STATES OF AMERICA PAGE
"In this enlightened age, there are few I believe, but what will acknowledge, that slavery as an institution, is a moral and political evil in any Country. It is useless to expatiate on its disadvantages. I think it however a greater evil to the white than to the black race."
--Robert E. Lee
Welcome to my CSA page. Thanks to the public schools and empty headed racists who wave the Confederate flag at their rallies, current popular thought is that the flag only stands for slavery. Only 20% of the Southern citizens owned slaves and the majority of them did not own more than one or two. The stereotypical large plantation owned by men wearing white linen suits sipping iced tea on the verandas was the exception, not the rule of slave ownership. PC history also ignores the fact that many free blacks and slaves furloughed to the Confederate Armed Forces fought against the North because they also were driving away invaders from their homeland.
Another myth was that slaves were mistreated, starved, and beaten. Not true, slaves were very expensive to buy and own because you also had to feed them, house them, and take care of them when very young, very old, or sick. It is not in your best interest to starve or hurt them because only healthy slaves could do a full day's work.
Slaves were never used in dangerous projects like tunneling or building railroads because the risk of loss of slaves in accidents would have an high economical impact on their owners, especially if they were injured and not able to work any more. It was cheaper to hire day laborers. Because of economics of cost, slavery was already dying out in the South and would of disappeared before the turn of the century if left alone.
Even after the War Between The States, many freed slaves stayed with the families that formerly owned them. If you do the research on confederate soldiers and widows homes in the South, you will find out that black "body servants" loyally took care of their former masters until they died up to the late 20th century. When these former slaves themselves were old and not able to work, they were in turn taken care of by the home until they died. It is not unusual to see the graves of these former masters and former slaves to be buried side by side in Southern cemeteries. In fact, you could even find the same arrangement in the pre war South.
As Rush Limbaugh always saids "Follow the money" and you will find out the major cause of the war was tariffs supported by the industrial Northern states to protect it's industries from countries such as Great Britain. These countries retaliated against the United States by putting their own tariffs on imported US goods. These were mostly raw materials and agricultural products like cotton and tobacco, which were the main source of income to the South. The tariffs also forced the South to buy artificially expensive finished goods. In other words, they were hit from both ends, less profit on their products because of a reduction of demand and higher costs for purchases of finished goods.
Slavery did not become an issue until late 1862 when the South was looking like they could win and other countries were debating whether to actively support the South. So after a then rare Northern victory, Lincoln shifted the focus of the war from just preserving the Union to a fight against slavery. This did not sit well with many Northern soldiers or the North at large, but it kept the great powers of out of the conflict. They simply could not politically support a slave holding country day because they all had already outlawed slavery years earlier. My opinion was that the second thing the South should of done after taking up arms was to free the slaves or at least speed up the already dying out of slavery.
The people of this country needs to be told truthfully what slavery was and was not so they can make a better decision on what needs to be done with the Confederate flag and other symbols of the old South. I was also taught in school that slavery was the primary cause of the War Between The States. But as I stated before, only 20% of Southern citizens owned slaves and it was dying out. That means that 80% were fighting for something else and that was against the abusive and rising power of the Federal Government and ignoring the Constitutionally mandated right of "redress of grievances" (Sound familiar?).
The War Between The States (Not "Civil War" because the South did not want to change the form of government like the French and Russian revolutions did. They just wanted to exercise an implied constitutional right that was the states created the Union and so could dissolve it) settled nothing except that a highly industrial population of 20 million persons could defeat a largely agricultural society of 11 million. It should be noticed that three reconstruction amendments were added the Constitution, but not one of those prohibited a State from leaving the Union. The basic question of States versus Federal power was never settled and the argument has come up again as Conservatives and Libertarians try to take back the country from the central government and return it to the people
Saying all this it is my opinion that a human being should not own another human being and slavery should be outlawed and fought against wherever found. But I am a man of my times and mostly everyone would agree with me. The men of those times thought that slavery was just a way of doing business, a necessary evil.
But do not take my word for it, do the research, check out my links page as a first step.
The Constitution of the Confederate States of America is really worth reading and comparing it to the US Constitution. It also puts to rest the myth that the South fought only to preserve slavery. The South fought against growing federal power and was way ahead of it's time, the same battles are being fought today. Only about twenty percent of the population owned slaves, one percent of free blacks living in the South also owned slaves. The Indians forced to move to Oklahoma on the Trail of Tears also brung their many slaves along. Here are Confederate links within my website:
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CSA MILITARY RANK USED DURING THE WAR BETWEEN THE STATES