Hen different views collide the point can get lost in the bloodshed...I have some time to contemplate I realize I have neglected my think tank blog. As a serious thinker it's necessary to have down time to exercise that option without it then no thinking gets done only doing...
I have not been watching the news on the Confederate Flag controversy not wanting to get sucked into the debate here in SC. I am originally from Tennessee, but some of my friends have strong opinions about it and have shared their feelings.
I am southern born and raised, family roots I have traced all the way back to Europe and the 1624 sailing of the ship Anne from England on which my 10th Great Grand father and mother were passengers on their way to Plymouth, Mass. When they arrived the population of Plymouth was 36...they were granted land (that did not belong to KING JAMES I, but none the less was granted to them) and they helped create this country...by so doing they also helped to do the wrong thing! They multiplied, and helped push and eradicate the native population and they helped the slave trade!
One line of my family fought in the Revolutionary War against England, some were sailors, some were foot soldiers, some went on to become trappers and guides alongside with the likes of Daniel Boone, and as the roots of the family tree spread west they settled in TN, some moving onto Missouri and Texas. Some of the kin in my line fought with the TN volunteers for the C.S.A. Some fought for slavery some against we were a house divided as many were. Some were killed, some wounded, some deserted, some did not fight but it affected all their lives.
When the unrest between the North and South began some of my ancestors had slaves in their homes, some had one some had as many as 11. It was a common practice through out the New World. Just as the Israelites were enslaved in Egypt for 300 years after the building of the pyramids; slaves from Africa were brought to the New World and sold at the Maryland Slave Auctions, and later the Washington DC slave auctions on a regular basis. It was the Dutch traders who brought the first African slaves to Jamestown colony in 1619... so slaves arrived before my forefathers did, before the fight for independence, before the Constitution! Even while the Constitution was being written "All men created equal" slavery was going on...so I think it meant all WHITE MEN are created equal by the rights of King George III
As crops of cotton and tobacco were exported to the old world at the same time goods were being imported; all this was dependent on the tradition of having indentured servants then slaves to keep up with the demands. It was with the use of slaves that Southern land owners became rich and with such wealth comes power and control.
When the still new Union of the United States saw how well the Southerners were doing they decided to capitalize on this wealth by enacting tariffs to help build up the treasury ...it was seen as giving the wealth earned in the South to the industrializing of the North and the budding expansion of the West. When Kansas-Nebraska territory was being admitted to the Union, much ado was made of whether it would be a free state or slave state as most northern states had become free states by 1806.
Abolitionists such as John Brown wanted a slave uprising he tried to arm slaves with his attack at Harper's Ferry and the South saw this as a Northern supported sign of aggression against their way of life. After the Wilmot Proviso was approved declaring the lands taken from Mexico in the Mexican-American Revolution would be paid for with 2 millions dollars from the US Treasury and that this area would be slave free; the South no longer had the representation needed to continue expansion of the idea of slavery, they were outnumbered since representation was determined on the volume of land being represented. The ultimate tipping came in 1850 when California was admitted to the Union as a free state, now slave states totaled 15 anti 16.
The idea of sovereignty where each State could decide its own way of being slave or no slave was already in discussion by the southern leaders and during the Nashville Convention GA and SC had agreed secession was the best course, as Abe Lincoln, an abolitionist, was elected President in 1860. The South saw this as the death to their way of life, and South Carolina seceded the Union in December of that year.... the Civil War began 4 months later...
The rest is history. The Civil war was a result of almost 60 years of non agreeing factors north, south, and then west. The South thought, "if we can't beat them we won't be part of them," so they tried to sever their left hand....in a way.
I understand the history, I do not however agree with it. I personally would never think slavery of any kind is okay and would never have been party to it, some of my forefathers thought differently, they didn't want to change the way of life they had grown accustomed to, so they fought to keep it. In my opinion they were wrong...slavery is wrong, stealing land is wrong, destroying the culture of native tribes was wrong, fracking for gas and oil is wrong, fighting in Iraq and Iran for oil is wrong, killing over religious differences is wrong, so many wrongs do NOT make us right.
The Flag of the CSA represented a rebellion of the South against freedom and change. So by continuing to fly it was to me saying we STILL rebel against change...I'm glad its gone, now there will be other axes to grind, but that one of the Flag can be laid to rest finally, alongside the blood that has not dried on Southern soil. Pride is most of the time foolish.
