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From the other side of the Atlantic I have three things to say about this thread:
1. The Confederacy was not just about slavery. There were many causes of dispute that lead to the American Civil War. Slavery was one of those, but NOT the only one.
2. The Confederate Flag, Battle Ensign or whatever it WAS, is now associated with supporting white supremacy and slavery. That is unfair to those principled people who fought for the Confederate cause, but that is its modern assocation.
3. In many parts of the world the Confederate Flag is just seen as an alternative to the Stars and Stripes and is just 'American'. Many do not see or know the difference.
it's also the flag of the General Lee bro!
Stew
http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/153/1226207.jpg
The Confederacy lost the Civil War. Their flag is the symbol of racist losers. Germany does not embrace the Nazi flag. It is certainly time that we do the same, after more than a century and a half of clinging to their whiny lamentations of white supremacy. Take down the flag and put it in a museum, relegating it to the ranks of history where it belongs.
Grow the fuck up and try to think of something useful to talk about.
When I was young, I played in the remains of trenches dug by Confederate soldiers. For a summer I lived in a house that had a unexploded 13 inch mortar lying in the back yard. A US Naval vessel fired it into a residential neighborhood, where it was later found when digging the foundation of the house. Three of my great grandfathers were enlisted soldiers in the Confederate States Army. Two survived the war. One was wounded in battle and the other spent two years in a prisoner of war camp in Connecticut.
I have as much or more claim to a Confederate heritage as anyone around, but I don't own a Confederate flag. I had one when I was 9 years old, but I've outgrown that kind of foolishness. As far as I know, no one in my family ever owned a slave, so I can't say what my grandfathers' motivation might have been. Why a bunch of dirt farmers would want to go fight a war so some rich people could keep slaves, is a mystery in 2015, but it must have made sense to them. Maybe it was just geographical loyalty. Maybe it was fear of being called a coward. They were called and they went. Two came came back.
I think they didn't know any better. That's not an excuse I can use.
A little too heavy on the daddyism...
...eh, fratboy?
...but slavery was not a factor for the war.
...rests upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery—subordination to the superior race—is his natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth.
If you have a problem, then text me. If you don't have my number, you do not know me well enough to have a problem with me....
The United States also amended its Constitution to outlaw slavery and afford equal rights to all. Our flag is a symbol of that change, of our continued growing pains of affording rights to all citizens.How long did the USA embrace slavery before the war? Like 85 years? So for 85 Years the historic version of our modern flag was a symbol for slavery........
If you choose to perceive anything as a symbol for something that is your choice. Just like some idiot can choose to use it as a symbol of hate.
Neither, makes it true, as it only holds that power in your mind.
Grow the fuck up and try to think of something useful or at least entertaining to talk about.
The Cuban Revolution, the Cuban flag and most disgustingly the image of the brutal Che Guevera are the symbols of progressive losers. Just because some loser decides to adopt something as a symbol means nothing about the original intent of the symbol.The Confederacy lost the Civil War. Their flag is the symbol of racist losers. Germany does not embrace the Nazi flag. It is certainly time that we do the same, after more than a century and a half of clinging to their whiny lamentations of white supremacy. Take down the flag and put it in a museum, relegating it to the ranks of history where it belongs.
It wasn't exact war to keep slaves, it was war about the taxes from the south going to build up the industrial north. Both the north and the south were essentially prospering from slavery. The south wanted to secede to keep the money in the south.
Lincoln freed the slaves to get more soldiers and destabilize the south.
This is not to say that there were not groups of people at the time who were opposed to slavery, there definitely were but slavery was not a factor for the war.
The Union was over running the south so many were signing up for the Confederate Army as almost a form of self defense. If you were involved at the beginning by Sherman's march to the sea. everyone who could fight probably was.
The United States also amended its Constitution to outlaw slavery and afford equal rights to all. Our flag is a symbol of that change, of our continued growing pains of affording rights to all citizens.
In contrast, the Confederacy, being a static symbol of a failed rebellion, is and always will be associated with slavery, especially as the Southern governments who have woven that flag into their own are doing it as a petulant whiny reminder that they believed in white supremacy. "Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are laid, its corner-stone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery subordination to the superior race is his natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth."
People who fly the Nazi today: racist losers.
People who fly the Confederate flag today: racist losers.
One of the poorly understood aspect of the origins of the war, was that the critical economic issue was not the preservation of slavery, but preservation of the slave trade.
Suppose all the slaves were freed in 1860? What they going to do. They aren't going back to Africa. They suddenly become wage earning agricultural laborers. New day, same old shit.
Who loses? The slave traders. The coastal states, especially South Carolina, had been watching their agricultural production fall, decade after decade, as the land was depleted. They made up for this by selling surplus slaves to the plantations in the fresh fields of Alabama and Mississippi. Without this exchange, the coastal states would become uncompetitive in the world market.
There were arguments about unfair taxes and tariffs, but the real economic impetus to preserve slavery came from those who profited from the sale of slaves.