Flag burners and unregistered protestors, page 3

Originally posted by SkipShipman
The real issues as people saw them in that day are most likely about tarriffs, and the blockade of trade from the Southern States. This brought them to escalate into a Confederation separate from the North, since they could not attain representation on the tax issues. Slavery issue was of course integral to the elite control of labor, but there were few people who fought for the south who owned slaves. These things were the province of large plantations and big money. Those practices continued under the US flag after the cival war, when many blacks were arrested and convicted in Kangaroo courts, to make more prison fodder at hard labor. Something worse than slavery contiinued after that war, so it is illogical to assume finality in that history as to why the war was fought and what it attained.

To center the discusion solely upon slavery as to the history of the United States, is to ignore many other issues that were concurrent with those times. If we have a picture of it, we are best able to deal with similar circumstances. A confederate flag is a symbol only of what exists in the mind of the perceiver, as beauty is in the eye of the beholder. If we are to make a case for racism in flags, look at some Klan rallies in the early 1900s, they are all US flags there, without a single confederate flag. So my argument is that flags have nothing to do with issues other than some paired association reflex.
[edit on 17-9-2004 by SkipShipman]

I agree with you to an extent...that most southerners did not own slaves, etc., but the moral issue of the Civil War was slavery as an institution. Political leaders of the South such as Rabert Barnwell, William Yancey, and others knew that if the south gave up slavery the whole socio-economic structure would collapse as the slaves provided most of the labor for the large plantations that made most of the money for the south. Slavery was looked as an an economic issue in the 19th century. Actions by the north such as the Missouri Compromise of 1820 effectively were trying to dampen the further spread of slavery into areas outside of the south, and because the south had an economic interest to spread slavery it looked unfavorably on such dealings.

In 1854 Stephen Douglas sponsored the Kansas-Nebraska Act which would put an end to the Missouri Compromise and allow the spread of slavery into any new territory that was willing to accept it. This Popular Sovereignty rule woke up the people of the north to the fact that slavery could now be spread again. Many of the people including Lincoln were content to let Slavery die a slow death, but with the onslaught of people like Yancey who were willing to go to war over the issue of slavery it effectively became a huge issue. Southern leaders tried to convince their fellow brothers and sisters to go to war by using words like "states rights" that indirectly referred to the right to own slaves.

Southerners were told that the north was threatening their culture and their way of life, and the north believed that if they were allowed secede from the Union it would be detremental for Democracy in the US of A.

To sum it up...Was Slavery the main issue? Yes. Why? If their was no disagreements on slavery the Civil War would never have started. The South would have found no reason to declare their Independance from the Union if this would not have affected their economy and lifestyle. Thus, the main issue during the Civil War WAS slavery.

This both directly and indirectly shows exactly what the Confederate flag stands for, and why if Flag Burning is deemed wrong, then it should also be wrong to display the Confederate flag.

PS- To Grady and Intelearthling...If your so proud to display this flag then I should also be proud to display a English flag, a Welsh flag, and a Scottish flag because that is my heritage. Funny that not many display English Union Jacks or St. George flags here in America below the US flag, since the US defeated the English. The US also defeated the Southerners in case you were wondering. I bet you two would be incensed if I proudly displayed a St. George below the US flag, yet you proudly display the Confederate flag. I guess the old saying "you cant teach an old dog new tricks" is true of some people!

[edit on 17-9-2004 by Jazzerman]