Confederate monuments
Posted 05-12-2017 at 07:10 AM by censusdata
Re the controversy over Confederate monuments and holidays...
I don't understand why so many modern Southerners can understand that today's prosperity doesn't happen if the South has won the Civil War. There were terrible decades after the war but in the long view the South won by losing. The Confederate world view was that rural plantations should dominate the economy and power structure and that there was no place for industry, cities, innovation, public education / roads / safety nets, etc. The only people who benefit from that system are the top 10% of Whites. The system was worst for Blacks but was also bad for poor / middle class Whites. The South lost the war because that mentality prevented industry or railroads, thus most supplies had to be shipped in from Europe.
In losing the South was forced to the water hole and had to drink. Since AC was invented and Jim Crow ended the South has decimated Northern industry and has dominated population growth. Youngstown, Erie, and Flint have mass unemployment while Blue Springs MS, Vance AL, and Canton MS have huge brand new factories. Before the war the South had almost no good universities, now it's home to great academic institutions like Duke, Vanderbilt, UNC Chapel Hill, Tulane, etc. Most public universities are the result of the 1865 Merrill Act. Many people complain about govt being too large (and there certainly is waste and excess) but no one complains about using roads, bridges, water treatment, subsided tuition at state schools, and free K to 12 education. Those are things no available in the banana republics the CSA wanted to emulate.
I think too many people equate Confederate with Southern. Many Southerners did not fight for or support the CSA. Certainly not Blacks who were 30% of the population but neither did many Whites in the mountains. Germans can have pride in their nation while recognizing Nazism was mistake. Japanese are proud but can also acknowledge their error in colonizing other Asian nations and their actions in WW2.
It is wrong to believe that all Confederates were evil bigots and all Unionists were dedicated abolitionists willing to die to save Black slaves - the NYC draft riots were hundreds of Blacks were attacked proves that wrong. Jefferson Davis and Lincoln both agreed that Blacks were fundamentally inferior to Whites and believed after slavery ended as many Blacks as possible had to be shipped back to Africa.
I don't understand why so many modern Southerners can understand that today's prosperity doesn't happen if the South has won the Civil War. There were terrible decades after the war but in the long view the South won by losing. The Confederate world view was that rural plantations should dominate the economy and power structure and that there was no place for industry, cities, innovation, public education / roads / safety nets, etc. The only people who benefit from that system are the top 10% of Whites. The system was worst for Blacks but was also bad for poor / middle class Whites. The South lost the war because that mentality prevented industry or railroads, thus most supplies had to be shipped in from Europe.
In losing the South was forced to the water hole and had to drink. Since AC was invented and Jim Crow ended the South has decimated Northern industry and has dominated population growth. Youngstown, Erie, and Flint have mass unemployment while Blue Springs MS, Vance AL, and Canton MS have huge brand new factories. Before the war the South had almost no good universities, now it's home to great academic institutions like Duke, Vanderbilt, UNC Chapel Hill, Tulane, etc. Most public universities are the result of the 1865 Merrill Act. Many people complain about govt being too large (and there certainly is waste and excess) but no one complains about using roads, bridges, water treatment, subsided tuition at state schools, and free K to 12 education. Those are things no available in the banana republics the CSA wanted to emulate.
I think too many people equate Confederate with Southern. Many Southerners did not fight for or support the CSA. Certainly not Blacks who were 30% of the population but neither did many Whites in the mountains. Germans can have pride in their nation while recognizing Nazism was mistake. Japanese are proud but can also acknowledge their error in colonizing other Asian nations and their actions in WW2.
It is wrong to believe that all Confederates were evil bigots and all Unionists were dedicated abolitionists willing to die to save Black slaves - the NYC draft riots were hundreds of Blacks were attacked proves that wrong. Jefferson Davis and Lincoln both agreed that Blacks were fundamentally inferior to Whites and believed after slavery ended as many Blacks as possible had to be shipped back to Africa.
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