Confederate heritage? (Congress, generations, activist, how much)
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So you think it was ALL about one issue? It was complex, and varied. Please do some research of the Tariffs of the day, and the economic pressure the Feds, and the North put upon the South.
We live in the United States of America, not the Confederate States of America. The Confederacy was a very short-lived nation that was defeated in a war long before any of us were born.
No American should be proud of Confederate statues or symbols. Nor should we feel bothered when they are taken down. They do not represent who we are.
They have a very odd history.
Most were erected during specific times in the history of the country--usually connected to a civil rights movement, not after the war. It is significant because they represent repression to many, and to some who have to pay taxes for their maintenance.
"....A timeline of the genesis of the Confederate sites shows two notable spikes. One comes around the turn of the 20th century, just after Plessy v. Ferguson, and just as many Southern states were establishing repressive race laws. The second runs from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s—the peak of the civil-rights movement. In other words, the erection of Confederate monuments has been a way to perform cultural resistance to black equality...."
Again, and I've said this before, slavery was just one element of Southern society, and was NOT the sole reason for secession, nor the war. I think the issues of state's rights, and the Tariffs of the day were two of the other significant issues. I think of state's right as an essential, cornerstone of the U.S., plus over taxation in the forms of Tariffs is just plain WRONG.
So instead of Virtue Signaling all the time, and focusing solely on race, and slavery, maybe some should put their fragile egos aside, and learn from the past.
Spin it how you want but the genesis for the secession and the war was the consideration of what the policy concerning slavery should be in the western territories once they became states. So essentially 'State's right' to perpetuate slavery. Anything else you try and throw out there is just window dressing.
We live in the United States of America, not the Confederate States of America. The Confederacy was a very short-lived nation that was defeated in a war long before any of us were born.
No American should be proud of Confederate statues or symbols. Nor should we feel bothered when they are taken down. They do not represent who we are.
If your family lived in the South back then, did not believe in Slavery, but were still attacked, burnt out and devastated by the Union and your forefathers fought back to save your homeland and family, there is a slight chance that you just may feel a little different about that...
Are you upset about the statues coming down because it is part of your heritage.
Are you racists? If not then why don't you come out against white supremacists etc and defend your heritage.
Same as saying for Muslims to come out against hatred and violence.
I am not sure what your point is, but I will tell you about myself and what I think.
Some of my ancestry has been here since the 17th century. My family had a few slaves in the decades since the revolution. I have one ancestor who fought in the civil war with the Mississippi cavalry, he survived.
I am proud of my heritage, and I do not see anything wrong with the civil war monuments as such being historical relics. They are mostly reconstruction era devices which were put up as the nation was struggling to accommodate with it's recent past. They had to yield to federal power, but this was a type of speech for them, an exercise in pride for a cause they believed in.
Today the monuments are quaint, to me at least.
I have come to realize that many people can see them differently than I do. Perhaps these erections were once used as a form of intimidation. I don't now, I wasn't there.
However this is (as always) a local matter. The monuments were put up mostly on local parks and civic centers by the local residents of the day. It is up to any town whether they want to remove a monument, the local authority has pride of place here. If the citizens want them down, so be it.
I believe any town that wants to keep their monuments should keep them, and any town that wants to remove them should do that. It is none of our business if we do not live in the community. I say let the local aldermen, mayors and county officials work it out for themselves on behalf of the residents and we non-residents respect their judgment.
The other thing I want to say is that the Civil War did not have to happen. It was a decision by Lincoln to invade Virginia after the South needed the Union to leave it's territory, Fort Sumter.
As a few have already mentioned, Slavery was Not the main reason for the war. Yes, it was the biggest Issue, but definitely Not the main reason for Lincoln to attack like he did.
Not only is it History, it is also just pure common sense.
There are no statues of Hitler in Germany. It's certainly a large part of their history and at one time Hitler was very very popular with the German people.
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