Here's your Heritage, OWN IT and quit pretending that the civil war was something it simply WAS NOT. Education is a beautiful thing. You WON'T get it in Texas schools. But it's all right there if you really want to know.
Why it's okay to compare confederate flags to the Nazi Flag from American History & Ancestry
My friend Kenny Ketner adds this comment and another snippet:
Oh man the rest of it does not get any better...
"That in this free government all white men are and of right ought to be entitled to equal civil and political rights; that the servitude of the African race, as existing in these States, is mutually beneficial to both bond and free, and is abundantly authorized and justified by the experience of mankind, and the revealed will of the Almighty Creator, as recognized by all Christian nations; while the destruction of the existing relations between the two races, as advocated by our sectional enemies, would bring inevitable calamities upon both and desolation upon the fifteen slave-holding States."
Full text of the Declaration of Causes
And now Texas is even whitewashing more of its History books taught in public schools. On a FB discussion about that subject, and what the central cause of the Civil War was, here are a couple of comments followed by my response:
Jesse:
That's fucked because its true. Slavery was a side issue that out shined all other reasons all this time later. The north was every bit as racist as the south, but looked down on slavery. Fucked up but true, also it was a Republican president that freed the slaves.
Angelo:
So Harriet Beecher Stowe's pesky little book didn't have an impact on the civil war? Lincoln himself told her, that "oh, so you're the reason we're all fighting?" And this "republican" freed the slaves angle. True, Lincoln was a Republican. But the same people who held those views against minorities, are today, in TWENTY FIFTEEN are REPUBLICANS
My responses include some more snippets from the American History and Ancestry link, above- (Read the full article, it's well-researched and fully fleshes out this history in quite illuminating fashion).
Faded:
Lincoln would be considered a liberal in Today's world. Republican or not, Republicans and racists still hate him because of the Emancipation Proclamation. And all those "States Rights" that were the reasons the South went to war- They were those States rights to own slaves.
Here's a link to the Confederate States Constitution
Basically the same as America's constitution- except for- wait for it- wait for it- Guess what it could possibly be? Ooops: SLAVERY.
And sorry Jesse, Northerners in the "Free States" were not as Racist as Southerners. Not then, and apparently still not now. Ever heard of the Underground Railroad? There's a reason it took Slaves North, because that's where the LESS RACIST people were who tolerated the Negroes who were free. They didn't lynch black people recreationally up in the North the way they did down here. Hell, Jon used to brag about his grandma having photos of a lynching she attended in East Texas. Not his Great-Great Grandma, his Grandma, barely 60 years ago.
And them Confederate Flag flying Heritagers were taking pics of the joyous occasion.
(Again, from the American History and Ancestry link above):
The South Carolina Declaration of Causes of Secession held that one of the primary reasons for seceding was due to:
"A geographical line has been drawn across the Union, and all the States north of that line have united in the election of a man to the high office of President of the United States whose opinions and purposes are hostile to slavery. He is to be entrusted with the administration of the Common Government, because he has declared that that “Government cannot endure permanently half slave, half free,” and that the public mind must rest in the belief that Slavery is in the course of ultimate extinction."
In a document South Carolina addressed to the slave-holding states if the Union:
"Citizens of the slaveholding States of the United States! Circumstances beyond our control, have placed us in the van of the great controversy between the Northern and Southern States. We would have preferred, that other States should have assumed the position we now occupy. Independent ourselves, we disclaim any design or desire, to lead the councels of the other Southern States. Providence has cast our lot together, by extending over us an identity of pursuits, interests and institutions. South Carolina, desires no destiny, separate from yours. To be one of a great Slaveholding Confederacy, stretching its arms over a territory larger than any power in Europe possesses–with population, four times greater than that of the whole United States, when they achieved their independence of the British Empire–with productions, which make our existence more important to the world, than that of any other people inhabiting it–with common institutions to defend, and common dangers to encounter–we ask your sympathy and confederation."
These are all from historical documents- which prove, pretty overwhelmingly SO- that the Secession was All About Slavery, Slaveholding etc..
I know- that most Southerners who grew up with rebel flags (just like me) - don't consider themselves racists and would never support the Klan, white supremacy or nuts like Dylan Roof. But the facts are the facts. And they are pretty well documented.
The only people that attempt to detract from that are -who- exactly? People that don't want the South to get a black eye, and people who don't think they are racist just because they wave that rebel flag and people who think Black people are just too damn sensitive.
And that even though some racist guy waving the rebel flag went into a church and shot 9 people its less important than every other Southern asshole's right to wave a flag and -somehow, some way pretend he's NOT a racist asshole.
But, he is.
And re-writing textbooks to indoctrinate children to some white washed history is pure and utter bullshit and helps feed future racism by not presenting the real story.
