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I see your point, I don't celebrate them either. However, make that former traitors. They took an Oath of Allegiance to the United States of America and the government forgave them. They even became eligible for burial in the National Cemeteries. It must have been truly bizarre living in the post civil war era, glad I wasn't around.
I'm glad I wasn't around then either, present-day is bizarre enough!
Slavery was the critical issue that was at the heart of all of the other "issues" such as "state's rights". Here is a key passage of a famous speech in the spring of 1861 by Alexander Stephens, Vice President of the Confederacy on the principle on which the CSA was founded.
There's a great book that examines the roots of the various cultures that formed North American society by Colin Woodard entitled "Eleven Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America.
One of the eleven cultures was the establishment of the Deep South which commenced in the 1670's-1680's with the arrival of the wealthy younger sons of the British Barbadans who brought with them Caribbean style slavery, which was slavery on an industrial scale. Yes, there was slavery in the colonies prior to the arrival of the Barbadans, but they were the force that led to massive plantations with immense numbers of slaves that swallowed up South Carolina, wrestled Georgia away from the poor debtors for which James Oglethorpe had established his colony, and then on through Alabama, Mississippi, west Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana and east Texas. They brought in huge numbers of slaves to the point where in some areas black slaves outnumbered whites. It got to the point where southerners such as Mary Chestnut acknowledged that "ours is a monstrous system" but they couldn't give it up because they couldn't abide being outnumbered by freed blacks who could vote and compete with whites for jobs. Once the huge numbers of black slaves had been imported, Civil War was inevitable because the South could not abide living among such large numbers of freed blacks with the same rights that they had.
In retrospect, it would have far better for the North and the South if a series of hurricanes had blown the ships carrying the British Barbadans to hell and the Deep South had been populated by James Oglethorpe's poor yeoman farmers instead of slave owners.
thank you. Excellent Post. I will look for that book.
Glad to see people taking action locally. Even if the president fails to denounce white supremacists specifically, people across the nation are. Freedom of speech does not mean all speeches are equal. White supremacy is a corrosive idea that deserves zero respect, and the people are calling a turd a turd.
Those who support removing everything associated with the Confederacy should ask themselves, "Why now?" Why is it suddenly of such importance to you when these names, monuments, and buildings have existed for over a hundred years?
I think it is up to the local governments involved to decide for themselves, unless the monuments are otherwise protected by state or federal statute, like is the case for official war memorials in the Virginia commonwealth. If Lexingtonians want the statues gone, they go. If they want to keep the statues, they stay. I support Lexington's right to self-determination through the actions of its lawfully-elected municipal government.
Better remove the Washington Monument, then, since George Washington owned slaves. And rename Washington, DC while we're at it. And all of those $1 bills with Washington's image on them? They should be destroyed or replaced with the image of someone good, like Al Sharpton.
Also, rename Madison, Wisconsin and tear up the US Constitution since James Madison owned slaves his entire life.
Slaves built Washington, DC. I didn't know Madison, Wisconsin was named after the President. Which came first?
The issue you are failing to come to grips with is that You can't go somewhere and view our Constitution like a Statue.
The monument was named after Washington, however it bears no resemblance to Washington himself.
Tarrifs were nothing compared to the south losing their slaves. Over half the wealth of the south was tied to the value of its "property" meaning its chattel slaves.
They knew that. That was the MAJOR issue of the confederacy, not taxes. The major issue of the Revolution was taxes. The major issue of the Civil War was slavery. Period.
All the confederate states cited slavery as a reason for them leaving the union. Again, the north didn't give a crap about their slaves and Lincoln was not going to initiate a war with the southern states over slaves.
I think it is up to the local governments involved to decide for themselves, unless the monuments are otherwise protected by state or federal statute, like is the case for official war memorials in the Virginia commonwealth. If Lexingtonians want the statues gone, they go. If they want to keep the statues, they stay. I support Lexington's right to self-determination through the actions of its lawfully-elected municipal government.
Really though, a lot of these statues were put up after the war, many way after the war, as a big middle finger to the US gov. They are not for a memorial or anything like that, just arbitrary placement because they could.
However, I do think many people are really forgetting, naive, obtuse to the fact what role many in the CSA played after the war in regards to reconciliation, in that when the war ended, it ended, and did not continue on for years, decades, or even to now like happens in other areas of the world. To swipe aside such people and demonize and diminish their roles is irresponsible in my opinion.
I really think people are putting on their historian fallacy glasses too much around the Civil War, they are trying to apply current day context to it.
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