Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsGood points about the Confederacy.
Why do people believe myths about the Confederacy? Because our textbooks and monuments are wrong.False history marginalizes African Americans and makes us all dumber.
By James W. Loewen July 1 at 6:00 AM Follow @JamesWLoewen
James W. Loewen, Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of Vermont, is the author of "Lies My Teacher Told Me" and "The Confederate and Neo-Confederate Reader."
The Confederates won with the pen (and the noose) what they could not win on the battlefield: the cause of white supremacy and the dominant understanding of what the war was all about. We are still digging ourselves out from under the misinformation that they spread, which has manifested in both our history books and our public monuments.
Take Kentucky. Kentuckys legislature voted not to secede, and early in the war, Confederate Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston ventured through the western part of the state and found no enthusiasm as we imagined and hoped but hostility in Kentucky. Eventually, 90,000 Kentuckians would fight for the United States, while 35,000 fought for the Confederate States. Nevertheless, according to historian Thomas Clark, the state now has 72 Confederate monuments and only two Union ones.
<snip>
Perhaps most perniciously, neo-Confederates now claim that the South seceded for states rights. When each state left the Union, its leaders made clear that they were seceding because they were for slavery and against states rights. In its Declaration Of The Causes Which Impel The State Of Texas To Secede From The Federal Union, for example, the secession convention of Texas listed the states that had offended them: Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan and Iowa. These states had in fact exercised states rights by passing laws that interfered with the federal governments attempts to enforce the Fugitive Slave Act. Some also no longer let slaveowners transit through their states with their slaves. States rights were what Texas was seceding against. Texas also made clear what it was seceding for: white supremacy.
Take Kentucky. Kentuckys legislature voted not to secede, and early in the war, Confederate Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston ventured through the western part of the state and found no enthusiasm as we imagined and hoped but hostility in Kentucky. Eventually, 90,000 Kentuckians would fight for the United States, while 35,000 fought for the Confederate States. Nevertheless, according to historian Thomas Clark, the state now has 72 Confederate monuments and only two Union ones.
<snip>
Perhaps most perniciously, neo-Confederates now claim that the South seceded for states rights. When each state left the Union, its leaders made clear that they were seceding because they were for slavery and against states rights. In its Declaration Of The Causes Which Impel The State Of Texas To Secede From The Federal Union, for example, the secession convention of Texas listed the states that had offended them: Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan and Iowa. These states had in fact exercised states rights by passing laws that interfered with the federal governments attempts to enforce the Fugitive Slave Act. Some also no longer let slaveowners transit through their states with their slaves. States rights were what Texas was seceding against. Texas also made clear what it was seceding for: white supremacy.
We hold as undeniable truths that the governments of the various States, and of the confederacy itself, were established exclusively by the white race, for themselves and their posterity; that the African race had no agency in their establishment; that they were rightfully held and regarded as an inferior and dependent race, and in that condition only could their existence in this country be rendered beneficial or tolerable.
More: https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/07/01/why-do-people-believe-myths-about-the-confederacy-because-our-textbooks-and-monuments-are-wrong/?ref=yfp
Very informative article that needs to be passed around.
InfoView thread info, including edit history
TrashPut this thread in your Trash Can (My DU » Trash Can)
BookmarkAdd this thread to your Bookmarks (My DU » Bookmarks)
4 replies, 908 views
ShareGet links to this post and/or share on social media
AlertAlert this post for a rule violation
PowersThere are no powers you can use on this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
ReplyReply to this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
Rec (7)
ReplyReply to this post
4 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight:
NoneDon't highlight anything
5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Good points about the Confederacy. (Original Post)
Live and Learn
Jul 2015
OP
BillZBubb
(10,650 posts)1. Great point on states' rights that everyone should know.
moondust
(19,981 posts)2. Guns and terrorism.
Slavery wouldn't have existed without them. ISIS wouldn't exist without them. Flying the Confederate flag isn't a whole lot different than flying the ISIS flag.
Duppers
(28,120 posts)3. K & R