"Only one in eight (12%) in the entire South owned a slave. My guess is that your family were part of the 88% that truely believed the fight was to preserve States' Rights. On that point, you can remain proud."
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Owning slaves was only for the rich to I'm surprised the number is that high.
But the particular states' right all 100% were fighting for was the right to own slaves. Poor white Southerners surely knew they had no chance of owning one, but one thing they had in common with the slave owners was they didn't want a bunch free blacks running around. There were exceptions to this, of course, but only a tiny minority of Southerners had a problem with slavery.
The South is a very different place now. I went to public schools where the students were about 25% black and at least a third of my teachers were black too, and this was starting in the early 70's.
That's the funny thing about the South is that, once slavery and Jim Crow was over, the fact that we knew each other so well made it easier to just move on for the most part. I have overheard many black people say they in many ways prefer the South because you always knew where you stood -- if a white person didn't like you, they would let you know immediately (I know this to be true as I've seen it). If they didn't say anything, you could bank on it that you would have no problem with them.
Ironically, most of the racial tension these days seems to be in big cities, especially non-Southern big cities.
This is not to say everything is hunky-dory as there are always going to be problems of this nature (and any other) where ever you have people. Fear of those who are different and all that. But the stereotype of the cross-burning South is pretty much just that now.
I see that I was in error in arrived at the 12%. You are correct in that it is a high figure.
Statistics show that 1 in 8 Blacks currently in the United States can trace their heritage to American slavery. The 12% figure would only apply if one of every eight people living in the South owned a slave. We know that isn't the case because plantation owners had numerous slaves, therefore, the figure would be a LOT less than 12%. Guesstimate: 2%-3% ???
Thanks for catch. Sorry.