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                                         The truth about the confederate flag and racism


A small article by Karl Erickson

The truth about our flag, is that it is not a racist symbol. Us southerners are tired of other people being hypocritical of our Southern history, and assuming that if we fly the flag, we are racist.

 

The Confederate flag and our Southern heritage has been mistreated and criticized against as being racist. How can you say that our flag is racist? Because we owned slaves during the Civil War? That would be a horrible misunderstanding because Southerners were NOT the only states who had slaves. Union commander and general Ulysses S. Grant owned a personal slave. Also, if it were not for slave owners, the blacks being sent to America would not have a place to live. We basically gave them food and shelter, just they paid by working, not with money.
Another common misunderstanding was that the Civil War was fought over slavery. Wrong. In 4 Yankee states, (Maryland, West Virginia, Delaware, and Washington D.C.) slaves were owned. These states never seceded, but were not required to free their slaves. What hypocricy. The only difference between Northern and Southern slaves is that Southern slaves worked in fields, while Northern ones worked in a factories. And in 1862, the U.S. Congress (made up of all Yankees since Southern congressmen went to form our own nation) refused to pass a constitutional amendment abolishing slavery. How can you require Southerners to free slaves if you won't free yours? And yet another misunderstanding is that all Southern slave owners abused slaves. In fact, there were laws protecting slaves from being abused. Ulysses S. Grant was often in court being tried for slave abuse. So why are only Southern slave owners stereotyped for abusing slaves? Knowing northerners abused slaves, why don't you also see the American flag as a symbol of racism?
So, one might ask, if the war wasn't fought over slavery, what was it fought over? The war was fought because of growing tensions between the North and South. Yes, slavery was a cause of tensions, but not the main one. The main problem between the North and South was political views. Political views between the North and South differed since the early days of America. The South was an agricultural region, depending highly on cotton in its economy. The North on the other hand, was an industrial region. The North needed a central government to build a road and railway system to protect its trading and financial interests, and also to control national currency. Being highly dependent on agriculture, the South needed less a central government, and opposed the idea of a complex system of roadways and railways. As you can see, slavery was only a small issue during the Civil War.

I think another reason people associate the Confederate flag with racism is people always associate the      Ku Klux Klan with the Confederate flag. This is not true. The Klan was a group of white Christians living in the South that were afraid of foreigners taking away the rights of whites in America. It has nothing to do with the Confederacy.  
                                                            
                                                                                                                        Information for article courtesy Charles Davidson, PointSouth.com