Ping!
Well, yeah. They were slaves.
Most people dont realize that Slavery in the southern states was about MORE than mere Race. There were free, black slave owners, thousands of them. Slavery was a way of life for many back in Africa. Not all blacks were slaves in the US South. Some blacks owned slaves. This fact is astounding to many, confusing for some, and leads to a cognitive dissonance in others..
http://www.ashevilletribune.com/blackrebel.htm
(snip)
Edgerton blames the media and the educational system for creating the perception that exists today regarding southern history. "This is a continuation about the lies of the Christian southern white folks during the Civil War. African Americans in this country don't know a thing about that war and that time. They see that flag and someone says slavery and it all falls apart and they think of Southern Christian white folks as being evil."
"We can't let the stars and stripes get away that easy. Never were the stars and bars flag flown over a slave ship. And you want to know why? Because it's a Christian Battle Flag that was emulated after St. Andrew, Jesus Christ's first disciple. In 69 A.D. in Petro, Greece -- now a part of Russia -- St. Andrew was jailed because of his teaching and preaching of Jesus Christ, his Lord and Master, and he was told he was going to be crucified on the cross. He begged that persecutor not to nail him to that Latin cross in the shape of "T" because he was not worthy of being punished the way Jesus Christ had been nailed. So he begged to be tied in an X-shape to the cross and the persecutor did what he asked him to. That X is a Greek symbol to CH, the first two letters in Christ's name. When St. Andrew was on the cross he continued his teaching of Christ and all the folks started believing him and for three days he remained on that cross teaching and after three days they begged the persecutor to take him down and when he did, St. Andrew came down off that cross and died, and he became a martyr and a saint.
"When (Civil War Confederate ) General Beaureguard decided they needed another flag, he chose the cross of St. Andrew for these reasons. Most Southerners, in fact, did not want to do away with the stars and stripes because they didn't feel they had done anything wrong. They thought it was the north who was eradicating the Constitution.
"And as for President Lincoln, our American hero, who signed the Emancipation Proclamation. In march of 1861 Abraham Lincoln called all those black leaders in his office and he told them -- Even if I set you free you'll be inferior. You need to get out of the country because I will colonize you. Lincoln proposed the 13th Amendment, being the only President ever to do so. That amendment said Congress would never have the power to interrupt an institution of state. He told the southerners they could keep the slaves if they paid the North a 42% tariff. The South agreed to a 10% tariff but not 42%. So, who I am supposed to blame the institution of slavery on?
"At that time, one of the richest men in the world, John D. Rothchild told his family to put all their money into the Confederacy and described Lincoln as a crook. He said the slaves in the south were better off than the slaves in the north who had to work for next to nothing in the cotton mills.
"The attack on the Confederacy doesn't get the attention it deserves. These blacks today have no idea what took place back then. (Blacks) earned a place of dignity in that war. If it wasn't for Africans that war would have lasted four days, not four years. We made all of the implements of war, we fought, we participated -- not one slave insurrection happened during that period of time. They did not have whips and guns forcing them to be there. God and his infinite wisdom brought these people here. He brought about a love between master and slave that has never happened before. If you search this empirically then you will know the only one who cared about the African was the man in the south. But we don't want to face that.
This article only talks about slaves that we can assume were forced to fight for the Confederacy. What is even less well known is that there were free blacks that fought for the CSA. In New Orleans during the Civil War there were quite a few black free tradesmen. When Union General Butler attacked New Orleans, residents defended the city composed of both white and black CSA soldiers. They were defending their city from attack. Butler occupied the city and imposed martial law, with its attendant rapes and pillaging of the fair city of New Orleans. He it was who said that any woman you see can be assumed to be a 'lady of the evening' and you could have your way with her. The false impression that New Orleans girls are tramps lingers to this day.
bizarre thread I have to say
Ping!
News Flash! There were Jewish Policeman in the Warsaw Ghetto.
At least the slaves had the excuse they didn't know how to read or write and the only propaganda they received was from their masters.
First: War is complex and there are usually many reasons for it, and the reasons change over the course of the war.
2nd: It is not EITHER slavery OR state's rights. In fact, they are mostly the same issue. Slavery was the number one issue of the day REGARDING state's rights. It is thus perfectly acceptable, if one is going to distill the reasons for the civil war down to one reason, for one to say either slavery or state's rights.
And I appreciate articles, such as you've posted, more now than I ever did, and because I used to reside among the ignorant mantra soothsayers. I understand why discussion of the civil war still goes on in the South. DISCUSSION. I also, therefore, understand why "Northerners" persist in their pre-occupation of simplifying, reducto absurdum revisionist history making pontifications.
There is so much history in the Old South. It is so utterly rich in history. While in the west, I had to hunt out information on the South because what I was getting from educrats, media, and the "conventional wisdom" about the South was infantile, devoid of humanity. And this from people who consider themselves the "epitome of Humanitarians". bah.
"Conventional wisdom" about what went on in the Old South runs right alongside the lines of the Feminists' rhubarb:
Women are superior to men. For 4,000 years, women did not uphold office because they were oppressed by men. This is evil. Therefore, all men are evil.
Yes, slavery is rotten, especially when viewed through the standards we now have. The fact is, at the time of "slavery" owners, slavery had been a fact of life in nearly every country of the world. It took a "movement" to make it known to the world that slavery is not the path to freedom or a civil culture. That is also true. What is also true is that some slave owners were civil. And owned slaves. Were civil to their slaves. This here is the rub in most arguments:
BS on the "civil part", Alia -- they were slaves, ergo, there is no such thing as "civil".
On paper, that argument is on its face, sound. But in reality? It's a statement devoid of content or context.
Dittos, on bringing up the subject of freeblacks owning other blacks, blacks fighting in the Confederate army: the same "anti-south" argument is generally applied: these folks didn't know any better, or this or that. These are assertions made from somone using simple linear logic in argumentation. But it is devoid of context and content. It shuts down discourse upon "history". It nullifies any other facts as tho those facts are irrelevant and coming from someone in the here and now. It's a hindsight position weighing judgement upon people and places in the past, but devoid of the fullness and meaning of the lives of those who lived then
"Also shown is a white soldier giving his child to a black woman for safety."
Yes there were slaves in the South, there were slaves in the North as well.
The fact of the matter is, many Blacks, Free AND Slave fought for the South. The comment above goes to the heart of the fact that many slaves and slave owners had a family bond with each other. Not all true, but a great many of them. Slavery is and was a blight on this country from the very beginning of our Nation, it should have been abolished with the first Con/Con, but it wasn't.
That being said, in the 1860's in this Nation there were not 2 white men north or south that would have shed their blood to keep or free a Black man from Slavery. Lincoln himself realized this and that is why he insisted that the war was about preserving the Union, and he didn't give a damn how that happened. The Emancipation Proclamation freed slaves that were not under Union Control, it did NOTHING to free slaves in the neutral states or in the North.