Interpretations of Confederate history are misleading

[struggle4progress]

The professor and students of Coe College’s History 317, guest columnists
Mar 6, 2016 at 11:00 am

... leading professional historians .. have proved that African Americans did not serve as Confederate soldiers in any significant number ... Indeed, long-standing southern laws forbade the arming of blacks and Confederate leaders like Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee repeatedly rejected black military service. Confederate Secretary of War James Seddon bluntly summarized that the Confederacy “will not allow the employment as armed soldiers of Negroes” ...

... “black Confederate” defenders never mention that blacks found working for the Confederacy were doing so because they had to. During the war as before it, most blacks in the South were slaves; indeed, slavery was the Confederacy’s reason for existence. Southern declarations from 1860-1861 cited slavery as the cause for secession and Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens succinctly stated the Confederacy’s “corner-stone rests upon the great truth, that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery — subordination to the superior race — is his natural and normal condition” ...

By focusing on states’ rights, “a war of northern aggression,” and black Confederate soldiers, defenders inaccurately distance the South from slavery and racism ...

http://www.thegazette.com/subject/opinion/guest-columnists/interpretations-of-confederate-history-are-misleading-20160306

[malthaussen]

1. "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn."

To me, the Civil War is relatively simple: they fired on our flag, they took the consequences, The rest is just noise.

It's funny how 7 December 1941 is a "day that will live in infamy," even though the Japanese had several legitimate reasons for attacking us, and not declaring war first (which was technically an accident, anyway) was known to be their preferred method of starting hostilities. And we won't even talk about how ironic it is in light of the many undeclared wars in which the U.S. has engaged (and is engaging).

Yet, for some reason, 12 April 1861 is a date that has lived in obscurity (truth to tell, I had to look it up). There are probably all sorts of morals there, if only I could work out what they are.

-- Mal