[billbears]

When I was in school, I was taught that blacks in the Confederate South were either slaves or were trying to escape to the North. They were uneducated and had no rights," he said.

He said the information found in history books didn't give the full picture, because what he learned was that free blacks did live in the South. "They could read, they were educated, they had businesses and had an economic foothold in the Confederacy," he said.

When the Civil War started, he said about 40 percent of the Confederate South was black and between 50 to 7 percent or a quarter of a million of those blacks were free. "In many cases, they had five to 10 generations of freedom," said Jones. He said some also had slaves.

Oh, Lord, now you've gone and done it!! Took another chunk out of that lincoln myth. I imagine a day, 50 or so years from now, where the statues of lincoln throughout the nation are in the dustbin of history, and the area that is now occupied by that memorial in DC is finally put to good use as a parking lot

[Non-Sequitur]

Sure, billbears, take this and put it up on the shelf with that other cornerstone of southern history, "Gone With The Wind". There's a reason why it's called 'fiction' you know.

[carpio]

and the area that is now occupied by that memorial in DC is finally put to good use as a parking lot

You have some truly amazing thought processes. With what would you fill such a parking lot? Boom Box cars?? Or perhaps loud Hot Rods with Flow Master noise systems like the ones that just woke me up at 0300 local time??