[central_va]

"... every man should endeavor to understand the meaning of subjugation before it is too late. We can give but a faint idea when we say it means the loss of all we now hold most sacred ... personal property, lands, homesteads, liberty, justice, safety, pride, manhood. It means that the history of this heroic struggle will be written by the enemy; that our youth will be trained by Northern school teachers; will learn from Northern school books their version of the War, will be impressed by all influences of history and education to regard our gallant dead as traitors, our maimed veterans as fit objects for their derision, it means the crushing of Southern manhood ... to establish sectional superiority and a more centralised form of government, and to deprive us of our rights and liberties."

Gen. Pat Cleburne C.S.A. ... 2 Jan 1864

[0.E.O]

... every man should endeavor to understand the meaning of subjugation before it is too late.

There were about 3 million Southerners who understood that meaning very well. Somehow Cleburne didn't seem to think of them in this rant.

[Tau Food]

General Cleburne was an interesting guy, wasn't he? An Irish immigrant who became a lawyer and American citizen. Dead before he was 37, but not before becoming a major general. I guess he proposed that a deal be made with the slaves to gain their military service in exchange for a promise to end slavery.

Anyway, I have not relied exclusively on Northern teachers for an understanding of what happened back then. When I wanted to know why secessionists did what they did, I looked to their "secession declarations" for guidance. I found that the Mississippians who prepared Mississippi's Declaration of Secession were very frank about their motives and purposes. Slaves were viewed by them as the most valuable asset class in the world and they believed that secession was necessary to protect that asset class.

The secessionists were not naive. They knew that secession involved overthrowing the government of the United States (at least in the South) and they knew that governments are not overthrown without force and usually much violence. They also knew that revolutions sometimes fail.

Thank you for telling me about General Cleburne. He really must have been something special. ;-)