Quote:
Originally Posted by sunshine_missouri
haha....I have been living in the south for years now, and I still don't understand what it means  |
For some of us it is a visual representation of states having the right to make their own decisions, the blood shed by people fighting against government tyranny, and the ever present reality that the federal government can come to your house and take your legally bought property (under their laws mind you), and take it with no recompense to you whatsoever.
For others, it stands for people fighting for slavery, the right to keep people against their will, and to continue that practice.
From the history most of us were taught, you'd think that the latter answer was right.
However, this is not the case for anyone who has truly studied the civil war.
Lets say, for instance, that before the war had started that the Northern states said "Ok, we don't like slavery anymore, its immoral, and wrong. So we will outlaw the sale, buying, and ownership of new slaves from this point on. Everyone who currently has slaves are not breaking the law for keeping them, and we are not going to come and take your legally held slaves under the US constitution with which you bought them. However, we are going to offer you a 3 month period at which to sell your slaves to the federal government, in which we will compensate you with tax payer money to right the wrong that THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT has perpetuated for all these many years"
Then, if the south still left the union, the latter answer would have been correct.
But this is not the reality of history.
The history is that the federal government, urged by northern business interests who sought to seize southern land because most of those in the south would have been bankrupt if they had suddenly given up their slaves without payment for them, decided to say this.
"We are going to seize your slaves, not pay you for them, and there isn't a darned thing you can do about it, except leave the union". Secession was legal mind you, so said the chief justice of the supreme court at the time.
No one wants slaves back. No one is advocating that slavery was right to do. But the federal government, the same one Lincoln said he wanted to protect said that slavery, buying, selling, trading humans for the purpose of making them work for you with no chance of freedom was legal. Ending that practice was a noble, and good goal.
But there was a much better way to do it.
To me, that is what the stars and bars stands for. I am not a racist, I have several friends from various ethnicities, and my family didn't really own slaves. But they did fight for the south, they fought against a federal government that suddenly decided to take everything the south had with no intention to do it the right way.
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The "CONFEDERATE FLAG" !!! ... She's A Beautiful Sight Indeed !
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