You cannot turn on the TV anywhere in America without hearing politicians, Republican and Democrats, parroting each other about how terrible the Confederate Flag is and how it is a symbol of slavery, ad infinitum.
I am not a white supremacist and I believe in equal rights for all races. Of course, I condemn the terrible and tragic acts of violence carried out by some idiot in South Carolina recently. Not only did he destroy innocent lives in a senseless, cowardly fashion, he has caused the country to suffer post traumatic stress syndrome symptoms because of its unfortunate historic past.
Now, to my main point of this post. The Confederate Flag has absolutely nothing to do with slavery.
True, slavery was one of the big issues that fanned the flames leading to the outbreak of the War Between the States in 1861. But it was not the issue which impassioned hudreds of thousands of southern men to enlist in the Confederate States Army (CSA) and fight desperately for 4 years, any more than Lincoln fought the war to free the slaves. Lincoln repeatedly stated that emancipation of slaves was NOT his reason for fighting. He said it was to "preserve the Union." He ran on that premise in 1860 and ran on it again in 1864. As one Democrat pointed out in an 1864, Lincoln seemed to change his position somewhat toward the end of the war:Honest old Abe, when the war first began
Denied abolition was part of his plan.
Honest old Abe has since made a decree
That the war must go on 'til the slaves are free.
As both can't be honest, could someone explain how--
If he was honest Abe then he is honest Abe now?
Over 99 percent of the men who fought under the Confederate battle flag were simple and poor men from small towns and small farms who had never owned a slave and many of them probably had never even seen a slave. It was a rich man's war but a poor man's fight, to be certain.
If you read the letters, diaries and journals of the men in gray (the ordinary soldiers), you will find that they did not care about slavery one way or the other. Many of them, in fact, were against slavery. Very few of them would have fought to preserve slavery. So, why did they fight?
The men in gray fought for several reasons, the least of which was any concern for propagation of slavery. They fought, first and foremost, because their "country," meaning their states, had been invaded. They fought to defend their homes, their families, their freedom from having someone dictate to their lives to them. They fought to repeal and invasion of their homeland. (The North could never understand this and they still can't).
The men in gray fought for a loyalty, not to the Confederate government, but to their home states. The flag they carried into battle was not the same flag that flew over the political capitols or statehouses. The flag was red, signifying the brave blood that was shed on the battlefield; and blue, symbolizing duty and commitment. The stars on the flag represented the individual states.
I grew up in the 1950s and 1960s. The South was in the middle of the civil rights struggle. It was awful. But in the 1950s and 1960s, nobody had time to hate the Confederate flag. The real enemies were the callous hearts and bigoted minds that produced the real racism of the time, which was real and ugly. In the 1960s, even in the midst of the struggle for racial equality, it was still permissible to speak of history. You could still read about Gettysburg or Sharpsburg without ridicule. You could study the various battle flags carried by North or South into battle. It was OK to honor heroes of battles, from either side. This was never equated with racism, white supremacy or hatred.
"I don't think we hate the Confederate flag because we have learned too much. I think we hate the Confederate flag because we have forgotten too much.
Alabama removed the Confederate flag from its capitol in 1992. You would think that Governor Robert Bently's thunder had been stolen, since he had no flag to remove. Might say he was like a sinking political ship with no cargo to throw overboard. But not Governor Bentley. Not to miss obeying the political mandate sent down from the Republican party chiefs in DC, the governor ordered the flag removed from the Confederate museum in Montgomery. Hey, we didn't have a flag we could remove from our state capital - but we found one in a Confederate museum and we removed it, yes, sir-ree, we did! (You can't stop a committed Republican when there's political hay to be bailed).
So, you cannot even display the Confederate flag in a Confederate museum. We wonder then, can you still display Confederate uniforms, hats, belt buckles, or swords? Those all are historic relics that seem essential to a museum of the time period. Why not remove cannon balls, muskets, hooped skirts and camp kettles, too? You can make the argument that all those relics are connected to the War Between the States, or to slavery, or to racism. Where does it end?
Sadly, I don't think it will end. You see, some people will never be satisfied. Nothing will be enough. When they get the Flag removed from the South Carolina capitol, they will demand it be moved out of the state. Then, they will demand that it not be manufactured. If you manufacture or sell one, you will be a racist. Then, they will demand that you cannot even display one in Civil War museum. Of course, they will demand that hundreds of "Confederate memorials" that stand on the grounds of county courthouses, state parks, county roads or other historic places be removed.
Finally, and we already see this happening, it will be removed from history. I predict that when the new history books are printed in a few months, there will be little, if any, mention of the role the South played in the War Between the States, unless perhaps the South is castigated as a racist region that caused the loss of nearly half a million lives to preserve slavery. (Is that already the story in the history books? I've been out of school so long).
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