An interesting fact for people who believe the Confederate soldiers battle flag represents slavery. In the South, you had total conscription, meaning if you were able to fight, you had to fight. The one exception? If you owned 20 or more slaves, you didn't have to fight.

So why were the Confederate soldiers fighting?

1. The Union marched into the South
2. They were conscripted
3. They owned 0-19 slaves (the vast majority owned zero)

It's the big plantation landowners who were itching for the war, they had a lot to lose economically. The small guy was the one who spilt his blood. Some things never change.

 

Man, that is priceless.

 

Rizzo gotta hand it to you on this one , got the resident rednecks dancing a fine tune over this bit of dribble.

 

Easy now TZB, just because some good ol' boys here are using this one as an opportunity for discussion of an emotionally charged issue, doesn't necessarily mean they're (we're) too stupid to realize there was a hook with the bait.

 

OMG, now that's funny right there, I don't care who you are. The Dukes of Brokeback County! And since Hazzard County was supposed to be in Nawth Gawja as was Deliverance, there may be more truth to that than most of us true southerners care to admit. Just sayin'.

 

Not that much different from 1959-1975, huh?

 

Additionally, the Northern states were opposed to Southern industrialization and wanted it to remain agrarian. Lincoln cared about the union, not slaves. He was happy to allow it to continue as an institution where it existed but not to spread to new territories. Lincoln also endorsed a plan deporting all former slaves and freemen to back to Africa.

I love how people make the assumption that the North loved black folks. They didn't. Confederate black soldiers were paid the same as white soldiers. Union black soldiers were paid a lesser wage and also served Union camps as servants at a pittance wage Any suggestion that Northerners hated slavery because they loved blacks is complete and total 100% BS. Man up Yankees and admit that truth and STFU.

The North wanted to keep the South down. That's all they gave a sht about. The North hated blacks as much if not more than Southerners. Yankees, Cali's, and some Canucks (though surprisingly not as many on HDF as I might have expected) conveniently overlook that fact. Most whites and blacks in the south learned to be in comfortable proximity to each other long before Northerners. I hate Yankee-ism because of the totally offensive hypocrisy.

 

And that was bad in your opinion? How do you feel about the American colonists that took up arms to free themselves from England?

 

Thank you....... It's like up here in Canada, Quebec still threatens to separate and most of us would let them.

 

I'm glad you made this point. In my opinion, today, the flying of the battle flag or any other flag of the former Confederacy has less to do with slavery and more to do with an inherent desire for freedom from the federal government. Having said that, I totally get the connotations of the battle flag to black folks as surely as anyone must understand the connotations of the swastika to Jewish people.

I have two classes of Libtard friends. One, the working class hero, that believes that our current situation is inherently unfair and repressive. The other, the liberal elites, that truly believe that people are too stupid to take of themselves and must be cared for and directed in all aspects of life. LibElites I know are as racist and socioeconomically elitist as any other redneck white supremacist.

The goal is to provide enough in the trough to keep them (whomever "they" are) placated and satisfied enough not to challenge their power structure. Nonwhites, white nonsupremacists, and others who fly the battle flag today are not racists. They are not endorsing slavery. The heritage they claim is that of freedom from a tyrannical central government. Slavery was then freedom is now.

We have reached a point in our history where there is seemingly no compromise. Politics and the people have become so polarized that I fear there is no turning back. I don't wish to live in my liberal friends' world and they do not wish to live in mine. I care about God, guns, and grits. I couldn't care less if you're gay. Don't tell me to endorse you and you don't have to endorse me. Then we'll all just get along.

I honestly believe that in today's world, the battle flag represents a heritage of freedom from federal tyranny for all people regardless of race, religion, orientation, grits, or guns.