of disgust towards the confederacy / former confederacy. Like lots of stuff about how they were traitors, could not be trusted, etc. It was all over the place in those letters, I remember there was even a children's book along those lines my grandfather had kept. Esme was from the approximate area in Ohio my grandfather grew up, and she was born around the time a lot of those letters were written. And it therefore bothered me that she seemed so okay with Jasper. Like her parents and grandparents might have been involved in that conflict, might have been killed by Confederates. Certainly there would be people in her town who'd known people lost in that war, certainly people would have talked about it. Wouldn't Jasper's presence disturb her? Why would she treat him as a son? It's just interesting reading through those letters. The people who actually lived through those times and the generation that lived directly after them had no reason to sugarcoat what the Confederacy was. Reading through those letters, I really got a sense of how much lost cause propaganda and bullshit has managed to infect American culture in the last 150 years. Because if you drive through that same area of Ohio now, you will see the occasional Confederate flag. It's honestly deeply depressing how successful lost cause propaganda has been.

From my perspective as a Roman historian / philologist, I have a different interpretation of the “brother v. brother,” framing of the Civil War. This trope is common in Latin literature in discussing the prevalent and traumatic civil wars that plagued the late Republican era. Many viewed these violent periods as traumatic repetitions of the original fratricide of Remus at the hand of Romulus that led to the founding of the city. I don’t see it as minimizing the trauma, but rather integrating collective trauma at the individual level. It’s particularly telling that the trauma of enslaved persons is left out of this narrative processing 😬

Funnily enough, the only Confederate vampire I could think of before starting this video was Lance Henriksen as Jesse in 'Near Dark' (awesome underrated movie btw). The extent of his backstory was "I fought for the South. We lost", without a hint of romanticism because the point of that movie is that being a vampire would be miserable.

A month ago, I watched the twilight movies for the first time with my friend, and I was honestly so shocked at the reveal of Jasper’s background as a confederate soldier. I’m pretty sure, if I’m not mistaken, that there was another confederate soldier vampire introduced as a background character in one of the last films, so it’s obviously not a coincidence within the franchise which makes the whole situation even worse. On top of that, I was also was unsettled by the colonialist undertones behind the relationship between the vampires and werewolves in the movies. The vampires (essentially white colonialists) invade the land of the werewolves (Native Americans) and tried to deprive them of their land ownership and natural resources, and treat them in derogatory ways in all of the movies. I think what disturbed me most was how tone deaf these inclusions were, and how obviously disconnected they are from actual historical events. So, placing the vampire characters in a sympathetic position is honestly very messed up :(

YESS after rewatching True Blood over the summer this thought has been lingering in my mind. I also hate how everyone thought Tara was wrong for bringing it up 🙄 Tara deserved better than that and her ending

Similar to this- my sister and I went to rewatch what we remembered as the best Scooby Doo movie, Zombie Island, and were disappointed at the treatment of the confederate zombies being "good guys" who warned the gang about the real villains and tried to protect them. It definitely falls under the romanticized version of the south you discussed, and the ways that supernatural creatures are used to further the "the confederacy lives on" message.

I'm so grateful to my mom for putting so much effort into teaching me history. I remember her sitting us down for lessons, and she had two books; one a newer, sanitized, 'kid-friendly' version about the Trail of Tears, and the other an older book and not at all 'friendly' edition. She read us excerpts from both, really driving home the fact that no, there was no 'giving their land up' or 'moving away'. She made sure that we knew the facts and were aware of what it really was. She did her best to lay out all the reasons on every side, and how most of those reasons didn't justify anything, even if it explained why it happened. Sure, all her ancestors (except the native ones) were fleeing discrimination and/or death, but early americans as a whole bought their independence and lives through theft and murder. And the very, very least we can do is acknowledge the truth, and never ever romanticize it. I don't think any of the confederate stuff should be scrubbed away or hidden from sight, because it needs to be there and be acknowledged for what it was, which includes the evidence of their delusions of grandeur. But the romantization of that lifestyle is just weird and, worse, deeply disrespectful

People thought I was a hater when I said quite a few parts of Twilight made me uncomfortable, including a Confederate vampire being a good guy.

I recently did some research on Les Misérables, and discovered that it was very popular in America at the time of the civil war...but it was abridged in the South, removing any reference to slavery (prison labor is kinda an important inciting incident), and publishers defended the decision by saying that what Hugo was commenting on had nothing to do with "race-based slavery". (spoiler: it had a LOT to do with that!)

So the intro you said Tara was being antagonistic as if they were trying to portray Tara in a bad light while portraying Bill and the white characters in a positive light. But I think the black characters in True Blood are some of the best in the series and some of the most likable. Tara being blunt and calling people out is what makes her enjoyable and likable to the audience in my opinion.

My step-father, a trucker, was someone you could probably classify as a good ol’ boy. Throughout my life, I saw him do nothing but stand up for minorities and women whenever they were being bullied or threatened with violence. But he also was absolutely a Lost Cause fanboy. It was culture when he grew up. I can tell you from so many conversations he genuinely believed in that myth, while being ignorant of reality. He was self taught but an avid reader. We only really started having these conversations at least outside of academia after he passed on. I would’ve liked to address this with him. I would like to believe that he would have come around and regretted. But I have no way to know now.

First off, amazing video as always! But, while you're technically correct, I would argue the Civil War wasn't the last war fought on US soil - Wounded Knee happened in 1890. The genocide of Native people wasn't an "official" war but, as far as I'm concerned, it was one of the longest bloodiest wars in human history.

What's funny too is that if you want to set your story in that time period making your vampire a "slave-owner killing" badass is literally the easiest way to add some "good guy" points considering all of them are, in some way or another, the "good" guys. But nah, let's just add some racist history that we are never going to do anything with, especially since you can't consider vampirism a "punishment" considering they all seem to be relatively enjoying their lives.

I loved learning more about this from you (I'm European and only learned very little about American history in school). But we have a similar thing here I think, with how people talk about the Nazi time, for example how the story "The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas" assumes that a high ranking officer wouldn't indoctrinate his son with his own hateful ideologies.

im from MN and my partner is a black woman from TN, i was the first person in her life to tell her about Bleeding Kansas. One of main events that sparked the civil war to start and they dont teach in in most southern history classes.

Fun detail: In the vampire horror action "Near Dark", Kathryn Bigelow had the fact that the "father" of the vampire murder family (and several of his "children") were Confederates as a sign of them having been evil _before_ they became vampires. Which is why they don't get redeemed at the end.

the way you explain the inclusion of louis being a slave owner and that being a factor in why lestat targets him made so much sense to me. after watching the show, watching the movie, and now reading the original book, why anne rice decided louis should be a plantation owner has been a question that has like. plagued me. because up until now i just couldn't understand it. it's no question that both louis and lestat are bad people, and the story is very much influenced by louis's perspective and how he views things. i think it's a super interesting idea that lestat targeted louis because he was a slave owner and had no issue with seeing other humans as lesser than. something that lestat believes since one needs to strip humans of their humanity in order to kill them for selfish purposes. the issue that louis faces is exactly what you said, louis now needs to confront that slaves are humans and he doesn't want to take human life. it's interesting that becoming a vampire was the only way that he would see that. you hit the nail right on the head and this has me thinking of this book and aspect of it in a whole new light, thank you so much! this video is awesome

Never heard of this channel before - used to be quite far right, now reformed. Love finding new content creators that cover stuff like this! Will be binging a bunch of your content at work today.

I've never considered this question, but it immediately makes sense. Treating humans as property is no different than treating them as food. In each instance, your very livelihood is dependent on the blood and sweat of others.

I think it has a lot to do with themes of decadence and mystery within the southern gothic genre. A lot of these writers were probably heavily inspired by Anne Rice, a New Orleanian whose books were also set here in New Orleans. Anne herself would have grown up hearing stories of the Carter Brothers, Jacques St. Germain, and the Ursuline Vampires.

Rice's choice of the south as ground zero for her series is obvious when you consider that she was seeking to revamp the Vampire genre for a new world audience. The Old World Vampire stories, epitomized in Bram Stoker's Dracula, had certain traits that made it iconic: 1. An ancient reclusive aristocrat in a castle and sprawling estate. 2. Servants and peasants whose feudal fealty made them expendable and powerless - the perfect prey for the serial killer that is a Vampire. 3. A place with people predisposed to superstition - after all Dracula is born of Bram Stoker imagining what it would be like if all the rumors about the infamous Vlad the Impaler were actually true. Put that all together and what do you get: *an upperclass wealthy man who moonlights as supernatural killer.* Growing up in the flush of the 'Golden Age' of the Serial killer, Anne Rice saw the parallels between the Vampire and the names from the 6 o'clock news that gripped the nation with horror. And like any good writer she sought to capitalize on this. But how do you do so, when the Vampire is (at the time)as firmly tethered to the Old World as knights to Europe and Ninja to Japan? Simple: you identify the iconic vampire elements listed above, namely a rural place prone to superstition, with lots of poor helpless and a powerful aristocrat. The slave south was the perfect fit. New Orleans in particular is the *one place* where African traditions commingled with religious superstition to create a unique occult vibe. That this mosaic was born of slavery was even better, for slavery by design is a predatory practice. The many toiling for the few, with no rights to their labor, time, freedom, food, even their own children. What more the very blood in their veins? Louis de Pointe du Lac was born. Everything that followed - Twilight, the Vampire Diaries, True Blood - was just pale and shameless imitation, like the dozens of bootleg magic school stories that sprouted in Harry Potter's wake. And like the counterfeits they are, all these stories miss the point of Anne Rice's slave owning, slave eating Vampire: *telling an audience gripped with fear of serial killers tales about an ancient unstoppable murderer from the voodoo infested south.*

When I was a kid my mom took us to monticello and mount vernon. She had seen the slave quarters before they eventually mowed them down. She took us to where they had been and described them to us. She made us aware of slavery and how disgusting it was. Then she told us about the trail of tears. Something that affected me personally as we had family that had died. It was a very interesting and thought provoking trip.

I believe the changes were made in TVD were to link Katherine more distinctly to Mystic Falls and the arc planned for the Originals. Also still angry about Bonnie in the show, she deserved more.

I thought it was because that the "southern gentleman " is as close as an idle aristocrat America can get. Aint no vampire with a job

The way that True Blood and The Vampire Diaries appropriated the language of civil rights from POC and LGBTQIA+ communities was always bizarre to me, mainly because it was always straight white men who usually acted morally outraged when humans came for them, despite their tendency to gleefully murder innocent people and, also, that a large subset of them used to own slaves in the American South. Interestingly, these and other shows rarely call out vampires for what they are: parasites that just eat and hide. The Netflix series Castelvania seems to be one of the few that actually does this, and forces vampires to ask questions they should be asking themselves: what's the point of living forever? Loved this video btw :)))

Another thing I can't help but notice is that there's a huge connection between the Civil War and ghost stories in Southern culture. Not only did ghost stories rise in prominence after the Civil War due to all the casualties, but the infamous Klan outfit was explicitly designed to look like a ghost costume, to evoke dead Confederate soldiers. The narrative of the Civil War, especially in the American South, has always invoked undead soldiers as a way of justifying itself. And I think the switch from "Confederate ghosts" to "Confederate vampires" is a modern take that carries all of the same flaws and biases that it did when the Klan told the story.

I didn't originally know what the confederacy was the first time I read twilight. Once I found out and read it again, it made me feel that Jasper is a very easily swept with the flow kind of character. He fight for whichever army those around him are joining, being the confederacy or Maria's newborn group not really thinking of what he's doing. He truly given no thought to the feelings of those around him outside of the feelings of the dominant person in his life (Maria) even though he feels bad for the negative feelings of those around him. He truly doesn't think until his friend Peter runs away. And didn't think about the possibility of him not fighting until Peter returned for him. And while he's with Peter and Charlotte, he still feels bad but doesn't think he can do anything about it until Alice shows up. He's weak willed, go with the flow, and defeatist through the backstory. Alice is 100% his will and backbone. Alice says jump and he asks "how high ma'am". And it takes her about 100 years to show up! I doubt that's how SM planned to portray him, but that's how I read him

went from ur true blood video 11 years ago to this... wow the internet really is a time capsule.. im glad you kept making content

If I wanted to make an excuse, I would say it’s because Antebellum slavers are an American analogue for parasitic European nobility, a la Count Dracula. I will say, however, that this is a very weak excuse, considering that all of the examples of confederate vampires I can think of (Interview with the Vampire, Twilight, True Blood, Vampire Diaries, etc.) are meant to be sympathetic.

Honestly I would be super interested in reading about Mexican or even South American vampires fighting against invading European vampire armies. That is super fascinating to me, alternative history through the eyes of Native American vampires. Someone write this book!

I think you’re right… it highlights the ignorance or genius of the writers. If the character’s a narcissist, so self-involved involved in the glory of war or family status that they are negligent of others suffering, then it’s a fitting choice. If they’re doing it because the they need an appealing lost cause, then it’s ignorance. There are plenty of examples of lost-cause wars of conquerors crushing rebellions to pick without being on the wrong side of history. In many ways the romanticism of the confederacy reflects the mentality of narcissist behaviour.

I really appreciate hearing your take on all this. I'm writing my own Gothic series and it includes a few characters who were alive to remember the Civil War. Even though it was a bit different in my own timeline, you've given me a lot to think about. I really don't want to play into Lost Cause stuff by glossing over real suffering, no matter how good my intentions are. Thank you. ❤

I LITERALLY WAS GOING TO DO A PAPER ON THIS FOR MY CULTURAL STUDIES CLASS. Such an odd thing that three vampires in the 2000s/2010s were all confederate soldiers at some point. 💀 WILDT.

Interestingly enough, my (Mexican/Native) dad taught me about how the prison system has become a legal extension of the chattel slavery system using Gone With the Wind.

This is the fourth video of yours I've watched today -- the same day I've discovered your content. I even stayed in my office for half an hour after my workday was done because I was too into it to pause it even for a second to reconvene in the living room. Just like the last 3 videos, I learned a lot, came away with tons of top-shelf brain food to digest afterwards, and am so happy to have found your content! I'm going to go make some coffee, shake off the day, and then once I've gotten some things done I strongly suspect I'm going to be ending the day watching another one of your videos in the living room. THANK YOU FOR THE BRAIN FOOD!

This is one of my new favorite channels!!! I'm a big fan of film commentaries, and the nuances and perspectives you give are consistantly brilliant and thought provoking.

I was saying ‘and also Firefly’ to myself the whole beginning! This essay has hit so many points I have noticed over the years with this, right up to those GoT writers trying to do a Confederacy show. This motiff of the lost cause ideology has become an analogy for white male patriarchy feeling threatened. Replacement theory symbols for Red Pill Rebels.

Watching this video I kept thinking about morality in immortality. In the show The Good Place, Eleanor notice that Michael (an immortal being) doesn't have conscience because there's no point of having regrets if you have eternity to do things differently (and usually not bare any of the consequences of said actions). It really helped me understand why mythological gods are usually such assholes. And that could be a point in exploring vampire stories. How vampires lose their humanity over time, and the way their concept of morality changes.

I don’t remember how you came up on my timeline, like what channel I watch that made the algorithm choose your video but I’m for once thanking the algorithm. This is such an interesting topic and I’ve asked that question myself

My only (tiny) critique was that although Kentucky wanted to secede, they technically didn’t. (I’m a Kentuckian and -disgustingly- I remember many people in my history classes being sad about this fact. Despite this technicality, Kentucky was very much associated with the confederacy. Jefferson Davis was born a Kentuckian. Btw this was a fantastic video and I really love the points you brought up. It sickens me how accepted this was, but I’m happy people are actually taking time to discuss it and the implications.

Ok finished the vid and all jokes aside I really love your content. As a bi black dude who was also a ton of ‘nerdy’ stuff growing up I love seeing another black person who was cut from the same cloth discussing these things with a lens I hadn’t considered. Like when I watch true blood I was in my teens, and during that time I really hadn’t even considered how they were framing the topic of slavery. As someone who hasn’t watched it in a long time, I had forgotten it was even a thing. Having you speak on these trends really opens my eyes to them (I never made the confederate vampire link) and allows me to better analyze the media I view in a critical fashion. And on top of that I think you’re just really funny, vids are super entertaining on top of being informative.

YES! What's with the trope of a vampire being part of the Confederacy? Very rarely would we see a vampire of the same age from the North, but we'll see plenty of older ones from outside the Americas come over.

I definitely agree with your take, Interview with a Vampire is different than the others because the whole point is to show that the lack of humanity lies with the Vampires/Slave Owners and not the slaves they harm and ignore. Its a criticism, showing that the beauty of the Antebellum South and the beauty of the Vampires is forged through the pain, suffering and dehumanization of others. It's a real shame that other series looked at that and only saw "pretty aesthetic, great fit for vampires!" and ignored the deeper meaning Anne Rice put into the situation.

I have always wondered this personally so thank you for your amazing video and the book rec at the end!

I think the fact that the wealthy whites of the antebellum South painted themselves as an American aristocracy was a part of why Anne Rice made her vampire protagonist an slaveowning southenern... I'm ok with that angle because, like Princess said, the morallity of vampires never gets lighter than grey, but is really a missed oportunity in most supernatural romance novels, this people shouldn't feel bad because they lost the war, they should feel bad because they were fighting for the evil side even before they were turned into human-eating monsters... man, "self-loathing vampire sadboys don't hate themselves enough" what a hot-take I just wrote

The Originals, which is a part of TVD, actually has a main character in the main cast who's a former slave-turned-vampire (who's also the son of his owner, which is a whole other thing). It's kind of strange now that I think about it more. The fact that Marcellus is habitually disrespected and dehumanized by others is something that Klaus (the big bad evil hybrid who does all the atrocities, but he's handsome and has mommy and daddy issues so it's ok) relates to. Klaus has been abused before, and he sees something of himself in Marcel when he sees the kid try to fight back against his oppressors. He ends up emancipating the kid (, adopting him as his own son, and Marcel ends up asking to become a vampire like the rest of the Originals who raised him. It's even weirder when Klaus meets him and asks for his name, and the enslaved kid says his mother 'wouldn't name him' until he was 10 because she was concerned he'd die. But then she died first, leaving him an enslaved person without a name. Klaus *gives* him the name "Marcellus," since it has this meaning of strength and resilience, or something like that. It's uncomfortably romanticized and feels very White Savior. Despite everything we know about Klaus and the Originals, who are unafraid of violence, they have been alive long enough to have some discomfort with the concept of slavery. They treat people like objects, but they're also weirdly self aware, which makes it hard to explain. Goddamn, TO was a fever dream...

Thank you so much! This is my first time seeing your content. I am looking forward to seeing more of what you have to offer. You are very well spoken and presented this complex video in a interesting and engaging way

came across this video while cleaning my room and it has been a delightful piece to fold laundry alongside! i’ve been furiously nodding through the twilight sections and learning a lot ab tvd and iwtv 😊 love ur video art, excited to watch through your calatogue!

I've been thinking about this subject for a very long time. As a lover of vampire fiction, it always baffled me how so many pieces of media just casually had confederate vampires. I always just kind of had a vague sense that gothic vampire fiction often depicted their vampires as aristocrats to highlight class antagonism and that the American equivalent of the wicked aristocrat was the slave owner but that never really satisfied me. Thank you for this!

When thinking of this topic, I also thought of the Character 'Stormfront' from the Boys, who also had conditional eternal youth and immortality like a vampire, and participated in a major war. Only in her case, instead of being a vampire from the American civil war, she was an experiment made by the Nazis in WW2. However in 'The Boys' instead of making her sympathetic, they double down that her being so unrepentant and proud of her past makes her absolutely vile. I think it's very normal to have held a view in the past that you look back on now and feel a little cringe or shame about. For some people it's a high school phase you feel a little embarrassed over. For more extreme cases, some were raised in cults, or Alt right circles and have since tried to get out. Paradigm shifts over the course of our lives are healthy. As years go by, we reflect, ideas change, opinions change, we become new people. For all these confederate vampires, what puts me off the most is that, after all this time, after witnessing everything that's happened since the civil war until today, gaining the ability to travel, meet new people, talk and share ideas, they're still making excuses? Some even still feel proud? Total yikes that they're not further interrogated about their participation in the institution of slavery.

Incredible commentary. I love your energy and your delivery!

For Emily Bennet (and as neither POC, American, or natively anglophone myself) I always assumed the Master-Servant thing was just "for show" given the time period. Pretty sure I remember that Katerina, while on the run for her life from the Mickaelson for the past few centuries, saved Emily's life at one point and they teamed up to help each others out. Katerina, being white and with the ability to compel humans, would have kept Emily out of trouble with the locals, and in exchange, Emily would have provided her witch abilities when needed and made her (and the brothers) daylight rings. To me, they were essentially just traveling together so the other could keep them safe from their respective enemies. I would probably have to re-watch her scenes now, but seeing how she's arguably the 2nd most powerful Bennet witch in TVDu history (Bonnie obviously being the 1rst) and could easily remove Katerina's ability to walk in the sun anytime she wanted, I never saw her truly being "a white vampire's slave". Then again, it's Julie Plec's work here. My understanding of Emily and Katerina's relationship could have been an unintentional one, but I definitely prefer it over the possible "Plec" alternative.

I found one comment on a video about the Vampire Diaries that said Damon Salvatore would have been marginalised and viewed with suspicion in the Confederacy because they would assume from his name that he came from a Catholic background. I get the impression these writers don't do much in the way of historical research which is quite the oversight if you're making a show about immortal beings that have lived for centuries.

Re: the Salvatores: I can only imagine it was a budgetary thing. Much easier to source Civil War uniforms and locations than trying to recreate Renaissance Italy. Still a bad choice. They could have easily been scions of an industrial family anywhere and anywhen else in the country. Hell, have them be sons of an Italian shipping family based in New York in the mid 1800s.

i've totally been boggled by this phenomenon, thanks for the awesome video!

Amazing content. Your thorough analysis is great. I’m glad I stumbled upon your channel

After watching this, my black ass still can't wrap my head around making characters confederate soldiers/slave owners without addressing or condemning it. But also I watched half the Dragon Age fandom recently get mad that the Netflix show made it clear the slave owner character was the bad guy. so I guess nothing surprises me anymore.

I remember being like 13 and hating how many confederate vampires there were so i wrote about a group of vampire women who swore to protect a freed man's family because he bravely fought off a sadistic hunter trying to kill them. The vampire women also helped enslaved people kept on the plantations family members of his were sold to escape and one of those vampire women had a tragic romance with one of the man's descendants culminating in her allowing herself to be captured and killed to save him.

Great video essay, I really learned a lot from watching this! Thanks for giving a shout-out to The Gilda Stories, it's one of the best vampire novels.

This was such an incredible insightful video as always! I REEEEEEALLY and praying and hoping you make a video of predictions/“what i would do”/commentary for the new upcoming 🍎Twilight TV series, your take is so good! Id LOVE to know how youd like the series to look and go!

This was amazing. I'm a white guy, from the North, and these questions have haunted me as well. I always assumed that Confederate vampires made sense because Evil + Evil = Scary. But, you're totally right; it never plays out like that. Fortunately, I wasn't given much in the way of Lost Cause mythology, so those narratives always seemed kinda off even though I didn't have the vocabulary to say HOW. Love your work!

I've never felt more connected with a stranger than when I heard that aggravated sigh before you said, "Julie Plec". I felt that in my soul. 🤣

I think this video could have benefitted from exploring the dynamic between Marcel and various members of the Mikaelson family in The Originals. I think it more explicitly shows some of the points you made how the problematic romanticization of Antebellum south

This is a great and highly informative video! Really enjoyed watching :)

I remember how much I enjoyed Gone With the Wind as a tween when I first picked it up. I thought I was anti-racist, but excused the characters and felt they were just telling their honest side of the story that I hadn't considered before. Everything I learned before was that the Civil War successfully abolished slavery forever, and GWTW felt like a "new and fresh" perspective missed in history. The South felt more human. It wasn't until high school APUSH where I learned about the Daughters of the Confederacy and the deliberate or unconscious propaganda of stories like that one. My teacher was a white Southerner with an accent thicker than Bill Clinton's, and he never shied away from the brutal truths of the era. He showed us the failure of the Reconstruction, sharecropping to Jim Crow pipeline, the erection of Civil War statutes just as the Civil Rights movement was kicking off. In the convenient narrative of victimhood and loss - there was never any mention before of just many concessions the South got and how they were able to keep slavery under different names. And then it was obvious there was nothing about the lead-up or aftermath of the war that didn't have to do with the politics of race. I remember one picture of "good" Southern folks casually hanging out at a lynching, the body of the deceased swinging in the background. And that forever changed the way I saw nuance and history. That nuance should show the ugliness in all of our prejudices, not a whitewashing or "both sides had good". I think the endless apoliticization of storytelling and mythos is what leads us to all this backlash to Critical Race Theory and APUSH teaching even the most moderate truths about the American system.

Not to be the um Actually guy but as a northern Kentuckian I feel I must say we never officially seceded from the union and were not part of the confederate states to secede in February of 1861. Originally it planned to remain neutral. But the state was essentially split down the middle between the north and south politics wise. After the Confederacy invaded the southern border of Kentucky from Tennessee to try and claim the pro Confederate territory We officially joined the war on the side of the union and that area admitted into the confederacy was under their control for about three months.

I love this. Well done video. I’m glad there was someone who could answer this question as niche as it is.

This video rocks and has always needed to be made. Absolutely awesome.