Kevin,
You make a good point, and this is one I discovered during my research. It is the motivations of those in power, vs. the motivations of the common man. I doubt that the average working person in Colonial Virginia was sitting down plotting on how to keep slavery. In several articles I found it to be quite the opposite. In some circles slaves were seen as taking jobs from whites.  This would include skilled labor jobs, such as carpenters, and blacksmiths.  I would say that even the flag issue in the South had a different connotation for the white politician, than the average white person.

After all politicians are elected officials, and most elections are won on hot button issues. Even though the issues may have nothing to do with economics, or empowerment. The issue of having confederate flags on license plates, should not have been that important. The little town I was raised in, Reading Pennsylvania, now has a large contingent of hispanics.  They fly the flag of Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic. I do not see any difference between their rights, and the right of those in the South. In a democracy, one groups rights, also opens the doors for other groups rights.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Anita Wills


Notes & Documents OF Free Persons Of Color: Four Hundred Years Of an American Families History;
http://www.cafeshops.com/leboudin.8596808, also available on CD ROM at:http://www.lulu.com/leboudin, and downloadable from site.


-- [log in to unmask] wrote:
In an earlier series of posts, I suggested that, at least
for those about whom I knew anything, many supporters of
Confederate heritage groups did not identify the Confederate
flag as a symbol of racism.  I also suggested that these men
and women (at least the ones with whom I have talked, or
whose arguments I have read) believed that the Confederate
flag had been misappropriated and distorted by bigots
earlier in the 20th century.  Mr. Beardon, whose words I
include below, makes the case in much the same fashion as
many with whom I have talked with.  I see no reason
whatsoever to doubt his sincerity.

This is one reason why I suggest it is useful to distinguish
between the motivations of the soldiers who fought and the
motivations of the politicians who led their societies.  Mr.
Beardon offers nice first hand testimony below for the value
of such an approach.

Finally, my choice to include the Cornerstone Speech is
largely irrelevant to the larger case for which I was
arguing.  Stephen's words, as transcribed by two different
journalists who heard him deliver them, strike me as
reasonably succinct and believable.  But even if you
disagree with this one example, there is no shortage of
others to make the same point.  The Georgia and South
Carolina secession documents which I quoted in my post (I
could easily have included Virginia documents, and given the
nature of this list, probably should have) suffer from none
of the problems which Mr. Beardon rightly points out exist
for the Stephens speech, and yet make largely the same
point.  For the politicians, secession was about protecting
slavery.  That was true for some of the soldiers who fought
for the Confederacy, but by no means all of them.

Another way of making the same point:  take any of the
common reasons adduced to support the claim that the Civil
War was about something other than slavery.  Now do the
following thought experiment:  imagine that slavery had not
existed in the South.  Would the issue then have become a
nationally salient issue dividing North and South?  If the
answer to that question is "likely, no," then clearly
slavery had something important and fundamental to do with
the war.  This approach is more cumbersome, however.  I
think we are much better off just reading the words that the
Southern politicians who made the decision actually wrote or
spoke.  It seems quite evident to me that when we do so, we
seem them talking straightforwardly about protecting slavery.

Warm regards,
Kevin

>  As a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, we honor

only the soldiers
>& sailors who made up the Veterans of the Confederacy, not
politics or
>policies. I honor my GGGrandfathers & GGG Uncles who gave
all with nothing for
>everthing. To hear people say that Confederate soldiers who
didn't have enough
>money to buy food or shoes marched thousands of miles with
obsolete weapons to die
>by the thousands to keep the african in bondage is stupid.
> The flag that Gen PGT Beauregard designed and used mainly
by the Army of
>Northern Virginia had no politics behind it - it was and is
the banner that many
>(not all !) Confederate soldiers fought under. That is why
it exists, and that
>is it's sole meaning. I get rather tired of hearing "It's a
Klan flag.
>HOGWASH !! They are REQUIRED to use the United States Flag
and Klan Flag (Cross with
>tear drop) at all their functions. The Battleflag was
highjacked by bigots.
>As a matter of semantics, the KKK no longer exists.

[snip]

>  Why is it that a lot of media/educators refuse to allow
us the right to
>reclaim the right and proper meaning of the flag? Why are
those of us who wear it
>or fly it as proud southerners told that we must not do
that , we must take
>as fact that the Klan's meaning of the flag is the only
fact that will be
>tolerated - all those who dare try and redeem the true
meaning of the flag will be
>branded racist and bigot?
>
>  Enquiring minds want to know...
>W.E. Bill Bearden
>Georgia
>
>To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see
the instructions
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Kevin R. Hardwick, Ph.D.
Department of History
James Madison University

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