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What point? Are you talking about slavery? It always comes back to slavery for people it seems.
Slavery was an institution all the way back to the Mesopotamia and Egypt, the cradles of civilization. It has a long history. America did not invent slavery.
Most of the slave trade to the Americas was a European business. Americans did not bring the first slaves to America. The Portuguese were the primary slave traders and slavery was still practiced in many African countries and some European countries. Slaves were in South America and the Caribbean almost a hundred years before they were brought to America.
Unfortunately, America was a consumer. From day one, there were people that adopted slavery because they needed labor and there were people that though it was wrong.
For 200 years Americans argued about slavery being right and wrong. There was the Missouri Compromise, the Dred Scott decision, the compromise of 1850, the Kansas Nebraska act and many more incidents that attempted to curtail or expand slavery. Point is, American NEVER agreed on slavery from the beginning.
In the mean time, countries around the world watched with interest because slavery was still a business that impacted many countries, not just America.
America finally went to war to resolve the issue. Almost 750,000 Americans died to resolve the issue. When it was resolved as being wrong, it echoed around the word and once and for all slavery was seen as an illegal institution. Not only did America solve the issue, it changed the world for the better.
Though these people memorialized in statues fought on the wrong side of an antiquated institution, it could be said they were more a victim of their time. They were people like you and me and our friends and neighbors. They were hard working, honest, went to church and brave and they were also Americans. Both sides of the conflict disagreed to the point they were willing to die for what they believed. Even so, both sides almost always honored and respected each other because they were friends, brothers and neighbors.
These individuals saw fit to honor both sides. Go to Gettysburg, probably the most hallowed ground in America. There are hundreds of memorials to both sides. They were put that by the people that lived it. Who are we to judge or disagree with their homage to all who sacrificed.
Washington and Jefferson were traitors -- to England and they don't have many monuments dedicated to them there.
The victors get to decide who the traitors and patriots were.
I understand why people want the statues removed, and I honestly can't think of a valid reason for keeping them.
Like it or not, slavery was a huge component of the war.
The south knew the changing sentiment on slavery. They knew that if the north were able to dictate to states it would be only a matter of time that slavery was made illegal in the entire country.
Sure, it was about state's rights, but also how that would eventually affect the institution of slavery.
You have little idea about the mindset of people of the time. States rights were a strong motivator. Many people considered their state their country. Lee struggled with his decision. It was only when Virginia left the union that Lee felt he could not fight against his county of Virginia. Many felt the same about their states. North Carolina only left the union when it was required to take up arms against South Carolina.
Southerners were honorable people standing up for their rights as they saw it at the time. The people that lived through it on both sides learned to live with the changes afterwards. They had always lived together and they continued to do so.
It is only modern day revisionists of history that are trying to twist something they know or understand very little about into something more vile than it was.
The only right Southerners stood up for was the right to own slaves. That's it. Otherwise, they had the same rights as any other American.
And the fact that Lee so-called "struggled" with his decision doesn't make his decision a noble one. He took an oath to his country and betrayed it on behalf of the slaveholding class. That's the real truth.
That said, I don't live in the South nor would I so they can keep whatever statues they want as far as I'm concerned. But these Confederate figures aren't heroes. They're traitors who plunged this nation into war, thereby killing hundreds of thousands of people. And for what? To benefit the slaveholding class who beat, raped, killed, subjugated, and sold off the family of other human beings.
Location: Born & Raised DC > Carolinas > Seattle > Denver
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I just realized something. Don't many republicans on here dismiss liberals, saying "you lost, get over it" when it comes to the presidential election just 5 months ago?
Well, the confederates lost over 150 years ago. "They lost, get over it."
I just realized something. Don't many republicans on here dismiss liberals, saying "you lost, get over it" when it comes to the presidential election just 5 months ago?
Well, the confederates lost over 150 years ago. "They lost, get over it."
That is a start. Getting over that loss is a start in reconciliation. There also needs to be an admission of some facts regarding why southern states wanted secession. It is important to admit that the desire to keep the institution of slavery around was a major part of it.
There has been so much revision-ism and warped ideas about the Civil War that no one has a real understanding of it. Putting the statues up in the first place was a bad idea. They were not heroes and stood against what the nation stands for.
And what was that?
Quote:
The current generation could care less about the confederate cause or their generals. It's only the nostalgic simpletons that put any value on this stuff. Give them a Jefferson Davis bobble-head. Taking down a statue is not erasing history.
And yet the current generation speaks of secession. The current generation opposes the federal government and its mandates often violently.
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