In a message dated 2/22/03 11:53:45 AM Eastern Standard Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:


> the officer
> corps, on the otherhand, was made up to the sons of great slaveowners, or
> great
> slaveowners themselves

could you state some facts on this...Lee didn't not ...he was in fact freeing
some of His wife's slaves....Jackson did not own slave....Longstreet
didn't...so what about the field grade officers and company level
officers...yes some of them own slaves but a lot didn't. The fear the South
had was other parts of country would control them ( the slave issue yes, the
trade issue yes, control in Congress yes)....when the Union called for Vols.
then did Va. leave the Union...a feeling of oppression maybe...they did feel
that the North was invading their state...remember most people in south
thought first of their state then on the Union. This issue of why is as
complex today as it was then.....and we each understand that in the end the
right thing happened. Slavery most likely would not have survived much longer
in Va.. From what I remember reading Virginia Senate that started to talk of
freeing the slaves well before the war but was shelved after a slave revolt.

WC Buser

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