[quote]conorh wrote:
BrownTrout wrote:
I hate when people equate the confederacy with white supremacy. Today the Civil War is remembered as little more than a conflict to liberate southern slaves, when in reality this was a side effect of the disavowing of the confederate states of America. The Civil War was about the institutionalization of the federal government and the Uniting of all the states under one supreme authority. I’m actually really afraid by how few people understand this.
I grew up on the Southern edge of a confederate border state and I used to tow this same party line. Now I’m not so sure. I definitely think that the Civil War was principally over state’s rights and limiting federal power, but in fact I think it was pretty clearly an issue of white supremacy and racism.
From CSA Vice President Stephens’ Cornerstone Speech:
(Jefferson’s) ideas, however, were fundamentally wrong. They rested upon the assumption of the equality of races. This was an error. … Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are laid, its cornerÃ?¢??stone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery Ã?¢?? subordination to the superior race Ã?¢?? is his natural and normal condition.
That being said, in this day and age I don’t think it’s inherently racist to wear/display the Stars and Bars, but there’s probably significant correlation with racism. Of course, symbols mean different things to different folks and in different contexts. I probably wouldn’t wear a Stars and Bars buckle to an NAACP meeting.
My Dad has a lot of red bandannas, doesn’t make him a Blood, after all.[/quote]
Of course you realize that there were indeed northern slave states (5 of them I believe). And in addition Lincoln promised that the northern slave states would get to keep their slaves no matter what. He even promised that any southern state willing to rejoin the union at the time of the emancipation proclamation would get to keep theirs too (within 100 days). It’s all in the written down if you ever actually care to read what the proclamation actually said.
The northern states weren’t the “good guys” fighting for equality in the civil war. It was a power struggle plain and simple. The southern states were getting walked all over by the federal government with tariffs and other things. Lincoln was a racist, power hungry, politian and a tyrant, (suspended the writ of habeas corpus, imprisoned opposition for years without a trial),elected without a single electoral vote from a southern state, and by some experts estimation deliberately started the war (possibly to get re-elected).
Don’t construe this post as an “I voted for Davis” claim. I just reject the notion the civil war was about slavery and the north were the “good guys”. They just got to write the history books.
