No, that is YOUR perception of what it represents to YOU! I proudly display the flag my ancestors fought and died in battle under, and they didn't own slaves or know anyone who did, they were fighting for their homes and country. Right....so his ancestors were totally ignorant of slavery in the rest of the States that depended upon slavery to maintain their economy. Funny that, being that slavery was at least 2 centuries old by the time the Civil War came about. And when the war came, they were told it's all just the North trying to control you...and they bought into it. Hmm, seems willful ignorance is a strong family trait for Dixie. The issue of slavery wasn't made a part of the Civil War until Abe Lincoln realized he was about to lose the war, and in a fit of desperation, attached the issue to the war in order to galvanize waning support. After the war, the history books were written by the victors, and give a somewhat slanted perspective of what the issues were. Right here you get a dose of Dixie's revisionism. To be more accurate, the Republican Party in 1860 (Lincoln's Party) ran on an anti-slavery platform. Once in, the Southern states started seceding, and Lincoln swore he wouldn't try to end slavery to keep the Union. When the war started, Lincoln kept up the premise that it was about preserving the Union, not ending slavery. Yet by 1861, slaves were considered "contraband" because slavery was still up and running, and therefore were freed when Confederate territory was taken by the Union. But since you had all these freed people running from the Confederate states into union territory as freed people not exactly clamoring to fight for a President that didn't advocate for their freedom or the original format of the political party that put him in office....something had to be done. Especially since resources were being used to secure these freed folk in camps and such. Thus the Emancipation Proclamation, and the induction of black soldiers by 1863. The rest is history.
While it is true, the Confederate flag has been hijacked by racial supremacy groups to represent hate, this was never the intention of the flag or the Confederate States of America, and came years after the flag was used to represent the army of the South. Right, because the BS was that slavery wasn't a key issue....the "right" of states to conduct business as they saw fit was the issue...slaves were NOT considered people, but property. No matter how you slice it here folks, slavery was the cornerstone of the Southern states economy. They considered it a mere side issue....which doesn't do the slaves whole hell of a lot of good, now does it? They didn't ask my permission to use the flag in that way, they didn't ask any son of the confederacy, they just hijacked it. Oh blow it out your ass, they just emphasize a reality that jokers like you try to BS away....slaves were once property, the Confederacy was about control of property and how to use resources...they considers slave a property resource. Now over 150 years later, you have a bunch of pissed off people railing against the uppity freed slaves' ancestors. "Sons of the Confederacy"? A bunch of clowns who's ancestors didn't mind the KKK when it served their purposes....and who don't have the cojones to acknowledge the reality of who and what the Civil War was about...and how disgusting their attitude was about human beings of African decent. Nevertheless, I have two relatives buried in Confederate cemeteries, who didn't perceive that flag as a symbol of racism, and that is who I honor by using it.
